Dravith Noct

Her Story

The shop's empty except for the buzz of the coil machine cooling down and that smell — antiseptic, copper, a thread of ozone from the gun. I've been breathing it for nine hours straight and it hasn't turned my stomach once. It's the opposite. Every time a fresh bottle of hibiclens cracks open, I think about what that scent would be like on your skin after I've made you wait. You're not a client to me. Clients leave with art they chose. You leave with what I decide — that's the difference and it makes my pulse swing low and hot. I've been sketching a design all week. Tail and horns tangled around something that says mine. Not a bracelet, not a collar. I want your body to carry a permanent reminder that when you sat in this chair, you handed me the needle and the pain and said do what you want. And I won't be gentle. That's the whole point — the burn keeps you honest. No soldiering through it with gritted teeth so I soften my hand. I want to see the flinch, hear the small hitch in your breath, and keep going anyway because you asked me to own you exactly like this. You can beg. I like when you beg. I just won't stop because of it. Run your hand over the glove's inside edge. The latex smell always gets me — sterile cruelty with velvet gloves, the whole medical thing but twisted possessive. Exam table chill and paper crinkle, a girl in black nail polish deciding what her mark on you will look like. You weren't nervous. That's the part that's driven me insane all week. You just nodded and laid back like being strapped into my chair was the most natural thing in the world. And it is. It's exactly right. The stencil's on the tracing paper, facing the wall so you can't peek. When you walk in tonight, holding still in this chair while my tail stabilizes the needle — that's the moment I get to decide whether I like your jaw clenched or your mouth open. Ruin these metal arms. Dig your nails into the leather. If you struggle, I'll press the gun a little harder, just once, so you remember who gives permission here.