The Mentor

Chapter 1

*HI ALL! I hope y'all enjoy this story. It's a work in progress. This story is completely a fiction work, however most characters are based off of real people who have competed on the show Ink Masters. There's a Spotify playlist that goes with it that will be linked occasionally and will be added to often :).**

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1dI1TnUwV3DPh3PUsBvP77?si=Df2sQTjITeKKvH-PaANZfw

It was a cold, March day. I walked through the airport alone barely able to carry my bags. Two men offered to help me, but I declined. I had to get to my rental car or this opportunity was gone for me.

My name is Jamie Natske. I am 19 years old. One of my biggest dreams in life was to become a tattoo artist. I loved art and had been drawing for most of my life, I just couldn't get an apprenticeship in my area since it was so competitive, at least not one that lasted more than a month or so. So out of pure boredom, I wrote in to the directors of Ink Masters to possibly be selected to join season 5. The concept was veteran artists coming back and having a randomly assigned apprentice shadow them for the whole competition. I didn't need the prize money, but I wanted to learn more. As soon as I got the email from the producers that I was selected, I was so excited. But why me? Maybe it's because I'm from a small and notorious city, Flint Michigan. Guess they wanted more diversity. Despite getting into tattooing briefly, I don't have that many tattoos, I only have some on my fingers and forearms. I have a face full of piercings though and short pink hair that's in like a pixie style. That's the only thing that makes me "look" like a tattoo artist.

I eventually got to my rental car and drove to the location where everyone was supposed to meet. It was outside. How come not back at the shop? I don't know. It was colder than a witches tit outside. There were about 9 other people already there and another person or two pulled up at the same time as I did. I got out of the car and stood next to a boy who looked about my age with long, curly brown hair. He looked friendly. There was a table in front of us with the golden skulls that everyone knew from the show. Wonder how they'd be used today. I turned to the curly haired guy next to me.

"Excited?" I asked. He looked to me

"Hell yeah. Once in a lifetime opportunity right here." He said smiling.

"Any idea who else is going to be here?"

"Artists? I know a few. Cleen, Christian, James, Josh, Tatu baby, Kelly Doty maybe."

"That's fun. I'm Jamie by the way."

"Sam, nice to meet you." He held out his hand for me to shake. I took it.

Sam and I chatted a little while longer, he was a couple years older than me and was from New Jersey. It was a little weird cause I pictured myself as older than him, but I guess that wasn't the case.

A little while later, the judges and the artists filed out. Just as Sam said, I recognized a few familiar faces. The cameras focused in on us and Dave eventually started lecturing. He went over the basics of the competition and how the apprenticing stuff was going to work. He then led Oliver over to the table with the skulls.

"Apprentices, Oliver will now hand you a skull with a name on the bottom. The name on the bottom of the skull will determine who you will work with throughout the competition." Dave said.

As oliver started handing out the skulls to everyone, I scanned the area to get a look at who my possible mentors might be. Kelly Doty would be a good choice, or maybe James. Or Jesse Smith. New school is one of my favorite tattoo styles. As I was scanning the crowd, my eyes fell on one person. I was almost positive I knew who it was but I couldn't really tell. It was a cold day, so everyone was wearing their chilly day gear. I was too, but that mostly was just a hoodie and a beanie. This guy had a black hood masking a pretty good portion of his face, so I couldn't really tell who he was. He was pretty far back in the crowd as well. Oliver had one of the three skulls left in his hand and he looked at it and then scanned the crowd of apprentices before confidently walking over to me and handing me the skull. I took it from him anxiously before he walked back over to the other skulls and handed them out accordingly. I looked around at everyone else and caught my eyes on the man in the hoodie again before Dave spoke up again.