And I swear I'm not dead, I'm just really stressed! Also we're coming up on the end here folks! Who's ready? I'm ready!
Leo
"I didn't say forget, never forget. Just stop living there."
The tattoo parlor is surprisingly clean, art hanging on the purple walls, there's a faint scent of antiseptic and paint. Piper meets the guy at the front desk, while the rest of us hang back looking at all of the art work. There are couches around coffee tables, littered with tattoo magazines and inspiration books. The atmosphere is much more inviting than I thought it would be, you'd think a tattoo parlor would be dark and dingy. But this place is really nice, I have to hand it to Piper, she did a good job.
"So, who's going first?" Piper asks walking back to us with the guy right behind her. "We have three artists booked."
"I have to go first, or I'll wimp out." Hazel says but she sounds near bursting with joy.
The rest of us look wearily between each other. Piper finally speaks up, "Mine's going to take a while." I instantly wonder what she could possibly be getting.
"Well, if it's all us girls, I'll go." Annabeth volunteers. Just like that the three of them are taken to the back room and us guys pace the waiting room.
"You nervous?" Jason asks me.
"Not really." I say honestly, "You?"
"Yeah… I hate needles." He chuckles nervously.
"I don't but I'm still nervous." Percy snorts.
"I'm excited though, I'm really looking forward to having something on my body that I put there." Jason tells us.
"What are you talking about?" I ask.
"Well, you know, everything else on my body is something that's just kind of happened to me. This is something I'm putting there. Not a scar or blemish, something that I put meaning on."
"Huh…" I say under my breath. I'd never thought of that before. We fall into silence, the four of us nervous and awkward until Annabeth walks out. Her smile bright and confident.
"Who's next pansy's?" She chuckles.
I let Frank volunteer, since I can't muster the courage to go back with the heavily tattooed men.
"So what'd you get?" Percy asks her anxiously.
"You're going to have to wait and see until we get back, Hazel wants a tattoo fashion show later." Annabeth says with a smirk.
"Oh great, parading around our new bodies to each other. What could be more fun?" I ask with a tone full of sarcasm.
"It's really not that bad, it's like cat scratches." She reassures us.
"You know, for some reason, I don't believe you." Jason looks at her with a chuckle.
"I don't know what to tell you then, boo." She shrugs holding Percy's hand in her own.
"Your palms are sweaty." He comments.
"I did have twenty minutes of cat scratches." She reminds him.
"It's been twenty minutes?" I ask.
"Oh yeah." She nods, "You should see Piper and Hazel, they're getting bigger pieces than me. They look like they're dying."
"Oh, great." I feel that nervous energy return.
Another almost twenty minutes go by and Frank returns looking shaken and pale, but proud.
"How'd it go buddy?" Percy asks him.
"There are worse things." Frank shrugs but nearly collapses on the couch.
"Who's ready?" The tattoo artist smiles at us. He's got tattoos crawling up his neck too, and really he's kind of intimidating. Why am I scared of a tattoo artist? I don't know man but it's just unsettling.
"Oh, I just have to do it already." Jason stands up from the couch and follows the guy back. Just as he disappears Hazel finally comes out.
"Hey! You live!" I chuckle.
"Barely." She sighs, "Don't get me wrong I love it, but that shit hurt." That's not reassuring at all.
"Well, you did get one of the most painful places on your body." The tattoo artist chides her gently.
"You're right, but still." She sits down next to Frank and nearly melts into the couch.
"Who's next." This artist is a girl, her tattoos clutter her arms, but for some reason she seems less intimidating than the guy.
"I'll go." I volunteer, "Just so I'm not last." I wink at Percy before walking in after the artist.
"So, what are we doing?" She asks taking me to her station. The back of the parlor is nice and clean, just like the front. A couple of cozy couches by the work tables. Piper is on the far end of the shop laying on her stomach, her eyes screwed up in pain as one of the guys draws on her back. Jason is still talking to his tattoo artist.
"So, I just have an idea, but I don't know how to get it done." I explain to her. "When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that nothing was unfixable. My mom recently passed away, and I want a reminder of that."
She nods, "Do you know where you want it?"
"I'm thinking my chest."
"Do you have anything symbolic from her?"
"Not really, we're all mechanics. My dad owns a shop."
"Okay…" She starts to sketch out a design and when she shows it to me I feel like it's too much. She's drawn a wrench with the words inscribed in the handle.
"I don't know… What about this instead." I hold out my hand and take the image from her. I draw a heart between the teeth of the wrench and fill in the handle. I know what it means, the rest of the world doesn't need to. Not unless they're willing to stick around for the long run.
We work out the logistics and decide in the end to make it just an outline, the image is just an outline of a wrench barely six inches long with the teeth in shape of a heart. To remind myself that I have the tools to fix even my heart, no matter how broken.
I take off my shirt just as Jason is leaving, my tattoo takes all of ten minutes before the image is forever on my body. I get to be the first one to look at the image, and I absolutely love it.
As I get my shirt on Piper finally finishes hers, the look on her face is both tired and proud. Percy walks in as the two of us walk out together.
"I need a fucking nap." She says before collapsing onto Jason's lap.
"What the hell took so long?" Jason asks her laughing. She says nothing, passing out the moment she's off her feet.
"Is she okay?" Hazel asks the tattoo artist.
"Yeah, she got a big piece, she'll be fine." He assures us. Percy takes close to an hour to get his done, by the time we can actually leave the sky is dark. The keys to the van have been handed off to Annabeth, since she was the first to finish. She takes us to the Mexican restaurant we ordered from while still at the shop.
We take all of our food up to the master bedroom, which Piper has moved into during our time here. With our food passed around, Hazel decides it's time for us to parade our new body art.
"Let me eat my gorditas woman." I tell her as I've just finished assembling them. I know they won't be as good as my mom's but it's got to be good Mexican if we're this close to the boarder.
"You don't have to go first." She tells me.
"Any volunteers?" Piper asks.
"What about you?" Jason smiles, "You took a long ass time, I want to see what you were doing in there."
"I think I should go last, because of that." She retorts, sticking her tongue out at him. He sticks his tongue out back at her.
"Get a room!" Percy throws a salt packet at them.
Frank suddenly starts rolling up his sleeves, twisting his arms to show us the inside part of his bicep. On each arm there are numbers in bold typewriter script, they're an odd kind of beautiful.
"I got my parents troop numbers." He says a sadness hitched in his tone. "My mom on my right, my dad on my left." He rolls his sleeves back down and digs into his enchilada.
"I love it." Piper says.
"Me too." Hazel agrees. He shrugs but lets a blush creep up his neck, I think he's glad we approve.
"Percy, go." Frank says between bites.
"Alright." He chuckles pulling his shirt off.
"Yikes! Keep it PG!" I chuckle.
"I mean I would but you know you love it." He winks dramatically at me.
On his right hip he's got an intricate compass, a blue anchor in the center under the little arrow. Beneath it is a coordinate. But I'm not sure what it's for.
"So, there's this place that my mom has in Montauk, and it's my favorite place in the world. Like a safe haven of sorts… it's my favorite place in the whole world. So that's the coordinate, the compass is because I've always had a fascination with sailing and boats. Also I'm a great navigator for some reason, how that happened I couldn't tell you." He snorts getting a laugh out of us.
"Now put a shirt on, hoe." Frank chuckles.
"Do my nipples offend you Frank?" He asks groping his own chest.
"Jason, there has to be some kind of rule about this." Frank groans.
"Yeah there is, you two go get a room." Jason chuckles.
Percy throws his shirt on before pointing to Hazel. "Alright little bit, show me what you got."
Hazel gets on her knees and pulls out a sheet of paper from her back pocket. She explains that she had a group of friends back in Alaska, that one of them was an artist and drew her tattoo for her. The image is striking, the resemblance between her and the picture is almost perfect.
Then she lifts up her shirt to show us the long stream of jewels flowing down her side. It's perfect for her, what can I say besides what is now on her skin? Even her blood is beautiful.
"Alright, who am I gonna pick?" She taps her cheek a few times before smirking at Annabeth. "You're turn baby doll."
Annabeth smiles, "Alright this is thirteen plus, you've been warned."
"This is where we find out Annabeth's a freak." Jason snorts.
"She got a vagina tattoo." Percy jokes.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." Frank says. "Wait those don't exist right?"
"I'm sure vulva tattoos are a thing but let's not go into that right now." Piper says with a laugh.
Annabeth lifts up her skirt to show us the tattoo stretched over top the scars on her right thigh. The elegant text reads 'I look like this because I am alive' the statement just kisses the highest scar on her thigh. It's simple, beautiful, and tells a story longer than any I've ever known.
"It's perfection." Percy tells her. "Pure perfection."
"I love it." She tells him kissing his lips before sitting back down. "Leo, come on, show me what you've got."
I reveal my tattoo to the gang, all of them enthralled by the simple image.
"I thought you'd go bigger." Frank says honestly.
"It's for my mom." I tell them, I'm sure they already knew that though. "To remind me that nothing is unfixable, that no matter what happens to me, I have the ability and the tools to fix my own heart. She gave me the tools to fix myself."
"You're god." Piper says with an easy smile.
"Yeah, okay." I roll my eyes playfully pulling my shirt down over my tattoo.
"Who's next?" Annabeth asks.
"Jason, duh." I point to him, devouring my food.
Jason pulls his shirt off to reveal two stars over his heart and the words 'You can fly' under them.
"I don't get it." Hazel says.
"Second star to the right and straight on till morning." He says, "Peter Pan?"
"Oh, okay." She nods.
"Why?" Percy asks.
"Well, I really love the idea of flight. Physics and all. Growing up I also loved the idea of Peter Pan so much that my big sister got me glitter and told me it was pixie dust. I just have a lot of good memories from it. And then there are two stars, kind of like my sister and I. Lastly, my nerd came out, Polaris and Duhbe, they're right next to each other and they're both in one of the Dippers."
"Wow, you really thought this one through." Annabeth comments.
"Yeah, I know a lot, and I have a lot that I want to represent. I knew I was going to be a pansy so I thought, might as well pour as much soul into it as I can."
"It's rad as fuck." I tell him.
"Thanks, Piper, dear. It's time to show us your big project." He nudges her.
"Is it a Heather's quote?" Hazel teases her.
"In a way." Piper chuckles turning around. She peels her shirt off of her back and reveals to us her tattoo.
Large and full of color, one of those bright watercolor tattoos that takes up her back from shoulder to shoulder. Wings. She has given herself wings that are soft, delicate, and bright. Just like her.
"So, you can fly now?" I ask her.
"Yeah, now I can." She smiles at me.
"Eagles wings?" Annabeth asks as Piper retakes her seat.
"Nah, Eagles are too rough, I'm more of a dove."
"Did you know that the dove was almost the national bird?" Jason asks.
"God, you're a dweeb." Piper rolls her eyes but kisses his cheek anyway. "By the way, this fucking hurt."
"Mine wasn't that bad." I say.
"Mine was. Shit it was so bad." Hazel groans.
"I didn't have too bad a time." Annabeth tells us, "But my guy told me that the less nerves there are and the less boney the area is the less it hurts."
We discuss our tattooing experience, and what I love about all of this is that right now, these people understand. They know my story, why I got this art on my body. To them it isn't a story, it's my life, and now I have a piece of my mother on my body. Although, I guess I don't need it. She gave me all of the tools I'll ever need. The ones to put my heart back together again.
