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When a ghost bested another in battle, they earned a tattoo in glowing, ghostly ink, representative of their victory. There’s no rhyme or reason to where they appear, only that they will eventually. The thing was, Danny didn’t know this. His parents never got close enough to a ghost that won fights to have any data on it, and since he never seemed to get any he figured it was just a fashion statement.
That is, until he noticed it while getting changed one day.
The tattoo was small, barely larger than a golf ball, and glowing a faint, neon green. It appeared to be a small target with long crosshairs extending from the edges, done in green ink so dark it almost looked black. If it weren’t for the crosshairs, he would’ve thought it a weird bruise, especially since the only reason he’d noticed it was that he’d bumped that arm on the counter while getting out of the shower.
He quickly checked himself for any other mystery tattoos, even twisting around to try and see his back, but couldn’t find any others. Granted, he may just be unable to notice them around the still-healing bruises and faintly glowing scars, but at least there weren’t any other noticeable ones. He sighed in relief, before realizing he’d have to figure out how to hide the one he did have from his parents. They were already on edge from him breaking curfew so many times, he didn’t want to give them any more of a reason to think he was going off the deep end.
It was a bit too low on his bicep to be covered by a t-shirt, but it was getting colder anyway, so that was less of a problem. He couldn’t wear long sleeves forever though, so he needed to find a solution. Fast.
--
Between school, ghosts, and trying to get even a crumb of decent sleep, Danny forgot about the tattoo. Could you blame him? It’s not like he spent all day staring at his arm, so its easy to forget about. At least, he forgot about it up until Tucker asked about it.
“The what?” he asked, confused. Tucker raised an eyebrow, obviously just as confused.
“Your tattoo? On your arm?” he repeated, gesturing at said limb. “I didn’t notice at first, but it looks pretty neat. Still, where’d you get it? I don’t think there’s anywhere that’d do a teenager,” he added, crossing his arms.
Danny blanked for a second, gears turning, before he remembered. “OH! That, yeah. I didn’t get it done anywhere. It just showed up one day, I think it’s a ghost thing,” he explained, finishing pulling a new shirt over his head. He caught Tucker’s incredulous expression out of the corner of his eye, and waved his hands like he was trying to bat away the suspicion. “It’s true! I noticed it....I dunno, like a week ago? I bumped my arm getting out of the shower, so I thought it was just a weird bruise. I know it’s a ghost thing because it’s glowing, I don’t think human tattoos do that,” he said, slightly defensively.
He offered his arm to Tucker, who squinted at the target like he was trying to dissect the very ink it was made of. He jumped back slightly, eyes wide, when the tattoo seemed to move, pulsing slightly like it didn’t enjoy the attention. “Okay yeah, definitely a ghost thing. Why though? I didn’t think ghosts had tattoo artists,” he said, stepping back and fidgeting with the hem of his sweater. Danny shrugged slightly, pulling on a hoodie and sitting heavily on his bed.
“No clue. Most ghosts I’ve fought have em, except the animal ones. Boxy and Skulker don’t, but I think in Skulker’s case it’s that I don’t see his actual self very often. I never saw any on myself, so I never thought about it,” he explained. Tucker gave him a flat look, and Danny squirmed slightly. “What?” he asked, slightly defensive.
“Dude.....you wear a full-body hazmat. Of course you’ve never noticed any, you aren’t showing any skin!” he said, laughing slightly. Danny blinked, before facepalming.
“I completely forgot about that,” he muttered. Then, he perked up slightly. “Think I could remove the suit? I know I can take off the hood, but think the rest of it comes off?” he asked, now fully invested.
“I mean, only one way to find out, but let’s call Sam first. She’d kill us if we did this without her,” Tucker said, pulling out his phone. Danny shivered, nodding quickly.
--
Once Sam was caught up to speed, they locked the door to Danny’s room and shut the curtains. No need to invite trouble, even if his parents weren’t planning on coming out of the lab any time soon. Sam and Tucker looked away when he switched forms, the bright electricity sparking brightly before fading away. “You’re good,” he said, taking off the hood to his suit. No matter how many times he took it off, it always came back the next time he changed. Strange, but he didn’t think about it too long. He didn’t want to risk remembering, so he never gave it more than a passing thought.
“Okay, can you take the gloves off?” Sam asked. Danny hesitated, before shaking his head.
“No, they’re attached. Mom says it’s to reduce risk of stuff getting in from the sleeve. Same with the boots,” he explained. “I’m pretty sure there’s clothes under here though, it’s a pullover suit,” he added. Just in case, he turned around before fumbling with the zipper, thick gloves making it hard to maneuver. He managed to get it unzipped, relaxing slightly when he saw the t-shirt under the suit. He turned around, unzipping it the rest of the way, and pulled his arms out of the suit’s sleeves. He wasn’t worried about putting it back on, as he figured it’d do the same as the hood.
“Dude, those pants are ugly as hell,” Tucker said. Danny blinked, looked down, and grimaced. Color swapped denim was apparently an eyesore, the regular dark blue having turned into a truly disgusting bright orange.
Sam shook Tucker’s shoulder slightly, practically bouncing in place. “Forget the jeans, look at his arms!” she said, grinning widely. Danny laughed, remembering the whole reason he’d taken the suit off in the first place. He looked at his arms, not expecting much more than the target-shaped tattoo he’d noticed earlier, but he was taken aback to see his arms were almost completely covered in ink.
Twisting vines spiraled down his left arm, with sharp thorns appearing to dig into his skin. His scars cut through the vines, seeming to originate from a thick patch of stormy, ink-wash style clouds. The target was still there, but none of the vines cut through it. Instead, they appeared to be going around the target, which had its crosshairs centered on a patch of skin with a small skull and crossbones.
The other arm had what looked like sheet music spiralling down his arm, with flaming music notes scattered along the staff. Shards of what looked like broken glass was poking out from under his sleeve, disappearing under his shirt. “Woah....” he said softly, enamoured with the intricacy of the designs. He pulled his shirt and sports bra over his head, holding them in front of his chest. He twisted slightly to get a better look, seeing the shards were actually falling out of a familiar mirror. “Is that.....Is that Sidney’s mirror?” he asked, turning slightly so they could see. He was startled by the sound of a camera shutter, jumping slightly and resisting the urge to turn around.
“Sorry, sorry! It’s just uh....Your back,” Sam explained, holding her phone guiltily. He sighed, pulling his shirt back over his head and moving to sit next to them.
“It’s fine, not a big deal. Not like this, anyway,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “What was it?”
Sam opened the gallery, holding her phone out so both he and Tucker could see the photo. The first thing Danny noticed was the thick webbing of his death scar spiraling out over his left shoulder, glowing a toxic, poisonous green. He forced his eyes away from it, focusing instead on the large tattoo taking up the entirety of his upper back. It had two hands with intricate, swirling designs covering the palms, cradling a flaming crown of thorns. The crown sat above two long horns, one broken and snapped in half. Below the horns was a single green eye and two dragon wings, the whole thing looking like some sort of crest.
Parts of it looked familiar, now that he was focused on it. The eye looked to be the same as Dora’s amulet, and the wings just reinforced that theory. The crown was obviously the Crown of Fire, which would probably make the horns be Pariah Dark’s. The only one he couldn’t figure out were the hands, as they seemed a little out of place. He shelved it for now, looking at the other tattoos dotted around his hips. One looked to be a neon green circuit board pattern, wrapping around his ribs on his left side. On the right was a large, opened cardboard box with two glaring eyes peering out from the shadowy darkness within. Two cartoony chicken legs were floating out of the box, and he started to realize why he was so inked up.
“These tattoos..........they’re the ghosts I’ve fought.....” he muttered. As soon as he said it, it felt true. “No, wait. Not just fought, but.....beaten, I think.” He stopped, eyes widening. “It’s coming through to my human form. If I keep fighting ghosts....Eventually, I think my parents are gonna find out.”
