Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own the story or associated characters of Eiichiro Oda's "One Piece". No profit is gained from the writing and publishing of this story, no copyright infringement intended. Should this story be deemed offensive by either the legal owners and/or representatives of One Piece, Mr Oda or this website, respectively, the story will of course be taken down immediately with full apologies extended.
Characters: Nojiko, Doctor Nako, Genzo
Genre: General
Warnings: None
Rating: K
Notes: Because Nojiko is awesome, too.
#7 - Respectable women
The first time she goes to him with the request to inject ink into her skin she clutches a crudely made drawing in her hands that faintly resembles the monstrosity on her sister's shoulder.
He sends her away, ranting and raving at her. He calls her stupid and ungrateful. But when his initial anger fades, Doctor Nako seeks her out to explain why.
Tattoos, he says, are a mark of bad people; not respectable young girls who will grow into respectable women. And doesn't she want to be a respectable woman like her mother was?
Nojiko thinks that Bellemere was many things, but respectable was not one of them. Respectable women don't offer sexual favors to unmarried persons of authority like Gen-san. Respectable women also don't run off to join the Marines or become a deserter to raise two orphans although the guts and dedication a woman needs to make either of these decisions does command one's respect and admiration.
But being a respectable woman is not a prerequisite to being a good person and Nojiko thinks that Bellemere would rather have her good than respectable if she still were around to have a say in it. And then of course there's the whole deal of not knowing how to be a respectable woman when her own mother wasn't one, either. Talk about role models.
Most of all, however, Nojiko refuses to grow up into a respectable woman on account of Nami not being able to and they are sisters, tied together by something stronger than blood. Because just about anyone can be blood-related, but being family means more than that.
So the second time she visits Doctor Nako with a slightly more elaborate design, this is what she tells him.
The result is the same: he sends her away. He claims not to know a thing about tattooing in the first place and then calls her stupid, appealing to her common sense, the works. He enlists the help of Genzo, too, but Nojiko is not deterred.
Three times' the charm, she thinks. She is fifteen now and she's learned a lot. She doesn't ask anymore. She informs him very calmly that he will tattoo her newest design into her skin, because she knows that some of the fishermen on the island owe their blue (and most of the time well-hidden) markings to him. He is the most experienced man for the job and the only one who can provide the necessary hygiene to prevent infection. She touches briefly on the subject of respectability, calmly pointing out that they used to call her mother a 'little thug' and her sister a 'cat' and with a family like that, she doesn't really see how anyone could possibly think she - of all people - might be a respectable woman. And then she casually points out that if he refuses her this time, she will simply ask the fish men, since they obviously have the means and knowledge to do what she wants done.
She leaves with an appointment and the promise of bright blue ink needled into her skin.