Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
aron was basically covered in tattoos. There were a few he admittedly had for ages, and they were slowly started to fade. He had gotten his first ones when he was fourteen, much earlier before he should have. The one he wanted touched up the most was the one he had dedicated to Megan - wanting to add her birthdate and the day she died to it.
He made his way to his appointment, always happy to find himself at the tattoo shop. Aaron drove off from the school as his workday was over. It wasn't long before he found himself a parking spot close to the tattoo parlor.
After locking his car, he headed inside. The bell rang when he entered, wondering if someone would be there to help him. "Hello? I have an appointment this afternoon." He patiently stood at the counter, glancing around at the sketches on the wall. He found the artwork impressive - the excitement for his appointment growing.
June rarely did touch-ups, but her large piece clientele had been all responsible and taking a break for a bit. It was an emotional time, always – and the cost was still a burden. But she wasn’t someone to rush a client. Tattoos were a lot of work and time for both the client and the artist.
She was finishing up prepping her station when the door went off. “Coming!” she called out, giving her hands a solid wash after throwing away some used gloves. June made her way to the front desk and smiled at the man in the lobby. “Sorry about the wait,” she greeted. “What’s the name?” June added, taking a seat and logging into the computer.
aron was excited and sad to get the tattoo dedicated to his late fiancé finished. He felt like it was going to be nothing like the other tattoo appointments he had. He looked up when he heard a voice coming from the back. "No problem, take your time."
It wasn't a long wait before the woman came out to the front. "It should be under Aaron. Spelt with a double a at the beginning." There were too many ways to spell his name, so he always had to specify. He should have been expecting a woman when he had heard the name and made the appointment, but she wasn't quite what he was expecting.
"It's for a touch up...more like a finish of one of my tattoos." He hoped the tinge of sadness wasn't too obvious, but he couldn't have been the only one that came in with something like this. "Are you...June? I think that's who I made the appointment with." He was usually good with names - given he was a teacher but he didn't want to make any assumptions about it.
“Okay..Aaron…” June scanned through the document and smiled when she landed on his name. “Aaron Stonehouse?” she gave him a polite smile. “Yes, I am June. It looks like we’re just finishing up a piece or re-coloring it, correct?” She wanted to make sure all the information was correct. There were waivers and all that, but June was diligent in making sure everything was in place.
June pushed her chair and began opening a few filing cabinets. “I just have a few things for you to read over, as well as things to sign. Like consent to share on social media, and so on. Is this your first time here?”
That would be me, though just Aaron is fine." Being called by his full name reminded him of his student days, though those were far behind him. His blue eyes glanced at the at the tattoo artist - not used to having a female working on him. "Nice to meet you. Yes, it's finishing a piece. I just need two dates added to one I already have." Aaron knew the conversation of his dead fiancé would come up eventually and he was prepared for it. "Have you been working here long?"
Aaron nodded, it was most likely the typical forms signed at a tattoo place - making sure the establishment didn't get sued in case something happened. "That's fine, it's the standard forms, right? Not anything too weird?" He smiled, knowing some places were different. Aaron didn't mind - everyone was allowed to have their own way of doing things. "It is my first time here, all my other pieces were done back home before I left. Though it's time to bite the bullet and finish this one." He glanced over to the cup on the reception desk and pulled out one of the pens, ready to fill out the forms needed for the appointment.
“No, I’m not asking you to sell your kidneys or something secretly,” she smiled, joking. Frankly, there were too many people that were worried about signing consent. The government was already tracking them on their phones anyway.
June grabbed the proper paperwork and placed it all on a clipboard and handed it over to Aaron. “Well, welcome to Hollow Ink! Oh sweet. It looks like you got a lot of work done,” June commented. The number of people that were getting fully covered was nice. June didn’t understand the people that went reverse coverage though. Starting with the hands and neck first, with nothing on their chest and arms. Thankfully, she didn’t deal too much with the youngsters looking for street cred.
aron chuckled, the joke was quite funny to him. "I don't think anyone would want them after being covered in ink. Must poison my blood or something." He stepped closer to the counter, carefully leaning on it. Aaron pulled a pen out from the cup and waited for the paperwork - certain it was the usual spiel when it came to waivers for tattoos.
"Thanks, I should have come in here sooner. I've walked by a few times thinking I should make an appointment but I needed to come up with an idea first." He also needed time to grieve his fiancée's death but the tattoo started to feel incomplete. With a thorough glance of the paperwork, he initialed and signed where needed.
"I have a fair share of tattoos. I feel like I'm running out of room though. Not really a face tattoo kind of guy." That and being able to cover his tattoos during parent teacher conferences or during concerts. He wanted to still feel professional while at work. "You are covered yourself I see. Have you had any of the artists you work with work on any yet?"
“Well, you can always cover up some old ones. There’s plenty of people that do.” There were also plenty of people that got things removed, or partially undone – let it heal, then get it covered again. It was always, finding a new space. June took the paperwork and placed it on the copier, where she scanned it to the shop email to be uploaded into their digital filings later. She placed the original copies into a file folder, to be filed away after the tattoo was done.
“Yeah, I’ve been collecting for a bit now. Not too much color on me, which surprises a lot of people.” June led Aaron to her station before taking a seat on her roller stool. She put on some gloves before sanitizing her space and placing plastic wrap on the things that needed it. “Nah. Not any of the currents. I do have something from the previous owner, who I studied under for a bit.”
She finished setting up before tossing her current gloves in the small trash can next to her. “All right, why don’t you show me where the piece is and what you want to get added.” June didn’t know if there was a stylistic approach, or if she had a bit of free range. Completing another artist’s piece was always a bit hard.
hanging his tattoos or getting rid of them was the last thing he wanted. Each one of them required a lot of thought and meaning behind them. "I'd have a hard time choosing which one to change. Do you have experience doing removals?" He often wondered what he would look like without them - having gotten his first one at seventeen, with the permission of his parents.
"Just black ones then? I have a few of those myself, though it seems to have evolved into some color pieces as well." It all depended on what it was - or if he thought it looked better in color rather than black and white. "Have you ever thought about getting a color one though?" Aaron then followed June to her station - taking a glance at the inside of the shop. It seemed to have a darker feel to it, but not every artist enjoyed the bright and cheery work environment. He waited until the area was sanitized before taking a seat. "I had no idea they switched owners recently. Are the new ones treating you okay?" He didn't know the previous ones to compare - but as long as there wasn't too much drama that's all that really mattered anyway.
He rolled up the sleeve of the sweater on his left arm, revealing various pieces - stopping when he hit just above the inside of his elbow. "I just need the two years added underneath the name." Having anything added to it wasn't expected - though he had honestly left room to add their wedding date, which never happened. "With just a simple script font would be great." His eyes glanced down at the tattoo before looking over at June - getting a better look at her. He could see that she was pretty much covered in ink herself.
June examined the tattoo and nodded to herself. It was simple, and she could understand why he wanted something a bit simpler. The spacing had a decent amount, but not as much as there could be, depending on how big of the date Aaron wanted.
“Sure. Were you thinking like basic box letters, all uppercase? Or something like typewriter script?” June could easily offer a free hand, but she doubted Aaron would want that. People could be a bit particular about what the lettering was. It wasn’t her strongest suit, but June could do it on a small scale. If someone wanted the thicker, she could go to Dante, Mal, or even Hayes.
aron glanced down at the tattoo. He had gotten it done just after he asked her to marry him and she said yes. It was still hard from him to imagine she was gone, but life was slowly starting to get better and easier for him. "Oh, just basic box letters. I was thinking of just the months and the two years." People who knew him knew who she was and what she meant to him.
"Do you specify in any particular tattoo types? Or do you agree to do pretty much anything?" He didn't know the tattoo parlor that well - but like anyone else's line of work he assumed that the staff had their favorite things to do. "March 1994 and a dash and then November 2020 for the tattoo, please." He made sure his sleeve on his shirt was rolled up enough not to interfere with June and her work. His blue eyes blinked, feeling the sad emotion wash over him briefly. "Sorry about that, it's been awhile but it still brings up some emotions." If he could make it without crying, he'd call it more than a win.
“I don’t do a lot of normal patients I guess you could say. I dot a lot of scar coverage or pieces that take a long time to do. Like full sleeves or back. But mainly if a patient has scars from a mastectomy and all that.” She knew it was a very specific type, but it allowed her to have the other side gig of being an esthetician. Honestly, there was the thought of being a medical tattooist, someone who did things like covering stretch marks or even nips for those who got implants after a mastectomy.
“Sounds good to me. Do you want me to have a stencil or would you like a free hand?” She waved off his emotion, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to judge him for it. June wasn’t new to someone crying in front of her. After all, she did tend to have a lot of emotional clients come in.
aron felt his eyebrow raise. It sounded like June had a very specific clientele - and not one that he fit into. "So was I just lucky you were free when I called to book?" His back tattoo had already been done before he left America. It had taken him awhile to decide what to have, but he was able to decide on a mishmash of ideas.
He sat on the tattoo table, getting himself comfortable for what was to come. Aaron was used to the pain of being poked by needles, but it was always a better experience if he was sitting in a comfortable position. "Freehand is fine if that's what your comfortable with." It was partially a way for the decision to be made for him. The tattoo artists often knew what fit best with the ink that was already there. "Have you been tattooing long then? Did you go to school for it then?" Aaron was musically creative, but his art skills were lacking. He had respect for those that could draw - it took talent just like anything else.
