Welcome to Gaia! ::

Harland received a text back fairly promptly, it gave a room number and a time as well as the message

//‘Happy to help! You should always be sure of your tattoo before you put it permanently to y our skin. If the time listed is all right with you mate, we can go over any questions you might have, and probably a few you don’t! //


Followed shortly after by.
//(Also I’m a sun trainee! Cheers!) //


After receiving the check Zac went over his tools one by one, checking to make sure none had cracked or grown dull. He’d checked earlier but he always checked when someone implied interest. He carefully re-cleaned the chisel that he used to tap ink into the skin, even knowing he’d probably defer Harland from getting a tattoo the same time as their first meeting, making him set up a second meeting even if he had a solid design in mind. The idea though was that clean tools would be less scary to show to the potential client.

The door swung easily inward to reveal the new, bright faced hunter sitting by his supplies, each laid out plain to see, nothing at all like the tattoo guns that would be familiar to much of American youth.

The chisel looked almost like a bent fork. Fine ink stained teeth and a right angle from a wooden haft, another tool lay beside it, at best stuttered with ink and no real damage. There were designs sketched out on papers to be perused, but there were also designs that moved upward from the young artists elbow, vanishing under his shirt.
‘Tribal’ would be a good way to describe them.

“Do… how much do you know about tattoo?”

“Come in, come in, I don’t bite, at least not on the first date.” He said laughing slightly at his own joke.

Zac tipped his head down to hide part of the wide grin that crossed his face. “Ah, yeh, an electric tattoo gun wouldn’t look much like this no, but I haven’t got enough for that yet, someone’s got to do jiggery-pokery to make the dang things work here I guess, these are tried and true, and they don’t need any power but for what I supply so… takes longer, works though!”

He glanced at his own arm and back and nodded. “Got a bit more than this, but the rest is…well its kinda personal. This here on my arm though, its inspired by the same. It’s called Kirituhi. He lifted the hem of his shirt and showed the other designs that arched over his hips and vanished downward into his pants.

“This though, that’s Ta Moko, it’s a right of passage, it’s…genealogy, history, its sacred. But Kirituhi, it just means drawn skin, a design that looks like ours but it can be for anyone, anywhere.”

His head tipped. “Naw, I can pull off some other styles with what I have. I don’t know that I’d go looking for like… lace work but as long as the design isn’t too fine a line I can pull it off.” He offered.

“What did you have in mind? Have you a specific style, or even a design already? Or did you want to talk it out so you have a direction that feels comfortable?” He offered earnestly.

“NEVER judge a book by its cover.” He grinned. “After all it could be a clever ploy to show off that you’re in touch with your feminine side Mate, like… broke back mountain.” He said trying hard to keep a strait face, but ended up letting a tight laugh escape as he ducked his head.

“Here…paper and pen for yeh, as for if you want some Kirituhi though, we should talk about the impression you want it to have, do you want like an animal or a face…” He waved his hand and then lifted his shirt sleeve again to show off that there was a shark ‘swimming’ up his arm.

He did pause when he saw the bright flush that ran across Harland’s face. “Hey…No judgment regardless.” He said seriously.

He took a look at the design and then slowly nodded. “Aye, yeah I can do that no problem mate. Just tell me where you think you’d like it, we’ll set up an appointment when you’d like to have it done. If at any point you think you’re not bloody sure about it you tell me, we end the session.” He held up his hands to show it was a serious matter.

“It hurts… but better to stop with a little mark that you’ve changed your mind on…then make yourself go through with it even after you think different eh?”

“Can I keep this? I’d like to set up a stencil as best I can yeah? Balance the shape of it and make sure it’ll look damn good. As for the rest, yeh, absolutely, you find me an animal and we’ll start working it into a design based on where you’d like it.”

He tipped his head thoughtful.

“Would it help if I showed you more of mine?” he offered. “…Some of em, they go a bit low if you catch my drift.”

“I’d have to drop trow to show you the works.” He said after a moments pause.

“If that’s not bloody uncomfortable for you… then Im good by it. It’d be a while to explain what it means, but you can see eh?”
He offered, stripping off his shirt to show off what he could without flashing his grundies to the world.

The design over his arm spread out in an arch over his pectoral, and shoulder blade. Faces peered out from the designs of angles and curves. Likewise…elaborate designs of a similar style and feel arched over each hip, vanishing into the casual pants he was wearing.