I will be forever thankful for tattooing becoming more mainstream because it means I get to make my living doing something I love because more and more people are getting tattoos. What isn't so amazing is when people treat tattoo shops like it going to be "your way, right away."

Had a fun experience a little while back where someone was a bit too demanding and self-entitled and, while trying to get the situation sorted out, I asked them calmly to drop the attitude so we can get things taken care of. If you have any life experience, you probably know that when someone is trying to get their way by being pushy and you call it out, it never goes well.
So now they are going to take their business elsewhere and they are going to tell all their friends not to come to our shop and we lost their $100 worth of business…etc. All I could say was "That is the attitude I am talking about. You can go now."

We are not a rock star shop. We don't bill $150/hour and, while we much prefer to draw you something custom, if you want a kanji on your hip, we will still take care of you and make sure you have a good experience. We will give you input, help you get the best tattoo you can and help steer you away from potentially bad choices along the way. I'd like to think, at our shop, we are all pretty nice people who genuinely care about our work and the people that trust their skin to us (even if we might be really frustrated that you want a copy of a tattoo that you printed off the internet that we see at least once or twice a week.)

The decision to have someone tattoo you should be more intimate than, say, getting the double bacon cheeseburger with fries and a Diet Coke. Whatever you get from us is permanent and will be with you in all of your travels so even though you might prefer we just take your order, bang out your tattoo and send you on your merry way, it doesn't mean it will happen according to plan.

It is my personal opinion that lot of tattoo artists are in the industry not only because of the art, or the culture but also because we have a wayward streak. We don't fit into the 9-5, khakis and Starbucks's mold. We speak our minds. We probably aren't going to trip over ourselves to make sure that we sanitize the music, art and speech if you ignore the sign saying "No children please." We are a far cry from the rough and tumble, back alley, rinse bucket, "#$&^ you!" shops of old but we are probably not going to win any awards for epitomizing "The Customer is Always Right" mentality.

That demanding, bossy and entitled attitude that gets you a free replacement phone, a bottle of wine on the house or a upgrade to the king sized suite is not going to have the desired effect here. And that $100 we won't get from you? We will make up for it with an amazing tattoo on someone that wants an artist who will give them their best, bring their most interesting ideas to the table and make their tattoo experience something that they will tell their friends about.

You may have given me a headache today and reminded me that it isn't all roses and unicorns in the mainstream tattoo scene but the tattoos I get to do tomorrow are pretty cool and the people I do them on are just as thankful as I am that we are creating something amazing together. That is what makes me love being a tattoo artist.