Finding Love in a Tattoo Shop

Chris showed me the tattoo sketch and I absolutely loved it. He had it exactly how I wanted it “Love is louder than the pressure to be perfect” was written on a piece of ribbon which was in the mouth of a dove with it’s wings spread out ready to go into flight. “It’s exactly what I pictured in my head; I can’t wait for it to be finished.”

Chris smiled at me “It’s going to look really good, but I won’t be able to do it because I have a client in 5 minutes and I need to finish their sketch and set up ready so would you mind if Ami did your tattoo?” I shook my head and said “No I don’t mind at all, you do what you got to do don’t mess up your schedule for me.”

Ami came to the front of the desk and gave me a smile that made my knees go weak. “So I’m just gonna set up and then I’ll call you over and we’ll get started.” I nodded “Sure sounds good.” I sat down on the bench and waited for him to call me over.

About five minutes later Ami called me over and said he was ready to start. “So Sophia where do you want to place your tattoo?” I smiled at him and pulled up my top until it was by my bikini top. “I want it on my hip bone so the bird looks like it’s flying off my body, if that makes sense.” He nodded and said “Sure we can do that, just lay down on the table and I’ll put the stencil on and get started.”

I checked out the stencil in the mirror after he placed it where I wanted it, it looked pretty good so I nodded and said “Let’s do this shit then.”

I walked back to the table and lay down and he started the outlining of my tattoo. “So how long have you known Chris.” He asked. “Um I think a little over five years now, he’s been my best friend ever since I met him, and he knew my brother as well so.” He nodded.

“What are you doing in America because that defiantly isn’t as American accent?” I grinned. “Nope it’s defiantly not, I’m originally from Sydney, Australia I moved to America with my Mum and my brother Robbie when I was 15 my Dad left my Mum when I was 6 and Robbie was 12 or 13 and I don’t know where he disappeared too after that, my Dad is from America but he moved to Australia when he was a teenager, my brother joined the army when he turned 20. He was killed in Afghanistan when he was 22.

A road side bomb killed him and the rest of his troop who were out on patrol at the time, none of the ten people in the car survived, and the one thing that makes me upset all the time was that he was supposed to be coming home on leave two days prior to the accident but he couldn’t because his plane had a fault or something, it’s constantly a thought in my mind. What if he did come home when he was supposed to? Would he be here now with me? Would he be proud of what I’ve done with my life? Would he be happy with my decision to be a model? The questions that I ask myself everyday and it kills me that I don’t know the answers to them?”

There were tears in my eyes and I was trying so hard not to let them fall. Ami looked up from my tattoo and said “I didn’t know your brother and I don’t know what he was like but I am 100% certain that he is proud of you, and what you’ve done with your life. You don’t need to be physic to figure that out.” He smiled a little at me.

A lone tear drop rolled down my cheek and I wiped it away and smiled a sad smile and whispered “Thank you.” He just nodded and went back to my tattoo.

“So do you have any other tattoos?” “Yeah I have an angel on my shoulder in memory of my brother because I’ve always believed him to be my Guardian Angel throughout my whole life, and it has his name Robert James Mendez, Lieutenant, with the day he was born August 2nd 1981 and the day he died October 19th 2003. He’s the bravest man I’ve met and probably will ever meet. I would like a lot more tattoos but my job obviously doesn’t allow it, I’m lucky I’m allowed the ones I have.”

“He sounds like a hell of a guy, so how did you start working with Victoria Secret.” “Well after Robbie died I stayed in Chicago with my Mum doing random modelling jobs whatever I could get basically until about three months ago when Victoria Secret contacted my manager and they said that they saw some of my pictures and wanted me to sign a contract to their company, I agreed obviously and they said they needed to move down here to Miami so three months later here I am sitting in a tattoo shop in Miami on South Beach getting tattooed by one of the greatest tattoo artists around not to mention one of the hottest.” I giggled.

He lifted his head so fast I’m surprised he didn’t have whiplash. I winked at him. He winked back at me and gave me a cheeky smile that made my heart miss a beat. “Well I’m glad you’re here, it’s not everyday that I get to meet an incredibly beautiful sexy woman who also happens to be a bikini model. I guess it’s my lucky day huh?” I smiled softly at him and said “That makes to of us.”

My tattoo was finished a couple of minutes later, so he cleaned off the rest of the ink and told me to check it out in the mirror. Once I saw the tattoo I started to tear up it was exactly how I imagined how it would look like and more. I hugged Ami tightly and whispered to him “Thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me.” He smiled at me “No problem, you’re welcome.”

He wrapped the tattoo up so it wouldn’t get infected. I hugged all the guys goodbye again hugging Ami with a kiss on the cheek again whispering my thanks to him. He just smiled at me and nodded. I hugged Nunez goodbye and said “See you soon hoe.” He laughed and returned with “Don’t be a stranger bitch.”

I smiled and nodded while looking directly at Ami “I got a feeling I’m gonna be around here a lot more often.” Ami smiled and said “Hell yeah you are,” along with a wink. I returned it then waved at the guys and headed out the shop to make my way home.

It was 5’o clock by the time I got home so I made a quick snack and then watched a movie before heading to bed early as I had a photo shoot early the next morning.