Ayla's Supernatural Love Dungeon

Minty’s Tattoo Shop Chapters

(Not Sure where these chapters will go at the moment so for now, they will be in this section) (Also Please note that most of the chapters are out of order. This is my first draft. Comments/feedback to better the story are welcomed and appreciated, darlings!)

Althea peered up at the neon sign. ‘Minty’s Tattoo’ was spelled out in green letters. Her eyes moved from the top of the shop to the windows. The first window had the word Minty scrawled on it. The next window had the words Tattoo Shop. On the bottom corner of the second window was a smaller neon sign. The blue lights spelled out the word ‘Open’. Althea cocked her head to the side to peer at Nekros.

            “Nekros, what are we doing here?” she asked.

Nekros beamed a bright smile at her. “I’m getting a tattoo. Duh.”

Althea glanced back at the shop. Her unease radiated off her.

            “I couldn’t exactly go back to my old tattoo artists,” Nekros said. His voice trailed at the end. Althea peaked at him from the corner of her eye. Nekros’s blue pupils were pointed to the bottom right corner of his eyes. His right index finger lightly scraped against his cheek, embarrassed. Althea felt her face flush. It was her fault that his skin was ink-free. Nekros grabbed her hand. His sheepish smile from earlier was replaced with one of excitement.

            “Come on, let’s go!”

The first thing that caught Althea’s eye was the floral design on the walls. The walls themselves were painted a pastel mint green color. Different flower stencils in various colors decorated the mint walls.

            “Hello?” Nekros called into the empty void.

A silky voice rang out from a room in the back. “I’ll be out in a sec!”

Shortly afterward a woman rolled out on a stool. In her hands, she held an extra-large McDonald’s drink. Loud slurping noises filled the small area as she sucked on the neon straw poking out from the plastic lid. Althea stared enviously at the woman’s long blonde hair. One side was braided reminiscent of a shield maiden and the other was shaved. The shaved hair barely covered Norse tribals tattooed there.

            “I like your shirt,” Nekros said as he pointed at her.

Althea moved her focus from the woman’s hair to her shirt. The shirt was tight, especially around her bust. The Green Day band logo covered her robust breasts. The woman looked down like she had forgotten what shirt she was wearing. When she got the reminder, she smiled up at the duo.

            “Thanks!”

She stared at Nekros and Althea for a moment before she set her drink on the front counter. As she got up from her seat, Althea realized that the woman was Amazonian tall.

            “I’m Amanita, Minty for short, and I’m the owner of this tattoo shop.”

Nekros craned his neck to look up to Minty but held out his hand in greeting. “I’m Nekros, and this is Althea.”

Althea vaguely saw his lips start to form the words ‘my girlfriend’ but he stopped after saying her name. Althea weakly waved hi.

            “Cool, cool. So, which one of you is getting a tattoo?”

            “That would be me.” Nekros chimed.

            “All right, what are we doing today?” Minty asked.

Nekros described the design he wanted as Minty scribbled the details on a sheet of paper.

            “So, something like this?” Minty inquired as she showed the vague design. The image was of a skull surrounded by roses, mint, and mint leaves.

Nekros nodded in excitement. “Yes!”

            “All right. Let me go clean this up and then we’ll get started.”

Minty strutted to the back room from where she emerged earlier. Nekros followed after her but stopped at the door. Althea, however, admired the tattoo designs on display in poster frames. Each case was labeled. The first case showed designs that were Norse tribals. The second case had floral designs. The florals varied from roses, lilies, and other beautiful flowers that Althea didn’t recognize.

            “Sure, I can do that,” Minty said as she and Nekros entered the main room. She gestured to Nekros to sit on the tattoo table. She meandered over to a shelf that held ink bottles. “Any particular colors you’d like?”

            “I’ll leave that up to you,” Nekros answered.

Minty nodded and grabbed various ink bottles. When she returned to Nekros’ side, she unraveled plastic wrap and wrapped it around the small table. After several minutes of prepping her workspace, she finally grabbed her wireless tattoo gun and placed it on the table.

            “I should have asked this before, but where are we putting this tattoo?” Minty asked.

            “Right shoulder,” Nekros responded. He pushed up the sleeve of his black Good Omens t-shirt. Althea noticed for the first time that Nekros’ shirt matched the floral designs on the walls. The shirt had the image of a plant growing out of a bowl. On the bowl were the words ‘Grow Better’. Between the two words was tape that had the word ‘fucking’.

Minty grabbed her stencil and placed it on Nekros’s right shoulder. As she held it in place with one hand she reached with her free hand for the closest sharpie and marked the corners. A short breath later she peeled a corner and examined the outline. She nodded in approval and continued to remove the stencil.

            “How’s that?”

Nekros got up and walked to the full-length mirror near the shelf full of ink bottles.

            “Looks good. It’d look better when it’s inked,” Nekros joked.

Minty rolled her eyes at the joke but smiled. “Obviously.”

Nekros returned to his spot and offered Minty his arm back. Minty grasped her wireless tattoo gun.

            “Ready?”

Nekros nodded.

Minty counted to three before the needle of her tattoo gun made contact with Nekros’s skin. Althea continued to look around the shop’s décor. Aside from the tattoo designs, everything consisted of flora.

            “Can I ask what kind of name is Amanita?”

Minty maintained her focus on her work. “It’s Latin. My parents thought it sounded pretty. When I was old enough, I googled it. Turns out, it’s a scientific genus for a species of fungi.”

Althea’s mouth dropped. Nekros’s eyes widened unsure how to respond to the information.

            “Interesting fact,” Minty continued, “the class Amanita features the most poisonous mushrooms found worldwide.”

Both Althea and Nekros stared dumbfounded. Minty paused in her assault on Nekros’s arm. She lowered her tattoo gun and reached for the roll of paper towels. She ripped a sheet from it and poured a clear liquid from a mist-colored bottle then wiped the blood from the freshly outlined tattoo.

            “Because my parents named me ‘Amanita’ I became interested in poisonous plants. If you look closely at my flower designs…you’ll notice most are poisonous flowers.”

Althea returned to the display case of floral designs. Upon closer inspection, some designs had a printed name above them. Althea admired the ones labeled ‘Iris, Wisteria, and Belladonna’. She then glanced at the floral designs painted on the mint walls. The floral designs on the walls were the same poisonous flower tattoo designs!

            “I also got a master’s degree in Botany,” Minty announced and pointed to a wall that featured awards and tattoo certifications.

Althea meandered over and checked it out. Sure enough, in the center of all the awards and certifications was the master’s degree in Botany.

            “Hey!” Minty called out.

Althea turned to see what the artist needed. Instead, she was caught off guard with a remote flying towards her. Althea squeaked at the sight. As Althea brought her hands up to cover her face, her hand reflexively caught the remote.

            “You can watch or listen to music while I’m tattooing your boyfriend. Honestly, I need background music while I’m tattooing or I go crazy,” Minty admitted.

            “Okay,” Althea stuttered, frazzled over Minty’s action to throw something at her. She didn’t register the ‘boyfriend’ comment.

Nekros admired his fresh tattoo in the mirror. His grin grew wider each time he looked at it.

            “What do you think?”

Nekros cocked his head toward Minty, his grin bright and contagious. Minty grinned back and walked up next to him. She pointed to a certain patch of roses and mint near the skull.

            “The thing you asked me to add, it’s in here. Unless you stare at it closely, you’d miss it. Think of it as the I Spy books.”

            “Thank you so much! I love it!” Nekros beamed.

            “Glad to hear it.”

Nekros reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. “How much do I owe you?”

Minty rubbed her chin as she pondered it. “Two hundred sounds good.”

Nekros opened his wallet and removed the amount Minty asked for. As he handed her the money, he gushed again about loving his tattoo.

            “Glad you like it. Hit me up again when you want another tattoo, yeah?”

Nekros nodded vigorously. He glanced past Minty to see Althea staring at the TV screen on the back wall. “Ready to go?”

Althea pulled her eyes away from the Disney movie. “Yeah.”

As they exited the shop, Althea peered up at Nekros. “What was the thing you asked her to do?”

            “Oh, nothing,” Nekros uttered as he waved his hand from side to side.

Althea looked at the tattoo covered in plastic wrap. Nothing seemed different from the original sketch Minty did. However, hidden amongst a patch of roses and mint next to the skull’s jaw, was Althea’s name.