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This is it , Anna thought to herself, go time . She took a deep breath and stepped through the door of the clinic, a bell dinging as she entered. It looked more like a day spa than the doctor’s office she was expecting. Her dermatologist had recommended this place for tattoo removal, but nobody else in the waiting room looked like his usual clientele.
Maybe it was because it was a Monday morning.
She walked up to the counter and introduced herself. The cigarette-voiced lady across the counter handed her a clipboard full of paperwork to fill out. As Anna sat down in an empty corner to fill out the form, she thought it would have been nice if that tattoo parlor by the beach in Florida a few years back had required half this much paperwork before letting her get her ex's name etched in on her lower back. What had Elsa called it at the time? Oh, of course, a tramp stamp. Her sister had apologized since then, but the words had burned into Anna’s mind, especially after her engagement with Hans had fallen apart.
Elsa had swallowed her pride and helped her plan that wedding, never mentioning any price tags. When Anna had started thinking about calling it off, she had gone and checked the venue price. Then she looked at the cancelation policy. The wording was dense and legalistic, but Anna came away with the sinking feeling that Elsa wasn’t getting much of her money back.
“Don’t worry about the cancellations, I’ll take care of that,” Elsa promised her.
“I’m sorry, you did so much, and you didn’t even like him,” Anna apologized.
“Money is money, better to have a few lost deposits now...”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“Seriously, good riddance to him!”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Really, have you seen what a divorce costs? The reception hall can keep that deposit.”
“Fine, you’re right. I do need to take care of one thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t you remember?”
Anna startled to her senses when the receptionist rasped something out. A large man with a shaggy red beard and tattoos all over his face got up and walked to the desk, and it appeared that he was the one the receptionist was calling over. Was that a leprechaun on the back of his neck?
Oh, wait, the leprechaun was holding a basketball; it was a sports logo. She couldn’t tell what half the other tattoos visible over his clothing were supposed to be. The door to the back opened and the face-tattoo man walked out of the waiting room.
Anna looked down at her lap and realized she’d only written down her name and her date of birth so far. Wait, no… she had written down her date of birth in the spot designated “today’s date”... She hoped they weren’t picky about scratching things out on these forms.
Even with just her name filled out so far, she really didn’t want to start over completely. She hurried through the basic information, and copied the information from her insurance card. Would they even cover this? She couldn’t imagine they would, but it didn’t hurt to try. Then there was a long list of health questions, with “yes” or “no” choices. Most of them were “no” answers, but then she got going and realized she had checked “no” for something where she should have checked “yes”... more scratching out and rewriting.
She got to the end of the bottom page, and double checked. Yes, she really had filled out the whole thing. It felt like she was handing in a final exam walking back over to the receptionist. A gruff “Thank you” and she was told to wait “just a few more minutes” until her appointment. Anna let out an audible sigh. Her appointment was officially five minutes ago.
As if on cue, the door opened and a young woman called out her name. She led Anna back to a small room that looked more like a dentist’s office. She had actually felt calm until now, though she did her best not to look or sound nervous.
The young woman read the list of risks and limitations, and Anna told her that she understood.
“Any other questions?” she asked.
“Do I need to change?” Anna asked, “I mean… is there a gown for me or something like that?”
“No, you’ll just need to keep the area with the tattoo visible.”
“Fine,” Anna sighed, beginning to undo her jeans.
“Wait, wait,” the young woman stopped her. “I’m just an assistant. The laser tech will be here in a few minutes.”
Anna sheepishly refastened her jeans. “Thank you.”
The assistant nodded, closing the door behind her as she left.
Anna hardly had time to gather her thoughts before there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” she said, trying to sound calm and collected.
A tall blond man in a lab coat walked in holding a clipboard, looking through what she could tell was the paperwork she had filled out earlier, full of errors.
“You’d think you guys would have erasable pens at a place like this,” she said with a half nervous giggle.
“You could just ask for a new form to fill out,” he replied dryly.
“Aren’t you supposed to introduce yourself?” she asked, “I mean, you have all of my information there, it seems only fair.”
He nodded. “I’m Kristoff. I’ll be your laser technician.”
“Hi, Kristoff,” she said, instinctively sticking her hand out to shake, “I’m Anna, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
He nodded, shaking her hand firmly. “So, it’s on your lower back?”
“Do I need to show you?”
“I will need to have access.”
She nodded, turning around and lowering her pants a few inches. “It’s so embarrassing,” she apologized instinctively.
“Your form says red, this is pink,” was all he said.
“Huh?”
“Pink will take more sessions to remove.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So, do you want to get started?”
She was glad Kristoff hadn’t told her to get comfortable before it started. She had been the sort of child to break an arm and not notice right away if everything was still in place, but the pain was beyond anything, even worse that getting the tattoo had been in the first place. She managed not to make any noise, but after a while she realized she had managed to bite the inside of her lip a little too forcefully.’
“Done for today,” he said.
It took her a moment to realize that he was on the other side of the room now, cleaning up. She put her hand on the spot, which had a small bandage.
“How many more sessions?”
“Ten sessions total, if you’re lucky,” he smirked.
“When is the next session?”
“You’ll arrange that out front, but it’s usually four or five weeks.”
Anna did the math in her head as she walked toward the door; this was going to take nearly a year. “Ugh, this is going to take longer than the relationship.”
He nodded. “We get a lot of business that way.”
“My sister was right, I shouldn’t have gotten a tattoo with the name of someone I just met that day.”
“You got a tattoo with the name of someone you just met that day?” Kristoff asked, looking at her.
“I thought you said that kind of stuff was common,” Anna said, regretting letting herself babble on.
He laughed. “Don’t worry, by this time next year, Hans will be long gone.”
“Wait, how did you know his name?” she asked before she could stop herself. “No, don’t answer that. I’ll see you in four weeks, Kristoff.”
Anna walked back into the waiting room, standing a respectable distance behind the man with the leprechaun tattoo as he made the arrangements for his next session. The spot on his neck was now covered with a small bandage.