Ink Slave

Rebecca had just returned to London after a couple of years travelling. The plan was to catch up with friends, spend some time with family and do just enough work to save up for the next flight out. But today she had run into Soho to try and do one little job done she had been planning for a while.

She wandered down the cobbled lanes to find the Ink Slave tattoo parlour. A friend had recommended the studio and what she had seen of the work had certainly convinced her to give them a try. She had a couple of small tattoos already and had been feeling the commonly talked about itch to get more.

She found the shop front, pushed in through the door and was greeted by a friendly girl at the front counter. She had pink hair and gorgeous blue eyes. When the girl smiled and said hello, Rebecca got a hint of a bobbing tongue piercing, something she had considered herself but never been brave enough for.

"Hi, I'm Cynth, can I help?" the girl enquired.

Rebecca smiled back and fished out her phone. "Sure, I was hoping to talk to one of your artists about getting a tattoo. I have some ideas and images here on my phone. I'm Beck by the way."

Cynth gave her a nod and asked, "Do you have any idea of who you would like to have do your work? We have some regular artists and a few visiting guest artists."

Beck suggested Neo. He was one of the founding artists at the studio and the person her friend had specifically recommended. Cynth looked at her book and said "Sure, he's absolutely amazing. But his waiting list at the moment is about 4 months, so if you have no problem waiting, I can get him to ring you and make a time you can come in and talk about your ideas." Beck's heart fell a little. She had not planned to be in London for more than a couple of months. And while she really wanted a tattoo she was not sure she wanted to start reorganising the next 12 months around it.

"Is there any way you could fit me in earlier, maybe if there's a cancellation?" she pleaded. Cynth looked at her sympathetically but shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry, Love. Even his standby list has about 20 names on it. And these people know exactly where they are on it. Not much chance for line-cutting." Beck nodded and looked a little crest-fallen. She felt a little naïve. This was the sort of thing she probably should have anticipated. Well, maybe it could be done next time she dropped in at home.

Cynth was still looking at her expectantly and pushed a pen into her pink bun. "Listen Beck, not for nothing, but we do have a few artists who would be able to see you much sooner. And they're great too. I would let them tattoo me in a minute. But since they haven't been here as long they tend to have much shorter lists. Sometimes they do walk-ins."

"Really?" Beck asked, feeling a bit better. It wasn't what she had planned, but just maybe...

"Sure," Cynth agreed taking her by the elbow and steering her towards the counter. "Look why don't you look at some of their work and if you like it you can meet with them, you've got nothing to lose. If it doesn't seem right we can pop you on Neo's list." Beck let herself be led to the counter where Cynth pulled over a couple of artists' folios. "Here's who I would recommend," she started and opened up a folder marked 'Daniel'. Rebecca began looking through what she had to admit was an amazing collection of work. The style was a mixture of old school symbolism and vivid modernism. Some of the pieces looked ready to spring to life but still blazened a Sailor Jerry cool in every line.

"This is fantastic," Beck said. As well as being beautiful she thought that the images might work perfectly with the idea she had in mind.

"And he's great too," Cynth enthused. "Some artists seem to just be a bit more painful than others, but with him, you will hardly even notice the needle, I promise." This seemed to be accompanied by a conspiratorial grin, Beck assumed it was just a sign of encouragement. "What do you say? Would you like to meet with him?"

Beck, took barely a moment to say, "Sure." As Cynth had said, she had nothing to lose. Cynth disappeared out through some curtains and was gone for maybe a minute, before coming back through with a tall guy with light brown hair and a welcoming smile. At first glance he was good looking without being gorgeous. He had several days stubble on his face and a clean open grin.

Cynth quickly performed an introduction and Beck noticed a low voice with the twang of a foreign accent. "You're Australian!" she blurted before stopping to think.

"Yeah," he nodded with a faint surprise. "Well spotted. A lot of people here can't tell the difference between Australia and New Zealand... or American, or Welsh strangely enough!"

Beck blushed and quickly explained. "Sorry, I was just a little surprised. I've just come back from a couple of years overseas, and I spent the last three months travelling around Australia. So the last thing I expected to hear back here was an Aussie accent."

"Absolutely, I get the feeling we're taking over London sometimes," Dan smiled.

Beck realised she was grinning a bit inanely. There was something about him that she felt quickly drawn to. He wasn't exactly muscular but the way his black shirt moved across his broad shoulders meant she had to consciously bring her mind back to the topic. He seemed happy to wait for her to drive the conversation so she pushed a lock of straight black hair behind her ear and grabbed her phone again.

"I was really hoping to get a bit of work done, but I'm probably not going to be around that long so was hoping to plan something quite quickly." Dan became suddenly professional and nodded thoughtfully. "We can usually make sure something gets done," he assured her and came around the desk to her. "Do you know what sort of thing you want?"

Beck explained that she wanted an image that was classic old school but would leave the exact design to him. She wanted a pair of swallows, but hoped to have a modern and individual tweak. Together they stood pouring over images from his own collection and flash cards of some genuine old timer tattoos. She found her eyes drifting from the images and focussing on his brown tattooed forearms. The muscles moved in smooth lines. His dark sleeves had been pushed up to his elbows and as he shuffled pages back and forth she thought about his hands, forearms and wondered what his tattoos might look like further up.

"Look," he said pushing his seat back. "I'm sure we could do something you would really like. When would you like to come in?"

Beck sat up and tried to concentrate on the plans. She definitely wanted him to tattoo her. If only because she wanted his hands moving over her. "Anytime you like," she gulped. "I'm in town for a few weeks and can work around most things. So I'm ready when you are."

He seemed to mull this over as he glanced over her. She noted that hers weren't the only eyes straying. He had quite long lashes for a man and they fluttered slightly as they took her in. She was just wearing a pair of old jeans and a tight white tank top. She began to wish she had dressed a little better. She did actually have some nice cleavage under this top. Why hadn't she worn something to show it off!

He came to a decision and popped the pencil he had been using to draw some outlines behind his ear. "I'm probably not going to have any time in my schedule in time for what you want." She couldn't believe it. Had he not liked what he had seen? How had she fucked this up? "So," he continued in his slow drawl, "why don't you come in after work finishes tonight. Officially we close at 7pm. I'm booked until then, but if you want to drop in afterwards we could take some time to talk about things and see what we can do."

"Umm, ok, sure," she nodded. She thought she sounded confident, but she was pretty certain she was blushing stupidly. With a wave he disappeared back into the studio and Cynth reappeared at the desk. "I guess I'll see you later," Beck mumbled. She could swear Cynth gave her a wink and a devilish grin as she hit the pavement.

She had just over three hours to kill and tried to browse in some of her favourite clothes stores and trolled through stacks of used books. But eventually she gave up and just sat in a coffee shop and used her phone to go through pictures of swallow tattoos and attempted to settle on ideas and positions. At ten minutes to seven she filed back into the store and approached the counter. Cynth gave her a smirk and waved her to a seat. "I'll let him know you're here, Honey."

Beck took a seat and flipped through a tattoo magazine for about 20 minutes while other people slowly filed out. At last, Dan popped out and called her through. "I've been thinking about what we can do for you," he chatted, "and I think we can manage something." Beck looked around the studio and it was almost empty. One other artist was just finishing up with a client and packing away some gear. She dropped into a chair at Dan's work station and put her bag down next to her seat. Dan showed her a few sketches he had done and some colour matches. "I was thinking about something like this," he said and showed her a picture of a blue and yellow swallow. It was in the act of swooping and held in its feet a beautifully wrought iron key. She was struck by the image and gushed when he asked her thoughts. He nodded confidently and showed her another, matching, mirror image bird, this time holding a heart shaped locket.

"Traditionally, the swallows can represent both travel and family," he explained, " so, for someone who loves travel and family I like the imagery of the heart locket and key. It means that even when we're separated we are thinking of those close to us," he went on. She loved watching his eyes as they moved from his own work to her. He was so confident, but obviously still wanted to share his passion for the work with her.

"I think it's simply beautiful!" she said, absolutely truthfully. "When can we get started?"

Slowly he pushed his stool back from the papers and gave her a sideways glance. "Well, the thing is, as I said, I don't really have any work hours that will fit in with your schedule. However.." and he allowed the sentence to trail off.

She bit at her lower lip nervously and waited. Now that she had come this far there was pretty much nothing she wouldn't do to go through with this.

"If you don't mind being done 'off the books,' there's no reason we can't do it right now."

Beck didn't have to think for a moment and yelped, "Absolutely," before adding as a quick after thought, "but what does 'off the books' mean?"

"Well, there are a whole bunch of reasons we're not allowed to provide professional tattoo services after our official opening hours. We wouldn't be covered by our insurance, we would be breaking workplace health and safety rules and our neighbours who live here could complain," he explained. "But.." he continued, "technically, it doesn't mean I can't tattoo you, just that I can't charge you money for it."

Beck, just nodded, not sure of what she should say. There was now no-one else in the room and the silence stretched out. "So, we can just do the tattoo and agree you owe me one, OK?" Daniel asked and this time there was a definite twinkle in his eye.

Beck thought about it for just a minute. She felt pretty sure he was coming on to her and she was fine with that. In fact she could feel herself starting to get even more excited than when she just thought she was getting a tattoo. There was no way she was going to say no, so she just tried her best to give a cool, nonchalant nod. After all, the rational part of her brain told her that there was no way she could be 'forced' to do anything she didn't want to. She figured it was all thrill with no real risk.

Dan grinned and said "Perfect! Now, where are you thinking we are going to put these two little birds?"

Beck had not decided exactly where they were going to go but she had a few ideas. She had been thinking about one on each of her hips, or the front of her shoulders, perhaps her feet or maybe even her arse cheeks. She ran through them with Daniel and he took it all in. He had some suggestions as well, including the top of her thighs, just under her arse cheeks.

"Well," he mused, picking up some stencils he had created, "let's have a look at some of those sites." She stood up and kicked off her shoes and stood squarely in front of him. "Your feet look cute," he said, glancing down, "Thing is, tattoos on the feet hurt a lot." Beck had actually heard the same thing and it had been bothering her a bit. "And," he added slowly, "they can be pretty out of the way. I mean, how often are they really on display? Do you want them to be seen often, or would you rather they be private?"

"That's true. How about on my hips?"

Daniel nodded and rolled his chair forward until he was sitting right in front of her. He picked up the stencils and casually asked her to take off her shirt. Without a moment's hesitation, she raised her light white tank top over her head. She was standing with a black lacy bra, barely holding in her buxom breasts. She hoped he would look up and placed her hands on her hips to help push her assets forward. Staying in completely professional mode Daniel began placing the stencils over the rising curve at the front of both hips. Her denim shorts were quite high waisted and he paused for just a moment and she asked her if she was imagining them above or below the waist line.

"Just below, I suppose. Where they can be covered if I want them to be, but show above my knickers," she told him.

"Well then," he responded, pushing back, "I suppose we'd better get those pants off." Now there was no question that he was looking straight at her cleavage. He didn't even make any real effort to hide the direction of his fixed gaze. Beck unbuttoned her pants and bent forward to slip them down her legs. Kicking them off, she stood again. She had always been a lover of travel and at times she felt she had walked half the world. And while she certainly didn't have a thin athlete's body, she knew that she had long and firm legs. She didn't feel any hesitation at all in standing up to allow him to look at her in her knickers, which happened to match her bra, a fortunate accident.

He could now see the floral tattoo she had laying curled on her left side. it ran from just under her breast down to the side of her hip. Daniel asked her about where it was done and described it as a beautiful piece, but he also felt it meant the hips may not be an ideal spot because it might throw off the symmetry that the matched birds would otherwise bring as part of their appeal. Beck agreed to this and asked what he thought of having them placed on her arse cheeks. He grinned broadly and shrugged his shoulders. "Well I suppose I'll just have to have a look"

Beck raised her eyebrows just a little, but turned around and ran her fingers under the edges of her underwear. Again, she put her hands on her hips and turned to see if he was liking what he was seeing. He certainly seemed to be and took a moment to look her up and down. Then he caught her eye as he rolled up to her with the stencils. "I'm a little confused," he drawled in that slow Australian accent, "are we putting them on over your underpants?" This time it was his turn to raise his eyebrows at her.

Turning her face to the front so she couldn't see his eyes, Beck hooked her fingers in her underpants and pushed them down over her gently curved arse cheeks. For just a moment she hesitated with them stuck across the top of her thighs, but she eventually decided she couldn't bring herself to stand there with her pants pushed half way down, so with another movement she pushed them to the floor and kicked them away to join her jeans and shoes.

Moving forward, Daniel held the stencils up against her arse cheeks and she shivered slightly as she felt his firm movement in smoothing them into place. In the slightly cool room, his hands were warm and she made sure she pushed back slightly to allow him to position the stencils properly and also to let him feel the shape of her bum.

He was making appreciative noises and she tried to crane her neck to see the effect. "I can't see," she laughed. "Tell me what they look like."

"It looks fantastic," he reassured her, with his hands still firmly holding both the stencils and her naked arse. "But that's the problem isn't it. I put these here and you will be the only person who can't ever see them. "Well, perhaps not the only person," he continued, "but put it this way. It will look really sexy, and if a guy is fucking you, it's going to drive him wild. But realistically we can achieve that affect while also making sure guys who aren't lucky enough to be fucking you from behind can also see them."

Beck had felt her breath catch the first time he had talked about her being fucked. Obviously, she had considered the sexual aspect of tattoos placed right on her arse or even right at the top of her thighs. And there was something really exciting about the idea of revealing art work to people she was about to make love to. But now she wasn't sure how to discuss guys, 'Fucking her from behind,' with a total stranger. So for a moment she just stared straight ahead and waited for him to act next.

After a few seconds of silence he rose from his chair and stood just a few inches from her back. "Turn around," he told her in a voice that wasn't quite an order. She did and realised for the first time how tall he was. "Take off your bra," he told her. She reached up her back and quickly undid the clasp. She then slid it off and dropped it to the floor. She was now standing so close to him her nipples actually brushed against his shirt. She thought she could feel the heat off his skin underneath.

"I think," he said slowly, her eyes caught by his own, "we should think about putting them just here." He slowly placed both swallows on a spot exactly half way between the point of each shoulder and her nipples. Where they sat they appeared to be diving down towards her breasts, flying underneath both collar bones. An impulse ran through her skin as he placed his hands on her chest. She knew immediately that was exactly where she wanted them. It was both intimate and public. She wanted to wear tops to let people see his beautiful art and most of all she wanted the smooth rippling muscles of his forearms to rest on her breasts as he tattooed.

"God, yes please," she murmured before she had a chance to ask herself if that was really the usual response to confirming a tattoo placement. He let his hands sit firmly on the upper slopes of her breasts as he asked her if she was sure. When she nodded, biting her lip, he told her not to move and stepped back to his work table to use the stencils to create a transfer he could place on her smooth white skin. Beck stood there absolutely still. There was something so perfect about standing there while he prepared to come back and place his mark on her skin. As she watched, the curtains of the studio suddenly moved and Cynth walked into the room with some paperwork in her hand. Beck felt a curious mixture of guilt and arousal. For just a moment, she considered snatching up some sort of cover, but before she made a fool of herself she acknowledged that any problem that could be created by her standing there totally nude in front of her new tattooist had already been created.

But, if there was a problem, Cynth certainly didn't see it. She flashed a smile and seemed to see the position as one she had entirely expected. "About to go to work, Dan?" she asked and wandered over to look at the stencils. "Well, technically no, this is just an agreement between friends. Isn't it Beck?" Dan laughed without looking up. "I see," Cynth grinned nodding, "it's one of your 'agreements'."