21 year old Andromeda Myers walked through the crowded Berlin streets looking for the
tattoo parlour. Now, this was no ordinary tattoo parlour, this was one of the few Fortune Tattoos around the entire world. There were only 6. The others existed in New York, Rio de Janeiro, Beijing, Canberra, and Johannesburg.
Fortune Tattoos were one of the major discoveries during the 23rd century, and almost
50 years have passed since Fortune Tattoos opened its first store in Berlin. It was year 2275 Since then, the United Nations decided that there would be one parlour in each of the continents, not including Antarctica.
A German chemist discovered that mixing a few chemicals with a necro-stone would
produce an inky substance that forms a tattoo when it touches skin. These tattoos are different from normal tattoos because they’re completely permanent, and they depict a part of your future. Andromeda already had two.
A tattoo could be something as simple as a small rabbit, or as large and complicated as
an intricate painting. There could many meanings for these tattoos, but someday something will happen that has to do with them.
Andromeda continued to walk down Unter den Linden street until she saw the massive
building. Each Fortune Tattoo parlour was about 3 blocks large and could seat up to 2000 people in each one. You needed to reserve days to come in and get a tattoo, and Andromeda had been waiting exactly one year and seventy-two days for her next turn.
She walked through the grand entrance and saw giant letters spelling out  Zukunft
Tätowierung on the doorway. However, she used her translator that was programmed into hear brain to understand that it said Future Tattoos.
She presented her pass to the guard through her new smartphone. The guard nodded
and instructed her to pass through the doors on her left. The guard was speaking in german, but she understood what he was saying and said “Thank You.” Since everyone in the world was required to have the translator, the guard could understand Andromeda too.
She walked through the doors and went to the smallest of the four lines. After a couple of
minutes she reached the front.
“May I see your pass?” asked the attendant.
Andromeda handed her the pass
“Down that way” she pointed. “Your first left. You’ll be in room “O” with Anja.
Andromeda thanked her for her help and proceeded down the hallway with about ten
others who were going to their rooms. She heard a woman talking to another woman bragging about her tattoos.
“I’ve got fourteen and one of them is the size of my entire back!” she proclaimed. “And I
only have three left to figure out.”
Andromeda turn left into hallway 7, and walked down looking for room “O”. Once she
reached it she opened it slowly and peaked her head inside.
Inside a blond german lady in her early forties looked at her and smiled. “You must be
Andromeda!” she said enthusiastically. “My name is Anja and I’ll be doing your tattoo for today.” She reached out to shake her hand.
Andromeda noticed that she was speaking in German. “Nice to meet you Anja.” replied
Andromeda shaking her hand. “That’s a lovely tattoo!” she said looking at a small mosaic style tattoo of a dark horse.
“Why thank you!” Replied Anja. “That’s my newest one. I got it just three months ago.”
“Have you figured it out yet?” asked Andromeda.
“Not quite, however my husbands hover-car recently broke down and I’m hoping it
means that we can get one of the Mustangs, those look really cool. Now let’s get started. I can see that you’ve been through this process before so I can speed through the warnings real quick. Do not mess with the Artist as they are applying the ink, too much at one time can have serious side effects. Do not get the tattoo wet within five minutes of receiving it. And finally DO not try to consume any of the ink because there can be fatal consequences. So let’s get started shall we?”
Andromeda took a seat in her chair and Anja reclined it all the way backwards.
“So how long has it been since your last one?” asked Anja.
“About one year and two months.” replied Andromeda. “I booked my next appointment
as soon as I got home from the parlour. And here we are.”
Anja was still setting up the equipment. What were your Tattoos?” she asked.
“This one here,” she pointed to one on the back of her right shoulder, “was the first one I
ever got it is a book. It was about four years ago. After this one I couldn’t afford the 50,000 slips back then. But then I got hooked up with Monuments Publishing company and published some of my writings. Now I rake in about 800,000 slips a year. That’s what the tattoo foretold.”
“Wow that’s very interesting!” said Anja. “What about that one she pointed to the one on
The top of her right thigh. “That’s a picture of a necro-stone isn’t it?”
“Yep.” replied Andromeda. “I think it has to do with Fortune Tattoos, more specifically the
one I’m about to get.”
“That’s really cool!” said Anja. “Now that everything’s ready for you let’s get everything
Going.”
Anja dimmed the lights and turned on the machine. It hummed slowly to life, a
fluorescent greenish blue color shown from the large tank. Anja slowly reclined Andromeda's chair until she was facing the ceiling, and Andromeda shut her eyes. She wanted this to be a surprise. Anja put on a pair of black rubber gloves and a surgical mask.She carefully lifted out a thin long tube from under the counter and connected it to the tank. She gripped the tube tightly and brought it down to Andromeda’s left arm.
A single drop landed on her arm and a burning sensation spread through Andromeda.
She felt a tingle where the drop was and the tingle expanded all the way down her arm until after about thirty seconds the feeling ceased and Anja turned the lights back on. She put the tube back under the counter and turned the machine off. Then she looked at Andromeda and gasped.
Andromeda opened her eyes and looked down at her arm and was shocked by what she
saw. Running the entire length of her arm were large and very detailed bones and skeletons. It was a sign of death, and had only every happened to 4 people before.
Anja screamed and fell backwards onto the floor as Andromeda’s skin started to peel
Away all over. Andromeda tried to sit up but she had no strength, and she fell into a dark sleep in which she never woke up from.