Docker-Compose persistent data MySQL

I can’t seem to get MySQL data to persist if I run $ docker-compose down with the following .yml

version: '2'
services:
  # other services

  data:
    container_name: flask_data
    image: mysql:latest
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/mysql
    command: "true"

  mysql:
    container_name: flask_mysql
    restart: always
    image: mysql:latest
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'test_pass' # TODO: Change this
      MYSQL_USER: 'test'
      MYSQL_PASS: 'pass'
    volumes_from:
      - data
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"

My understanding is that in my data container using volumes: - /var/lib/mysql maps it to my local machines directory where mysql stores data to the container and because of this mapping the data should persist even if the containers are destroyed. And the mysql container is just a client interface into the db and can see the local directory because of volumes_from: - data

Attempted this answer and it did not work. Docker-Compose Persistent Data Trouble

EDIT

Changed my .yml as shown below and created a the dir ./data but now when I run docker-compose up --build the mysql container wont start throws error saying

  data:
    container_name: flask_data
    image: mysql:latest
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/lib/mysql
    command: "true"

  mysql:
    container_name: flask_mysql
    restart: always
    image: mysql:latest
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'test_pass' # TODO: Change this
      MYSQL_USER: 'test'
      MYSQL_PASS: 'pass'
    volumes_from:
      - data
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"


flask_mysql | mysqld: Can't create/write to file '/var/lib/mysql/is_writable' (Errcode: 13 - Permission denied)
flask_mysql | 2016-08-26T22:29:21.182144Z 0 [Warning] TIMESTAMP with implicit DEFAULT value is deprecated. Please use --explicit_defaults_for_timestamp server option (see documentation for more details).
flask_mysql | 2016-08-26T22:29:21.185392Z 0 [ERROR] --initialize specified but the data directory exists and is not writable. Aborting.