The Blue Dragon
Katara wasn't one to judge others. She never did, and that was a trait she valued most about herself. She'd never make someone feel bad about themselves. Ever.
But come on, there's gotta be a limit to how many tattoos one person could have.
Her best friend, Aang, was addicted to tattoos. He was almost entirely covered in them, and Katara couldn't understand his obsession with them. He was a monk, so most of them were spiritual, and they covered his arms and chest and legs. She knew he had to have an extremely high pain tolerance.
There were a lot of Tibetan script tattoos, and many tattoos that swirled around his body. In as long as she'd known Aang, however, she'd never seen the actual tattooing process. Their friend, Zuko, had given Aang most of his tattoos. Zuko had a few tattoos himself, but definitely not as many as Aang. Most of Zuko's tattoos were from his younger teen years, when he had gone through a rebellious phase against his father.
Today, Aang had invited Katara to come along as he received yet another tattoo. She was hesitant; she'd heard numerous stories of people fainting at the sight of the needle, and she wasn't too sure of whether she could handle the sight of the needle or not. Aang had told her that the needle wasn't that bad, but she knew that was just because he'd experienced it so many times.
She decided to agree to watch as he received a tattoo, so a little after noon they drove over to Zuko's small tattoo parlor. When they walked in, Zuko really didn't seem surprised to see Aang. He was currently working on tattooing someone else, but he still greeted the two of them warmly.
"Hey Aang. Back for another?" The darker haired man asked.
"You know it. I had another idea recently, and it may or may not have been inspired by you," Aang smiled.
"I'm flattered," Zuko snickered. "Katara, do you want one, too?"
"Oh, um, no, I'm just... watching," she told him meekly. She had to admit, she got nervous around Zuko. If she was being honest with herself, she found him quite attractive.
"You should get one someday. A dolphin maybe," Zuko suggested, continuing to work on his current client. Katara had never considered getting a tattoo of her own. A dolphin seemed like it could be a nice starter. She'd have to see how she felt after watching Aang.
"Once I'm finished here, I'll get started on you, alright Aang?" Zuko's attention switched back to Aang, leaving Katara only slightly disappointed.
Aang hummed in acknowledgement, glancing through the book of tattoos on Zuko's small desk.
Maybe she would get a tattoo. There was nothing wrong with trying new things, right? And she trusted Zuko. She knew he'd never intentionally hurt her and, judging by the work of his that she's seen on Aang's body, she knew it would look good. And having Zuko so close to her for such a long period of time...
Katara shook her head. She needed to stop with these thoughts. They weren't appropriate, and she knew that Zuko didn't like her in that way. Especially since he was dating that goth girl, Mai. Katara personally didn't think that Mai was right for Zuko, but that was just her opinion, and she'd obviously never tell that to Zuko.
"Alright, all done," she heard Zuko tell his client. The customer paid Zuko with a small wad of cash, thanked Zuko, and left.
"You ready?" Zuko turned to Aang.
"Always ready!" Aang gave his typical goofy smile. Katara couldn't understand how such a goofy person could want to be covered in tattoos. It wasn't that she didn't like tattoos; she just didn't see the hype about them.
Aang sat in the long chair as Zuko prepared to give Aang a tattoo for the umpteenth time.
"What kind of tattoo are you going to get, Aang?" Katara asked, taking a seat on the extra stool next to the two men.
"Well, see, Zuko's got this cool dragon tattoo on his arm. I was thinking I could get something similar," Aang said excitedly.
"You know, you aren't the first person to ask for a dragon tattoo because they saw mine. I'm assuming you want it just as big, though," Zuko said, grabbing a sanitized wipe.
"Definitely. And right here," Aang lifted his shirt. "On the side of my stomach."
Zuko nodded, cleaning off the chosen patch of Aang's stomach. "I'm assuming you want blue," Zuko smirked. Most of Aang's tattoos were blue, so it was obvious to almost everyone that he would want a blue dragon tattoo.
As Zuko began the tattooing process, Katara was hesitant to watch. Although she was disgusted by the needle piercing into Aang's skin, she hadn't fainted yet, so that was a good sign. She had to admit, it was interesting to see the colors appear on Aang's skin. She wasn't sure why, but she'd thought that the tattooing process would be much more gruesome than it actually was.
The dragon was turning out to look really good. Zuko was using a dark blue for the body, with shades of violet around the edges.
He finally finished after what seemed like forever, and Katara was impressed. Though the skin was red and raw, the tattoo itself was bright and colorful and Aang seemed to like it.
"It looks awesome, Zuko!" Aang exclaimed. "Thanks!"
"No problem, Aang," Zuko smiled softly at him, then focused his attention on Katara as he cleaned up. "So, what do you think? You want one?"
Katara blinked. Screw it. "Uh. Dolphin. Yeah. Why not?" Always gotta take the chance.
A/N: So there it is. This was for the Pro-Bending Circuit writing competition. My prompts were: tattoo addiction, (word) gruesome, (word) violet, and (emotion) disgust. The word count is 953 words.