Page 48 of Pelvic Flaws

I breathed out a long sigh of relief and nodded towards the shop.

“So, you want to come back and have that tour?”

“Is that okay?” he asked, excitement lacing his tone.

“Sure is.” I indicated for him to follow me and walked back to the shop, hoping that Debbie had already left.

* * *

“And that’s it,” I said to Isaac as we came out of the break room. “So, what do you think?”

“It’s really impressive,” he replied looking around. “I bet it’s sick watching someone walk out of here with a design you created.”

“Yeah, it is.”

God, this kid was born to be a tattoo artist, or at least design. He’d listened to every single word I’d said, asked everyone questions – even Nate about piercing – and watched in awe as Megan inked a guy’s shoulder. The only time his attention had faltered was when Scarlett tottered in on her damn tower block heels, with her newly brightened scarlet colored hair. I could see her appraising him too, and the shit storm that little attraction might cause almost had me changing my mind about asking him to work with us and I really wanted to ask him today, while he was here. Spending a few hours on reception, doing the lunch run, and helping Nate with a fainter had been enough to make my mind up that we needed some help. The fainter had clinched it to be honest. I’ve tattooed many guys in lots of weird places, but being faced with a six foot, two hundred pound guy passed out with his dick hanging out was not my idea of fun. You see, why the fuck would you get the thing pierced, unless you were crazy?

“How do you fancy sitting in with Topper on his consultation?” I asked Isaac. “I just need to catch up with Jethro.”

“Really? Would that be okay?”

“Yep. Hey Topper,” I called down the corridor.

“Yeah,” he said, appearing in the doorway of his room.

“Okay if Isaac sits in on your consultation?”

“No problem. Come on through, she’ll be here in five.”

Topper disappeared, as did Isaac, practically running to Topper’s room. With a grin, I knocked on Jethro’s door; I needed to talk to him about my plan for Isaac. Yes, it was my business, but I trusted his judgement and knew he wouldn’t steer me wrong if he thought it was a bad idea.

“Come in,” he called.

I went in and saw he was finishing up, wrapping a guy’s forearm where he’d had work done on his sleeve.

“Be two minutes,” he said, without looking up.

“No worries.” I smiled at the guy who had a huge grin. “You happy with it?” I asked.

“God yeah. Couple more sessions and it’ll be finished eh, Jethro?”

“I reckon.” Jethro finished the wrapping and patted the guy’s shoulder. “Okay, you’re good to go. You know the drill, but here’s your care instructions anyway. You okay for Tattoo Goo?” The guy nodded as Jethro handed him a sheet of paper. “Just tell Scarlett to give me a few minutes to put your bill on the computer.”

“Will do. Thanks Jethro, and see you in a couple of months.”

The client left and I sat down as Jethro put his bill through. Finally, he swung his chair around to face me.

“Okay, I’m all yours.”

“I want to run something past you,” I said, hoping that he agreed it was a good idea.

* * *

When I finished telling Jethro my plan, he nodded, steepling his finger under his chin.

“Sounds like a good idea to me. We’re run off our arses most days with the number of consultations we have alongside the actual inking. Makes sense to get the kid doing those as well as all the other odd jobs around here. He’ll need some training regarding how long a design will take to ink and how to work out the pricing, or whether color or mono will work best, that sort of thing, but it shouldn’t take long to get him up to speed. It’ll help a lot, ‘cause its detailing the design that takes up most of our time.”

“That’s what I thought. It sure would help us out.”

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