Work Text:
“Ouch.” Callum said as he moved his face, the needle that had been pricking his face a few times felt strange against his skin, and his whole body was teasing because of the slight pain. “It hurts.”
Rayla rolled her eyes as she took the needle and dipped it in the bowl of blueish, white ink, the standard marking color for skywing elves, fitting for a human who knows the sky arcanum.
“Of course it hurts dummy, it’s a needle piercing your skin, you’re getting a tattoo, not eating dinner.”
She pressed the needle against his skin once again, and poked a few times closely to each other, to not miss any spots. And then, she once again got more ink.
Callum’s face felt so hot, and it hurt. This pain was… strange, and not what he was prepared for. But he would manage, he wanted a tattoo on his face to show his connection to magic. And it wasn’t like he would need to be poked every day for the rest of his life either.
It was a one time thing.
“I know pain is expected. I’ve just never been tattooed before. It’s strange, and hurts.”
“Like I said, there’s a reason it hurts.”
She poked him a few more times, and to minimize the pain, Callum did his best to look into Rayla’s face. She was concentrating, that was obvious. But Callum’s mind were on Rayla’s own purple marks.
“How long have you had your marks anyway?”
“Since I was a toddler, no big deal.”
“What? Really? Why so early?”
She shrugged.
“Tradition, and the fact that toddlers won’t remember the pain.”
“That’s so weird? Shouldn’t you wait a bit? It’s not like every elf have them anyway, just look at the elves in Lux Aurea. Barely any have tattoos.”
“That’s is because not all tribes see them on the same level of importance. We moonshadows think it’s the norm still, even for elves that aren’t warriors. We’re not the same.”
“Okay, that makes sense. How’s the tattoo going.”
“Callum, we’ve just started. It’s gonna take a while, because I want this done properly without messing it up. After all, you will have these the rest of your life.”