Tattoos of the Soul

“Ohhh, the guy who did your tattoo. Thomas, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. I think I like him.”

“How much?”

“I thought about him this morning…, in bed. I…, well, I imagined him touching me, and….”

“You got yourself off just thinking about him, didn’t you?”

“I touched myself, if that’s what you mean. It’s the first time since, since I don’t know when.”

“Wow, you have changed a lot.”

“Is that terrible? I’m a little ashamed.”

“Hell no it isn’t. It’s natural. I do it all the time. I have this new little rabbit thing. Want to see it sometime?”

“No. I just wish…. How can I get him to notice?”

“Well, you aren’t going to get him to notice if you’re sitting here talking to me. Go see him again.”

“Oh yeah. I just show up and say I dreamed about him when I was in bed? What would he think?”

“No, silly. Find a reason to go back. Say there’s something wrong with your tattoo and ask if he can do anything about it or something. Then, while you’re there, turn on the sexy stuff. He’ll notice.”

The next Saturday, Cassandra walked up the steps to Thomas’s studio. She thought she saw a flash of joy when he smiled.

“Hi, Cassandra. What brings you back?”

Her mind raced for the explanation she’d been trying to think of all week. The wall of photo’s caught her eye and the idea was born.

“Remember I said my stretch marks got worse as they went lower? You can cover them with a tattoo, can’t you?”

“Well, yes, probably, depending on how big they are.”

Cassandra walked to the wall of photos and picked out one she’d seen on her last visit. The girl had a large design that covered most of her lower stomach.

“Would something like this cover them?”

“Yes, it might. What did you have in mind?”

“Can I look at your book again?”

She stood with her jeans and panties at her knees and her stretchy top pulled up over her bra. Thomas sketched away, looking up at her and smiling from time to time. Cassandra was amazed at herself. Six months ago, she’d have died rather than show her body to anyone except her husband or doctor. Now, she was naked from the bra to her knees, and was only embarrassed by the stretchmarks, not because Thomas was looking at her.

“OK, let’s see what you think. It’s a little different, but it’s what I see.”

Cassandra’s heart thumped. The heart-shaped knot of vines sat low on her belly with its point just above the start of her lips. Just as on her back, more vines coiled away from the heart to entwine with those on her flanks. Others arched out and up from the point of the heart and than trailed back down over her slender lips to end in spirals on the insides of her thighs. In the center of the heart was another butterfly.

She was entranced by both the beauty and by the absolute sexual feelings the drawing conveyed.

“You’re not saying anything. Too much?”

“No. It’s beautiful and it’s…, it makes me…. How do you see all that? It’s like you know what I’m feeling before I do.”

“Sometimes I just can read people…, some special people anyway. Their emotions come through when I look at them. Does that sound weird?”

“No, not if you don’t think I’m weird for feeling aroused by your drawing. Can you draw it, like before, so I can see it on me?”

“Sure. Uh, you’ll have go home and shave first, or I can do that for you here.”

“I think I’d rather you did it. I can’t see everything, you know, down there, and…, well, would you do it, please?”

The clippers buzzed as Thomas sheared away her dark curls. It was a little frightening to have anything sharp around so sensitive an area, but his gentleness helped. He was careful to stretch the skin tight so he wouldn’t accidentally nick her. His gloved fingers made her shiver.

“You know, a lot of people think tattoos are erotic. Being aroused by this one doesn’t make you weird, any more than I’m weird for being the same way.”

“I make you, I mean, it makes you excited?”

Thomas reached to the shelf behind the chair and pushed on the top of a black box. White shaving cream poured out onto his fingers. It was warm when he smoothed it over her mound and around her lips. She felt a slight pull from the new disposable razor as Thomas gently shaved her mound.

“Yes. I usually don’t react to them, but this one’s different somehow. Uh, I need you to spread your legs a bit more so I can reach everywhere.”

He was very careful, more careful than he had been with the clippers. Her mound was soon smooth and Thomas began to shave the recess between her thighs and her long, slender lips. He pulled each lip away from her body and shaved in short, careful strokes. As he worked, his fingers rubbed over her inner lips and occasionally bumped into her clitoris. Cassandra closed her eyes and let the sensations flow through her body. Before she knew what was happening, she began to respond.

His touch was as she had dreamed. The shaving cream made his gloved fingers slippery and soft and increased the feeling of arousal she’d experienced when looking at his drawing. Her body was preparing for an intimate union, and as a result, Thomas was soon having difficulty keeping her lips pulled tight. Her wetness caused them to keep slipping through his fingers. He would release his light grip and secure another. In the process, he was massaging Cassandra’s inner lips and the little bump that peeked from its hood.

She couldn’t tell if this was intentional or not, and she didn’t care. Her heart was racing with the sensations and with the knowledge that she wanted him to touch her there, to excite her as he was doing, to take her -, to make her -. Suddenly, Cassandra cried out, arched off the chair, and grabbed Thomas’s hand to keep it in place. She bucked again before collapsing back against the cushions. It took a few seconds for her to regain her composure.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I just….”

“It’s OK. It happens sometimes. I’m done anyway. Just lay back and relax while I do the drawing.”

It had never happened before, Thomas reflected, as he drew the design on her skin. When he’d done certain body piercings, yes, but not just from shaving a client. He wasn’t lying when he’d said the tattoo aroused him, either, although it was her more than the tattoo. It was a good thing she was lying down. He’d quickly dropped a towel over his lap when she climaxed, but it didn’t do much to hide the erection. It was still rock hard when he finished the drawing, and Thomas didn’t stand until she’d dressed again.

Linda’s voice giggled through the mouthful of chocolate brownie.

“So, how did it go. Did you let him know you’re hot for his bod?”

Cassandra sipped her coffee and then grinned.

“I think he might suspect. I had an orgasm while he was shaving me. He uh, he was hard too, I think. He put a towel over his pants but I could see him sticking up.”

“Shaving you? Orgasm? What the hell did you tell him?”

“That I wanted another tattoo to hide my stretchmarks. Here, I’ll show you.”

Cassandra unzipped her jeans and pulled them to her knees.

“Uh, Cassandra, we’re not in your bedroom. Aren’t you afraid somebody will see you through the windows?”

“I don’t care. I think this one’s as beautiful as my other one.”

“Gee, I’d forgotten what I looked like when I used to shave. Might have to try it again. Well, it is pretty, but are you sure about this? I mean, a tattoo on your ass is one thing. This one goes right down there on your coochy. If you’re as sensitive there as I am, it’s gonna hurt like hell.”

“Thomas says the pain is part of the cost, and I’m willing to pay that price.”

“Just too have him touch you again, right?”

“No. Well, yes, a little, but, well, it’s hard to explain. When I got the first one, it hurt, but I realized I could control it, kind of like when the kids were born. That’s a good feeling, to be in control. This one might hurt more, I don’t know, but it’s special. I did go back just to see him, but after I saw what he drew, I wanted it, the control, the beauty of it, and yes, I wanted to have him touch me there.

I think Thomas put the heart knot there for a reason, a reason I’m hoping is because he likes me. The vines that go down are there for a reason, too. I think it’s because he knows I’ve found a part of myself that’s been reborn, just like the vines are every year. Thomas said he saw that when he drew it. Don’t you see? I have to do this, because I have find out how he really feels. The worst that can happen is that I have a beautiful tattoo that makes me feel good. The best…, well, we’ll see.”

Cassandra’s heart throbbed as she climbed the steps. Did Thomas know? Did he feel as she hoped? He’d said she aroused him. He greeted her with a smile when she walked through the door.

“We still on for this?”

“Definitely. It’s beautiful, but I have to have it for some other reasons, too.”

“Oh? Care to tell me?”

“Not just yet. They’re personal and hard to explain.”

“I understand. I told you the same thing, didn’t I?”

“Yes, and I figured out what you meant after I got the first one. This one’s going to be even more personal, or at least I hope it will be.”

“OK. Well, you know the routine.” Thomas grinned wickedly and wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “Take off those jeans and hop up on my torture table.”

He covered her bare legs with a towel.

“Warm enough? I don’t want any goosebumps. Oh, and I need you to pull up your sweatshirt, please.”

She had some stubble.

“I’ll have to shave you again before I start, OK.”

“I’ll try to control myself this time.”

“No, it’s all right. You do what ever you feel like doing.”

She said it without thinking.

“If I do that, you’re not going to get much tattooing done.”

“Oh? Why?”

What had caused to say that? Linda had said she should encourage him, but wouldn’t he think she was only some divorcee who couldn’t control her emotions. Her mother always told her a woman who said she wanted a man would be considered slutty.

Thomas lifted one of her lips and slowly stroked the razor over the satin-soft surface. The wonderful tingle raced through her. Maybe he’d think she was a slut, but she didn’t really care.

“Because I think I like you. I think I like you a lot.”

Thomas paused. So, maybe it was him and not just the intimate experience of getting a tattoo? Once before, in Los Angeles, he’d thought…. No. He couldn’t. It had taken the dragons to rid him of the pain and now they reminded him of how badly he’d been hurt.

“Tattoos are an emotional experience. I think you’re just caught up in all that. We’ve been seeing a lot of each other and….”

“No. It’s you. I – I thought…, I was hoping you might feel something for me. Last Saturday, you said I excited you, and then, when I…. You were hard….”

“Cassandra, I got hurt once. Same thing happened then. I swore I’d never do that again. I can’t hurt that way again.”

“Why do you think I came back? It wasn’t to get another tattoo, well, not at first, anyway. I – I wanted to see if you ….” She put her hand over her face. “I guess I was wrong.”

Cassandra pushed herself up and started to get off the chair.

It was as useless to hide from his feelings as to threaten a lightning bolt. Thomas caught her shoulders.

“You weren’t wrong. I just wasn’t sure.” He pulled her into his embrace. “Until now.”

He held her in his arms and stroked her hair.

“When you first walked into my shop, it was there. I felt it, but I tried to ignore it. Then, when I started drawing your tattoo, it came again. It was like something was pulling me to you. Saturdays became the best day of the week, because you would be here. When you came back for another tattoo, I was so happy, but I couldn’t say anything.

“That one time before was a little like this, but she didn’t really want me. She wanted what I could do and that was the only attraction. I didn’t understand that. When she left, it about killed me. Cassandra, please don’t tell me you’re going to leave. I couldn’t take it.”

She kissed him, softly at first, and then with a passion she’d never felt for Brian. The kiss Thomas returned melted her in his arms. She pulled him tighter against her breasts.

“The only way I’ll leave is if you ask me to.”

Cassandra unbuttoned his shirt and caught her breath at the sight of his chest. Two large Celtic dragons entwined themselves in the center and down the muscles of his stomach. Around each nipple was one of the Celtic suns from his notebook. A wide band of knotwork ringed his belly. All of it was entrancing, but her eyes kept going back to the dragons and the suns. A sudden desire took her, and she kissed one of Thomas’s nipples. He shivered. She kissed the other, then pulled the sweatshirt over her head. Her full breasts sagged gently against her chest. Thomas lifted them and gently stroked her nipples with his thumbs.

“I didn’t wear a bra today. I thought, I was hoping, maybe….”

Thomas laid her back on the reclined chair, snapped off the latex gloves and shrugged off his shirt. He walked to the door, turned the latch, and as he walked back to the chair, unbuckled his jeans and stepped out of them. His fingers touched her breasts again, making her nipples rise, and then trailed down the length of her body. He used a towel to gently remove the shaving cream, and then lowered the footrest of the chair. Cassandra’s legs went down with the footrest until she lay with her knees bent and open.

His cock was stiff in her hand, but that wasn’t what made her gasp when she saw him. There were three bands of finely detailed knotwork encircling his shaft. She lightly stroked the soft skin, then stretched it over his hardness. The knotwork seemed to breathe. Thomas lightly caressed her shaved lips. His fingertips against her bare, smooth skin sent little ripples of sensation racing through her. Cassandra squeezed the hard cock in her hand and slowly stroked its length.

His fingertip slipped through her moist lips and slowly explored her wet, swollen ripples. Cassandra sighed and caressed the dragons on Thomas’s chest. With each breath he took, the fearsome beasts rose and fell beneath her fingertips. She traced the tattoo down over his belly and back up. Her nails scratched him lightly and Thomas groaned.

She felt the thickness of two fingers entering her and spread her thighs wide. Thomas curled the fingertips against the soft little pad just inside her entrance. With his thumb, he pushed down gently until he was squeezing and massaging the sensitive pad between his fingers and thumb. His cock slipped from her grasp as Cassandra cried out and pulled him down to her breast. Thomas sucked her nipple between his lips and gently rolled it.

When he touched her extended clit, Cassandra nearly jumped off the chair. It was just as she’d imagined, that Sunday morning. She lifted her hips as he lightly bit her nipple. Her wet warmth flowed around his fingers. Thomas raised slightly and moved the hand to his face. He inhaled her scent, smiled, and began nibbling his way down her belly. She felt his fingertips part her sex just as he kissed her on the soft swell of her mound. A fingertip swirled quickly around her clit and Cassandra rolled her head to one side. She recovered enough to feel his tongue searching over her lips, then between them. He was going to - , no, she couldn’t, just couldn’t.

She started to reach for his head, to stop him, but when his tongue touched her satin cleft, a wave of sensation racked her body. She moaned and again tried to stop him, but the rasp of his tongue over her clit took her mind to places of which she’d never even dreamed. Cassandra began to loll her head and moan as the surging waves shot from her sex to deep within her tightening belly.

She was at the brink when he stopped, moved to the end of the chair, and locked her legs around his waist. His cock bumped her wet lips, pushed forward into resistance, and then slipped down to her entrance. Cassandra raised her head and watched as each of the three knotwork bands disappeared slowly inside her. It was as if her swollen lips were devouring him, pulling him into her, and the sight was more erotic than she thought possible.

Thomas pulled back, then slowly sank his length back in until his dark curls brushed the smooth skin of her mound. Cassandra wrapped her arms around his back and let him sweep her into sexual limbo. Her nails first lightly scratched his back, then began to dig in as the waves of pleasure swept her. Through eyes half-closed with lust, she saw the dragons only inches from her heaving breasts. The dragons were reaching for her nipples, their mouths open to bite the small, tautly distended buds. Thomas pushed himself deep and bumped the end of her passage. She groaned and gave herself to the dragons, lifted her breasts to the gaping mouths, and felt the rasp of licking tongues on the dark, dimpled tips.

She wrapped her legs around Thomas’s thighs and gripped him tightly as the shudder started. She felt him push deep again, and pulled him tighter. Her belly contracted, then started to ripple as she fell over the edge. With a cry, Cassandra pulled Thomas to her mouth, her tongue searching for his and tasting her salty scent on his lips. His tongue found hers and that was enough. She heaved against him and the cry of her release exploded into his mouth. Her hips rocked into him as he spent himself in four deep thrusts. They stayed joined, each enjoying the feeling as Thomas slowly stroked his softening cock in and out. He kissed her, softly, with the gentleness of the love he felt.

“Well, after that, do you still want the tattoo?”

“More now than ever before. It’ll remind me of that special event I was hoping for, won’t it?”

She went to Thomas’s studio every night and the tattoo was finished in a week.

Cassandra stood up from the kitchen table, faced Linda and pulled open her robe.

“Well, what do you think? Do you suppose this is enough to tell me who I am again?”

“Cassandra, the first one changed you a lot. Now, I don’t even recognize you.”

“I’m still the same person. I just found a part of me that was hidden for all these years. I like that part, and I have you to thank for it.”

“I’m not sure I want to be responsible for all this.”

“Linda, I have to tell you something. I love you like a sister, but I never really understood you. You talk all the time about love and sex and you read all those magazines about love and sex and I thought you were a little nuts. I was married and thought I had as much of both as anybody ever got. After Brian did what he did, I thought maybe if I’d been more like you, we’d still be together.

“If I hadn’t done what you said, hadn’t gotten that first tattoo, I’d still think that, and I’d be miserable. I couldn’t be like you, not then, not until Thomas. Now I know it wouldn’t have helped anyway. Brian and I…, I don’t think we were meant to stay together. Don’t ask me how I know that. I just do. Anyway, I love you more now for helping me.

She embraced Linda and patted her on the back.

“Dammit, Cassandra. You’re naked under that robe and you’re hugging me. What if somebody was looking through the windows?”

“Uh, Linda, actually, someone is. Sit tight for a minute, OK.”

Linda heard the front door open, some muffled voices, and the door slamming shut. Cassandra walked quickly back into the kitchen, yanked the chair back and slammed herself into the seat.

“Whoever it was, they sure as hell pissed you off.”

“It was Brian. I saw him peeking through the window when I was hugging you.”

“What did he want?”

“Oh, his little redhead decided she’d made a mistake and left him. He wanted to talk. Thought I might take him back.”

“Well?”

Cassandra’s frown turned to a grin and she giggled.

“I told him to go fuck himself.” Her eyes flashed and she giggled again. “He seemed rather shocked.”

The hotel conference room was filled with people, and Cassandra stood behind the stage curtain. Beneath the robe, she wore nothing but high heels and a small bikini. Thomas hugged her and smiled.