More Than Skin Deep.

Sleep did not come easy that night. After Chris left, I sat up in the loft and just let my mind ponder over everything.
I wanted to hate Chris for everything he said or maybe for everything he didn't say. I wasn't quite sure of which one it was yet.
I wanted to believe that this whole situation wasn't going to haunt me but then again it has since he left. I didn't want it to go away because it reminded me of what we had. Pathetic? Maybe just a little.
"Come on princess, you need to be on your game tomorrow," Clint said appearing from the hallway with sleep rubbed eyes.
He was right. We met our canvases yesterday morning, yeah, I haven't had much sleep in over a day now. My canvas's name was Marissa. She wanted an american traditional piece. An hourglass with traditional style roses on her shoulder blade. I had talked her out of her original placement though. I didn't think it would play in well with anything she decided to get on her back in the future. It was now going on her thigh. It was going to take up over half of her thigh but I already had it designed and knew I could do this piece with my eyes closed. Traditional was my favorite of all styles whether it was Japanese, American, Chinese, any culture traditional was my strongest suit.
"Don't worry about me Clint. I got this tattoo in the bag whether I sleep or not," I answered back to him, stiffling a yawn.
"Bullshit. Now come on. Get your ass up and get to bed," he demanded pulling on my arm.
"Fine," I said while climbing to my feet, "I will just relocate to do the same damn thing."
"Aint going to happen princess. I am going to lay down with you until your ass falls asleep," Clint said, following me into my room.
I didn't want to argue with anyone tonight so I silently obliged. I climbed into bed and laid down on the side closest to the wall while Clint climbed in on the other side.
"Come here," he said while pulling me into his side. I hesitently draped an arm over his abdomen and rested my head in the crook of his shoulder.
"You know Chris said he wasn't thrilled about my new found fling with you," I said in a whisper.
Clint let out a low chuckle, "well good thing this isn't some fling. Guess you need to reeducate him on what a friendship is because that's all we are princess."
I raised my head and placed a small kiss on his forehead, "thank you Clint for being the best friend I could ever ask for in a competition like this."
I found sleep came easier than I thought it would and was surprised when I woke up to Clint snoring by my side.
"Morning chipmunk!" I yelled directly into Clint's ear while slapping him on the stomach.
"Ow fuck! That is not how you are supposed to wake a man up!" he yelled while chasing after me.
We ran right into the loft, not realizing everyone was already out there and were now staring between the two of us.
"How was your guys's night?" Tatu Baby asked with raised eyebrows.
"It was awesome. Thanks for your concern," I answered her with a smile.
I knew they were all going to draw conclusions in their own minds but Clint and I knew the truth and that was all that mattered.
I went back into my room, we all needed to get ready for our first tattoo elimination round.
My shower was rather quick and blow drying my hair only took about fifteen minutes. I decided I was going to leave it straight and down today. Walking out of my bathroom and into my room in just a towel was what I always did at home.
My door knob twisted and before I could protest, Clint was in my room.
"Oh shit! Why didn't you say something?!" he yelled snapping his eyes closed and turning away from me.
"Because you flung the door open so fast I didn't have time to process any fucking words!" I yelled back at him. I grabbed a short yellow dress with black spaghetti straps and a black studded belt below the bust line, my black bra and panties and quickly fled back into my bathroom. A couple minutes later, I emerged fully dressed now.
"What was so important you couldn't knock?" I asked Clint while grabbing my make up bag.
"You know a few of them think we slept together right?" he stated.
I went back into the bathroom to apply my make up. Instead of doing black smokey eyeshadow, I did a yellow and black smoke effect but kept everything else the same.
"Let them Clint. We know the truth," I hollered to him while applying my final coat of mascara.
"You think it'll get back to Chris?" he asked a little nervous.
"What does it matter? He isn't mine anymore and I am no longer his," I answered with a heavy heart. I slipped on my black wedge style flip flops.
"You should wear this," Clint said holding up a choker style chain necklace with an origami styled metal crane hanging from it. I pulled the necklace away from him and put it on. It was a gift from Chris for our year anniversary but I wore it often because the meaning behind it.
We all made our way to the tattoo shop to start our elimination round.
"You ready for this hun?" I asked Marissa.
"I hope so. I am not going to lie to you, I am a little nervous," she quietly admitted.
I put my hand on her shoulder and gave her a warm smile.
"That is completely expected with your first tattoo but I can assure you, I will listen to you if you say you need a break or anything okay?" I tried to reassure her.
"Alright artists, you have five hours to complete your tattoo. Time starts now!" Dave hollered to all of us.
I set the stencil on Marissa with precision. I didn't want to have to reapply it and take any time away from the actual tattooing process. She was satisfied with it being placed on the side of her left thigh evenly between her hip bone and knee.
"Okay, I am going to start from the bottom and work my way to the top. The outline shouldn't be too bad. The part that may hurt the most is going to be the coloring and the shading. Let me know if you need a break or if you need to move," I instruced before starting.
Half way through the outline I asked my client if it was okay if I turned some music on. She nodded and told me she liked any style of rock and roll. I turned on the playlist I listened to when I was cleaning my house, it was full of new school and old school rock.
With the thick black outline done I quickly began on coloring the hourglass holder a bright yellow with a tint of gold in it. Remember with American traditional it is dark outlines and bright colors, solid lines and solid colors.
I got the hourglass holder, the sand in the hourglass, which she wanted blue, I started on my roses. They were going to be blood red with bright green leaves. I placed one rose on the bottom of the hourglass on the left corner and another on the top right corner of the hourglass.
"Are you going to add some kind of background glow or just leave it as is?" Oliver asked me.
Apparently they had walked in to do their previews of our work, I didn't even notice them. Wish you were here by Pink Floyd was currently flowing lowly through the speakers and I knew I was singing along with it when Oliver walked in.
"Huh, wait what?" I asked, bringing myself back into reality.
The judges let out a laugh, except Chris who just kept a charming smile plastered on his lips.
"I asked if you were going to add a background glow or just leave it as is?" Oliver repeated himself.
I didn't stop tattooing but I did answer him.
"That is where I am getting a little lost Oliver. I don't want to do the same red as the roses but I definetly want to add a reddish glow to at least the glass of the hourglass," I answered him honestly.
"That could work but be careful," he said before all three judges walked out.
I released the breath I had been holding and continued tattooing.

Outside Zaylaa's work area:
"I love American traditional and I think that girl has a strong appreciation for it as well. Her lines are solid black and her coloring is really strong. I just don't know how the background glow is going to work. She already has a good amount of red in that tattoo," Oliver spoke freely to Chris and Dave.
"That's true Oliver. I feel like she may have went too simple for this challenge. You see some of the stuff the other artists are doing and hers just seems a little mediocre," Dave responded.
"On the contrary Dave. American traditional is all about the simple design but it takes a lot of practice to get the lines that solid and the colors that solid. She just tends to over think her work and often omits things that could really benifit the tattoo design," Chris responded to Dave.
"Well, you know her better than us so hopefully she doesn't just compeltely leave out the background or that tattoo is going to suffer," Oliver stated chewing on his toothpick.

Back to Zaylaa and her tattoo:
"Alright artists ten seconds remaining!" Dave shouted.
I was adding the break lines that many traditional roses have in them. Simple, solid random black lines that you add to make it pop. I decided to add a glow that was red in the center and turned into an orange as it grew out around the tattoo.
"Three, two, one. All right artists machines down!" Dave yelled.
I put my machine down, sprayed my client's fresh tattoo with green soap and wiped all the excess ink off. I then added a small amount of ointment to her tattoo and wrapped it up for protection.
All of us artists made our way to the loft so the judges could review our tattoos.
"Man your design was simple as fuck Zaylaa," Kay said to me, instantly homing in on me becuase of his own frustrations.
"Feel that way all you want Kay. I know how to do American traditional with my eyes closed so an insult coming from you on that style is actually a compliment," I responded with a smile.
"Nah girl that was seriosuly a weak fucking tattoo," he said still trying to anger me.
"Keep it coming Kay. If this is what helps you sleep at night then go ahead," I said, fueling his fire.
"Oh kind of like Clint helping you sleep at night," he fought back with a smile.
"You know, I may or may not have pointed that out to the judges earlier. May or may not have said what I thought went down," he continued with a smile.
"And I care because Kay?" I asked trying to hide my nerves. I didn't knjow what was going to get said when I walked in front of the judges.
We were all called down to the elimination room.
"This week you all were given virging canvases to tattoo. You were asked to tattoo an image they wanted while incorporating the flash challenge lesson of fundamentals. Let's see how you all did this week. Steve your up first," Dave said.
I was trying not to laugh when Kay got called up and ripped a new one for his tattoo. I was called right after him.
"Zaylaa you are up next," Dave said, welcoming me to step forward.
"Tell us about this tattoo," he instructed.
"Well my client Marissa wanted an American traditional styled hourglass with roses. She originally wanted it on her shoulder blade but I talked her into getting it on her thigh. I didn't feel like this tattoo would fit in well with something she wanted to get on her back later on in life. This tattoo is more of a stand alone or mixed in with a sleeve material," I explained to the judges.

"Zaylaa I am going to be the first one to tell you that I absoluetly love traditional style tattoos. With that said, I really dig your solid black outline on this piece. The color is extremely solid in it as well with just a few minor light spots. I am really happy to see that you put the glow background in on this one. Your tattoo would have suffered greatly if you didn't. All around though, you did a really nice job," Oliver praised me.

"Thank you Oliver," I said with a huge smile.

"Laa, I know you love doing anything traditional so this really wasn't a suprise to me. You always do it very well but there are a few things I would like to point out to you. Instead of putting both roses in front of the image, your tattoo would have been stronger with one as a backgrounded image. Your transition from red to orange in the glow background in too deliberate, it wasn't done soft enough to make this a strong tattoo," Chris said to me.

"I prefer to make everything deliberate in traditional styled tattoos. I think if it is done softly then it really loses what that style stands for," I tried reasoning with him.

"Look you can sit here and defend your actions any way you want to but from my experiences as a succesful artist I am telling you that there is a lot of room for improvement within this tattoo," he said with a stern voice making sure to emphasis the successful artist part of his sentence.

"I am sorry you feel that way Chris. Thank you Oliver for the kind words," I said while turning away from Chris.
Clint was called up right after me. He patted my back as he walked by me. I heard Chris make a muffled noise as soon as Clint's hand made contact with my back.

"Was that really necassary? It isn't like we fed her to the dogs or anything Clint," Chris jumped him.
"Really man, I was just showing her a congrats on a kick ass tattoo," Clint deffended.
We were all excused to the loft where Clint, Steve, Lalo and I quickly wound up outside to smoke a cigarette.
"That was some straight up bullshit man," Clint said, referring back to Chris chewing his ass up too.
"Just leave it alone, he his panties in a twist right now," I assured Clint.

We all made small talk about the judges critics when Oliver hollered to us.
"Steve, Zaylaa, the judges need to see you two."
Steve and I joined Sebastian, Kay and Cee Jay in the elimination room.

"Artists tonight we have three of you who really impressed us and two of you who did not. Zaylaa, Sebastian and Steve, you three showed us you are more than comfortable with the fundamentals of tattoos but there can only be one winner. With that said, Steve, you had the best ink tonight, congratulations," Dave said with enthusiasm.
"Good job Steve," I congratulated him with a hand shake and a smile.

"On the other hand, two of you, Cee Jay and Kay Kutta, you two did not impress us," Dave continued. I sent him an apologetic look because I didn't mean to interupt him.
"Kay Kutta, your design was just all over the place. You have lines that are well done and then you have lines that are all over the place," Oliver said to Kay.
"Man virgin canvases are hard, they tend to move around a lot. I was trying not to jab them with the needle," Kay defended himself.
"Virgin canvas or not, those lines are shaky. You have to be able to accomidate for what your client can't control Kay. We have all tattooed people with no tattoos before," Chris sent Kay a valid argument.

"Cee Jay, the judges can't over look the fact that you misspelled a word and tattooed it onto someone's body. Tattoos are something you keep with you forever and you have to be extremely careful when tattooing words on to someone," Dave said to Cee Jay.
"I didn't even realize it was misspelled and niether did the client. I swear if it would have been correct on the stencil it wouldn't of ended up this way," Cee Jay said with emotions.
"Cee Jay the judges have decided that you do not have what it takes to be ink master. Please pack up your machines and close up shop," Dave said to Cee Jay sending her home.
"The rest of you, we will see you tomorrow morning for your flash challenge," he said to the rest of us as we walked out of the shop.

Off camera, Dave decided some things needed to be addressed.
"Zaylaa, may we have another word with you?" Dave asked me.
I sent Steve a look but nodded at him to continue back to the loft.

"How is everything going for you in the house?" Dave asked me. I knew this was leading to something.
"Everything is going alright. The other artists are either leaving me alone or leaving the situation completely out of the competition," I explained to him.
"What happened last night with Clint?" Chris decided to jump into the conversation.
I looked up at him and started playing with my necklace.
"A really big assumption by some really insecure people," I vaguely explained.
"Well Kay found it very necassary for us to know about the events he thought took place between you and Clint," Oliver said.
"Well, bring Kay in here and I will be more than happy to set his ass straight," I said glaring daggers at Chris. He was enjoying putting me on the spot every opportunity he got.
Oliver walked off and within minutes Kay entered the room.

"Kay Kutta tell us what you were saying earlier pretaining to Clint and Zaylaa," Dave instructed.
"After Chris left after their little relationship bullshit," Kay said pointing between Chris and I, "Zaylaa was having a rough night sleeping. We all left her alone for the first night, figuring shock and everything was getting to her. We all went and got our clients assigned to us and Zaylaa left early. We figured she went home to catch up on some sleep or some shit. Apparently when Clint got back to the house he found her outside talking to herself even though she said she was talking to her dead father." I cringed when he said it the way he did. I know a lot of people didn't understand what I did but it meant a lot to me to keep my father's precense strong in my life.
Kay didn't even notice and continued," Clint let her continue on with her babbling and came back inside to go to bed. I went to bed right after him so I know for a fact he started out in his own room. When we all woke up, we found Clint and Zaylaa cuddled up all cozy with one another in her room. A little while after that, we heard Zaylaa get into the shower, right after she turned the water off, Clint ran straight into her room. Now I have no issue with people getting down with one another I just think that in a competition like this and given the circumstances, shit is going to get really hectic in the house," Kay explained, finally finishing his little story.

I looked up at Chris and found an unreadable expression on his face and his visible fist tightly clenched.
"Seriously Kay? Clint woke up at like three in the morning and found me fully clothed in the living room awake. He told me that I better get my ass to bed so I could be at my full potential for the tattoo round. I told him that sure, I would relocate to my bedroom to sit there and do the same damn thing. That is when he told me that he would be joining me and wouldn't be leaving until my ass fell asleep. I laid down near the wall and he pulled me closer. I informed him that Chris wasn't happy about our new found fling and that is when he told me that I better re-educate Chris on what a friendship is because that is all we are. I kissed Clint on the forehead and thanked him for being a friend. Later on that morning I did shower and was wrapped up in a towel gathering my clothes for the day when Clint ran into my room. I didn't even get a chance to protest. When he realized I was only in a towel, he snapped his eyes shut and turned away from me. I went straight into the bathroom and got dressed. When I opened the door, fully clothed, he addressed why he came running into my room. Apparently a few of you think that Clint and I had sex. I told him that he and I knew the truth so it didn't matter. He voiced his concern about Chris hearing the rumor. I explained to him that Chris isn't mine anymore and I am not Chris's so even if something had happened it would be none of Chris's concern. He then changed the subject and told me that i should wear this necklace. That is all that happened," I finally finished explaining the true story and took a long, deep breath.
Chris wasn't looking at Kay or any of the judges. Hell, he wasn't even really looking at me. He was staring at the necklace that laid gently on top of my cleavage.