My little rant

I admit it, there are things in the tattoo industry that bug me. One of those things being the lack of interest by professional tattooers to educate the public to what good tattoos are, and how to get them. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, and I could easily have a thousand word rant about how television has completely misled the public about how tattooing works, but I'll stick to the highlights for this blog. Let's start with the fact that designs for a half sleeve do not get drawn up in twenty minutes while you sit in the lobby. That is one example of the Hollywood magic the television shows use to make the show more interesting, and make the artists appear to be gods of tattooing. A majority of the designs are drawn up before hand, the client comes in for their appointment, and the television show shoots the scene as if the client just walked in for the first time. Artist goes back and draws a sketch of the design they actually drew two months before, and voila, presto chango, tv magic tattoo design appears, is approved, and completely tattooed that day. Tattoo takes 5 minutes on the tv show, took 8 hours in real life.

Another thing the tv shows have really screwed up is the perception of cover ups. You walk in, you tell a horror story of how you got a bad tattoo, they look at it, tell you to come back later that day, and boom, there is a design of exactly what you asked for. They tattoo it, tv time 5 minutes, again real life 8 or 10 hours, and it looks amazing freshly done. What they don't always show is how much discussion it took to get to a design that will work for the cover up. You don't get to see the healed pictures when the old tattoo shows back through the cover up, because the design didn't fit as a cover up. Cover ups are one of the hardest things to get right, because you are not actually covering anything, you are mixing ink in the skin. The old tattoo doesn't go anywhere, the new design just camouflages it, while redirecting the eye away from the old tattoo. Cover ups are generally two to three times the size of the old tattoo, so the new design must be drawn not only to cover the old tattoo, but fit into the part of the body it occupies as it often covers an entire body part( ie. forearm, upper arm, shoulder, chest, leg, etc...). This is something that just doesn't happen quickly. Not all designs work well as cover ups, you can't just decide what you want as a cover up and expect it to work. You should research your cover up artist just like you would any other style of artist, and look at cover ups they have done. Try and see healed shots of their cover ups if they have any.

Now, on to a more personal note. Deposits are required, this comes from the amazing ability of douche canoes to no call/no show on appointments. I can only refer to them as douche canoes, or possibly douche silos, for they are a large container of doucheyness for not contacting someone to notify, and possibly reschedule said appointment. So, deposits are required in the case of no call/ no show, my time is not completely uncompensated. I prefer to draw my own designs, and I like working on big pieces. If you are coming to me, you should be prepared to pay a deposit to have the design drawn up and hold an appointment time.  If I do drawn a design for you, and you no call/ no show, the design goes on my wall as an available design, and I keep your deposit. I'm not afraid to tell you that your tattoo idea won't work, and I'm likely to be very blunt about it. Yes I do have a pool table in the studio, no you may not borrow my stick to play. If you are serious about playing pool, you have your own. If your not serious about playing pool, no you may not play on my table. Yes I do have an apprentice working with me again, no she will not work for free (which means you need to tip, this stuff costs a good bit of money to do). Which brings me to my final rant, and I'll call it a night.

Tattoo artists, for the most part, do not get paid worth diddly. When you add up the supplies(tattoo and art related), the hours, travel, poor diet and sedentary lifestyle, little to no family life or personal time, and compare that to the pay they take home, that doesn't include any type of insurance or benefits, it really amounts to nothing. At least, until you have a large client base, a really well known name, or a tv show. Then the money comes closer to equal the sacrifice. But for most of us?  I could make $300 a day top end, if people show up regularly wanting tattoos. Count $20 on food, gas, & smokes. $150 in supplies and shop expenses. $50 in personal expenses. (shop gets paid seperately from myself, I only see half of what I make, which is the standard for most shops). $20 for babysitter. $60 day? $10 an hour sounds ok though, right? The 6 hours I spent tattooing on average takes 10 to 30 hours of drawing and painting to prepare for. Not to mention the time spent promoting and marketing to attract the client that wanted that piece. How about time spent cleaning? Or maintaining equipment? The years I spent not making a dime( actually, paying to learn) while I was learning to tattoo? Oh, and the days I don't see anything at all? That $60 is more commonly what I make for the week vs. what I make for a day. And all those hours, all those expenses, they still add up, week after week, whether I make money or not. So I definitely do this for the passion, and not for the money, but in no way does that mean I will do it for free. I do not feel that my time is cheap, I feel that the flat rate is a fair exchange of money for time and materials. However, it does require me to work a little harder, stay a little later, show up a little earlier. This is the obsession that drives success, and if you don't believe me, check back in with where I am in 5 years. I will leave this rant here, hopefully this was educational, and possibly entertaining.

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