Cathair Delaney (ex_dragonand543) wrote in supernextdoor, @ 2012-04-03 14:50:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | 10.03.11, cathair, cathair and patrick, patrick |
As Permanent as a Vow
Who: Cathair and Patrick
What: Getting a tattoo updated
When: Monday morning
Where: Ink Inc.
Warning: None
Cathair had been searching for a good tattoo artist in the area for a week or so. He’d asked customers with tattoos who they’d recommend and looked at reviews online. When he’d rang up Ink Inc and got a fellow Irishman answering the phone, that had cinched it. He’d wanted to update the intricate knotwork heart on his chest to include Becky and Amy. Since he was trying to convince the woman that she’d won her own place in his heart, what better way than etching it permanently on his skin? He’d warned her he was a romantic fool.
But it would take awhile done properly, so he’d closed down the shop for the day. The construction was making it difficult for the customers to get in this week anyways, which meant he likely wasn’t losing much business taking most of the day off. He wasn’t letting Becky see it until it was properly finished. Then hopefully, she’d start truly believing he loved her as much as he had Liadan.
Walking into the shop at the appointed time, Cathair waited by the counter for Patrick. Good proper Irish name, Patrick. It helped him feel better about doing this. Americans couldn’t do proper knotwork worth a damn and he wasn’t about to trust anyone else for the tattoo that was the most personal and meaningful for him.
Patrick had been happy to hear the voice of an Irishman on the phone the week before and was more than willing to update the tattoo as the man seemed to want. Knotwork was one of Patrick's favorite things to tattoo, perhaps mostly because he knew that he could do it the way it was meant to be done and not attempt it the horrid way that most American tattooists seemed to do. They always looked off, hardly ever close enough for a pass and seeing crappy tattoo jobs made Patrick's skin crawl.
He'd set up an appointment for Monday with the man to go over what he wanted and get down to business. Mondays were usually a slow day anyway so Patrick's day was clear for Cathair's work to be fully or at least damn near completed in one sitting. A long sitting, but one instead of several.
Entering the front area, he saw the man at the counter and smiled at him. Heading over, he offered out a hand to him in greeting. "You must be Cathair." he commented. "I'm Patrick, we spoke on the phone. All set to get that tattoo of yours updated?" he asked.
Well, Cathair was from Northernman and Patrick was from Dublin, but he was Irish nonetheless. Which was a comfort when it came to getting his knotwork tattoos tidied up. Cath grinned a bit as he shook the other man’s hand. “All right?” he greeted in turn. “More than ready. I’ve got all day, so I’m hoping you can get it done or mostly done today.”
"My slate is completely cleared for you today, man." he promised him as he led Cathair over to his station and let him take a seat before doing so himself. "First things first, lemme see what you've already got and then you can tell me exactly what you're wanting added to it." he said. "Then I can draw it up - a fairly intricate version with colored pencils and the like so you can see what it'll look like when it's completed. If you like the way it looks, I'll get a stencil ready and we'll get to work. How's that sound?"
Cathair nodded, shedding his tee shirt as he followed Patrick. “No need for colours,” he said. The inking had been done in black ink to make it a bit more masculine. “I’ll keep it in just the black ink. Makes retouching it and adding to it easier.” Which was likely going to happen, since Becky wanted at least one more child. What he had was an intricate knotwork heart with the letters L, E, B, and S worked into it. “I need to add my fiancee and her daughter’s initials, but since this is rather my second family, I was thinking instead of just adding them, perhaps doing a second heart joined to the first one at the S? Or would that be a bit too much?” There was room between the knots of the heart for more letters, because he and Liadan had expected many more children. But it didn’t seem right, just squeezing more in there.
Patrick nodded. "I don't think it'd be too much." he told him. "I like the idea of making the new heart so the one you currently have doesn't get too cramped." he explained. "I can have the new one practically identical to the old one and join it at the S." he agreed, eyeing the tattoo that was already in place as he spoke, visualizing the addition in his head. "Then if you and your fiance have any more children, adding an initial or two won't be difficult." He liked that there weren't any colors. Black and grey with a bit of white for highlights always made the best tattoos. They seemed to catch so much more detail than all that color splashed about. At least that was the way Patrick felt about it.
“That’s what I was thinking as well,” he agreed. Except for the brightly coloured shamrock cross on his right shoulder, the rest of his tattoos were inked in black. Likely all of them would need to be touched up, he’d had the one on his shoulder for half his life and the wolf and dragon on his forearms were nearly that old. But first things first. Cathair chuckled at the comment about more children. “That’s the plan,” he agreed. “She says she wants at least one more.” Time to let him do his work. “Her name is Rebecca and her baby’s named Amy. So those are the letters you need to work in now.”
"Perfect." Patrick said as he reached for his sketchpad and flipped to a clean page. As he drew up the tattoo with a black colored pencil, carefully shading the image, he continued to use the tattoo on Cathair's body as a guide. The intricate knotwork was done exquisitely on the piece he already had and Patrick wanted his own work to live up to what was already there. Once the heart had been shaded properly, he went about adding in the initials. R and A were quite easy to place and they were delicate letters in the same basic font the other tattoo currently had. "So this is your 'second' family?" Patrick commented as he continued to shade in the drawing. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened to the first?"
He should have worded that more carefully. Cathair sobered and crossed himself out of habit. “I lost my first wife and sons in a house fire,” he told Patrick grimly. “My daughter was with me, thank God and all the saints, and we were out at the time..” If he’d not had Sadhbh, he wouldn’t have been able to carry on. He fell quiet after that, because really, speaking about it still hurt and it was rather hard to make small talk right after admitting he’d lost so many loved ones at once.
Patrick immediately regretted asking the question of the man but he couldn't help but be a little nosy. "I'm sorry to hear that." he replied. "But at least you still have your little girl." he went on. "And apparently a lot to be happy about if you've got yourself a fiance." he smiled, hoping to pull the man away from the dark side of the situation and back into the lighter part of the whole event. "Does she know about th' tattoo?" he questioned. "Your fiance."
Cathair smiled a bit. “I’m rather lucky for both of them,” he admitted. “And I’m getting another daughter in the deal, so I can’t complain too much. It’s never wise to pass up blessings when they come to you, even if you weren’t anticipating them.” He swore to protect this family better than the last one. He actually chuckled and looked over at Patrick when he asked that. “The one I have now or that I’m adding to it?” he joked. “Yes and no, in that order. Of course she’s seen the one I already have. But I wanted to surprise her when I added to it, so she thinks I’m at work today.”
Patrick chuckled. "Well, if you're gettin' married, I kinda figured she probably saw you without your shirt on and one point or another." he grinned. "So this is a surprise?" That was amusing. "I think she'll eat it up. Women love grand gestures and all that. Nothing says 'I love you' like a tattoo with an initial." he murmured. At least he was smiling a bit now instead of looking like he'd just fell into the past. "What do you think?" he said, turning the sketch where the man could see it. He'd done a bit of the old one over again so Cathair could get the feel of the where the hearts connected and Patrick was pretty pleased with the image. "Think that'll suit ya?"
“A time or two,” he chuckled. Part of the reason he was hoping to get it done in one sitting. Because likely she’d be seeing it again soon. He nodded, then grinned. “I warned her I was a horrible romantic fool,” he assured him. “So I suspect she’ll be overwhelmed. These yank boys don’t know a bloody thing about wooing a lady.” He took pad in his hands and looked it over, smiling slightly. “Dead on what I was hoping for. Looks great.” He rolled his shoulders and stretched out a bit, since he’d be sitting forever now. “Shall we?”
"They don't." Patrick agreed. "Spend all their time bouncin' around from one to the next to the next. Where's the fun in that?" he shrugged. He had a bit of a romantic streak in him as well, even if he tried to pretend he didn't. He smiled when Cathair said he liked the drawing. "Excellent. I'll get the stencil situated and we'll get started on it. I don't think it'll take forever or anything but we can do it in sections that way you get a break every once in awhile." he smiled. "A little breather because it is going to take some time to do." He went about getting the stencil situated and then transferred the markings from the paper onto Cathair's skin where the tattoo would be placed.
“And apparently they don’t know how to give compliments,” he pointed out as he settled in the chair so Patrick could get started. “You give an American girl a proper compliment and they act as if they’ve never heard such a thing in their lives. No wonder they’re mad for us foreigners and think we’re so bloody charming.”
"Right?" he laughed, shaking his head a little as he collected the tattoo gun and got the ink he'd be using set up on the table. "If they don't act like they've never heard a compliment, they tell us whatever we said isn't true." he went on. "Like 'you've got gorgeous eyes' turns into 'oh, no I don't, you're full of it'. Women."
Cathair chuckled. “Well, that part is rather likely true,” he admitted. “We’re rather world reknowned for our ability to bullshit with the best of them. So crying blarney on us isn’t surprising. But I know what you mean. My fiancee still acts like she doesn’t believe half the things I say to her. And she’s absolutely gorgeous. Looks like an angel.” Which had him of a mind to get another new tattoo sometime. “Maybe now she’ll actually believe me when I tell her how great she is.”
Patrick grinned at Cath. "Sounds like you're head over heels for the woman." he murmured. It was written all over the man's face and easy to see. "Ready to get started?" he asked as he held up the gun, eyes flicking to his chest.
“Glad someone else thinks it’s that bloody obvious,” he shot back. “Convincing her’s a work in progress.” He nodded and leaned back. “Let’s get this done. I’ll likely be back before you know it. I don’t have to tell you how much the talent likes tattoos.”
"I'm sure she'll come 'round." Patrick told him as he scooted his stool closer and got to work on the addition to the tattoo. "Women are always complicated and a lot of them are less than sure of themselves. This is gonna prove that you're just as in love with her as you've probably been tellin' her countless times." he assured the man. "Words might not be permanent, mere sounds on the wind carried off as soon as they're uttered, but this... this is just as forever as that vow you two are gonna make."
Cathair smiled, refraining from nodding so he didn’t move overmuch. He didn’t want to spoil the man’s work for chit chat. “Truer words have never been said,” he agreed. “Although I was hoping proposing to her would have been a bit of a hint I was very taken with her.” Becky was his angel of mercy who’d saved him from his depression and loneliness.
“Saints, it’s been too long since I’ve done this,” he muttered. The last time he’d been in was to have Sadhbh’s initial added to his tattoo, which was six years ago. “I forgot how twitchy it makes you.” It didn’t really hurt, it didn’t really tickle. It just made the nerves go mad trying to decide which it did and made it hard to be still. “Bloody hell.”
Patrick smirked a little and shook his head. Pulling the gun away from the man's skin, he gave him a second to regain the ability to sit still before continuing. "Pretty soon you'll be numb and it won't be so bad." he told him. "Does take some getting used to and if it's been a while, it's hard to get back into it." he went on.
“Thank God,” he said. “The way it itches when it’s healing is the worst though.” Getting a tattoo on his chest or shoulder hadn’t been so bad. But there were a lot more sensitive nerves on the inside of his forearms and getting both of those had been the most grueling. Once again, not because it had hurt, but because those nerves had taken forever to settle. And they had itched worse than the others. “Of course, as I said, I’ll likely be back if you do good enough work. Someone told me once tattoos are addicting. I didn’t believe it then, but look at me now?”
"Well I'd like to think that I always do good work, so I hope you will come back again." he smiled. "And yeah, they definitely get addicting. Before you know it you run out of space to put knew ones and start filling in little holes with this and that." he agreed. A lot of people started with one and ended up with entire sleeves or huge back pieces or chest pieces for that matter.
Cathair grinned. “I’ll let you know when you’re finished,” he assured him. “You’ve certainly got a talent for drawing.” He resisted the urge to nod again, even though he agreed. “Got the shamrock on a whim. My father didn’t approve, but I was seventeen so there wasn’t a bloody thing he could say. The other two I got when I graduated university. I majored in ancient military history and I stole the idea from Shaolin Monks. They get brands of the tiger and the dragon in the same places when they finish their training.” Most people got tattoos for a reason. Cathair was no different. “And the one you’re mucking with was something I started when my first son was born.”
"Well I'm glad I get the opportunity to add to something that obviously means a lot to you." he told the man. He got plenty of stories as a tattoo artist, some happy and a lot sad, but they all meant something and that was what made the craft mean so much to Patrick. Whether it was something like Katee's tattoo of that damned lollipop just because she was wild and free or this knotted heart for Cathair to symbolize his love and devotion for his family, every tattoo told a story. Bartenders might listen to problems, but tattooists created a piece of art that would last forever.