Out of the loop

I couldn't let my nerves win, This big opportunity just landed out my front door and I would not let it pass without a solid effort. I held onto my portfolio and stepped into the small dilapidated building that had "Tattoo Artist Wanted" crudely written across its windows in decorative holiday paint.

Immediately I was greeted by a tall heavyset man with gray hair and piercing blue eyes. "Welcome to the shop!" he said jovially and reached out his hand to shake my boyfriends "The name's Marcus"

"Shawn" he replied before directing his gaze towards me. Before he could say anything else I reached out and introduced myself. "Hey! my name is Millie, I called you earlier today about your opening!" I was probably too excited, too energetic, too eager. Marcus shook my hand and sat down on top of his oversized desk, arms crossed and ready to ask me a series of questions but I didn't give him a chance. I had been rehearsing what I was going to say to get this job for the past couple days, perhaps in panic of losing the words I just blurted them all out instead.

"I don't have any previous shop experience and have never had a formal apprenticeship but I am an artist and have been teaching myself how to tattoo in my home for the past few years, I have set my mind to being a tattoo artist, this is what I'm going to do, if you don't take me on then I will be opening my own shop. Here's my portfolio, I don't have many tattoos in there but what I have done I am pretty proud of" I handed him the binder filled with a variety of art pieces done in a variety of mediums, mostly ink works and pictures of a handful of tattoos i had done. He flipped through relatively quickly before closing it back up.

"Alley, come here! I want you to take a look at this" he waved for the girl to come out from another room and handed her the binder. She was young and pretty with thick curly hair, decorated in a handful of tattoos and piercings. "This is Alley our piercer" he introduced, putting his hands over her shoulders and giving her a playful shake, "And business partner" she exclaimed through shy giggles. Marcus's eyes dimmed for a moment before brightening again "Yes! Alley also helped fund this project!" he gestured around the inside of the building.

It was much nicer inside than outside, the walls were decorated in a bright glossy red with matt black trim and new floors. The waiting room featured a new dragon mural with furniture to match the shop's vibe, red couches and black coffee table with a red glass chandelier hanging above. The building was very small, only having enough space for two artist booths and a piercer. It had clearly taken lots of time and hard work.

"It looks great in here, did you do it all yourself?" I asked Marcus. He grinned ear to ear "Yes I did, all summer I've been transforming this place " he started showing me around the small shop, pointing out walls he removed and others he had to build. It was clearly something he was really proud of. Alley followed behind making comments about how she was the one who laid the trim or did the caulking.

When we got to the back booth he asked if the space would work for me, I froze a little, not quite understanding what he was asking, does this mean i have the job? nah, he barely looked at my book, we have barely had this discussion. Did I scare him with the idea of me opening a competing shop? I have spent years looking for this opportunity, is he really handing it to me?.. My pause was too long but may have helped me look more professional though unintentional "of course this would work for me, how does this work though? Do you charge booth rent? I don't have much to give upfront"

His toothy smile faded a little but was returned via smirk "I can do 60/40 split for the booth, You get 60% and I get 40%, No booth rent that way we can get you ready and working, how does that sound?" It sounded too good to be true but I wasn't going to let it slip out of my hands, Most shops do a 50/50 split, this deal was a good one. "When can I start?!" I smiled and did a little dance out of excitement. Sometimes I can't help it. Marcus smirked again "After you get all your equipment we will get the inspector out to get your permit, I want you here full time so don't be surprised if you don't get home until late each night" as we shook hands for the final time that night, he tightened his grip and stared into my soul "I hope this is the beginning of something great" he said, I nodded.

Shawn and I stepped out onto the front stoop of the shop, cigarette butts were strewn everywhere and half dead plants failed to do their job of brightening the ambiance, the paint was peeling off the building and the water damaged poster that read NOW OPEN was barely holding onto the railing, swinging from a small piece of tape that gripped its corner. A bellowing laugh and short giggles came from inside the shop. Were they laughing at me? I don't even care... I got the job! I wanted to scream, everything that just happened seemed so surreal, too easy. I was finally going to have a chance to make a living doing what I love, making art. Shea held my hand and on the short drive home told me how proud he was of me, claiming he knew I could do it and reassuring me that I was indeed a talented artist despite my own critique of my work.

I had to max out all of my credit cards in order to get the equipment I needed, the chair alone was $600 and all the smaller stuff added up quickly. before I knew it I was almost 3k in debt but I knew this job was going to help me repay it. I was able to get everything set up within a week and the day of my inspection came quicker than planned.

I was a mass of anxiety, nauseated by the thought of failing, nauseated by the thought of succeeding. This is way different than any other job I've had, this one will leave marks, permanent ones! A tightness grew in my stomach as I swallowed every negative thought until it could no longer show itself to the outer world. I smiled, I laughed, I followed the inspection routine and got approved. Again... that was too easy...but it happened and now I have a permit.

Marcus bought Alley and I lunch from the fast food joint next door. We hung out in the waiting room for walk-in clients and ate chicken tenders while talking and getting to know each other. I learned from Alley that the shop was her idea and that she actually invested her savings into building it. She met Marcus through his wife Tee, who was Alley's manager at a local grocery store. Tee bragged about Marcus's tattooing skills to Alley and after getting a few tattoos from him at his house Aleey decided she would fund the shop if he taught her how to be the piercer. Marcus kept looking at her, giving her extended eye contact and chiming in to direct the story in favor of himself. He seemed to have a habit of doing so. "I used to own a shop in Hickory" he started on his story about how his shop was broken into and everything of his was stolen by his former employees. I felt bad for him, to build something so great and lose it all must have been so hard.

The bell rang and my first real client walked through the door. Marcus looked at me with wide, testing eyes that said "you better be ready". The man did not speak a word of English so he brought his step son to translate for him. He wanted a hummingbird in full color on his neck, this was a terrifying first tattoo for me, I had only done a couple color pieces before and never on melinated skin or a neck! but I swallowed down any negative thought and started drawing everything up. It took four hours to finish the tattoo, I was sweating the whole time, completely unsure if I was doing everything correctly but the ink was staying in the skin and my client never twitched once, the only break he took was to smoke a blunt in his car about 2 hours in. He was practically asleep for the rest of the piece... I wasn't sure if that was okay but Marcus just nodded and laughed saying it was completely normal in this industry. The client loved his new piece, I loved it too and it instilled in me a sense of pride, a little more confidence that this was the right move for me.

After my client left the shop Marcus gave me a fist bump of approval before we all packed up and went home.

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Alley was in a mood, it was easy to tell because she acted the same way any salty teenage girl did. Stomping around, sighing, crossing her arms and legs and giving the silent treatment. An obvious tell that she was fresh out of high school and hadn't quite broken out of the behavior patterns.

I stepped outside with Marcus on the stoop of the shop while he smoked his cigarette. It was pouring rain for the third day in a row and the parking lot had turned into a mudpitt. "What's up with Alley?" I asked as we watched the traffic pass by. He sighed a long deep breath "My wife and her sister will be coming in today and they don't get along, it's a whole thing that they are working through, stupid really" he continued to stare into traffic. I waited for further explanation but none was given before Alley joined us on the porch. "You need to watch your attitude" he hissed "they are going to be here any minute and I am not going to tolerate any drama, I'm squashing it now!" He stepped towards her and gave her a stern, icy blue stare.

"She is the one who started all of this with her accusations and shit!, why don't you tell her to control her damn attitude!" she snapped back fearlessly. Marcus smirked for a moment before taking a drag of his cigarette, he softened his tone "Don't you worry I already had a talk with her, Just be nice or stay away from her" he reached out and pinched her arm playfully. She rolled her eyes at him and grabbed her purse off the bench before turning to me "Do you want to go get some sushi?"

I glanced at Marcus for approval before accepting the invite. The sushi place was across the street so if there was a walk-in he could just call us and we would be back within 10 minutes. I was glad to have some time to talk with her one on one. She seemed like a fun person but she hadn't really opened up to me yet. We placed our order and settled into a booth. Before I could ask any questions she broke out into a rant "I can't stand that woman" Alley vented "he wouldn't want me to tell you about it but she is a terrible person".

"Was she a real bitch of a boss?" I asked, "I've had some terrible bosses in retail before" I added trying not to sound as nosey as I felt. Alley sighed, she did that a lot. "No, Actually she used to be a fun boss and we hung out all the time, that's how I met Marcus to begin with" I couldn't help but furrow my brow in confusion, she picked up the cue "It all started after we got the idea to open this shop, Tee was part of the planning and everything but she had to work full time so it was mostly Marcus and I building out the shop the past months, I don't know who suggested it but someone put the idea in her head that we were having an affair and she lost her mind and bitched me out for doing nothing! She demanded we stop the shop project but we were so far along that we both refused. We put so much hard work into that place, I put my whole savings into the place! there was no way" Alley shook her head to emphasize her statement. Her phone buzzed with texts from Marcus but she ignored it.

"I understand that, you can't stop your potential career because of something someone said about you, especially when it's not true. How did you manage to fund this project anyway?" I caved to the nosiness. "I am 30 and have never been able to save like you do" our food arrived, her phone buzzed again.

She shrugged and looked down at her sushi "I have been saving since I started working, any extra penny I would put into my savings and since I still live with my grandparents I don't really have bills... I have spent close to 15k building this place out though, there's no way I am giving up on it"

We started in on our sushi, sharing our rolls so we could try every combination. We bonded over our love of eel and pickled ginger, I talked about my experiences in Japan and she told me about the better sushi places in the area even though they could never compare. We laughed a bit and talked about our lives outside the tattoo shop. She was still young and didn't have many real life experiences to share but she reminded me of myself, just trying to figure out society outside of school and going wherever life takes her. She was a sweet girl but she also had a fire inside her, almost fearlessness. Her phone buzzed again and again.

"Okay we should probably head back" she said within a sigh "Marcus said someone called and may come in"

We paid our tab and headed back. Tee and her sister were there already. Tee was getting tattooed by Marcus and her sister was sitting nearby as emotional support. As soon as we walked in, Alley went straight into the piercing room but I went straight to Marcus' booth, looking to take advantage of the shadowing opportunity. "how was lunch?" he asked, not looking away from his tattoo. "It was great, we got to know each other a little bit, she seems fun" I replied with a smile. Tee rolled her eyes dramatically and her sister let out a small but still audible scoff. Marcus lifted his head and looked towards the piercing room "I hope she behaved for you" he said in a louder tone before going back to tattooing.

"We had a lot of fun" I reassured before asking about the technique he was using to shade, changing the direction of the conversation.

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Alley wasn't at work the next day. Marcus and I sat on the stoop and watched the rain, waiting for some walk-ins. They arrived in no time and, before I knew it, my day was fully booked.