Fantasy Careers: Tattoo Magician

Fantasy Careers is a blog series where I interview characters from fantasy books about their interesting jobs and unusual careers. Interested in taking part? Drop me a line through my contact form.

Elise: Today, I’d like to welcome Dacian to Magic Writer. He’s come all the way from Prague. Welcome, Dacian. Can you tell us about your job?

Dacian: I’m a freelance tattoo magician; that means I bring through magical tattoos, not to get too technical here. My speciality is animals, although some days I wish it was sigils, they don’t bite or claw. Ahem, as I was saying. When someone has a magical tattoo ready to be brought through, they’ll feel it in their mind, and they’ll come to me. If the tattoo’s ready, I’ll feel a tingling sensation from the magic and then bring it through. That’s very painful for the recipient as I’m bringing an animal through from … somewhere, I didn’t pay attention in college. Anyway, I connect with the ink magic network and bring the animal through so that it’s connected to the recipient’s essence. The animal quite often claws, bites, and such. If it’s a large animal then my tattooing partner, Keirn, will assist me. He’ll protect me from said biting and clawing while I complete the tattoo.

Elise: Wow, that’s interesting. Do you have a particular area of expertise?

Dacian: Animals. I don’t specialise further than that. I suppose you could argue my expertise is difficult and strong animals given I’m rather skilled.

Elise: And what does a typical day look like for you?

Dacian: I usually get word that I have a client, often with as little notice as two hours. I’ll figure out where the client is, and head over there with my tattooing equipment. Once I’m at the client’s place, I’ll start by painting the tattoo that’s trying to come through onto the client’s skin, often the back as it’s the largest and easiest place to do so. If the client approves, then I bring the tattoo through.

Elise: What’s your favourite part of the job? 

Dacian: Working with the ink and feeling the connection between the client and the tattoo form. It’s an amazing feeling.

Elise: It does sound very rewarding. You mentioned Keirn, your tattooing partner. Do you get on well with him?

Dacian: Yes, he’s my tattooing partner and my best friend. He’s far more interested in the art than the tattooing so we rarely work together these days. He’s passionate, protective, kind, and a lot of fun to work with.

Elise: What made you decide to become a tattoo magician? Did you have to do much training?

Dacian: My magic type is tattoo magic, so it was either become a tattoo magician, or try and get a non-magic job somewhere. I have to be honest, the idea of being an office drone never entered my head. I did three years in college. I’m pretty sure they tried to teach us the history of the magic and such, but I only really paid attention to the art classes. I could already work with the ink magic, so that was tedious. We were taught how to produce good clean tattoos, the ethics, and other such things.

Elise: Well, as someone who took the office drone route, I can say you probably made the right decision! It doesn’t sound like you had many options for a career. Is this your dream job?

Dacian: Does wandering the world with Keirn count as a job? If not, yeah, I think this is my dream.

Elise: *laughs* Yeah, I think we’ve all had that dream. So, on a lighter note, you have any funny or interesting stories about the job?

Dacian: I’m sure some of them would be funny from the outside but were only frustrating to me. A lot of people really push the limits when their tattoos are new. I’ve had someone with a raccoon tattoo stand by and watch as their raccoon tried to steal everything shiny in my tattoo parlour. The air elementals with the damn song birds that refused to stay still and return to their tattoos produced a lot of giggles from friends.

Elise: It sounds fascinating … although yes, I can see that’s probably not quite the word you would use! So, if I were to come by and visit, is there anything you could do for me?

Dacian: If you had a tattoo ready to come through then I could bring it through, otherwise there’s nothing. I could recommend some great bars.

Elise: Next time I’m in the area then, we’ll have to go out for a drink! Thanks for stopping by today, Dacian.

Find out more about Dacian in Stolen Ink by Holly Evans:

Stolen Ink

I’m Dacian, a tattoo magician. Life was pretty good. All I had to worry about was finding a pretty guy to fall into bed with at the end of the week. Then everything started to fall apart around me. Maybe I cursed the gods one too many times? Whatever happened, I now have two major problems. 

Number one – I’m an ink magician, the thing of myths. A lot of very powerful people would love to get their hands on me, and I have no intention of letting that happen. 

Number two – A tattoo thief came to my city, and the magical community has decided that I’m the guy to stop them. 

Somehow, I have to catch the thief without letting my secret out of the bag, and that’s even harder.

Holly Evans

Holly Evans is an urban fantasy author with an unhealthy fascination with blades, a deep love of hellhounds, and would love one day to wake up as a fae. When she isn’t wrangling rogue characters and trying to tame her muse, she’s researching shiny new ninja moves. During her spare time she fights crime and rights wrongs on the streets of County Kerry.

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