We made it to the lobby and stepped out the front door of my building into the parking lot. I was outside dressed like a rent boy with a bigger and older construction worker. If anyone saw us, they would know that I was Jim’s sissy bitchboy. I had just taken my first steps out of the closet, and it was damned terrifying.
Jim opened the passenger door to his pickup truck and I hopped in as fast as I could. Sanctuary! I had made it without being seen. Thank heavens it was Sunday and we were on lockdown, so there was barely a soul around. Jim got in and patted the space next to him. It was a classic older truck with a bench seat and I got his meaning. I slid over to the center of the seat to sit right next to Jim. He reached under my butt and pulled out the ends of the old-style seat belt. Jim clicked the belt into place around my hips and then pulled the end strap, taking out the slack until I was tightly secured…and trapped!
Jim started the truck and my mind raced with horrifying possibilities. What if they pierced more than my ears? Would I return permanently covered with humiliating tattoos? What if Jim was a psycho? Nobody knew where I was. I imagined surveillance video of me in my pink short shorts getting into an aptly named “pickup truck” on the news as a salacious missing person story with a picture of me in my old college soccer uniform and the headline Former College Athlete Missing After Gay Tryst…
Jim could be selling me to the guy at the tattoo parlor for all I knew. I could spend the rest of my days locked in his basement as a sissy gimp… Anybody see Pulp Fiction?
“You okay, Chris?” I nodded dumbly. “You want to loosen your grip then?”
“Oh. Sorry,” I was so tense, that I had been holding onto Jim’s arm with a kung fu grip.
“Sure you’re okay?”
The dam broke. “We are just going to get my ears pierced and nothing else, right? I don’t want to end up like one of those tattoo freaks, please don’t make me get any piercings or tattoos Papa Bear. I’ll be a good boy for you I promise…” I almost wailed.
“Whoa. Dude. I’m just taking you to a friend of mine to get your ears pierced…if you want. That’s all…” he squeezed my thigh reassuringly. “I think the Johnson’s really did a head job on you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to with me. Do you understand?”
I looked up at Jim and nodded. He was right, the Johnsons were in my head. Jim and I were lovers, that was all. Everything else I was dreading or panicking about was a result of the abuse I had suffered at the hands of my twisted neighbors. I rested my head on Jim’s shoulder, “Thanks for helping me deal with all that BS.”
“That’s what I’m here for Boo-boo.”
Damn, I was lucky to have him.
Jim pulled the truck into the parking lot behind the tattoo parlor. “You want to do this, or should I take you home?”
“Let’s do it,” I said firmly. We got out and Jim knocked on the back door. A moment later the door opened and a wall stood there. OMG. The big biker dude that stood there was even bigger than Jim! Zach filled the doorway. The man was a giant in jeans, tee shirt, leather vest and boots with a goatee obvious under his mask.
“Hey, Zach. I hope we didn’t keep you waiting.”
“No problem. I ain’t got nothing going on with the shut down anyway.” Zach gave me the once over, “This your boy?”
I blushed furiously. “Yeah, this is my boy, Chris.” I couldn’t protest about being called a boy by these two large men. I felt like I was in the land of the Giants…
“Cute. C’mon in.”
I squeezed past Zach into the tattoo parlor. The place was surprisingly clean inside. I found my voice, “Thanks for opening up for me, Zach. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem little feller. This has to stay on the DL. We’re not officially open. Take a seat and I’ll have your ears done in a jiffy.”
I sat in a barber type chair and tried to relax while Zach got everything ready to pierce my ears while Jim browsed some racks of cheesy jewelry and accessories. I’m not a short skinny guy. I’m an athletic average height former jock, but I felt weak and tiny in that small room with these two bulky older men. Sitting in the chair in my little pink nylon outfit that left my smooth arms and legs exposed and pink painted nails with two fully clothed alpha males was pushing my submissive buttons big time. These giants could spit roast me any time they wanted, but Zach was all business and professional. I had to answer some medical questions and sign a release, then before I knew it Zach grabbed the gun and a couple of quick stings later the deed was done. Zach gave me a mirror and I checked out the cute little studs that now adorned my ears. I had just stepped down another rung on the ladder of being a sissy.
“Looking good, Chrissy. Good job, Zach. Put these on my tab, will you?” Jim held up a couple of items. “Check these out.” Jim held up a cheesy necklace that in florid script said, “Chrissy” with a little rhinestone dotting the i. He handed me something else as he stepped behind me and clasped the necklace around my neck. I looked at the cheap piece of costume jewelry around my neck in the mirror and knew that I would cherish it always. It was the first piece of jewelry that Jim had given me, and I knew it would not be the last.
“It’s perfect. Thanks, Bear,” my reflection smiled at Jim behind me. “What’s this?” I asked, holding up the other item.
“It’s a bear print key chain,” he smiled back.
“Yeah, I do a lot of those tats for boys that are into bears,” Zach confirmed.
“Really?” I asked, intrigued. “How much do you charge for one of those?” Zach told me the price and my eyebrows popped up. “Really?” I had no idea tattoos cost that much, not that I had ever given it any thought before. Then I remembered that I had Jim’s rent money in my pocket. I pulled out the cash. “Let’s do it!”
“Whoa… You sure about that?” Jim asked, giving me a chance to back out.
“I’m sure. Umm…can you give us a minute?”
“Okay…I’ll hit the can.”
Once Jim was out of earshot, I asked Zach about getting the bear print with some writing with it. Zach smiled, “I get it. Like that car commercial with the dogs…” Then I added another line for good measure.
By the time Jim came back I was getting my first tattoo permanently burned high into my right bicep like a shoulder patch. I made him sit on my left so he couldn’t see it until Zach was done. If I had known how much getting a tattoo stung, I wouldn’t have had it done in the first place. I sat there trying not to move, wincing and clenching as I endured the long process while Jim and Zach chatted nonchalantly.
Finally, it was done. My upper arm was red and sore as hell, like I had been punched a dozen times. But it was worth it when Jim saw it. I was marked in black ink with a bear paw print circled with “BEAR TESTED – BEAR APPROVED” on the upper two thirds of the circle and on the bottom third it proudly stated, “BEAR OWNED SINCE 6-6-2020” today’s date…
I had permanently marked myself as Bear’s property.
Jim smiled down at me approvingly, “Nice ink, Boo-boo.”