foliage bokeh [Blair]

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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August 28th, 2027

Today was the day. Almost eleven years had passed since the unfortunate Potions incident where an entire cauldron of unknown liquid spilled onto her right leg, eating away at her pants and skin and ultimately leaving a giant, green blob in its place. Everything had healed perfectly, it just remained a forest green shade down her calf. Nothing she tried could get it to go away, from transfiguration to other potions. Even when turning into her animagus form, the black cat still had a brownish patch of fur on its right hind leg. That had been the first thing she checked after all. The thing was, she barely even noticed it anymore. Coworkers that didn't know how it came about assumed it was some weird, abstract tattoo or shrugged it off when she mentioned it was a potions accident. No one actually cared as much as she did, or thought others would. So since she couldn't remove it, the best option was to actually cover it up. With a real tattoo.

An appointment with Mystery Ink Arts has been made well in advance, though Juniper didn't actually know what the process was going to be. Or if they could even do anything in the first place. Over the years she used permanent markers to see if the affected area did anything to them, and it acted just like skin should. Except for being green. That led her to believe that having a tattoo placed over it, or using the color, would be one way to make it less noticeable and infinitely cooler. Trying to play it off as a piece of modern art didn't work anymore because it always invited more questions.

Heading into Diagon Alley and towards the tattoo parlor, Juniper did a few laps up and down the street to get herself in the right headspace. She still had a few minutes to spare, assuming today was going to be the day where she made a permanent decision over the permanent mistake. Obviously she wanted it hidden away, but it was still a big step. And Merlin, her parents would freak the second they saw such a large piece. Their opinions on things barely mattered to her anymore but it was still the thought of them saying something that almost deterred her.

Reminding herself that they were old school and did weirder things in the 70s and 80s than she'd ever done in her life, she finally entered Mystery Ink Arts and approached the front reception desk. "Hi, I'm here for an appointment. Should be under Juniper..."

@blair ● 429 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

August 28, 2027

Being a full tattoo artist still gave Blair a feeling of impostor syndrome from time to time, like she wasn't really an adult and was actually playing hooky from Ilvermorny for a few years. In reality, though, she knew that she had earned where she was in her career. She had had to go through an apprenticeship and had the skills to show for it, and she had done what she had aimed to do when she left her year at Hogwarts behind. She had made a life for herself in another country, where people paid her to ink her artwork onto their bodies permanently. That was just about the highest form of flattery there was.

She had a new client scheduled for that day, a Juniper McGonagall. With how small the magical community was, Blair was almost certain that Juniper had to be related to Minerva McGonagall, the professor and former Hogwarts headmistress, somehow. Really, most people's last names could give a pretty good indication of who they were and where they were from. Blair knew that her own last name, at least back home in the United States, was another good example: Carlos Lopez was one of the original twelve MACUSA Aurors, not that she knew how many generations back she was actually related to the guy. Some people—the history buffs, mainly—thought it was great that she was a Lopez, but Blair didn't really care. Living in London was nice because no one seemed to care there, either.

At exactly the time for which her appointment was scheduled, a young woman who appeared to be in her late twenties came inside the tattoo parlor, saying that she was there for an appointment under "Juniper".

Blair gave a slight nod to the employee working the desk after she finished preparing her station and then smiled at Juniper as she walked towards her. "Hey, Juniper," she said with a slight wave of her hand. "I'm Blair. How are you doing today?"

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Barely a moment had passed from when she spoke to the receptionist to when another employee approached, introducing herself as Blair. If she remembered correctly, this was the tattoo artist that was going to be hopefully helping her today. Immediately Juniper realized that Blair was American, sort of forgetting that there had been an invasion of them over the last several years. It didn’t register in her brain as unusual, really, except for when she wasn’t expecting it. “Hello,” she responded, almost meekly because it was starting to set in that her horrific green spot might finally be covered up. There was a feeling of nervous excitement, like the night before Christmas when she was younger, or more recently, the first day she taught her classes. Having to deal with her spot for all these years had gotten easier with time, especially because it could easily be hidden, but she was done with it. And then immediately after she was going to flaunt it to Nell Ollivander one last time, assuming her former classmate even remembered spilling the cauldron in the first place.

“I’m doing well. Sort of hoping you could help with a bit of an unconventional cover-up,” Juniper started to explain. Were they supposed to go somewhere else to do this? Because she really didn’t mind pulling up the leg of her sweatpants to show Blair. She decided to keep everything as it was for now, before continuing, “Basically part of my leg has been permanently dyed green from a potions accident in school years ago, and I want it to be less obvious. I figured a tattoo might work, assuming that can be done over the area.” Magic couldn’t remove the damage caused by magic, but there wasn’t anything saying an additional layer couldn’t be done over the top of it. Over the years she had attempted various experiments, and it seemed like the skin was virtually normal. The only difference was the green that wouldn’t go away. A tattoo would be utilizing the skin like normal and repurposing the spot. She really wanted this to work.

@blair ● 350 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

August 28, 2027

Juniper answered her and said that she was doing well. She was wondering, she added, if she "could help with a bit of an unconventional cover-up". That immediately caught Blair's attention, and she listened as Juniper explained that part of her leg had been permanently dyed green since she was in school years before.

"Yeah," Blair nodded. "I can definitely help you with that." She had done cover-ups of tattoos that clients hadn't wanted fully removed before, and she imagined that tattooing a patch of green-pigmented skin that had been changed by a potion would be similar. "I think we might need two sessions for this, depending on how big the spot is and what you were thinking of getting tattooed," she mused. Any color and shading almost certainly would need to be left for a second session, especially because she would want to make sure that the tattoo was healing properly from the first session. If necessary, she also wanted to ensure that she could match the color of the green spot Juniper already had.

"Do you have an idea of what you want already, or do you want me to take a look at it and see what might work there?" she wondered, curious as to what Juniper's thoughts were on the subject. Most people came in to get tattooed with an idea of what they wanted already, especially if they had an appointment.

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

▲

The confidence in Blair's voice was absolutely welcome, considering Juniper didn't even know if a cover-up was possible. She supposed they were both going to find out relatively soon here. It was almost funny that the tattoo artists was already guessing that they'd have to go through two sessions in order to fully complete it, because in her own research Juniper had come to a similar conclusion. Based on size alone, it was massive on her tiny calf. "Its the whole side of my leg," she confirmed, turning so that she could lift the pant leg up to her knee to show Blair. The splash damage, as she called it these days, went from just below her knee on the outside of her calf, all the way down to ankle, with intermittent splotches where liquid had bounced. She counted herself lucky that for whatever reason her shoes had blocked it from burning through, and that she always wore pants on Potions days. Even Madame Pomfrey had said so herself while slapping every ointment and healing spell under the sun onto the leg. If her skin had been completely exposed, there was no telling what her leg would look like right now.

"Considering how big it is..." Juniper began as she looked down at her leg. "I'll be honest, all the larger muggle tattoos I saw online were of dragons. So I think that would be pretty cool." And it would also be completely unlike her to have a humongous dragon on the side of her leg. If the spot was smaller, maybe a black cat to match her animagus form would work. But not this monstrous green spot. Juniper was going big, because she wanted something nice to look at after all these years. A giant dragon taking up her whole leg fit the bill too. They just had to get to the part where the ink worked first, and then it would finally disappear forever.

@blair ● 326 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

August 28, 2027

Lifting the leg of her sweatpants so that she could see the green spot in question, Juniper mentioned that it was on the whole side of her leg. Sure enough, it was; it went from her knee to her ankle, essentially.

"Okay, yeah," Blair mused, looking at the spot on Juniper's leg now that it was actually visible to her. "I can work with that." It wasn't every day that she got to tattoo green skin to be less noticeable—ish. A tattoo would be more noticeable, obviously, but it would look like it was always meant to be there.

Juniper mentioned that most of the Muggle tattoos that she had found online were of dragons, and she thought that that could work. Blair nodded. A Common Welsh Green would make use of the existing green nicely—and hopefully hide that the original green spot hadn't been intentional.

"Do you have any images as a reference for what you'd like it to look like, or do you want to describe to me what you're thinking? I can get a sketch drawn up based on your ideas, and then we can go from there and discuss pricing and everything."

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

▲

Hearing Blair say that she would work with the green spot was one of the single greatest moments in recent memory for Juniper. The spot had plagued her for a decade and she was done with it. No more having to explain to people what it was or being worried about what she wore, despite that never being a problem before. Literally everyone accepted the school accident and was seemingly interested on what the recovery was like. But Juniper hated it. It reminded her of everything that came after, which while good, was also the start of what she ruined with Rhys. Permanently hiding away the green splotch felt like it would be a step in the right direction for her. Maybe keep her from trying to seek him out again. If it didn't, oh well. Dragging herself back in every couple of years was sort of fun sometimes.

As for reference images, Juniper had the forethought to save a couple to her phone. She didn't know if any of them would work, but they seemed pretty cool and big enough to cover everything. Whatever she ended up going with, it was basically going to end up covering more than half of her leg. It needed to be awesome. "Something like this, maybe?" she held out her phone to show Blair, flicking through the artistic renderings of green dragons. None of them were remotely close to what an actual dragon looked like, which was disappointing. "I was thinking of using a pose from one of these and using a Common Welsh Green, if possible?" Money wasn't much of an issue for her since this was something she absolutely needed to do for herself. If only the spot had turned black, then she could have a black cat instead, to match her animagus form. Using what she already had would help in the long run though. At least she thought it would. She had no idea how this whole process was actually going to go down yet.

@blair ● 336 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

August 28, 2027

It was great to have clients who came in prepared, and Juniper was. She showed her some references for green dragons on her cellphone. All of what she was showing her was perfectly doable, Blair thought, though the art was… subpar. (Blair knew not to say that out loud, but she knew that could do better than that in her sleep.)

"I was thinking of using a pose from one of these and using a Common Welsh Green, if possible?" Juniper asked her.

Trying not to insult Juniper in case the less realistic dragon was the kind that she wanted on her body, Blair looked up at her after looking through the images on her phone. "Do you want a more realistic dragon?" she asked for the sake of clarification. "Like, more like a real Common Welsh Green would look but posed like that? Or do you want something like the art style you've shown me?" She could draw up whatever it was Juniper wanted, even if it really wasn't the sort of art that she would have drawn for herself or gotten tattooed on her own body. What mattered was that Juniper was happy with the tattoo that she ended up with, but Blair didn't want the green spot on Juniper's leg to look worse, either.

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

▲

There were a lot more choices than she'd assumed there would be. Even after watching videos to get an idea of what the entire process was, there never seemed to be much on the part that led up to getting the tattoo. At least not from what she had watched and read about. Most of her research - outside of what to expect - had been focused on the potential pain scale. It seemed like the specific location she wanted to have worked on wasn't too bad, for the most part, but she was going to be sitting for a very, very long time. Especially considering how large of a space needed to be covered. But there really was no way of telling yet. In retrospect, she probably should have gotten a smaller piece done first to see if she could even handle it to begin with. Almost too late for that though.

"A bit more realistic would probably be for the best," Though she honestly didn't care. All she wanted was for the green spot to not be a green spot. Literally anything that could cover it up would work for her. At the same time, a realistic dragon definitely meant it was going to take a lot longer to do. Even she knew that. More time in the chair, probably more pain and her legs falling asleep, but ultimately worth it. "Is the process different than a muggle tattoo? Like do you utilize magic throughout it?" Juniper asked suddenly, realizing that she had only seen videos on how the normal people did it. She didn't exactly want her dragon moving around as if it was a portrait or photograph. Unless it moved the green spot with it. Such a thing didn't seem feasible, but she had no problem admitting that she had absolutely no idea how any of this worked. The whole thing was new and unknown territory for her, magic included or not. It was exciting!

@blair ● 329 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

August 28, 2027

"A bit more realistic would probably be for the best," Juniper answered her. That gave Blair a solid idea of what she was working with, between the references Juniper had shown her and her verbal input.

Juniper then asked if the tattooing process was the same as it was in the Muggle world, which made it sound like this one would be her first tattoo—or at least her first tattoo done by an artist in the magical world. At least Juniper's question meant that she wasn't totally oblivious to how non-magical tattoos were done.

"Yeah, it's pretty much the same but with magic," Blair answered. Though some people probably would have preferred it if she could just airbrush something on them and then have that design stay like that permanently, that wasn't how tattooing worked—not in the non-magical world and not in the magical world, either. She wasn't running a face-painting booth at a fair. "So we have tattoo machines, but they run on magic and not electricity."

More and more aspects of magical life required something or other that the No-Majes would have required electricity to use, and it wasn't just for computers and phones and the like. There was a whole department at the Ministry of Magic that handled all of that, not that Blair wanted to switch careers to become one of those people who had to deal with all that paperwork and bureaucratized nonsense.

"It'll feel like a little bit of a scratch at first," Blair informed Juniper after a moment, feeling that it was safe at that point to assume that this was Juniper's first tattoo. Obviously, Blair herself didn't think that the sensation was too bad; she was pretty heavily tattooed relative to her age, and the pain hadn't stopped her from getting more. "Oh, and I have stuff to numb the area, too," she added.

In all honesty, Blair thought that numbing up her leg might actually work better for Juniper, given that she wasn't fully certain, as her tattoo artist, that the green skin wouldn't react differently to being tattooed somehow. (That was why they made clients sign paperwork so that they wouldn't be held liable for anything weird.)

"If you want to come over to my station," Blair offered her as she gestured over to it, "I can get an initial sketch drawn up for you. You can see if that works with what you're thinking, I can make any adjustments you'd like, and then we can figure out the cost and get the paperwork filled out."

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

▲

If phones and internet could now run on magic, it only made sense that a tattoo machine could as well. Not like such a thing should shock her. A portion of the equipment at work was starting to be converted to operate via magic as well, a snowball effect that was growing exponentially faster now that a number of barriers had been safely broken. She wasn't envious of the Ministry workers that were doing all of it though. Even if she had the prowess to figure it out, the time and effort to implement it into ever facet of a culture that had actively rejected modernization for centuries, was insane. That was where her patience wore out. Needless to say, she was excited to see how this contraption actually functioned, and if that would change how the tattoo turned out.

She nodded her head to show that she understood everything Blair was telling her, not worried about the potential pain at all. Anything was better than her skin almost being melted off from a potion, or accidentally getting into a scrape with a street cat in her animagus form. That was literally the worst. Those injuries tended to come back with her too, the scar on her chin a visual reminder of crossing the path of a rather aggressive alleycat that had lived behind her flat once upon a time. Since then, she had learned to stay away even in her normal, human form. The cats always knew there was something suspicious about her...

"Absolutely," Juniper agreed as she followed the directions. She had no idea if today was the day she was getting it done or not, but from what she had read online it looked like larger pieces, like the one she was trying to get, took hours to do. Either way, she was fine with coming back if that was the case. Covering up the green splotch was the endgame here. She'd lived with it for ten years now, another week or so wouldn't kill her. It wasn't like it was going anywhere.

@blair ● 346 ● Song by Artist

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[Deleted]

August 28, 2027

Juniper seemed to have become a bit more confident about the process of being tattooed once it had been explained to her, which was positive from Blair's perspective. Rarely, she did have clients who decided not to go through with it after all, so she was glad that it didn't sound like Juniper would end up being one of them. That was also why she had been trained to start by tattooing a small mark first before going any further. That way, people could choose to back out if they really felt that they needed to.

"Absolutely," Juniper agreed with what Blair had just mentioned about starting on a sketch, and so off to Blair's station they went (not that it was that far away in actuality).

Once they were there, Blair took a seat on her stool and summoned over some parchment and a pencil. "Okay," she stated, pencil in hand so that she could erase her work and switch it up as needed. "So you said you're going for a more realistic Common Welsh Green, right?" she asked again, just to confirm. "Is there anything else that you want to include or just the dragon?"

juniper minerva mcgonagall