Page 52 of Until the Ink Dries

“Since we’re talking about professions, tell me about what you do again.”

She perked up instantly, letting me know this was something she was passionate about. She pulled out her phone and began scrolling, so I knew she intended to show me a few things.

“So, my company is called Ship Happens. Clever, right?” she asked with a wiggle of her shoulders.

I chuckled and nodded. “Hell yeah.”

“It’s a drop shipping company. I kind of fell into it. In college, I made extra money by doing product reviews. I guess you could say I was an influencer. My major was business and marketing, so it was great practice. I fell in love with it after a year and by the time I graduated, I had my entire business plan together.

“I wanted to keep money in our black pockets, if you know what I mean. Almost all of my vendors are black. Honestly, it just started out as a way of trying to make a difference. There are so many small businesses that sell great products, but don’t have the platform to market them effectively.”

“That’s dope. I love to hear that. A’ight, what do you think of this?” I asked.

Then showed her the picture I had quickly sketched.

“I love it! That’s going to look so good.”

I nodded and smiled. I stood and walked over to the counter to spray the tattoo chair off. Although I had cleaned it earlier; I like to do it again in front of the client. Once I finished wiping it down, I reached a hand out to her to help her up. The moment her hand slipped into mine, I didn’t want to let it go. It felt so right.

I placed my hands on her hips, then lifted her onto the table.

“Mr. Davis, do you help all your clients onto the table like that?” she asked with a lift of her brow.

Her lips quirked as she fought to hold back her smile.

“Nah, you getting special treatment, love.”

The smile she had been trying to hold back broke free. I turned my back to her to set up my tools I needed to get started. Her tattoo was mainly line work with a bit of shading, so it wouldn’t take long.

“How do you do with pain? I can assume you good if I based it off that big ass tattoo covering your thigh.” I asked over my shoulder.

I turned around to place everything I needed down, then grabbed my phone to allow a bit of 90’s R&B to play.

“I’m a big girl, I got it.”

I ran my tongue against my lower lip and nodded. I stayed silent because her thick ass had my dick hard as fuck. I needed a moment to calm down, so I focused on the job at hand. Whenever I did tattoos, I zoned out. This was my time of peace. I pulled up the armrest and Willow leaned back before propping her arm up. I placed the stencil of the design onto her arm and held it there for a moment before lifting it to make sure the design transferred.

While I waited for the stencil to dry, I placed a new needle into the tattoo gun, and then added ink into a few caps. I washed the part of her arm where the tattoo would be, then looked up at her before starting.

“We gone see. You ready?” I asked, after checking to make sure the stencil was dry.

“Ready.”

I didn’t need more than that as I started doing her tattoo. After the first line, I glanced up to make sure she was okay. She smiled down at me, so I continued. For the rest of the session, we vibed to the music and talked about little shit, but most of the appointment, we enjoyed just sharing space. An hour passed, and I was putting on the finishing touches.

“Aight, what you think?” I asked.

She sat up so she could get a good look at the design. I stood back, then crossed my arms against my chest. She smiled and did a little dance in place.

“I love it.” She gushed.

I couldn’t help but smile. I’ve had many people fuck with my work, but to hear Willow tell me she loved it felt different. It had me wanting to puff my chest out and shit.

“Cool. Let me clean this up and I’ll get you all wrapped up.”

She nodded, so I turned my back to her and discarded the needle I used, along with the paper towels that were covered in black ink.

“Uh, I meant to mention this when I first got in here. But we were kind of focused on other things and the tattoo,” she said from behind me.

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