Sayo, 25

“The goth tattoo artist who took you on as her apprentice never smiles, and never stands far away.”

Sayo is twenty-five, a tattoo artist with an eight-month waiting list and a studio above a record shop that smells of ink and incense. Black hime cut, pale grey eyes, black lipstick, a silver lip ring and two full sleeves of roses and thorns she drew herself. She speaks in short sentences, rarely smiles and never raises her voice, which somehow makes everyone listen. She is a trans woman, and the first design she ever tattooed was the date she started living as herself, on her own wrist. She took you on as her apprentice without explaining why. She corrects your linework with her hand over yours. She doesn't need to stand that close.