Chapter Six � D�j� Vu

In the early part of the millennium, I found myself at a waypoint in my life again. I had bitter feelings from a couple recent, and very serious, relationships, and found myself back at square one in my life again. I had drifted from various jobs, only barely surviving, and simply filling time with nothing to do. My creativity had been slowed to a full stop for years, and I felt stifled in my life and surroundings, drifting from day to day merely existing and uninspired. I had a dead-end job, no girlfriend, and was very much living a hand-to-mouth existence. I was feeling suffocated and needed change, but was unsure how I could accomplish this.

            As it would happen, I again encountered a significant person in my life, and this time the effect would have far more lasting, and eventually negative, effects on me. On an occasion with conversing with my brother John, I would be informed that he had run into a mutual friend of ours that I had not heard from, nor though about in years: my mentor in tattooing, Cheech.

            In the years since we had spoken, I had heard various stories of the events in his life since last seeing each other: he had drifted for a few years after his divorce, but had still maintained his job as a mechanic, his fatherly duties with his children, and his passion for tattooing. He was, at that time, living down the street from my brother, and he suggested we re-connect. Out of boredom and curiosity, I accepted the idea, and made the trip with him down the street to see him.

            He was now living I an old house on King Street in Welland, situated between a furniture store and one of the oldest (and notorious) taverns in town. This house was occupied by him, his new wife, Lady Kimberly, and her children from a previous marriage. Upon seeing him again, we cautiously greeted each other, but within a few minutes, warmed up to each other once again as in the old days. He proceeded with the tour of the house, and informed me that the house had been inherited by his wife from her grandfather, who they had taken care of in his last days. In return, he left the house to them in his will. It was a very old home, probably one of the oldest homes in town that had not been renovated or torn down, and was in some repairs. Eventually, he showed me to an upstairs room that he had turned into his tattooing area. This is where we came to sit and converse.

            Cheech informed me that the house was being renovated to not only make better accommodations for his wife and family, but to also be divided into two separate areas, one for living, and the front area being separated for the purposes of opening a business, specifically, to re-open Skin Graphics Tattoo. Excited at the prospect, he minced few words in asking me to help him again and get the tattoo shop going. The renovations for the sop had pretty much a couple months left to go, and he was gearing up for re-opening a shop again, and was aware that he would be in need of another artist, and felt he could find no-one more suitable. I had not tattooed in years, and though I felt I might be a bit rusty at it, I was still willing for the opportunity. This had been the change I had searched for, one that I had ignored foolishly for years!

            We spent the next couple months finishing off the renovations: dividing the main floor of the house into two separate areas, closing off a stairwell, installing plumbing fixtures, flooring, and painting and decorating. The major work had already been completed before I had entered the picture, so most of the hard work had been done by contractors. After this was done, the rest was easy, mostly organizing and preparing for the opening.

In this time, I got close to Cheech again, rekindling a friendship I had not had in years, as well as connecting with his wife and her family. I should mention that I have also known Lady Kimberly for many years before, as we had all grown up in the same small town, so she was not a stranger to me, or certain members of her family, who remember me as a little boy, now all grown up.  Lady Kimberly was a feisty female indeed, who would be very opinionated most times, and very vocal with her opinions. Though she was small in height, she was enormous in any room by her demeanour. She had a commanding presence in her own right, and many who know her will attest to this. As well, she never took s**t from anyone for anything, leaving some with an impression that she is not one to shy from any confrontation, or, as others might see her, she was merely a b***h. This was not to say that I did not like her, but will admit that she is one who can be hard to handle at times. This would make for interesting times ahead as she, since she was Cheech’s wife and the legal property owner from the will, was to become a co-owner of the tattoo shop with Cheech. The prospect of our opening excited all of us equally.

In time, the shop soon opened, but to a different scene in town that I had known before. When we had last been open as Skin Graphics, we had been the only shop in town then. Since that time, a couple new shops had opened with varying atmospheres and talents. But, we still had numerous friends and former clients that were excited to see us open again, and we were not without business or customers. In some cases, I was tattooing some of the younger brothers and sisters of old clients and friends, and, in some rare cases, their sons and daughters. I had also gotten closer to Cheech and Lady Kimberly and the kids, so I felt like I was in a second home, complete with a family, all under a roof where tattoos happened. I quickly found that tattooing had become much like bicycle riding in that one never forgets the skill, though it may take time to re-adjust. I was again slowly becoming a man-about-town and in sought after for tattoos, so I was coming out of my shell that I had been in for the last, lost years of my life to that point. I felt renewed and reborn, though, in time, this was only to become a beginning to an end. I sped out of a ditch I had been in fro a long time, though I did not realize I was merely crossing over into the wrong lane before entering another ditch.