The shop bell chimed quaintly as Sam pushed open the front door to The Witches Ink. Followed promptly by a "Sup, Samuel." and then again by a quieter "Good afternoon, Sam."
Sam looked to the source of the two greetings: A woman sat behind the front desk with her feet up. "Hey Brandi" Sam replied. Brandi was on the shorter side wearing red plaid pants, a pair of Doc Martens and a black tank top, Her black hair was kept short and Sam knew of about twelve different piercing's on her face. Much of her skin was covered in tattoos, many of which Sam knew to be magic, and one in particular a tattoo of a beautiful demon girl nestled in her cleavage was the source of the second greeting.
"And good afternoon to you too Lily." Sam addressed Brandi's prized living tattoo and girlfriend Lilith. Brandi hadn't looked up from her phone since he walked in which at this point Sam had come to expect from her.
"So what'll it be today? another round of temps?" Brandi Smirked "or is little Sammy gonna finally commit to something for once in his life and go for something permanent."
Sam grew flustered a little in annoyance at Brandi's teasing. "I've gotten permanent stuff before, and besides I like testing out all my options."
Brandi rolled her eyes "Making your eyes blue barely counts as permanent, and yeah I know you do, you've tried basically every mod we've got a few times over now Astrid's even made a few new ones specifically for you"
Sam decided it best to ignore Brandi's teasing and change the subject quickly "Where is Astrid anyway? is she in today?"
"Of course he's got Astrid on his mind" Lilith snickered as she flew around the skin on Brandi's tits. "Lover boy can't get enough of her." Brandi added.
"The pair of you are insufferable." Sam retorted whilst blushing. "We're only teasing Sam, your little crush is adorable, Boss lady's in the back with Nessa, she should be out soon."
Nessa is Astrid's apprentice both in witchcraft and tattooing a twenty-two year old little fire-brand that Astrid had spent the last four years drilling everything she knows about spell crafting, tattooing and business into. In the meantime Sam decided to look through the "grab bag '', a basket filled with temporary tattoos that all had different effects. There was no way of knowing what any of them did until you put it on but that was part of the fun of it. Sam had picked from the basket dozens of times before. The last time he had ended up looking like John Travolta for a week, and before that he had spent a week with a pair of double D breasts. Brandi had actually lent him some bras that time but not without giving him a hard time first. As Sam perused the assortment of intricate designs and he wondered what effects they might have on him he didn't notice the two figures coming into the room.
"Oh Sammy So glad you're here! You won’t miss the good news!" Sam looked up to see Astrid the Six foot tall, slightly chubby twenty-nine-year-old goddess who owned the shop, accompanied by her red-head apprentice Nessa. Both were covered in tattoos of course. Astrid in botanicals; images of vines, flowers, thorns, and leaves adorned her entire body. Surprisingly while most were magic few were meant to alter her appearance. Most of them focused on things like preventing carpal tunnel, back pain or eye strain while Astrid preferred to only use only one simple hormone producing spell for her looks. Nessa on the other hand was covered in patchwork; whatever cartoon character, adorable animal or weird obsession had caught her attention at the time. Sam knew at least three of them were living, though Nessa didn’t typically acknowledge them as such once they were on her body.
“What's going on?” Sam asked inquisitively. “Well” Astrid put a hand on Nessa’s shoulder. “I believe that Nessa here is ready to start using Living ink!” Astrid proudly announced to the room.
“That's Amazing!” Sam congratulated Nessa enthusiastically. “Grat’s Ness.” Brandi who up until this point had not looked up from her phone gave her a thumbs up. “Congrats Ness” Lily chimed in as well. “Thanks guys it's been a long time coming” Nessa thanked the three.
“Naturally this will be the last stage of Nessa’s apprenticeship. She's come a long way and I’m
I'm so very proud of her.”
Up until this point Astrid as the one who invented the process was the only one who could use living ink and partly because of that fact she herself had no living tattoos. Sam wondered to himself if this would mean she would finally get one of her own. And part of him considered the idea of offering himself up to that process. The Idea of adorning Astrid’s body permanently was actually quite tempting. Or maybe he'd like to get a living tattoo himself? Nessa was sure to need someone to practice on.
As Sam was lost in thought Astrid approached him. “So Sammy now that that's over what brings you in today? Got any ideas for new mods? Or are you finally looking to get something permanent?”
While Sam had initially just stopped in today out of habit he now found himself at a crossroads. “Well actually Astrid I was thinking…”