American Beauty

Chapter 63: Tattoo

Several days passed with theories floating around the halls like annoying birds. Always chirping in your ear and flitting about your head. I pulled out my headphones on every occasion to try and block out the noise.

I wanted to do something. Something new, something exciting. There wasn't much within the wizarding community that seemed to pull me in so I ventured out of my bubble into the muggle world.

I was walking down the streets contemplating the way life seemed to form a spiral that never ended, pulling you down like a whirlpool but your ship never sunk. I looked up just in time to see a tattoo parlor appear in the corners of my vision. This was my something new so I opened the door and stepped inside.

One word. Darkness. The brightness of natural sunlight seemed to be totally gone within the dark storefront. As my eyes adjusted, I made out a few chairs and a little desk in the back where I assumed you paid for stuff.

I walked right up to the desk and began to drum my fingers on the surface. Eventually a man, heavily tattooed, came out from behind the door at the back and gave me a look I couldn't quite read.

"And you would like?" he asked.

"Something that links together an eagle and a serpent on the back of my shoulders," I answered. The words rolled off my tongue and I had no idea where they came from.

The man grabbed some drafting paper and set to work. I bounced my knee in impatience and waited for him to finish his sketch.

When he had finished, he pushed it across the table towards me.

"What do you think?" he asked. The design had an eagle that would be flying across my left shoulder and a serpent coiled around my right shoulder heading towards the eagle.

"It's beautiful," I answered.

He brought me over to a chair and had me sit with his back to him while he prepped the needles.

He cleaned off my back with an antiseptic wipe just so nothing got into the ink and then he scooted around the chair to make the first puncture.

I don't think I was prepared for this. The first puncture brought a searing pain to just that portion of my back. I had been through more so I gritted my teeth and sat.

What seemed like hours later, which it was. I had been sitting for two hours as this tattoo artist basically stabbed me many times.

I stood up shaking slightly after sitting for so long and went over to the desk where I paid him a pretty high price before departing into the open air and apparating back to Hogwarts.

Back at school I could hear the whispers as people took in the ink on my back. No one approached me as I went back up to the Ravenclaw common room and collapsed into a comfy chair.

I pulled out my homework and set to correcting the potions book because it was honestly the worst potions book I had ever seen.

None of the recipes worked and I vowed to be top of the class so it was time to ruin my book with a ballpoint pen.