Where are you and I'm so sorry
I cannot sleep I cannot dream tonight
I need somebody and always
This sick strange darkness
Comes creeping on so haunting every time
Blink 182~ I miss you
Chapter One
Noah
The PIT was a dream come true. This shop was the epitome of any artists dream. I looked around the dim lit space, at the six spots surrounding the space. I looked at the artwork that we had painted on the concrete. I had called in Chad and some of the guys I trusted from Slave to help make it ours. Sully did a mural in Japanese style that took up the North wall, his corner lined with three different chairs was the largest spot in the shop. We let each of the artists paint their room anyway they wanted to and encouraged them to display their best work as art. In the center of the room was a few leather couches, a bad ass 91’ Sony Curve 4k television that defined Hi Def. The front desk was beside the door, sweet girl named Dali worked there and was hoping to apprentice under Sully someday. Behind her, a room that was fully enclosed and was used solely for body piercings, dermal’s, branding and implants.
I walk through turning on the lights, flipping the tv on to my favorite local news station and head to the front counter to get the computer and register up and running. I look at the artists books for the day, I have finishing work to a back piece on one of my oldest clients Steve McRay, who was my first paying client so many years ago. The next week will be more of the same, finishing work or the smaller fine line tats that my clients had booked knowing that the tour was coming up soon. The next week would be a busy one for my shop.
I think of going back out on tour and a ball of fear ebbs in my gut and I close my eyes and breathe. I am only six months sober and I don’t know if I have pushed myself to hard? I question if I can give it the heart it deserves, that our fans deserve? Fans who have been loyal as a saint. I think of how simple it is to be here, in the shop laying ink. This life was the life I both wanted and knew no matter what I could achieve it. Music was a passion, I need it, I sweat it, drink it, eat it and live it. I always knew we were good, but I was realistic and tattooing had always been my back up plan. Never in a million years did I think we would be where we are today.
It has surpassed my wildest dreams.
I had no choice but to be logical and rational growing up, hell it was what kept me and my sister sane. She needed the fairytale worlds I created to feel safe, not me. I needed reason and logic to survive. Every fight with the sadistic prick we had as a father, I had to weigh the logic and reason and wait patiently until the time was right to run. Those tools are no less important now, as I face yet another life changing moment.
I go to my booth and stop short, my mural is of the truest love. My girl… Candey loved pin-ups and she also loved being a statement. So I made her one. Dressed in a skimpy sailor’s outfit saluting with one hand and holding a sign that said my name, there she was. I specialized in photo realism and this pin up was the best of my career. It was exact and she was the reason I once chose this life as an artist over the life as a rock star.
This shop was different, but there were a few that had the same security. Where once I had wanted to be successful as a tattooer as I am today, a lot of it has to do with the fact the majority of requests for me are of fans and fangirls. I had to up my price hourly and start charging for consults just to thin the heard, until I stopped accepting new clients all together unless there was a damn good reason behind it.
My thoughts are distracted by a text coming through on my phone. I look at the clock on the wall, it’s like eight after seven in the morning. Only two people I know who are up and going ready for business at this hour and have been since probably five. I look at my phone and smile seeing Tayla’s name on my screen. I was right, she and Cal both are workaholics.
Tay: Hey can I meet with you this morning? I have the terms for the tour I need to go over them with you in person?
Me: Depends
Tay: On???
Me: On whether or not I’m gonna be pissed or not
Tay: Won’t know unless you meet with me
Me: Touché, brat! I should have time after one pm. Can you come to the shop?
Tay: I'll be there
I flip the sign on up front a few minutes before eight and put some music on in the background, clicking on Thick as Thieves on my Pandora stations. I hum along as a flip through an Inked magazine listening to Chad hit every note as he sings Cold as Stone.
Is it cocky to listen to my band’s music? Maybe, but I’m curious of the bands that would play on our Pandora station. I smile to myself for thinking like Cal. He would be so proud.
The sound of church bells from AC/DC’s hells bells tells me that there is someone in my shop. It is just after eight and early for my client, but I rethink my stance on new clients at seeing the hottie at the door.
Holy shit I couldn’t even talk. I have never stumbled because of a good looking woman. I am Noah Beckett, hell I had been getting tail with no work on my part for over ten years. Hell I have fifty waiting and praying for ten minutes with me at the end of every show… This little pixie though, she took my breath away.
She was built, damn.
I get that I sound like a pig, but I am a guy, a horny one and I am honest. My heart might be incapable of ever loving again, but my dick wasn’t incapable of fucking.
“Hello?” She asked me like it was a question and considering I was staring like a puppy love kid I could understand her confusion.
