As the door opened a small sound of a bell ran through the store, announcing the presence of a costumer, which normally meant that people would look at who arrived and that always made Ariel nervous.
She had learned a long time ago, that once a bell rang as she walked into a store, people would immediately notice her, not that they usually didn’t notice her quite quickly anyway. She ran a finger through her rusty blood red hair as she looked around in the somewhat, in its own way, charming little tattoo shop, it didn’t make her feel safe in any way, but it didn’t make her feel threatened either, though it did keep sending signals to her inner alarms that this was one of those places her mother had always tried to keep her from.
Ariel had to bite her lip, to keep herself from rolling her eyes by the thought of her mother and what the woman would be saying if she saw the place Ariel was standing in; ‘Young lady, have I not raised you right? Did I not give you all the love in the world? Why are you doing this to my old heart?’ Oh yes, the guilt tripping ran deeply within her family genes, it was an art in itself that had been shaped and perfected through generation to generation – much like Jewish families.
‘Well Mamma… I’m not sure if I’m getting one right now! Now get out of my brain and let me do my research!’ Ariel thought feeling kind of schizophrenic as she did – it wasn’t like her mother was really there… then why did she feel so guilty?
Ariel took a deep breath and gathered her confidence and strength and walked over to what she guessed would be the counter of the store and looked around “Hello? May I ask some question, regarding getting a tattoo and what it would do to my skin, please?” She called out, trying to be as polite as possible. She waited patiently for an answer; maybe the person had seen her in some security camera and had decided to run away? Ariel had noticed in the three years she had lived in New York City, that it wasn’t everybody that could handle it when a purple girl with white eyes stepped into their stores.
