Chapter Text
Verso was unusually excited for work today. He loved his job, but sometimes even things you loved doing became monotonous.
It had started with a DM.
Message request from usefulnessof2moro:
usefulnessof2moro: hey, i know on your fqa it says you usually only do digital consults
paints_with_needles: i’m not hearing a question
usefulnessof2moro: well, the area i would like tattooed is kinda. . . unique? i don’t think it will translate well in pics
also i know your fqa also says you specialize in tattooing over scars but i also want the in person consult because it’s. . . a lot
paints_with_needles: well, now i have to say yes :)
And now Verso was waiting for his client to arrive; he had started doing digital only consults because most people would blow off in-person ones, which had wasted way too much of his time.
The digital consults were much more free form, and he could get to them when he wanted to, but occasionally something would surprise him.
When his client walked through the front door of his shop, the bell on the door chiming to announce his arrival, Verso looked up from his ipad where he had been doodling while waiting.
The man that stood awkwardly just inside the door was handsome, chestnut curls and a well trimmed beard. Hazel eyes nervously darting around the shop, taking in all of Verso’s eclectic decor. It was summer, so the man was only dressed in a grey tank top and loose shorts, face slightly red from the heat outside.
Oh, and half his left arm was missing.
Verso tried really hard to not stare as the man made his way over to him, hand stretched out to shake.
“You must be Verso, my name is Gustave.” and he could tell the other man was trying to be confident, but his voice would have betrayed his nerves, even if his shuffling feet hadn’t already.
”Nice to meet you Gustave. Please, have a seat.” he gestured to the tattoo chair, its imitation black leather well worn. Gustave sat down, his right hand fidgeting with the hem of his tank top.
Verso gave him a warm smile, hoping to calm some of the man’s nerves. It was very common for people, especially first timers, to be nervous about getting tattoo’d.
”So, I assume your unique request has something to do with. . .” he trailed off, not wanting to be rude but also unable to come up with a tactful way to say half your arm missing.
Gustave spared him “Yes, uh, this” he wiggled his stump at the shoulder. “I was hoping to get a tattoo over some of the scar tissue.”
Verso hopped from his comfy chair onto his rolling stool and scooted closer.
”May I?” he asked, gesturing to the arm with his hands, asking to touch.
”Oh! of course.” Gustave held it out so Verso could access the whole area. Thick scar tissue marred the area, and he carefully prodded it with his fingers. Tattooing over scars could be tricky, the tissue could act unexpectedly and not even take the ink. Also because, in a way, tattoos were leaving a new kind of scar on the skin as well, and layering scars on top of old ones could make the tattoo look weird or age poorly.
So Verso always made sure to inspect scar tissue very thoroughly, and give his client an honest opinion of how he thought the tattoo would go.
Gustave looked uncomfortable at his poking and prodding, but also was watching Verso with mild fascination.
“Well, I think the area will work, depending on what kind of tattoo you’re looking to get here. I would recommend bold lines or very high contrast. Black will be easiest because it tends to age fairly well, but because of the scar tissue I think over time the pigment is going to shift more than a regular tattoo.” He said as he scooted back to grab his iPad from the chair where he had abandoned it.
Gustave nodded, looking as if the information did not surprise him. Verso was impressed, the man must have really done his research before he came.
”So, what exactly are we thinking of getting and where?”
As Gustave launched into the explanation of what he wanted, his whole face lit up. He described something that went around the area in a band, but wanting it to be inspired by steampunk and engineering. He shared some inspiration photos, and Verso scribbled down ideas. Gustave was easy to listen to as he made a quick, rough sketch to get the other man’s opinion.
”Oh my god, yes! But could you also-”
An hour later, Gustave had chosen a date and put his deposit down for the tattoo, leaving the shop with a friendly wave and a brilliant smile.
And Verso felt inspired in a way he hadn’t been in a long time.
Gustave returned on the day and time they had arranged, Verso having sent the final draft for approval the night before, just in case there were any last minute changes. Gustave found himself outside the little brick shop, nervously looking at the front door, he could do this. He took a deep breath and pushed the shop door open.
He was a little less casual than the last time he had been here, this time in a tank top and jeans instead of shorts. In his anxiety-driven research about what getting a tattoo was actually like, many people talked about “tattoo flu”, which apparently was feeling very cold during the process. From what he gathered it had something to do with mild shock and your body reacting to the trauma being done to your skin.
He knew how trauma affected his body very well.
He had stuck with the tank top though for easy access to his left arm, but brought a blanket and pillow to help him stay comfortable. He had eaten a big breakfast too, a lot of people warning against being tattoo’d on an empty stomach.
”You’re right on time, just finishing setting up.” Verso’s voice broke though his thoughts, and he gave him a polite smile. He was wrapping the tattoo gun in what looked like bright pink vet wrap, enlarging the size of the grip for comfort he guessed. Gustave walked over and sat his things down on the chair he’d be laying in for the next several hours. He saw Verso’s work station covered in a layer of seran wrap, little plastic thimbles full of black ink adhered to the seran wrap with globs of opaque colorless paste. A neat stack of paper towels sat to one side, and several different sizes of needle heads sat in their sealed packaging as well.
“How would you like me?” Gustave attempted to joke, but found he was so nervous he was pretty sure the joke had fallen flat, but Verso gave him a grin anyway.
”We’ll start with you on your stomach so I can get better access to the back of your arm, but I’ll probably move you a few times to get the whole circumference.” He finished wrapping the gun, and set it on his work station. “But first, we have to place the stencil.” Then he walked over to a small counter on the other end of the room, where Gustave saw several sizes of his tattoo on thin paper, outlined in purple.
”Now, I’ve printed it in a couple sizes so we can compare them and see which one fits how you want best, then we’ll apply it and you’ll look at it in the mirror.” He gestured to a full length mirror next to the counter that was mounted on the wall. “If you don’t like the placement, we can move it as many times as you like. It’s important to get the placement right because it's hard to move the tattoo its self after we start.” He gave Gustave a teasing wink, and he felt some of his tension melt away. Verso knew what he was doing, he was a professional.
Gustave had spent a long time researching artists, their healed work, their client reviews. Verso’s portfolio was astounding for his age, and he was one of the only artists in Lumiere who specialized in tattooing over scars.
He had hesitated with the idea at first, such a big and bold idea for a first tattoo.
But since he lost half his arm, his body had felt foreign to him, like he was off balance all the time (even literally sometimes). He had read stories of people using tattoos as a way to reclaim their autonomy, to reclaim themselves.
That was what he was hoping this would do for him.
His sisters had tried to dissuade him, it would make it so he couldn’t use his prosthetic for a few months while the skin and tissue underneath healed completely. He hardly used the damn thing as it was, it was clunky, and as cool as his younger self would have found having a hook in place of a hand, now it was humiliating. It was also so heavy, and made his stump ache anytime he wore it for more than a few hours.
Verso rubbed some goo on his arm, and very carefully smoothed the stencil over it. He patted it a few times, making sure the whole thing was in place before gently peeling the paper off. Gustave checked in the mirror, rotating his arm so he could see the whole thing.
It was stunning, even splotchy and purple and not even a tattoo yet- he felt his excitement growing and starting to curb his doubts.
It was bold, with an art deco inspired outline. A large industrial lamp sat in the middle of a diamond, gears emerging and seeming to swirl from the edges of the lamp, but remained contained within the diamond shape. Small diamonds flanked the large centerpiece toward the bottom point, moving in a zig zag formation around the rest of the circumference of his arm.
In the small diamond immediately to the right of the center was a single small glyph. Eventually they would all be filled with the little symbols, but Gustave wanted to start with this one first.
A second chance.
”It’s perfect.” He said, looking at Verso through the mirror.
Verso beamed back at him, “Excellent, are you ready to start then?”
Verso watched as Gustave settled onto the table, getting comfortable with a pillow tucked under his chest and head, tucking his right arm underneath it.
After he washed his own hands, he pulled on a pair of black latex gloves. He then picked up his first needle head for the day, carefully peeling open the sterile packaging and snapping it into place in the gun. Dipping the needles into the ink he turned on the gun with a -click- and it began to buzz in his hand, a familiar sensation that seemed to settle his nerves and focus his mind. Sliding the stool closer to Gustave's chair he asked “Ready?” and gave him a small reassuring smile. The other man nodded an affirmative, and Verso began.
His artistic ability had always been somewhat natural to him. He had heard over and over in his life that it required practice and patience but if that had been the case for him, he would have ditched it a long time ago.
His theory is that it has something to do with the ability to Paint. He had never put much effort into learning the techniques of their families gifts, and it irked his older sister Clea to no end. He had never been even half as good as her, which he had always been okay with because she never seemed to do anything but paint. He had always preferred music to art, finding that music flowed from his soul in a way painting never had. Art had been his hobby, and Music had been his passion.
He hadn’t played at a real piano since his parents had kicked him out and disowned him. Since they had learned of his sins against their discipline.
His mind was wondering, as it tended to when he first started on a piece: all straight lines and not much variation in what he was doing. He focused back on his task, pulling long, even lines of ink through the surface of the skin.
Since Gustave had disappeared from his shop after the consultation, he had gone through the other man’s instagram. Something he often did to get a better sense of the person he was designing body art for. Though, if he was being completely honest with himself, in this case it also had a lot to do with the fact he thought the flustered man cute as they had been talking.
Gustave’s instagram didn’t have a lot on it, most of the recent photos were ones he had been tagged in by his sister Maelle.
After hitting a metaphorical dead end there for design purposes he looked back through the inspiration pictures that he had sent him. Before he had even realized what he was doing he had sketched out several iterations of the tattoo, but his mind was not satisfied. When they had talked briefly he had mentioned engineering, so he must have some background in the field. Even though he had just met the man he couldn’t help but see the sad look in his eyes every time he mentioned the scars on what remained of his arm.
Verso began sketching out an arm that would complement the tattoo they had planned. Something with elegant lines and sharp contrasts, and he yearned to be able to use some painter magic to leave a gold metallic ink in the skin. He worked out the internal mechanisms, how the gears would fit together to move the fingers and wrist. He didn’t know how it would be powered, but when imagining you didn’t need to worry about things like that. He found himself embarrassed at how over the top he had been with the idea, nothing would come of it. It had just felt nice to be inspired for the first time in a while.
He noticed Gustave squirming on the table “Doing okay?”
“Uh, yeah.” He said too quickly.
“Hey now, I can’t help if you don’t use your words.” he gently teased.
“I- I don’t want to bother you- Is it okay if we chat? The tattoo gun sounds really loud without anything else and I could use the distraction.”
“Of course. Sorry, I was just focused.” he lied smoothly “So, what do you do for work? I mean, you already know what I do so it only seems fair.”
He’d had these conversations thousands of times probably, small talk that he could stretch for hours if he wanted. Usually he would just turn on autopilot and just focused on the ink in the skin, wiping the excess with paper towels and carefully moving the needles to make consistent lines.
He found himself actively participating this time though, turns out Gustave is a teacher at a high school, he teaches science and has a soft spot for engineering specifically. He has been on leave though since he lost his arm, even though it’s been a couple of years he just hasn’t felt ready to go back.
He has two sisters, one biological and one adopted, Emma and Maelle. Emma lived in the city nearby, while Maelle had just started at the community college last fall here in Lumiere.
“What about you? Any siblings?” The question caught him off guard, it seemed like everyone that sat in his chair was content to talk about themselves the whole length of the session. He should have known that Gustave was different from the moment he sent him the first message online.
“Oh uh, yeah. Just the one sister, I don’t get to see her much.” Alicia was old now, he tried to visit her as much as could, but it made him sad that people now mistook him for her grandson, when that was his little sister. Someday too soon she would be gone too, and he would be all alone.
“That must be really hard, sounds like you miss her.” Gustave was looking at him, and with Verso’s head leaned in close to his arm to see, as he paused and looked back at him he saw those hazel eyes. They were full of empathy and sadness, and it took everything in Verso not to melt into a puddle right there. He felt a small blush on his cheeks as he went back to the tattoo.
He worked in silence for a bit before Gustave looked embarrassed at his own statement and buried his head into the pillow underneath him. Somehow managing to not jostle his arm in the process.
Which made Verso practically squirm with guilt.
Verso unable to resist any longer and trying to break the awkward silence asks "So. . . your arm. . . " he winced at his tactless question and Gustave scoffs,
"How did I lose it? Shouldn't you at least take me on a date before you ask me how I lost half my arm?" Verso can see the small smile on the man's lips, the tease.
"Distracting the man with the buzzing needle? Gutsy, I like it." he replies easily, feeling a small relief the other man wasn’t mad.
Gustave just laughs, and Verso finds himself emboldened- continuing
"Okay, what are you doing after this?"
"Following your tattoo aftercare plan to the letter" Gustave says with a much wider smile.
"Oooh good answer." Verso pauses, mulling over his next words "Well I have special aftercare instructions for you. Make sure you keep it clean and dry, treat it like an open wound because that's what it is! Make sure to keep it out of the sun- and come have lunch with me."
The silence is long enough Verso almost thinks Gustave misses his causal insert of the new step when he says "I'm assuming the lunch is a must-do step?"
"Oh, absolutely"
"Well my hand is tied then." A blush spreads across Gustave’s face with a shy smile.
Verso grins and then it falters "Okay, on a more serious note, I really recommend you not drinking any alcohol for 48 hours. . ." He finds himself slipping back into serious aftercare instructions.
"I don't think I need the wine to have a lunch date with you.” Gustave saves him.
"Tattoo aftercare." he corrects cheekily, grateful to be pulled back from the rant he was about to go on.
"Right, tattoo aftercare.” Gustave winks at him, and Verso finds himself blushing again.
The session continues, a much easier air has settled over them. The flirting continued freely between them, peppered with stolen glances, fluttering eyelashes, and soft laughs.
Verso was sure this was definitely his favorite tattoo session he’s ever worked on.
The tattoo was interesting too.
They ended up having lunch at a small sandwich shop just down the way from Verso’s tattoo shop. Gustave’s arm was sore, and growing more tender as the lunch went on, but nothing he hadn’t expected from needles being stabbed into his arm repeatedly for a couple hours.
The conversation flowed freely between them, barely even being interrupted from ordering their lunch. Verso had a quick-fire wit, always able to sneak something into the conversation that made Gustave laugh. What surprised him most of all was just how smart Verso was. While he didn’t know a lot about engineering, he was able to keep up with Gustave as he explained some of his projects and ideas.
At the end of lunch they fight over who will pay the bill, in the end Verso wins because he claims the date was all his idea, and Gustave just gives him a fond scoff.
Verso says "Oh, I forgot something for your aftercare."
"Oh? it seemed pretty comprehensive to me." Gustave replies, gesturing around them to indicate the date they had just had.
Verso, with mock seriousness points to the fresh ink on the other man's arm, "I think I'll need to see you again sometime next week to check on the healing process."
Gustave lets out a soft laugh, and pretends to note the instruction on his phone before shaking his head. "That seems like a pretty big step to miss, but I think I'll be able to manage that." and beams at Verso.