Snowbound Ink

by Veronica Tower

  “Nice wax job,” Liz observed. “Did you do that yourself?”

  “Yes, of course,” Kara told her. “You don’t think I’d let someone else mess around down there, do you?”

  “Well, you are today,” Liz pointed out.

  Kara conceded the point. “You’ve got me there, but I still did the waxing myself.”

  “It’s pretty painful,” Thea said.

  Kara grinned. “Then I guess I’m pretty tough!”

  Tony sat down beside her. “You ready?” he asked.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Kara told him.

  He pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves and pulled a razor out of the drawer. “You certainly look smooth,” he told her, “but we really have to be certain.”

  He ran the blade across her flesh but as far as Kara could tell didn’t actually scratch up any new hair.

  “That’s got it,” he announced. “Now let’s apply the stencil.”

  Tony began to place the thermal fax on her mons when Liz suddenly snatched it out of his hand.

  “Wait a second! What the hell is this?” she asked.

  Kara sighed. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to bring Liz and Thea with her tonight. “It’s my new tattoo, Liz,” she told her.

  “Well, what the hell is Ron’s name doing on it?” Liz asked. She sounded angry—angry—that Kara was planning to do this.

  “Ron’s name?” Thea repeated. “I thought we all agreed we weren’t putting our men’s names on our flesh.”

  Kara sighed again. “You may have agreed to that but I certainly didn’t.”

  “It’s a bad idea, Kara!” Liz told her. It was probably the same professional voice she used with her clients when she thought they were doing something stupid. “You can’t really count on guys—not today. I like Ron, but who the hell knows how long the two of you will really be together?”

  Kara decided not to argue about it. “I want this tattoo,” she said. “Please give the stencil back to Tony.”

  “Kara!” Liz snapped.

  “Why don’t you take a night to think about it?” Thea suggested in a much more reasonable tone of voice than Liz was using. “If you still want the tattoo when you wake up tomorrow morning, we could all come back tomorrow evening with you.”

  “I don’t want to wait,” Kara argued. I might lose my nerve. “Give Tony back the stencil, Liz!”

  “I’m not going to let you do this!” Liz countered.

  Kara’s hand leapt out at near lightning speed and yanked the stencil out of Liz’s hand. “It’s not your decision!”

  “Kara!” Liz snapped.

  “Now if you want to stay and be supportive, that’s fine! But if you’re going to keep making a fuss over this, then go home! I’ll call a cab when Tony is done.”

  “We’re not going to leave you here, Kara,” Thea assured her. “We just don’t think you’ve thought this through.”

  And what is it you think I haven’t thought through, Kara wondered. Is it that Ron is fifteen years younger than me and an older woman can’t count on a younger man? Demi Moore sure couldn’t. But maybe what I need to do at this point in Ron and my relationship is make an act of faith. Ron’s wanted to get more serious for months now. Maybe it’s time to show him that I’m ready to get more serious too!

  She handed the stencil to Tony. “I’m ready when you are,” she told him.

  Tony did not seem particularly concerned with Liz and Thea’s disapproval. Perhaps he heard arguments like this every day. He placed the stencil carefully against Kara’s flesh; above her clitoris and slightly to Kara’s right.

  “Are you sure about this?” Liz asked. “Because I hear it hurts something awful to get the tattoo burned off again.”

  “Burned?” Thea asked. “Is that how they do it?”

  “It’s a laser treatment,” Tony volunteered. “It’s painful—not ungodly so—but painful and it takes about six applications of the treatment, usually about four weeks apart. So if the worst happens, it’s possible to reverse this, but it won’t be quick or easy.”

  Thea shuddered, clearly not liking what Tony had said about the removal process. “Why not just get the snowflakes, Kara? Why take the risk?”

  “Because sometimes you have to believe in your man,” Kara told her.

  Liz opened her mouth for a quick retort, but something in Kara’s eyes must have changed her mind. She closed her mouth again and patted her sister on the shoulder. “Okay, if you’re sure this is what you want, who are Thea and I to complain. This is your body after all. We’re with you.”

  Kara covered Liz’s hand for a moment with her own. “Thanks, Liz,” she said. “I really do appreciate it.”

  “So we’re ready?” Tony asked. When no one objected he made a slight adjustment to the stencil and began to apply the roll on deodorant.

  Tony wiped away a tiny bead of blood from Kara’s flesh and examined his work. For the first time since he had begun the tattoo, the creases eased in his forehead and he began to smile. “That’s good,” he said, critiquing his own work. “No, that’s damn good!”

  Liz crowded around behind Tony so she could see better. “I’ve got to say, Kara, that Tony’s right. That looks awesome! Just wait until Mama sees it.”

  “Don’t you start!” Kara warned her, but in truth she didn’t feel mad at all. Quite the contrary, a giddy sense of happiness flushed her body. She’d done it, and upside down it looked awesome. “Do you have a mirror, Tony?”

  “Yes, of course,” Tony told her. He yanked open a drawer and pulled out a large mirror which he positioned so that Kara’s whole pussy and the mostly hairless flesh above it reflected back at her. It was mostly hairless because she’d kept a very narrow V of pubic hair pointing directly at her clitoris. To the right of her V-shaped pubes was Ron’s name—inked in red—with four white snowflakes of varying size and subtly different shapes falling past it. The largest was falling onto and slightly covering the R in Ron’s name. The smallest was slightly before and beneath that same R. The third was coming down over the top of the O and N and the fourth was to the outside of the final letter.

  It really did look good to Kara. Well worth the discomfort and the price.

  “I love it!” she told Tony. “And more importantly, Ron is going to love it too! Thank you!”

  Tony was clearly pleased with Kara’s complement. “It was a good idea you had,” he said. “And you have good skin tone to work with.”

  Thea hastened to add her compliments as well, almost as if she felt they were necessary to make up for having opposed Kara getting the tattoo. “That’s really great, Kara! Ron’s going to love it!”

  When they had finished admiring his artwork, Tony got back to business. “Are you ready for me to pierce your labia?”

  Kara frowned. She wasn’t looking forward to this as much as she had the tattoo. She had no problem with pierced ears, but piercing her labia seemed a lot more extreme to her. “I guess so. How do we do this?”

  “It’s pretty straight forward,” Tony explained. “First I will sterilize your labia with rubbing alcohol.” As he spoke he reached into one of his drawers and began pulling out supplies. “Then we’ll use ice as a local anesthetic to numb the pain. I’ll do the actually piercing with a surgical needle.” He pulled a sterile package out of one of his drawers as he spoke and showed it to her. “The back end of the needle is hollow. So I insert the stem of your stud into the back of the needle which automatically inserts the stud when I finish pulling the needle through your flesh.”

  Kara couldn’t suppress a shudder, but it was Thea who said, “Ugh, that really sounds gross.”

  “Maybe,” Tony said, “but the actual surgical part of the procedure takes less time than we just spent talking about it. It’s really a very minor thing.”

  Kara could feel her nerve wavering. “Let’s just get it over with,” she said. She didn’t want to get this close and then chicken out.

  “Okay,” Tony said before call
ing out in a louder voice. “John, bring me a cup of ice!”

  John was evidently expecting Tony’s request because he showed up less than a minute later with a Styrofoam cup full of ice. In the meantime, Tony changed his latex gloves and opened up one of the sterile packets he had placed on the counter. It looked a lot like one of those disposable hand wipes that restaurants sometimes give you when you eat messy finger food like baby back ribs. The clean scent of alcohol reached Kara’s nostrils.

  Tony swabbed her carefully, both outside and inside her labia. To do this, he had to physically take hold of her lower lips but he did it in a completely professional, almost dispassionate manner. It was still an embarrassing and uncomfortable situation, but Kara couldn’t complain that he was doing anything inappropriate.

  When he finished, he handed a second wipe to her. “Why don’t you clean your fingers now? I’m going to have you hold the ice in place because I can’t afford to numb my fingers and reduce my manual dexterity.”

  Kara did as he asked, quickly cleaning her fingers. Then Tony dug a cube out of the cup and showed her exactly where he wanted her to hold it against her flesh.

  The drying alcohol had left her flesh cool, but the ice was actually cold and it was uncomfortable holding it against her skin. Both her labia and her fingers wanted it to move. Yet Kara was keenly aware that Tony was getting ready to stick a needle through her body so she kept the ice in place while Tony prepared his surgical instruments.

  “Where’s the stud?” he suddenly asked.

  “Oh, it’s in my purse,” Kara remembered. “Liz, would you get it for me?”

  “Do you mean will I accept an invitation to go searching through your handbag?” Liz laughed. “You bet I will!”

  “It’s in a ring box,” Kara informed her. “You shouldn’t need to do a lot of searching.”

  Still laughing, Liz picked up Kara’s handbag and opened it. “Wallet, package of tissues, two pens…Kara you are soooooo boring.” She pulled out the ring box. “Here you go, Tony.”

  Tony took the box, opened it and deftly withdrew the stud in question. It had a tiny little emerald shard in it that glittered when the light hit it just right. He closed the lid on the matching earrings with their larger stones.

  “This is nice,” he said before cleaning it with a sterile wipe and setting it on a paper towel on the counter.

  He picked up the surgical needle and took it out of its package. “Are you ready?”

  “I guess so,” Kara agreed.

  When he took the ice from her, he realized her fingers were trembling. “Hey,” he said, “it’s really not going to hurt that bad. You’ve suffered worse if you’ve ever had a tetanus shot in the doctor’s office.”

  “Maybe so,” Liz teased Tony, “but you don’t get a tetanus shot in your pussy.”

  “Liz, you’re not helping!” Kara told her, which only make Liz laugh harder.

  Tony dropped the ice cube back in the cup and then took a firm hold of the tender flesh between Kara’s legs. The soft fold of flesh was wet from melting ice, and nearly numb, but the warmth of Tony’s fingers quickly passed through the latex and into her body.

  Tony picked up the needle. “I suggest you don’t watch me do this,” he said. “For some reason, watching always makes it harder.”

  “Okay,” Kara whispered. She shut her eyes but moments later cracked them open to watch Tony line up the needle with her way too tender flesh.

  Without warning, he jabbed the needle hard into her lip until the point popped out the other side.

  “Sweet Jesus!” Kara hissed.

  Her hips swiveled of their own accord and her hands tightened vice-like on the arms of her chair.

  “All done,” Tony lied as blood welled up in the wound to smear across his gloved fingers.

  Kara closed her eyes and focused on her breathing—keeping the air moving in and out of her lungs so she didn’t do something terrible like faint.

  “That’s it,” Tony said, “just keep breathing.”

  Kara couldn’t figure out what he was doing, so she opened her eyes again. Between her legs she could see the little surgical needle piercing her flesh. It reminded her in a sick way of a prank she had seen as a child. Two halves of an arrow connected by a loop of wire so that a person could wear it on their head and pretend they’d been shot. But this wasn’t a prank. That little piece of steel was stuck directly through Kara’s labia so that it stuck out on either side. The blood on Tony’s finger wasn’t a joke either.

  Tony inserted the sharp end of the little stud Ron had bought Kara into the hallow end of the needle. Then he eased the needle the rest of the way through Kara until he pulled it free leaving the stud in Kara’s bleeding labia.

  He picked up the little cap that covered the sharp end of the stud and held it in place on her flesh.

  “All done!” he announced.

  Kara couldn’t speak. She just kept focusing on the breath coming in and out of her mouth.

  “That’s it!” Tony told her. “It’s over now. It all gets better from here.”

  He picked up a bit of gauze and blotted the blood from around the stud.

  “How does she care for that, Tony?” Liz asked.

  “It’s important that she rotate the stud three-hundred-sixty degrees at least twice a day,” Tony explained. “She should put a little rubbing alcohol on the flesh when she does it to protect against infection.”

  Thea winced. “Ooooh, that’s going to burn.”

  “At first,” Tony agreed, “but not after a couple of days. What you might see lingering is a little yellow film on the stud. It’s a naturally produced bodily liquid that keeps the wound moist. It smells bad but it’s not something to worry about.”

  “How…long?” Kara asked. Her words were impeded by her need to continue focusing on her speech.

  “Totally healed?” Tony asked. “Remarkably little time. For some reason the labia tends to fix itself right up. I’d say one to two weeks. If it was your navel, we could be talking months to really get better.”

  Kara finally began to work through the pain. “No, I mean…the yellow stuff.”

  “She’s worried about how her boyfriend will react if he starts to get down and personal and discovers she smells bad.”

  “Oh,” Tony said. “It varies from person to person but that might end in just a couple of days.”

  It was Monday night, Kara calculated. Ron wouldn’t be back from Washington D.C. until Friday night. “So not four days,” she asked.

  “It’s possible,” Tony hedged, “but I doubt it seriously. You should be fine by Wednesday, although conceivably you could still be a bit sore from both the piercing and the tattoo.”

  Kara could handle sore if this bodywork got Ron as excited as she hoped it would. “May I see the mirror again?” she asked.

  Tony handed it to her and let her maneuver it herself to examine the beautification of her pussy. The spots of blood were a little off putting, but overall she liked the little sparkle of green in the ebony folds of her lower lips.

  She couldn’t wait to speak to Ron tonight and start teasing him.

  Chapter Five

  Unexpected News

  Kara

  Kara got out of her car moving slowly and carefully so as not to abrade the flesh beneath her new tattoo against her panties and to avoid jostling her new piercing against the crotch of her jeans. Now that she thought about it, blue jeans weren’t the best thing she could have worn this evening. The fabric was tough and unforgiving, and they were tight of course, because Ron really liked them that way.

  So every time she took a step the denim pressed against the silk of her panties, which in turn rubbed against her tender flesh, irritating the raw skin beneath her new tattoo and sending jolts of discomfort through the bruising around her stud. It was manageable pain, but it hurt nonetheless and she moderated her movements as much as possible to minimize the discomfort.

  As she unlocked her front door, her cell phone
began to ring and she fumbled for the device in her purse as she slipped into her house.

  “Hey, beautiful!” Ron greeted her. “I just got back to the hotel from dinner with the client. How are you doing?”

  Kara felt an unanticipated urge to confess everything she’d just done, spoiling Ron’s surprise when he got home.

  “I just had dinner with Liz and Thea,” she said. She bit her lip for a moment, considering how much more to tell him and decided to at least admit to the piercing. She opened her mouth to share, but Ron was already talking again.

  “That’s great,” he told her. His voice bubbled with excitement. “Want to hear what happened to me?”

  Kara eased the front door closed and locked it, simultaneously feeling annoyed that Ron had just interrupted her and relieved that he’d kept her from spoiling her surprise. “Sure! What happened, Sweety?”

  “Mark Hambly at Innovative Defense Solutions offered me a job today.”

  Kara felt her eyebrows shoot toward the ceiling. Ron was in Washington D.C. this week. Any job offer he received was likely to involve moving to the east coast. “What happened?” she asked, hoping her voice sounded enthusiastic and supportive, even though her honest reaction was far more selfish.

  “Mark took me to dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse in Georgetown,” Ron explained. “You know my project here is wrapping up but they’ve just landed contracts with the Pentagon on a couple of new studies and they want me on the team. It was really cool!”

  Kara felt tension tightening its grip on her chest. Ron sounded intensely flattered and definitely happy. Was he taking this offer seriously?

  “Well, that’s great,” Kara told him as she moved into the living room. It wasn’t exactly a lie. It just wasn’t the entire truth. A part of her was undeniably proud of him for being recognized in this fashion, even if a far more substantial part of her psyche was carefully monitoring the conversation to determine the impact it would have on her. She couldn’t help but remember she’d had Ron’s name tattooed above her pussy a couple of hours earlier.