Burning Lessons

Chapter 1

Juliana

L.A is a debatable place to live in but I grew up here and have to deal with the overpopulation. It was mid October and it's starting to get cold but too bad I'm over here stuck in my classroom for 1st grade. Setting up the board for the next day, getting their next project set up at each table. Luckily I finished by 4:30pm... after an hour and half I can finally leave. As I walk down the streets, I see a tattoo parlor called, "World Duo's Ink". Life been going alright, maybe a tattoo will fix that. I'm not covered in tattoos, I only had two but if keep this mind set then I am going completely broke. That shouldn't be too hard on a teacher salary.

You can hear a bell ring when I enter a shop and I see a guy at the counter on his iPad drawing a sketch. He looked up at me and gave me a warm smile and said, "what can I do for you?".

"I was wondering if you accept walk-ins"

"Well I'm currently working on some else right now but let me see if Ozzy is willing to do it, Sunshine but in the meantime, if you can fill out this form ahead of time."

He gets off his chair and goes into a back room and for 5 minutes I kept looking at the artwork. I'm nervous, this is not my first tattoo. I have two koi fish swimming in a circle at the back of my neck. I also have a couple of tiny butterflies in my hip bone.

He suddenly comes back with another guy who I assume is Ozzy.

"Great news, Ozzy is willing to do the walk-in, oh by the way my name is Leo, next time you want a tattoo Sunshine, come directly to me" he gives me a smile and shakes my hand before walking away to finish his outline for his client.

"Follow me"

I followed him to the same back room where they both came out from. I see all of his stencils and tattoo gun and wrap up Nicely. I sat down in the chair while he brought out an iPad and pencils.

"So what did you want to do today?" His voice was deep and calm. Very soothing. This man needs to consider a side hustle of ASMR.

"So I want to get a Divine Feminine tattoo in cursive and red ink and I want it on my rib but kind of close to my under boob area" I pointed to him where I wanted it. I was nervous for all knows tattoo could be shit and I have to spent even more money on getting it removed.

He began to outline my tattoo on his iPad and print it on a sheet of paper.

"Alright go ahead and lift up your shirt but not too high just to the point where you think the tattoo should not go above off.

We spent less than 10 minutes reapplying the stencil so I can get the right placement. Then he laid the chair back and started to tattoo me.

The pain was just indescribable and I forgot my headphones so it's not like I can just try to drown the pain away with music. 15 minutes in Ozzy asked "Hey do you need me to stop, the ribcage tends to hurt the most."

"I'm okay really" No I was not, god this is worst than my hip bone. "Just keep going." Ozzy hesitantly starts to tattoo again.

I began to look at Ozzy. He had light tan skin with dark brown hair with soft curls. He is wearing a black fitted t-shirt and I can see the sleeves on his arms. His tattoos are more of a patchwork that blends everything together. He was somewhat of a buff guy with predominant veins that pop up in his forearm.

While him tattooing me I began to ask "so how long have been tattooing for"

"Around 7 years now"

The silence, I couldn't handle it. I need to make a bit of conversation.