Back Piece

by L. A. Witt

  “Great.” Daniel gulped as he rested his head on the cushion again.

  Colin resumed his position—elbow on the armrest, other hand and forearm on Daniel’s chest—and pressed the pedal again. As the needle buzzed back to life, he watched Daniel’s expression. His features twitched and his lips tightened. Beneath Colin’s hand, his heart pounded.

  “Ready?” Colin asked quietly.

  Daniel nodded.

  Colin came in gently, letting the needle tips graze Daniel’s skin at first before he pressed hard enough to push the ink beneath the surface. After a few strokes, Daniel started to relax.

  “Doing okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good.” Colin worked his way along the underside of the bird’s wing. As he inched toward the edge of the muscle, where the bone was closer to the skin, he said, “It’s going to get a little more tender here.”

  “Awesome.” The word came out through clenched teeth.

  “Just keep breathing.”

  “It’ll stop hurting if I pass out, right?”

  Colin laughed as he dipped the needle again. “But then I’ll stop tattooing until you wake up again.”

  Daniel laughed, too, though he kept his eyes squeezed shut. “Sadist.”

  “Something like that.”

  Colin really did sympathize. And Daniel wouldn’t have been his first client to pass out. Or throw up. Or tap out. Tattoos were painful. It was part of the process, and part of the experience of having a tattoo. Nothing made Colin roll his eyes harder than so-called badasses who put on numbing cream before they got inked. If it didn’t hurt, you didn’t earn it.

  Still, he winced on Daniel’s behalf. He knew exactly how a pec tat felt, and they were not a walk in the park. And though shading didn’t have to go as deep as the outline, he did have to shade close to the lines he’d laid down earlier, which meant sometimes grazing skin that was already raw.

  As Colin carefully added some of the darker shading beneath the wing, Daniel grunted, but didn’t tense much. Colin glanced up. Fresh sweat beaded Daniel’s forehead, which was to be expected. What he hadn’t expected, though, was how far his mind would take that image. Eyes closed? Breath held? Sweat along his hairline? Looks like he’s just about to—

  Colin tore his gaze away and dipped the needle. “Need a break?”

  “Nope. Still good.”

  “Okay.”

  Daniel was wise to keep going. It could be kind of a Catch-22 sometimes. Taking a break would give him a chance to catch his breath, which some people needed. Colin, however, preferred to knuckle through because a break gave the endorphins a chance to wear off. The first ten or fifteen minutes after a break would be even more painful than the last hour had been, and the new rush of endorphins wouldn’t provide nearly as much relief as they had before. Plus when he started after a break, he was tattooing on skin that was already raw and sensitive. Not pleasant.

  “How much more?” Daniel ground out.

  “Less than when we started.”

  “Smartass.”

  Colin chuckled. “It’ll be worth it when it’s done. Promise.”

  “That’s what they said about boot camp.”

  “Oh yeah?” Colin glanced up. “Were they right?”

  Daniel gave a soft breath of laughter. “Sometimes I wonder.”

  “It’s a paycheck, right?”

  “Yeah. It is.”

  They fell quiet again. As Colin started filling in the bird’s eye, he asked, “You still thinking about getting that back piece?”

  “Huh?”

  “The back tattoo you mentioned when you came here the first time.”

  “Oh yeah. Yeah, I still want it.” Daniel paused. “Is that worse than this?”

  “Nah. There are some nervy spots.” Colin dipped the needle and continued on the outline. “Depends on where exactly it is. Shoulders aren’t so bad. Over the spine, kind of depends on where. Over your ribs? Especially the lower part?” He sucked in a sharp hiss. “That is not my favorite place to get inked, let’s put it that way.”

  “Oh joy.”

  “But we can do different sections at a time.” And I will happily ink you any—Get a grip. Jesus. Cheeks burning, Colin focused on wiping some excess ink off Daniel’s skin. “You won’t have to take it all at once.” Was every tattoo-related comment a double entendre all of a sudden?

  “That’s good to know.”

  Daniel didn’t try to make much more conversation, so Colin didn’t push. Some people didn’t want to talk at this point, and he didn’t want to annoy him. For that matter, Colin was having a hard enough time concentrating on the tattoo. He didn’t need any more distractions when he was working on the man he’d been fantasizing about last night.

  After another twenty minutes or so, he sat up, tilting his head from side to side to work out a crick in his neck. “There. The shading is done.” He switched to another, smaller needle. “Just need to add a few details now.”

  Daniel grimaced. “So how long does the next part take?”

  “Maybe another ten, fifteen minutes?”

  “Oh my God.”

  “Relax.” Why was it so hard to resist putting a reassuring—and maybe lingering—hand on Daniel’s shoulder? Or . . . anywhere, really? “You’ve made it through over an hour. Fifteen minutes will be nothing.”

  Daniel brought up his arm—not the one that still dangled between Colin’s legs—and checked the time. “It’s been that long already?”

  “Yep. I mean, if you’ve really hit your limit, we can stop here, and you can come back for the detail work after it’s healed.”

  Daniel was quiet for a moment. Then he lowered his arm and shook his head. “No, let’s finish it now. Otherwise I might not be able to talk myself into coming back.”

  “Fair enough, fair enough.”

  They were quiet again, and after a while, Daniel broke the silence, asking through gritted teeth, “So how’d you get into tattooing?”

  “Needed a career change.” Colin concentrated on adding a tiny bit of color beneath the swallow’s wingtip to keep his focus away from Daniel’s curious scrutiny. “A buddy from high school is a tattoo artist and he thought I had the chops for it, so he offered me an apprenticeship.”

  “Looks like it’s worked out for you.”

  Colin smiled. “Yeah. I can’t complain.” He didn’t want to go down the path of why he’d needed that career change in his midtwenties, so he changed the subject. “What made you enlist?”

  “I . . .” Daniel looked up at the ceiling. For a few seconds, Colin thought he was just breathing through the pain, but then Daniel quietly said, “I didn’t have a lot of options, and there was no way in hell I was staying in my hometown.” Colin had heard that explanation before, but something in Daniel’s tone gave him pause. Like he hadn’t just been escaping a dead-end job in a one-horse town. And his distant expression echoed the weird tone.

  Colin dipped the needle and continued shading the lower part of the bird’s beak. “Using your GI Bill?”

  “Eventually. I don’t know what I want to do yet. Honestly, I didn’t think any further ahead than getting away from home, and I’m still kind of figuring it out.”

  “Well, you could do a lot worse than free college and getting retirement pay in your thirties.”

  “Yep. I’ve got time before I have to think about retiring, so I’m not in a huge hurry to go to school.”

  “But it’s there when you’re ready to use it. Smart.”

  “Once I figure out—” Daniel sucked in a sharp hiss. “Fuck.”

  “Just about done,” Colin said, keeping his voice even. “Hang in there.”

  “Define ‘just about done.’”

  “By the time I finish explaining, we’ll be done.”

  “Then start explaining.”

  “Okay.” Colin dipped the needle and returned to Daniel’s skin. “Just finished adding some detail to the beak. Now I’m going to shade the eye . . .” He leaned in c
loser and put some light gray along the lower part of the eye. “Give it some color . . .”

  Daniel took another sharp breath and held it, visibly clenching his jaw as Colin quickly shaded the rest of the bird’s eye.

  “All right.” Colin sat back and took his foot off the pedal, quieting the needle. “You, sir, have a finished tattoo.”

  Daniel’s whole body seemed to go slack as he released a long breath. “Oh thank God.”

  “You did great.”

  “Really?”

  Colin smiled. “It’s okay to admit if it hurts.”

  “It hurts.”

  “Yeah. They do that.” He hung the needle on its hook. “You want to take a look before I tape it up?”

  “Hell yeah.” Daniel stood, but before he could even take a step, he wobbled.

  Colin grabbed his arm to steady him. “Hey. Easy. I meant I was going to get a mirror for you.”

  “Oh.” Daniel eased himself back onto the chair and exhaled as he rubbed a hand over his face. “Damn. Got kind of dizzy there.”

  “Happens sometimes.” Colin handed him a small mirror. “Have a look.”

  Daniel took the mirror, and instantly, he grinned. “Wow. This looks . . . that’s amazing.” He glanced at the sketch Colin had been working from. “It’s so much more detailed.”

  “It’s a lot easier to freehand details. For me anyway. Glad you like it, though.” He gestured at it. “It’s going to be red and puffy for a couple of days, and then it’ll scab up and look like hell. Once that heals, it’ll be fine.”

  “Good to know.” Daniel handed the mirror back, and their eyes met. “Thank you. I love it.”

  “You’re welcome.” Their eyes stayed locked for a few long seconds before Colin cleared his throat and shifted his attention to his workstation. “Let me, uh, get you bandaged, and we’ll get you out of here.”

  And then I’m going to go home and spend some time thinking about the parts of your body I didn’t get to touch tonight.

  He quickly bandaged Daniel up, and as he started cleaning up his station, said, “You’re good to go. I’ll get you a list of instructions for taking care of it, and you’ll want to swing into Walgreens and get some lotion.”

  Daniel nodded as he started to get up again. “Sounds good. I’ll just—whoa.” His hand shot out to steady himself . . . landing right on Colin’s shoulder. “Shit. Sorry. I—”

  “It’s okay. Take it easy.” Colin gestured to the chair. “Go ahead and sit for a minute if you need to.”

  “I should get out of your hair, though,” he slurred. Oh shit. He was white.

  “Don’t worry about it. I don’t have any appointments after you, and even if I did, I’m not sending you out the door until you’re steady.” Colin gestured to the chair again. “Sit.”

  Daniel hesitated, but sank onto it again. He closed his eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths.

  Resisting the urge to put a hand on his shoulder, Colin asked, “How do you feel?”

  Daniel ran a shaky hand through his short hair. “I’m kinda . . .”

  “Jittery?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s normal. Endorphins crashing and all that.” Colin paused, wondering how long Daniel had been that pale. “When was the last time you ate?”

  “I don’t know. Few hours ago.”

  “Might be your blood sugar, too.” Colin hesitated. “I was thinking of going to get something to eat after this anyway. You want to come?”

  Daniel’s head snapped toward him. “Really?”

  “Sure. I can drive if you’re still light-headed.” Now Colin’s heart was the one thumping. Was he crossing a line? Were things going to get weird?

  But then Daniel nodded. “I could go for a bite, yeah.”

  “Great.” Colin smiled again. “Let me get clean all this up, and we’ll get out of here.”

  And I’ll try to pretend I’m not hoping you want more than dinner.

  * * *

  This was one of those restaurants Amanda would’ve picked for cheat day—a family restaurant with a bar and a thick menu full of heart attack entrees and stroke desserts. Everything on every page was absolutely decadent. Deep-fried, over-salted, and slathered in way too much cheese. Colin couldn’t even read a description without mentally calculating how much farther he’d have to run tomorrow morning to make up for it.

  Okay. I’ll get the grilled chicken, and put in an extra mile tomorrow.

  He put down the menu and looked across the table, and the butterflies almost made his mental bargain moot. His stomach was fluttering too much to actually be hungry even though he needed to eat.

  Damn it, body. How can you think about food when there’s a gorgeous man sitting right there?

  On the other hand, do you want him to see you pass out?

  Grilled chicken, it is.

  After they’d ordered and handed off their menus—and Daniel had ordered a second Coke to replace the one he’d practically downed in one go—he met Colin’s gaze from across the table. “So, uh, sorry if I was a complete wuss through that. Getting the ink, I mean.”

  “A complete wuss?” Colin smiled. “Dude, I told you—you were fine. I’ve seen grown men sobbing like babies getting inked in much less sensitive places.”

  Daniel laughed. “Really?”

  “Oh yeah. This”—Colin tapped his chest—“is one of the worst spots. I’ve literally had people pass out getting pec tats.”

  “Wow.” Daniel beamed. “I’m manlier than I thought.”

  “Uh-huh.” Colin rolled his eyes. “Except some of my toughest clients are women.”

  “Not surprised. There are women on the ship who could kick the crap out of most guys I know.”

  “I believe that. Definitely. I mean, have you seen my trainer?”

  Daniel laughed. “She doesn’t seem like she takes crap from anybody.”

  “Not even a little.” Colin paused. “So, do you feel a bit better?” He nodded toward Daniel’s mostly empty Coke glass. “Now that you have some sugar in you?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Much.” Daniel blew out a breath. “Guess I let myself get dehydrated or something. So do a lot of your clients get like this?”

  “Often enough that it doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Does anything surprise you anymore?” Daniel lifted his eyebrows. “I mean, I’m sure you do a lot of tramp stamps and we’ll be together forever tattoos, right?”

  “More than you can imagine,” Colin said with a laugh. “And yeah, people still surprise me. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, someone comes in and wants a winged penis tattooed behind her ear.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened. “You’re making that up.”

  “Nope. Hand to God—someone had me do that one last year.”

  “Wow.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “How do you like it as a job, though?” Daniel asked. “Obviously you dig being an artist, but is it a good job?”

  “I enjoy it. I mean, it’s like any job where you deal with people. Sometimes they’re cool, and sometimes they’re fucking assholes.” He sighed. “And sometimes they’re homophobes.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows shot up again. “You get a lot of people like that?”

  “Not a lot, but it does happen.” Colin paused for a deep swallow of ice water. “I had one guy coming in for a really elaborate piece. We’d broken it up into three-hour sessions, and already had about eighteen hours into it.”

  “Eighteen hours?” Daniel sputtered. “Holy shit.”

  Colin chuckled. “Yeah. I’m not kidding when I say it was elaborate. Anyway, he had maybe two or three sessions left, and he comes in right when my boyfriend at the time was dropping me off after . . .” His gut tightened. Naturally it wasn’t until after the words had tumbled casually out of his mouth that he realized he didn’t actually know for sure if Daniel was gay, or if he’d just imagined those looks they’d exchanged at the gym. Shit. Straight was fine, but what if he was hostile toward gay g
uys? Especially a gay guy who’d had his hands all over him for half the evening? Oh God . . .

  Daniel shifted a little, resting his elbows on the table and loosely clasping his fingers together. “So, what happened?”

  Cheeks burning, Colin tried not to squirm nervously. “He lost his mind. I guess he was pissed that after hours and hours, he hadn’t figured out I was gay, and now he was suddenly disgusted that he’d let someone like me feel him up.” He shook his head. “So I decided I was okay with someone finishing my work. Normally that pisses me off, but I didn’t want to work on him any more than he wanted me touching him.”

  “Jesus. What a dick.”

  “Right? Sometimes I wonder if this is really the twenty-first century. People are still this hung up on people being gay?” Colin rolled his eyes.

  “Doesn’t surprise me,” Daniel muttered. “I was more surprised to get out into the world and realize more people weren’t hung up on it.”

  “You serious?”

  “Yeah. That’s why I was in such a hurry to get the hell out of town when I turned eighteen.”

  The pieces fell together in Colin’s head. “Oh. Wow. It’s hard to believe places like that still exist.”

  “They do. Trust me.” Daniel shuddered. “And as soon as it was legal, I ran like hell.”

  “Have you had any problems in the military? I mean, being gay? Do they know?”

  “I’m out at work. And yeah, sometimes people are assholes. Mostly they’re cool, though.” He chuckled. “I’ve actually got a chief who’s insanely homophobic, so whenever he comes into our shop, all of my coworkers start prancing around and talking about what a fabulous day it is.”

  Colin’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”

  Nodding, Daniel laughed. “It’s hilarious. And it keeps him from coming into our shop more than he absolutely has to.”

  “That’s great that your coworkers have your back, though.”

  “Tell me about it. It blew my mind, believe me.” Daniel took a drink. “I was seriously worried about coming out, but then I realized most people really don’t care.”

  “Good. Very good. I have to admit I was kind of worried about a few of my friends when DADT was repealed. Didn’t think the military was all that progressive, you know?”