Page 31 of It Was Always You

‘LAST REQUEST’ (PAOLO NUTINI)

January 2017

Lily nervously sat on the black leather sofa in the waiting area of the tattoo parlour. She was surrounded by blue walls and cabinets packed with all manner of paraphernalia from mugs to messenger bags. There was a smell of disinfectant permeating the air and the sound of buzzing filled the large space. But louder than that was the thud of her pounding heartbeat throbbing in her ears.

Across the room a young man was stretched out on a black leatherette chair where a pretty blonde-haired female artist was concentrating on an intricate design on the man’s thigh. He looked quite relaxed for the most part, except for the odd wince every so often.

What am I doing? I must be bloody mad!

The good-looking guy behind the counter smiled at her. ‘You look terrified,’ he commented, snapping Lily from her own thoughts.

She smiled as she fiddled with her nails. ‘Yeah… yeah… I am a bit, to be honest.’

‘Is this your first time?’ he asked, leaning on the counter.

She cringed. ‘Oh God, is it that obvious I’m a tattoo virgin?’

The man chuckled. ‘I can tell ’em a mile off. Don’t worry though. You’ll be fine.’ She recognised his voice from the telephone.

‘I’m guessing you’re Joe?’

‘Yep, guilty as charged,’ he said as he glanced down at his diary. ‘And I’m guessing by my amazing powers of deduction that you’re Lily?’

‘Yup, that’s me, lily-livered Lily.’ She pointed to herself and rolled her eyes. Heat warmed her cheeks, which was a wonder considering most of the blood had drained from there.

Joe laughed and shook his head. ‘Honestly, you’ll be fine.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘How can you be so sure, though?’

‘Call it experience. It’s never as bad as you build it up to be.’

‘But what happens if I pass out or throw up?’

‘Well, if you pass out it takes longer ’cos they have to stop. If you throw up, we give you a mop and bucket.’ He winked. ‘It happens so rarely though. Like I said, you’ll be fine. I have faith in you.’

She wished she had his confidence. ‘Well, I’m glad one of us has. I bet you don’t get many women like me in here, do you?’ She had moved on to fiddling with the hem of her top.

He scrunched his face. ‘Women like you?’

‘Yeah, you know, normal, boring, ink and piercing-free women.’

‘Hey, you’d be surprised how many people you know have tattoos. They don’t all look like Stubbs.’ He nodded over his shoulder at the other artist wielding a tattoo needle.

‘Really? I thought maybe I was, I don’t know, out of the ordinary.’

Joe huffed. ‘Nah, not by a long way. We had an author in here not so long ago. She was a woman of about forty. She was having her first tattoo done to commemorate the publishing of her first book.’ He smiled. ‘To look at her, you’d have thought she was the last person to have one, but like I say, you can never tell. Her husband came in a while after her to get his first done, too. He’s had a few more since then.’

‘Oh? It can’t be that bad, then?’

‘Well, put it this way, there’s more return visitors than not. It’s kind of, how do I put it…’ He looked up to the ceiling. ‘Addictive, in a way.’

She sniggered at his last comment. ‘Erm, I’m pretty sure I’ll just be having the one.’

He wiggled his eyebrows. ‘Hmm, never say never, eh?’

She appreciated his attempts to reassure her as she glanced around and took in the photographs of previous tattoos that adorned the walls. These guys are some bloody talented artists.

A muscle-bound giant of a man with hardly a tattoo-clear inch on his exposed arms walked over. ‘Lily?’ he asked as he smiled. She nodded. ‘Come on, lass, you’re up.’ She walked over to his workstation, which had been prepared and covered ready for her.