Tom Waits and Giraffes

Normally when you have a huge snow storm, a tattoo or body piercing is the last thing someone has on their mind. I spent a majority of the day with co-workers laughing at cars trying to drive up a rather steep hill that our shop overlooks. This sort of thing can only captivate me for maybe a half hour tops. The majority of the day was spent listening to every single Tom Waits song you could possibly imagine. The day finally got better once we convinced the manager that we should close up shop due to the snow emergency. We stayed open of course, this was simply a ploy to get rid of him for the day. It worked, and it was good.

In the evening we had a pair of lesbians come in. Normally this does not bother me but I just thought the couple seemed (sorry to be ironic) queer... they were both African and the one was much prettier and more attractive than her counterpart. I find this normally the case with couples in general though. There was definitely something up with this relationship. I soon figured out that the attractive girl with a smoking ass and killer tits was a complete retard. She was one of those females that, when she saw something she wanted, she HAD to have it... and obviously her partner was willing to give it to her. She took one look at me and decided she wanted cheek piercings and would not drop it. After a long drawn out explanation as to why cheek piercings are a bad idea for your 'casual modified person' she finally let down (the 9 month healing time where everything tasted like rotten eggs usually does the trick). In the end, this couple left with each others names tattooed on their necks. What a bad fucking idea...

The evening came and in walked a man I found interesting right away. First off the dude was wearing shorts in the middle of a snowstorm and secondly he had brown blotches tattooed all over his legs. I thought for a moment that maybe he had some kind of skin disorder, but after looking at it once more I knew it was in fact tattoo ink. He spoke with an artist, and 15 minutes later my co-worker called to him over saying "Okay Giraffe, you're up!" Normally I do not intrude upon why people tattoo the things they do on the body, unless I am genuinely interested... and believe me I was. When I asked him as to why he was tattooing giraffe markings all over his body he gave me a long story about how if he had a totem, it would be a giraffe. I thought this was strange, how does one feel connected to such an animal, but the more I thought about it, it made sense... I feel connected to cats. As he was getting tattooed we chatted a little bit more about his 'totem' and how he is actually thinking about tattooing his feet black or perhaps tattooing a hoof design that went down onto the foot. He spoke about tattooing his tongue black and getting his tongue web cut so he could perhaps grip things with it. I sat there completely amazed by this person, shaking my head in disbelief yet understanding. This dude was for real. Out of all the clients I have seen come through my shop, he was for sure a new favorite. I hope he continues to come to us for his transformation, total sweetheart.