Stretching with a yawn as he woke up, Dirk reached over to shut off his alarm clock and grab his sunglasses. He went to the bathroom and showered, washing his tattooed skin and shampooing his blonde hair with black streaks. He sighed as he stepped out and towelled off, rubbing his hair dry before wiping down his toned, muscular body. Today would be another day at the tattoo parlour. Tedious as it may be, he loved his business and his job.
He would have to look into hiring a new piercer today. He had had a fight with his old one, Karkat. He always had to pick fight over the smallest things and it was eventually just too much for Dirk to handle so he fired him and told him to never come back, to which he flipped him the bird, told him to fuck himself, and told him where he could stick his tattoo gun before storming out of the shop. Dirk sighed and ran a hand through his still-damp hair, walking out of the steamy bathroom to go get dressed for the inevitably long day ahead.
Once dressed, he grabbed the keys and headed downstairs to open up his tattoo and piercing shop, The Calm Tempest. He unlocked the shop, turned on the lights with a satisfied sigh, made sure all the needles and kits were clean and in order, and flipped around the open sign before heading to his desk to pull out a piece of paper saying that they would be temporarily unable to offer piercings until they could hire a new one, and another to say 'PIERCER WANTED'. He wrote the signs in black sharpie and taped them up to the door, returning to his desk at the back of the room.
He started looking online for piercers and spent a few hours on this, to not much luck. He sighed and removed his glasses, rubbing his face heavily with this hands, sighing at his luck. He had no choice but to fire Karkat, it was just impossible to work with him any longer. He sighed again, resting his face on his cheeks, looking glumly at his desktop. Just then, the bell on the door jingled and a young man about the same age as Dirk walked in, out of breath, leaning against the door with a flushed face and hands on his knees, holding a few sheets of papers in one hand.
He looked up over the rim of his glasses to make eye contact with Dirk and hold up a finger until he could catch his breath better. Once he had, he came over to the desk, leaning on it, still panting a fair bit. The young brunette passed the papers to him on the desk. It was a resume.
"Hi…I saw your… sign on the door… and I wanted… to apply here." The man panted out.
Dirk nodded and indicated for him to sit down because he looked like he definitely needed it. He picked up the papers and looked them over.
Jake English, 21, Male, Tattoo and Piercing Artist.
Hm. Nice, does he have any experience? Dirk thought as his eyes skimmed further down the page. He had worked at a few, in a bunch of different locations. Does he travel a lot? As he wondered this, he got AR to run a background check on Jake to double check that he wasn't a pedophile or serial killer or anything major. As AR did that, Dirk looked up at Jake, who was now fidgeting nervously in his seat. He noticed Dirk looking up at him and quickly glanced up to meet his gaze, looking expectant and eager.
"So, do you have any photos of some of your work?" Dirk said, looking back down at the papers again, checking out his qualifications.
"Ah- oh! Yes, they're on my phone, just give me a second to scroll back far enough to find it."
"Yeah, sure, go for it." Just then, AR got back with the background check, he was all clear. Now just to see some of his work and he'd be in. Well, he would be in no matter what, he was qualified to do piercings and body modifications which was good enough. Jake pulled up an image on his phone of a very elaborate and detailed grim reaper with his hands folded across his chest, then he swiped to the side to show a skull with snakes running through it, then to a flaming nymph, then to a really hot picture of him shirtless and pulling down the waistband of his shorts. Dirk's eyes widened as he struggled to keep his composure, a bit of a flush rising to his cheeks a he fought a boner. Jake quickly realized that wasn't the right picture and stammered and flicked to the next one which was of a darkening and dying rose. He was beet red and still blathering on.
"Jake, its fine. It's a bare chest, nothing I haven't seen before. I see it all the time here. I really like your tats by the way. Oh and you're hired."
"But still an employer shouldn't se- wait seriously?"
"Yeah, you're qualified, your work is fucking sick as hell, and you can pierce. And you don't have a criminal record. That's all that matters. You can go take those signs off the window now as your first job."
Jake beamed, and damn was he cute when he smiled. "Sure thing, boss!" he said happily, before his face fell, realizing something, "Wait, you didn't even type anything on your computer, how do you know I don't have a criminal record, mister..?"
"Strider, Dirk Strider, and that's for me to know and for you to possibly find out later. After all, I am a man of mystery. Nevertheless, I am glad to have you here."
He held his hand out as a greeting to his new employee and co-worker, smiling at him warmly. They shook and Dirk tasked Jake in taking down the sign while Dirk got out the paperwork for new employees. Jake came back and Dirk handed him the paperwork and a pen, and he sat down and filled it out. As he wrote, Dirk studied him.
Jake had a lovely profile and he would make a great drawing subject. Dirk's mind wandered to that one photo Jake had accidentally shown him, and his mind started filling in the blanks, and before his train of thought could go any further, Jake was handing the papers back with a smile.
"Thanks," He took them and filled them away. "I have a client coming in this morning, and people don't usually drop in this early so you can just chill at the front desk and pretend like you know what you're doing while I tattoo."
"Ok, sounds good. Does this computer have solitaire?"
Dirk chuckled and nodded, surprised at the question.
In the time before the expected arrival of said client, Dirk was just starting the explaination of the Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff tattoo he had on his shoulder when he heard a jingle at the front door and looked up. A well-dressed woman crossed the threshold to the counter elegantly.
"Appointment for Kanaya Maryam?"
"Hmmm… let's see… ah, there you are. Ten minutes ahead of schedule, I see. I admire people with punctuality." Dirk made a show of pretending to look it up, as I anyone else would be here this early. He lead her to one of the back rooms, allowing her to get seated and comfortable while he went to get the necessary supplies.
"Thank you, I quite enjoy people like that too." She said, putting her purse down under her chair, smiling at him.
"I'll be right back with the stencil and ink, if you could be ready for me in about 3-5 minutes….?"
"I shall." She nodded and waited until he left to stand up and remove her underwear and pull up her dress enough so that he would have access to her lower buttock and upper thigh.
Dirk returned with the stencil and let it hover above her thigh. "Here?" She nodded and he placed the stencil down on her thigh, smoothing it out so that all of the image was transferred, and lifted the peel.
He grabbed a mirror and lifted it so she could see the stencil in the reflection. "Still want it? Last chance to back out."
"I'm positive."
"Just making sure." Dirk said with a chuckle as he put the mirror down and grabbed the black ink to get the outline started and a cloth to wipe up the blood.
He positioned himself on the chair by her thigh, shaking the ink bottle before attaching it to the needle. He turned on the needle and started tattooing, hearing her hiss in pain only once out of shock when he first started, and after that she didn't make a sound. Tough, elegant, polite, and punctual. She is one hell of a woman.
He finally finished the linework that covered the transfer, then he went over to his station to wash his needle and switch to the shading needles he used for colouring. He put the red ink in the machine and sat back down, letting Kanaya know when he was about to start.
A few hours later, he stood up, stretching his back as he looked at the finished product. "Dammmn, I did good. You mind if I take a picture of this for my portfolio?" he asked her as he went to go get the aftercare kit and wash.
"No not at all. Could I see the photo when you've taken it?"
"Of course, madam, that is exactly what I was intending to do." He exchanged a smile with her and cleaned up the tattoo really well and took his phone out and snapped a photo of the red, long stemmed rose going up her thigh. He took a few and once he had one that looked good, he came around to show her how it looked.
She gasped in awe, her eyes lighting up. "Oh, Dirk… it looks gorgeous… thank you so much."
"Just doing my job. Hang on, don't go anywhere yet, I've still got to put the ointment on and cover it."
As he did that, Jake manned the desk, hoping to god that no-one would come in because Dirk hadn't yet told him what exactly to do to man the front desk. Luckily, no one came in, and Dirk emerged from a back room with a very pretty and sophisticated-looking woman in a flowy dress. He was giving her the typical after-tattoo spiel, and he jumped as he heard a woman speak behind him that he hadn't heard approach.
"Pretty fancy for just going to get a tattoo, Kanaya." A blonde woman said to the one that just emerged from the back room. "Do I get to see it?"
"It's already wrapped but I took a picture of it for my portfolio that I can show you."
"Yes please, that would be greatly appreciated."
He passed her the phone and handed Kanaya the aftercare kit and rang her through the till. The blonde "awwwwwwwe"d and passed the phone back to Dirk. "That's almost as sweet as if you had my name tattooed on you."
"Essentially. However, in the event that we do not work out at least it looks beautiful and I won't need to have it removed." The two linked arms and started heading out the door.
"That's true…" Their conversation faded as they walked out of earshot.
A somewhat uncomfortable silence descended on the two males. Jake was the one who decided to speak first.
"So, as you were saying, about that tattoo…"
After the day was done and they closed shop, Dirk noticed that Jake started walking home, and on impulse, decided to give him a ride.
"Hey, why don't I give you a lift home?" The blonde asked, his keys in hand.
"Oh, I doubt that's really necessary..."
"Come on, I saw your address on your resume; you're practically across town."
Jake sighed and nodded as Dirk unlocked his car. They hopped in and buckled up.
"Speaking of, what brought you there anyway?"
"I actually saw your add online about the store opening a few months back and I've been saving up for a design, but I got booted from my old job and I wanted to at least get the details on the place so I could know how good you were, etc. Anyway, I saw your sign and I ran home to print off a resume before coming back."
Dirk let out a small chuckle. "I admire the commitment and work ethic. So, how'd you like your first day?"
"Exhilarating! There were so many people and they were very friendly for the most part!"
Dirk nodded, "My clients are pretty nice over-all."
There was another silence. After a moment Dirk turned to Jake "Where did you learn to shade like that by the way?"
Jake shrugged, "I suppose I was just pretty good at pencil shading, and after a little practice I got good at tattoo shading as well."
Dirk turned back to face the road; "I'll have to watch and see how you do it sometime, then."
Jake nodded in agreement and let the silence return.
They had arrived at his house so he thanked Dirk graciously for the ride and the job, asking what time he should be there tomorrow before saying goodbye.
As Dirk pulled away from the curb, Jake ran his hands through his hair and sighed; he had a feeling he was really going to like working there.
Jake was on the phone with Jane, as usual. The two were pretty close and he called her often to update her on life and vent his feelings. Jane usually liked these calls and little chats. Except if they went past the hour and a half mark. Which it often did.
This one was currently overstaying its welcome. Jane was waiting for her cake to finish baking but she really had to go to the bathroom and wanted to hang up so she could do so.
Jake was currently going on about his new job at the tattoo parlour he was going to work at, his hot new boss who he accidentally showed a semi-NSFW photo to, and how his boss honestly seemed to like it, and how that had hope for his love life, yadda yadda yadda...
Jake went on for a while about this, and Jane's patience was wearing thin, again. This went unnoticed to Jake, AGAIN. But of course, she was far too nice of a person to really do anything about it so she chose to excuse herself when the cake timer went off.
They hung up and she immediately went to the bathroom, sighing in relief as she washed her hands.
She grabbed the cake out of the oven and set the timer to let it cool before putting the icing on it, taking a well-needed nap in the meantime.
