A/N: Okay, so I've taken some liberties with the process of a tattoo apprenticeship, so if you're an industry pro, don't judge me too hard. Also, the timeline may get kind of confusing down the line because I can't plan for shit. So, just note that this story takes place over almost a year.
JJ walked into the small tattoo parlour with Henry balanced on her hip feeling awkward and about eighty percent sure she wasn't going to get this job.
The feeling only intensified when the large black man sitting behind the reception desk with his feet up on the counter glanced up at her from his sketching and said, "You gotta be eighteen to get a tattoo."
"I...umm... I'm twenty-one," JJ corrected. "And I'm not here for a tattoo, I'm here about the apprenticeship opening."
The man's eyebrows leapt up his forehead in surprise and he gave her another once-over, that seemed to do nothing for his skepticism. He scooted his chair across the floor and yelled to the far corner of the studio, "Yo, Em!"
JJ audibly gasped as the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen emerged from the back. She introduced herself as Emily Prentiss, the owner of the tattoo parlour and offered her hand to shake and it took JJ several moments before she had the wherewithal to respond.
"Jennifer," she finally responded dumbly. "You can call me JJ. I'm here about the job opening?"
Emily too seemed surprised by that, but she hid it much better. She pulled her glasses off their precarious spot on the end of her nose. "Alright, show me what you can do. Tattoo me."
"Wh-what?" JJ sputtered, surprised. "R-right now?" She waved her portfolio around helplessly. "But..." she said lamely.
Emily grabbed the portfolio from her hand and gave it the barest of flip-throughs before snapping it shut. "Do you have your machine with you?"
"Yeah, I do, but I mean...I've got Henry with me, so maybe we could..." she tried to explain.
"I'll hold him," Emily immediately suggested, reaching for the baby and making a silly face at the small boy.
JJ didn't have any argument for that, so she shrugged and nodded.
Emily lead her to a bed in the back and pulled the curtain. "I've got some space on the front of my thigh. Just show me whatever you do best." She then proceeded to take off her jeans, leaving her standing there in a pair of lacey black panties.
"Oh, okay..." She was suddenly blank as to what that might be, determinedly looking anywhere but at Emily. She hadn't expected to actually tattoo today – certainly not tattoo her (smoking hot) potential boss – and her hands were shaky as they set up her machine, hoping Emily wouldn't notice and change her mind.
"What's this little guy's name?"
JJ glanced up from her work to see Henry curiously studying the tattoo in the middle of Emily's forehead. JJ had never even met someone with a face tattoo. Back home in small-town Pennsylvania, the only context most people had for face tattoos was people with teardrop tattoos on prison shows. "That's Henry," she said when she realized she too was staring.
"Well, hello, Henry," Emily said to the baby. "Are you going to grow up to be an artist like Mommy?"
JJ gave an unladylike snort. "He's going to Yale."
"Yale? Your Mommy's gonna have to do a lot of tattoos to send you to Yale, buddy."
JJ went through the process of putting on the stencil, pouring out inks, and getting all the little details like lighting right before she was finally able to start her work. Emily looked like she expected Henry to start crying once the machine started buzzing, but was impressed when he didn't bat an eye. JJ had spent most of her time practicing with Henry strapped to her, so he was as much of an old pro at this as she was.
"Have you been tattooing long?" Emily asked, watching her work.
"Almost a year..." she admitted awkwardly. "Since before Henry was born."
An impressed look crossed her face. "You're much better than I was a year in," she admitted.
"I know I'm lacking in some of the technical areas," she shrugged. "But having a good mentor will help with that...I haven't really had that benefit yet. Mostly I've been teaching myself."
"You don't seem like the tattooing type," Emily said. "You look like you should be in college right now, cheerleading by day, living the sorority life by night."
JJ gave a small humorless laugh. "Close. I was a varsity soccer player, not a cheerleader. But when I found out I was pregnant with Henry, I lost my soccer scholarships and then I couldn't afford to attend school anymore. And my parents would have been furious, so I took a job cleaning at a tattoo parlour in exchange for being taught how to tattoo and pretended like I was going to school. Of course, then they found out and kicked me out and now I'm here..."
Emily nodded like she'd heard it all before and JJ couldn't help but wonder what her story was. She spoke like someone well educated and carried herself with the posture and poise that came from growing up well-off, so it surprised her that she would end up running a tattoo parlour with a face tattoo. Of course, they had just met and JJ was desperately hoping the other woman would give her a job, so she didn't dare ask just then.
She was most of the way through her tattoo – a black and white realistic mermaid, a choice for which Emily declared she'd had guts – when Emily declared she'd seen enough. JJ felt her stomach squirm, ready to pack up her machine and her son and go.
"Fantastic!" Emily said enthusiastically. "With a little work, I can make you the biggest artist to come out of Pennsylvania since Shane O'Neil."
"I...but..." JJ stammered, surprised and a little confused. "Really?"
"Absolutely. Oh, and if you need a place to stay, I've got room in the loft above the studio."
"You're...giving me a place to stay?" JJ asked incredulously. "And my infant son?"
"As long as you don't mind me for a roommate," Emily said jokingly, as if she didn't grasp why JJ seemed so shocked.
Tears welled in JJ's eyes and she tried not to let it show as she wrapped Emily in a hug, squishing Henry between them.