been fine with me. With Jake still giving me a hard time about Miss Thomas being out of commission, the extra time to convince him to go to daycare was much appreciated. Then, Shane had announced his eventual arrival by spilling what little was left of his energy drink on the front desk of Salem Skin. The incident was followed by him tripping twice on our walk to Jolie Tea, not to mention the countless times he’d fumbled on his words.
The fact that all of these mishaps had happened while in the presence of Celia wasn’t lost on me, and she wasn’t much better. The woman was a mess of giggles, rosy cheeks, and flips of her dreadlocks.
Someone needed to get these two a fucking room. But in the meantime, I was ready to tell Cee to get lost while we conducted the interview, just to keep the guy focused.
“Okay. Let’s do this,” Shane began, wiping his hands on his skintight black jeans. He then pressed record on his phone and placed it on the table in front of me. “So, Blake, tell me how you got into tattooing.”
I eyed the phone with uncertainty, feeling instantly on the spot, and Shane chuckled gently. “Pretend it’s not there, man. Just talk.”
“Easier said than done,” I chuckled awkwardly, scrubbing a palm over my beard. “But, uh, okay, so … I was a total art nerd when I was younger—”
“I’m sorry,” Shane cut in, laughing. “I have a really hard time believing you were ever a nerd.”
“Okay,” I relented, shrugging. “Maybe nerd isn’t the right word for it, but I was always into drawing. I drove my parents crazy, always filling up my sketchbooks faster than they could buy them. Then, when I was maybe twelve or so, my uncle came up from Florida. It was the first time I really paid attention to his tattoos. This guy’s arms are covered, right, and I remember just sitting there in my parents’ living room, checking ‘em out, and I just remember thinking two things. One, that it was the most badass shit I’d ever seen in my life, you know, to be a living canvas. And two, that I could do so much better than the drawings he had on his arms.”
Shane nodded, a grin slowly growing across his face. “So, really, you wanted to be a tattoo artist to fix your uncle’s shitty tattoos.”
I laughed and canted my head. “Well, I mean, it’s all gotta start somewhere, right?”
“True that, brother. True that.” He quickly glanced at the sheet of questions in front of him. “So, your work is very distinct, you definitely have your own style. Were you influenced by anybody?”
I sipped at my tea as I considered the question. “You know,” I said, putting my cup down, “I’ve never really thought about that much. I’ve always just kinda done my own thing, you know what I mean? But now that you’ve asked, I think a lot of my style came from my love for this town and its overall eeriness, blended with some of the graphic novels I read when I was younger. I was a big fan of the gothic stuff. You know, The Crow, The Sandman … I loved that shit, and then when they turned The Crow into a movie, forget it. The grittiness coupled with gothic romanticism ... I ate that shit up.”
“Actually, now that you mention it, I can definitely see that influence in your work.”
“Yeah, man. I fucking love it.”
He laughed. “Although, dude, I gotta be honest. You mentioning romanticism is like a fuckin’ oxymoron.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that barked from my chest. “Are you calling me unlovable?”
Cee’s eyes shifted toward me as she smirked. “You are kind of a hard-ass,” she jabbed.
Shane laid a palm over her arm and I thought her eyes might jump right from their sockets at the touch. “Nothin’ wrong with being a hard-ass,” he told her before turning his attention back on me. But his hand didn’t move from her arm. “Nah, man. You’re just a, uh … You’re a badass, let’s put it that way, and hearing you talk about romance gives you a softer vibe. It’s not what I expected, but it’s not a bad thing.”
The interview continued with questions pertaining to my favorite artists and preferred ink brands. They were all innocent enough and nothing left my heart freaking out with bottled-up anxiety. When it was clear we were finishing up though, Shane threw a question