tide

[mayalaen]

Addicts are drawn to tattoo artists because tattoo artists treat people like human beings even when others won’t (a lot of them are recovered addicts themselves), and they also don’t have qualms about buying stuff off them if it’s decent.

I just gotta be careful because some of them like to dump their entire backpack of loot onto the table in the lobby, and it’s usually dirty, so most of them in the area know they can only pull one or two things out at a time, show it off, and put it back, not dump all their inventory.

Yesterday an addict came up to Ash, one of my artists, with a canvas bag and in an over-the-top secretive way leaned in and slowly pulled a bottle of Tide partway out of the bag.

“This sells for $20 but I’ll let you have it for $10.″

It was so over the top secretive that Ash had to work very hard not to laugh. He didn’t want to insult the guy, but it was like the dude was trying to do a super secret drug deal, worried there were cops watching from the corner or something. For a bottle of Tide.

Ash didn’t want it so he politely said he wasn’t interested.

“Oh is it because you a Gain man?” was the response

Ash lost his cool and ended up laughing so hard he doubled over.

He gave the guy a $20, took the Tide, let him have one of his cigarettes, and stood outside chatting with the guy while they smoked.