Catherine 'Kitty' Gilmore (duplicitat) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-11-28 13:35:00 |
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The idea had struck her a couple weeks ago, shortly after she had gotten out of quarantine. Kitty hadn’t wanted to rush into anything, thinking that the trauma from the whole event might have been clouding her judgment. But as time passed and the idea still lingered at the edges of her mind, Kitty realized it wasn’t going away and maybe this was the perfect way to commemorate surviving a zombie bite. Of course she was familiar with Sasha and could have asked him to ink a tattoo for her, but then she had met the owner of Rendition at the Friendsgiving event and after talking with her for a few moments the younger woman realized that that was who she wanted to design something for her. When they had parted ways that way Noa had told her she would put her on the books for the 10th and if Kitty changed her mind she could just call. Kitty hadn’t changed her mind. She was nervous, really nervous. But Zach had been encouraging enough about the idea to spur her into keeping the appointment. So with butterflies still fluttering in her stomach the blonde stepped into the tattoo shop, glancing up as the bell above the door sounded. In truth she had a couple options of what she wanted done, but she didn’t know if either would work and she hoped that Noa might have some advice in that direction -- along with where to put the tattoo. Covering the bite scar wasn’t logical, Kitty knew enough to know that scarred skin didn’t tattoo well. But that didn’t mean she had a real concrete idea on where to place the tattoo -- or she had too many ideas and needed to par them down. “Hello?” Kitty finally called out as she stood in the lobby of the shop, cringing as she caught the way her voice wavered just a little. There really was no hiding the fact that she was nervous, though she imagined she wasn’t the first person to sit for a tattoo that had butterflies going crazy inside of them. Which was a thought that made her smile as she began to flip through the example books, her fingers tracing intricate (and big) tattoos, knowing that the little thing she wanted to get wouldn’t be nearly as a impressive, but it would be her, and that’s what counted, right? “Hey, sweetheart,” Noa said as she ducked around the entryway to the waiting area, smiling reassuringly because she was old hat at spotting nerves, even if Kitty hadn’t been projecting them from a mile away. “Trying to see if something in there catches your eye?” she asked, tapping her own fingers against the corner of one book. Noa had enjoyed the conversation she’d had with Kitty about getting some ink, though it had been short. If anything, Noa knew the necessity to remember milestones. She could relate to the trauma that the younger woman had gone through also, though Noa hadn’t been quarantined quite the same way. “We can sit out here while we talk about what you were thinking, or we can move to the back.” Sometimes seeing all the equipment before it was in use could amp up the nerves of her clients, so she usually gave them the option, since she preferred them relaxed while she worked. Aside from squirmers and low pain thresholds, tense clients were some of the worst to handle. Part of the reason, a large part actually, Kitty had chose Noa to do her tattoo over Sasha, was in the way the other woman had this innate ability it seemed to put a person at ease. Especially someone who was more than a little amped up about making a permanent mark on her body, which for the record Kitty was. This felt like something she needed to do though, commemorate the time she had both nearly died and also managed by some genetic luck, to live. Her fingers ran over another one of the drawings, a grouping of flowers, it was much larger than any piece she wanted to get done, but she liked the idea of inking something relating to nature. Why, Kitty couldn’t entirely say. Maybe because nature was living a breathing, or maybe just because she thought the flowers were pretty. Noa noticed the way the younger woman seemed to spend more time on that piece than some of the others, and filed that away as a suggestion, in case they ended up stumped. “Hi,” Kitty finally looked up from the book and smiled at Noa. “Is it terrible to say not yet?” she questioned, knowing it might be a bad sign that she was here for an appointment and didn’t have a concrete idea yet. “Because I have to admit I want so many things, but then I don’t know what I want at all,” another pause, “does that make sense?” Kitty had to laugh at just how indecisive she sounded, which was in large part very unfamiliar for her. “Where do you work best? I’m not really picky about where we talk things over at.” She added, well aware through her many, many years of friendship with Zach that artistic types sometimes had a process and places they worked best in. “We can go back to my work station,” Noa decided, still smiling easily at Kitty. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to walk a client through a piece, and it wouldn’t be the last. “Then we’ll talk through some of your ideas of what you want, where you want it placed, and what kind of size you’re looking for,” she explained, covering the basics. She hadn’t gotten the impression that Kitty was going to be difficult to work with, so she wasn’t concerned about the fact that their might be a little bit of a discussion. Nodding towards Kitty, she added, “You can go ahead and bring the book if you want to keep looking.” Before she motioned the younger woman to follow her back to her station. It was relatively quiet in the shop (not that it was ever loud); Sasha had a client in his chair, but he was finishing up, so if someone walked in she didn’t think she’d have to pause her talk with Kitty. “Have a seat.” Noa motioned towards her bench before she pulled a sketchpad and pencil from one of her drawers, in preparation of running through a few ideas. Kitty gave a nod of understanding as the older woman told her they could move to her work station to discuss her tattoo ideas. She was calmed a bit by the fact that Noa didn’t seem bothered by the fact that she didn’t have a concrete idea of what she wanted yet, some of her indecision really was that she just didn’t know what would or would not look good. With the book in hand, she had moved through the space behind Noa, glancing sideways at Sasha’s work station, smiling and giving a little wave when he looked up and saw her. “Do you often have people come in who don’t know what they want?” Kitty questioned as she sat down. “I have some ideas, like maybe a flower or a phoenix, both done in a watercolor style,” she paused. “If that’s a style you do, or even something that can be done.” While tattoos were not something she knew that much about, she was sure that each tattooist had their own personal style. “I guess I just want something that kind of represents rebirth and also something that’s kind of feminine, which is why I thought a watercolor tattoo might be more my style.” Kitty hoped she didn’t sound like she was rambling, she didn’t normally, but this was a big deal. Noa gave Kitty a subdued, reassuring smile. “I do watercolor,” she confirmed, pulling a book off her shelf and setting it beside the blonde. “Not very often lately, but that has most of the examples of what I’ve done.” Once she had settled back in her chair, Noa tapped her pencil against her sketchbook, in thought. She flipped to a blank page and sketched a few lines, then looked back up at Kitty. “Depending on how large you’d like it and where, we could do a phoenix with a lotus flower,” she suggested. “The smaller you want the more it’s going to be tricky getting all the little details in, but I should be able to work with it.” And larger pieces were harder to sit for. Kitty felt a little more calm as Noa assured her that she did watercolor and even handed her a book that contained her work in that area. “Is there a reason you haven’t done much of it lately?” she asked curiously as she began to flip through the book, studying each piece intently before she flipped the page to the next one. The blonde glanced over at Noa as she heard the scraping of pencil against paper, a faint smile flickered onto her features, one that was still a little nervous around the edges. “Not too many Hellhounds leaned towards that style,” Noa explained, although the Hounds hadn’t been her only clientele, they had created the lion’s share for a quite a while. “I was thinking maybe something this big,” Kitty said as she turned the book towards Noa. “And actually I kind of like the design of this one,” she indicated the same picture she had shown Noa just a moment before, it was a little bigger than what she thought she had wanted, but the longer she looked at it the more she kind of liked that her tattoo would outsize the bite mark on her waist. “A lotus flower, what’s the significance with that?” Taking note of each of the things that Kitty showed her, she was already mentally mapping the piece with all of the elements. “Lotus represents rebirth,” Noa explained. “Same as the phoenix.” She sketched a few more lines into her book. “Where would you like it? Placement is important to know before I really sketch anything. I don’t want to put something together that’s not going to work.” Of that Noa was very particular. The tattoos she created were a reflection of her, so if they came out poorly it was poor advertising for Rendition. “Is it redundant to have both in a tattoo?” Kitty questioned, unsure of how things that worked. Would someone look at her tattoo and tell her that she should have picked one or the other, not done both? The blonde paused to think about the other woman’s question about placement. She had thought possibly her shoulder, but then she had thought about wanting it somewhere that was more easily hidden. “Maybe my side?” she replied, taking a beat before she added, “The one that didn’t get mangled by the zombie that is,” in a quieter tone. She knew there would never be any way to cover up that bite mark, but maybe if she had a tattoo on the opposite side that might draw people’s attention away from the mass of gnarled skin? Looking at Noa, she tapped her fingers against the chair she was sitting in as she asked. “What’s your professional opinion here?” “It really depends on your pain tolerance,” Noa replied. “I think if you really want it on your side, then we can do it there, but it’s not going to be the most pain-free process.” But then Kitty had survived a zombie attack, so Noa guessed she was familiar with a little bit of discomfort. “I’ll try to be as gentle as I can be, but there’s only so much I can do. As long as you don’t want it to span from your armpit to your hipbone we should be able to make it work.” More than likely if Kitty wanted the piece that large Noa would split it into two different sessions, alleviate the possibility of lots of squirming and discomfort. “I don’t think anyone will be too judgmental about the phoenix and the lotus, but if you’re concerned we can do one or the other. I wouldn’t personally stress too much about it,” she added to try and quell some of Kitty’s concerns about her piece being repetitive. “If you’d rather, we could do gladiolus instead - they mean strength.” A small smile formed at the mention of pain tolerance, after having two children and surviving a zombie bite Kitty felt as if her pain tolerance was probably fairly good. “I’m not afraid of a little pain,” she began. “Unless you would say that the pain would be more intense than a zombie bite and childbirth combined.” Kitty didn’t believe that it would be, but then again she wasn’t the professional so she also didn’t want to go making any wild assumptions if it were to turn it out was more intense than both of those things. “Also no, I definitely don’t want from my armpit to my hipbone,” she clarified. “If anything I was thinking closer to my waist on my side, if that makes sense?” Kitty gave another nod when Noa said she didn’t think anyone would judge her having both a phoenix and a lotus, but then a third option was mentioned and Kitty had to admit she was intrigued. “Gladiolus like the flower??” She liked the idea of getting something that represented strength. “Do you think that alone would make for a good tattoo? Maybe leave the Phoenix and the Lotus off of it?” “Yes, like the flower,” Noa confirmed, glancing up from her sketchbook. “Honey, you need to go what feels right in your gut. I can make anything look good, but you’re the one that will be wearing it for the rest of your life.” She made the statement calmly, reassuringly, continuing to try and get Kitty to a place of comfort with her decision making. “Tattoos aren’t about what everyone else thinks about what you decided, it’s about what you decided.” Setting her sketchbook aside for a moment, Noa gestured to the tribal lines on her arm. “I’ve had people tell me these look like shit, but I love them, and they mean something to me.” Even if they didn’t carry any meaning, they connected back to something that was meaningful for her. “I’m open to doing whatever you want, but it has to be because you want it, not because you think people will judge you the least for it.” Kitty let out a little sigh, she was usually a million times more decisive than this. It was almost frustrating to her the way she was flipping and flopping about on what she wanted to permanently ink on her skin. Maybe she hadn’t been ready for this? Noa made a valid point though, this wasn’t about what other people thought, it was about her. What did she want? Finally after a long moment of deliberating, Kitty glanced up from the book of tattoos she had in her lap and said. “I want just the gladiolus,” after thinking it over for a few minutes Kitty had determined that was the most like her and she liked the idea of having something that represented strength. “I really am sorry that I came in here with absolutely no idea what I truly wanted,” she continued as she set aside the book of examples and offered Noa an apologetic smile. “It’s actually so not in my nature,” Kitty laughed. “But neither is getting a tattoo, so I guess I’m exploring a lot of firsts today.” Now that her decision had been made she took a moment to study the tribal lines on Noa’s arms. “Does every tattoo have some kind of meaning behind it?” Now that her decision had been made Kitty was feeling a little less anxious about this whole process. But only really a little. It was still way out of the norm for her, so that alone she knew would raise eyebrows. But Zach had encouraged her to do this and his opinion meant a lot to her. Standing, Noa pulled a few reference books from a shelf and flipped until she found what she was looking for. She had purchased internet for Rendition, but still hadn’t quite gotten in the habit of bringing a laptop in to search for references; it was just one of the new positive things about Austin she was still getting used to. “Not every tattoo,” she told Kitty as she began a light pencil sketch. “It depends on the person, honey.” Some people got things because they looked cool, and others spent months of deliberation on a piece. “There are people that fall somewhere in the middle, where they’ll do something because it means something or because they like the look of something. It just all depends.” Noa never grew bored of answering the curiosity questions about the tattoo industry, though she’d never claim to be a leading expert on it either. It could be nice to find out if there was still a network of tattoo artists outside of Austin, since she had always liked being able to bounce things off of someone else if she got stuck. Sasha was good for some of that, but he was still inexperienced, so he didn’t quite fit the bill in some areas. The tattoo industry really was one of those things Kitty knew very little about. Up until her incident with the shuffler she had never had any inclination to have anything permanently marked on her body, but after it, after she had survived the ten days in quarantine Kitty felt like she needed something, a visual reminder of the strength she had needed to get through that. So as Noa explained the different reasons people had tattoos done, Kitty listened intently, appreciating the other woman’s patience with her and what felt like the millions of questions she had. After about twenty minutes, Noa turned the sketchbook around for Kitty to see. “What do you think?” she asked her client. “We can tweak whatever you don’t like.” Then as Noa sketched they fell into silence and Kitty looked around the room, curious as to what each piece of equipment did and each step of the process. She didn’t ask any questions though, because soon enough Kitty knew she would be underneath Noa’s needle and likely finding out first hand what each thing was and did. As the sketch was turned towards her though Kitty smiled. “That’s gorgeous!” she exclaimed, knowing the minute she saw it that that was exactly what she had wanted done all along. It felt like her, right down to the colors that Noa had chosen. “I like all of it,” Kitty added with a small laugh. “So, now that we have the tattoo design what comes next?” She could only assume that Noa likely heard the nervous hitch to her voice as she spoke. “You can go ahead and remove your top and lay down,” Noa replied. “I’ll make a transfer of this, and then we can get started.” She stood with her sketchbook and left the room to make the transfer necessary to put the image onto Kitty’s skin. When she returned the younger woman was already laying down on her side on the tattoo bench, so Noa went through the rest of her prep process, then placed the transfer last. “If you’ll go ahead and double check placement,” Noa said with a nod towards the mirror, waiting for Kitty to do that before she could really get into her work. Swinging her legs over the side of the tattoo bench, Kitty hopped down and moved over to the mirror that Noa had indicated, twisting and turning she studied her reflection and the placement of the tattoo before she finally turned to the other woman with a smile and said. “It looks great, I don’t think we need to change anything about the placement.” With one final look in the mirror and a deep breath to calm her nerves, Kitty moved back over to the tattoo bench. Once her client was seated again, placement approved, Noa began working. “You’ll need to tell me if you need a break, okay.” “Okay, I think I can do that,” Kitty replied, though she hoped she would just be able to grit her teeth and push through the pain. Not because she wanted to be tough, but because she was anxious to see the final piece completed on her skin. All told it took about the length of time that Noa expected it would take to ink the gladiolus onto Kitty’s side; she was proud of the final product, and hoped that Kitty would be also. “You can go ahead and have a look at it,” she said, setting her tattoo machine down on her work station. While the pain had definitely been something Kitty had been very aware of during the process, it wasn’t nearly as intense as she thought it was going to be and she was relieved to have not hindered Noa’s work any by needing breaks or squirming about. The length of time in which it took to have the piece done surprised her and as the other woman told her she could go ahead and have a look, Kitty wasted no time at all to climb down from the tattoo bench and return to the full length mirror from earlier. “Oh my god,” Kitty breathed out as she caught sight of the beautiful piece of artwork now adorning her body. “Noa, this is amazing,” she added as she turned to look at the tattoo artist over her shoulder. “This is better than anything I could have thought up.” Kitty added as she gingerly traced the sensitive skin. “You’re welcome,” Noa replied, though there hadn’t been a verbalized thank you in anything that Kitty said. The praise was enough to make her think that she’d done what her client wanted. In the end that was the goal. “You’ll need to be careful about touching it too much before it heals,” she told Kitty gently, although she didn’t admonish her too harshly for prodding at it a little bit. Having something new like that always held a little bit of novelty no matter what. “I can go ahead and bandage it up, and give you all of the care instructions once you’re done admiring it.” At Noa’s gentle warning about touching the newly inked skin, Kitty dropped her hand away and made a mental note not to be drawn to tracing the outline with her finger. “I think I’m done admiring it,” Kitty finally said as she stepped away from the mirror and offered the other woman a small smile. “You really did do fantastic work, thank you,” she added, realizing those words had yet to have passed her lips. The decision to do this had felt so spontaneous to Kitty, so unlike her, but now that she had the tattoo on her skin, she knew it had been the right one. “Care instructions would also be great,” Kitty paused a beat while she moved back over to the tattoo bench and settled herself back on it. “Do you have them written out? Because as much as I would like to think I can remember them all, I have two children and sometimes things end up slipping my mind.” It didn’t happen often, but raising two children under the age of four could be both hectic and exhausting and sometimes memory failure happened. “I do. Let me just,” Noa gestured towards Kitty’s side, “cover that and I’ll find you a copy.” She went through the last few motions and indicated that Kitty was free to move if she wanted. Stripping off her gloves, she tossed them in the trash, then opened a few drawers before she found the one with the care instructions inside. Twisting, she handed the sheet of paper to Kitty. “They’re not difficult, so don’t stress about it,” she told her client. “Just do your best to follow them and you should be fine, sweetheart.” If the younger woman was responsible enough to take care of two kids, she was responsible enough to keep her tattoo from getting infected, Noa figured. “If you have any trouble with anything, don’t hesitate to stop in or call.” After Noa handed her the sheet of paper Kitty set it aside to pull on her shirt, once that was done she turned back to the other woman. “I’ll try not to stress about the after care,” she replied with a faint smile, the sheet of paper with the information was shoved into her bag before Kitty added, “And I won’t hesitate to call if something comes up.” But she didn’t think anything would, if Noa’s instructions were as detailed as her actual tattoo work was, Kitty had no doubt she was well prepared to take care of her new tattoo. It felt strange to think that she now had something permanently inked on her body. Tattoos had always been more Zach’s thing than hers, but having a reminder of her experience from a couple of months ago just struck Kitty as something she needed to carry around with her physically. As she pulled her bag up onto her shoulder, Kitty offered the other woman another smile. “Thank you again for this,” she started. “The tattoo really is amazing and more than I ever could have expected.” Kitty tried her best not to gush too much again, though she had a feeling Noa wouldn’t have minded in the least if she had. While she didn’t know if she would ever desire another piece of artwork on her body, Kitty knew she would not hesitate to recommend Noa’s shop to anyone interested in having a tattoo done. |