Tattoos as a Privilege, not a Right

Tattoos are a personal gift, given from one person to another. A tattoo can be applied to one’s own person by oneself, however, most are not. Tattoo artists must acknowledge that you cannot tattoo without the client, yet none of us are entitled to any client at all. Without both Artist and Client, a tattoo cannot exist. Can this fact be responsible for some of tattooing’s amazing power? It’s Mojo?…

Candidly, many clients complain to me whilst in my chair, “We called so and so by our house and they only had one artist working!” Or, “We went there and they were already closed!” Am I so lucky to have remained open that night? The exasperation and demanding demeanor of these clients is less than conducive to good tattooing, to say the least.

In a world where everything has become a commodity, mass produced god-knows-where by god-knows-who, in order to be sold to the lowest bidder… Tattooing remains a True Business, enabled by Respect, and continued only by Honest Practice. Do not settle for convinience and copycat artists, fly by night guys, beginners that you can bully as you please. Introduce yourself to a tattoo artist who has been recommended to you, or whose work interests you. If there is rapport there, ask for the Privilege of being tattooed by them. I believe it will put you in the mindset to receive the work. And it will put the artist in the mood to achieve his best work possible.