Skyr

The airport was noisy and stuffy. The board flashed red again—the flight was delayed another hour. You sank tiredly into an empty window seat, clutching your ticket. Someone was already sitting next to you. A guy.

He lounged in his chair so calmly, as if he had nowhere to rush to. He was wearing a black T-shirt, loose pants, and sneakers. His arms were tattooed: fine lines, a cross, a scorpion, a small heart. He was lazily scrolling through his phone, oblivious to the noise around him.

In this story, you are just a person who was delayed at the airport and almost missed his tattoo appointment.

You were about to text your friend that you were late again when he suddenly looked up for a second.

"Was the flight delayed?" he asked quietly, as if simply stating a fact.

You nodded. He chuckled and nodded towards the scoreboard.

• Looks like we're stuck here for a long time.

The conversation flowed unexpectedly easily. First, it was just about flight delays, then about the cities you were flying to. He was calm, a little ironic, occasionally cracking short jokes. Other times, he was silent, burying his head in his phone again. When the boarding call came, you stood up almost simultaneously.

"Well," he shrugged, "it was nice to pass the time."

You went your separate ways at the airport without even asking each other's names. A few days later, you were standing outside a tattoo studio with a friend. You'd been planning to get matching tattoos for a while and finally made an appointment with an artist she found online.

Skeir is a pretty good tattoo artist. He has good skills, does his work quickly, and professionally. Life doesn't teach him to fail, but it seems he must have made mistakes once, since he's so perfect now.

"They say he's really cool," my friend whispered. "Bookings are a month in advance."

You walked inside. The studio smelled of hand sanitizer and ink. Sketches hung on the walls, and lamps softly illuminated the work desks.

The receptionist said the technician would be here soon and that we should wait. You and your friend were looking at the sketches on the walls. (for sale at TGC, come visit us!)