Rose Tattoos | H.S (discontinued)

𝐎𝐧𝐞

𝐀𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚

"Working on another rose, Bella?"

I turned around to see my boss standing there with a smirk across his face. He wasn't wrong though. It was early in the morning and we just opened, no clients walked in yet so I took this time to create something—that something just so happened to be a rose.

I let out a small laugh. Looking back at my half shaded artwork, I covered it with both my hands. "How'd you know?"

Boss came beside me and leaned on the counter that was covered in scattered paper, different types of graphite pencils, and a whole lot of eraser shavings.

"You have a separate folder full of rose drawings, it's thicker than your 'random art' folder," he reached over to the paper that was currently being weighed down my hands and took it into his own. A smile formed on his face and he shook his head. "You've got an obsession with this flower."

I rolled my eyes and snatched it from him. "It's not an obsession," I shot back. "I just have a deep love for roses."

He nodded slowly and squinted, still believing it's an obsession.

Roses have a special place in my heart. It's the first flower I drew on paper which is also the design I used to submit in my portfolio when I signed up for an apprenticeship for Celestial Tattoos. And, the first piece I tattooed on a client is a rose.

The sound of the doorbell's chime grabbed the attention of boss and I. A male whose arms are fairly covered in tattoos entered.

"Welcome to Celestial Tattoos. Do you have an appointment with us?" Boss asked him.

"Uh, no," he spoke. His voice was laced with a British accent, "I'm a walk-in, but I'd like to get a tattoo."

"All right, do you have a design in mind?"

His eyes trailed over to the artwork displayed on the walls before it landed on the one in between us.

"That," he pointed. "I want a tattoo of that rose."

I looked down at the unfinished drawing. Only the left half of it was shaded and the other half was outlined.

"I'm not quite done with it yet, I just need to shade the right half." I informed, picking up my shading pencil. Before the tip could touch the paper, he stopped me.

"Oh, no need for that!" He chuckled. "I kind of like the way it looks just like that, it's unique and different."

My eyes found his that were admiring the look of the rose I had just created. A small smile formed on my lips. This will be the first time I had ever tattooed a rose that looked like this.

I got his information to confirm he is the legal age to be tattooed then instructed for him to follow me into a  room where I seated him in the reclining leather chair.

"So, Harry, right?" I asked with my back facing him as I prep my station. He hummed in response. "Where do you want to get it tatted?"

"I was thinking about getting it on the middle of my forearm." He said, softly rubbing the ink-free area on his arm.

Right after he told me that, I prepped his skin before placing the stencil on his forearm—making sure he was happy with where it was positioned first; wouldn't want to upset the client—then removed if afterwards to let it dry before I started tattooing.

Harry was quiet during the process, he wasn't squirming or on the verge of crying like some of my previous clients. He just sat there with a straight face, watching me.

"You look fairly young to be an artist here." He randomly said.

I smiled. Dipping the needle in the ink holder; just a few more shadings then I'm done. "If I had a tattoo for every time somebody told me that I'd be covered from head to toe."

"Aren't tattoo artist typically tatted from head to toe?"

Once I had finished the shadings I cleaned it off then applied a layer of petroleum jelly before wrapping his arm up in plastic.

"Yeah," my eyebrows scrunched as I focused on wrapping his arm carefully. "But, I prefer to do tattoos not get them. I just enjoy creating designs and seeing my work on people."

"Well you sure do a good job at what you do," He looked at the freshly tatted rose on his arm at multiple angles. Seemingly happy with the way it turned out. "It looks absolutely wonderful."