I push the door open to Big Dan’s Tattoo, a little bell dings as it opens, and a big guy looks up from the back of the room. He had been leaning over another man who is laying on his stomach. The big guy shuts his buzzing machine off. “What can I do for you little lady?” he asks not moving from his chair.
I walk up the counter that separates the back from the front and dump my entire can of money right in the middle of it. “I want a tattoo.”
He stares at me blankly for a few seconds and then tips his head back and laughs, loudly. “Did Dirk send you down here to prank me?”
“I don’t know any Dirk.” I tap my fingers on the counter.
“Don’t tell me you’re being serious here?” he asks. The man lying down turns so that he can see me, he winks and flashes me a nice smile but not in a skeevy way, no, more of a friendly way.
“I am serious.”
He laughs again. “Honey, you have to be eighteen, or at least sixteen with a parent’s consent to get a tattoo here.”
I’m sad for a few seconds but then I shrug my shoulders, ready to move on. I guess I’ll just have to wait until I’m eighteen because I don’t have any parents. I shove all my money back in the can and then climb up on the stool at the counter to look at this big book he has filled with drawings.
“Sweetheart, this isn’t a place for a little girl to be hanging around. Why don’t you go on home?”
“Did you draw all these?” I ask him.
He sighs but fires up his little buzzy machine and goes back to work on the guy in front of him. “Not all of them but most,” he answers while he works.
I continue to look through the book. There are lots of pictures like the ones my grandpa and the scary man had tattooed on them. “So, do people pick tattoos out of this book then?”
“Some people do. Some folks have their own ideas and then I draw up what they describe to me.”
How wonderful to have someone let you put your drawing on their skin. I put mine on paper and sometimes buildings, sidewalks, or trains. The paint cost me money, so I don’t get to do it as often as I want. Thinking about someone wearing my drawing on their skin sounds amazing.
“I like your drawings. Can you draw one on me, like with an ink pen?”
His buzzy machine shuts off and I look up. He’s staring at me. “Girl…”
The other guy interrupts him. “Hey man, this is about all I can take for today anyway. Just give the girl what she wants. No harm in drawing on her is there?” The guy sits up before walking over to a mirror on the wall to check out the artwork on his back.
“Uh, yeah there is. I don’t need any angry parents down here screaming at me for drawing on their kid,” the big guy says gruffly.
“I don’t have any parent’s,” I tell him quickly. “Just an aunt and she won’t care. She’s never home anyway. She works at Bell’s House of Tail, so she sleeps all day and works all night.”
“Come, on man. I know your big, dumb ass can be nice once in a while.”
Big Dan runs his fingers through his beard looking at me. I bounce on the stool and give him my best please I’ll love you forever if you do this smile. He rolls his eyes. “Fine, what do you want me to draw and I’m not drawing anything inappropriate so choose wisely.”
I jump off the seat, tugging my drawing out of my back pocket and hurry over to him before he changes his mind.
“I thought you wanted one of my drawings.” He chuckles but takes the paper from my hand. I like his laugh. It’s loud and when he does it you can tell he really means it.
He stares at my drawing. The other guy glances at it over his shoulder. They both look up at the same time. “Who did this?” Big Dan asks.
“I did. It’s my grandma and grandpa. I don’t have any pictures of them, so I draw them all the time. I don’t want to forget what they look like. My grandpa had pictures on him from when he was on the boat. He had one of a pretty girl, that’s how I know you can tattoo pictures of people on me. I mean not today but when I’m eighteen,” I rattle off quickly. I probably shouldn’t have drank all the coffee Renee left in the pot this morning, but too late now. I pull up my sleeve and offer him my scrawny little arm.
The other guy shakes his head and pats Big Dan on the back. “Looks like you might have some competition someday, Big Dan. See you next week same time,” he says and then he grabs his black leather jacket and heads out the door.
“Let me clean up real quick and find some goddamned pens and then we’ll get started. You sure your aunt won’t get pissed?” He wipes down the chair the other guy was in and then pats it for me to sit down.
“Nope, she won’t care,” I say, smacking my gum between my teeth.
It tickles when Big Dan gives me my ink pen tattoo but, I sit perfectly still because I don’t want him to mess it up. I ask a zillion questions about tattooing while he works. He stops every now and then to answer and show me what he’s talking about. By the time he’s finished I’ve decided that I’m going to be Big Dan’s partner. He has two chairs, so it only makes sense.
When he finishes I go over to the mirror to see. Wow, it looks just like my drawing, maybe even a little better than mine. I smile so big I think my face is going to break. “Like it?” he asks.
“I more than like it. I love it!” I squeal and rush to my can so I can pay him.
“No, no, this ones on the house,” he says.
“Are you sure. Cause I got money. I work real hard for it. On Monday’s I go to Bell’s and take the trash out of all the rooms. She pays me ten dollars for doing it. Then on Wednesday’s I go to old man Tom’s house and take his dog for a walk. He looks real mean but he’s a nice dog. To me anyway. Sometimes he growls at people, but I think it’s just because he’s old. Old man Tom growls too so maybe it’s just their thing. But, anyway I get two dollars each time I take him on walk. Then on….”
Big Dan laughs. “Okay, okay I get it girl, you work hard for your money. How about you just pay me with a drawing.”
I nod enthusiastically at him. Trading is good. Sometimes I trade for things I want. Like one time I traded with Samuel at the hardware store. He gave me two cans of spray paint and all I had to give him was Renee’s phone number. She wasn’t too happy about it, but I got the paint so there’s that.
“I’ll draw something real special and bring it to you tomorrow,” I tell him as I’m making my way to the door. It’s easy to talk to this guy, he’s nice even though he looks like he could take his fist and pound you right down into the dirt.
“Sure thing, kid.” Before I step outside he stops me. “Hey, you got a name?”
I turn and smile big. “It’s Jesse but you can call me Jess if you want. All my friends call me Jess.”
“Okay, then Jess. My name is Big Dan. See you tomorrow.”
I nod at him and then run all the way to the store. I’m going to need some paper and pens because I got lots of ideas for Big Dan. After I get what I need I head over to William’s pausing under the window of the trailer to listen for his foster dad. He yells a lot but, we both agree it’s better than being around Father Gabriel.