Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

78 The Tattooist
DEVELOPING SOCIAL SKILLS
The social relationship that develops between the tattooist and
his or her client is of primary importance. If the novice tattooist
is to be moderately successful as a service deliverer ancLbr a commercial
artist. it is necessary to gain skill in defining client needs
and devising tactics by which those needs can be both shaped
and met. The street tattooist's basic goal in this regard is maximizing
financial rewards while maintaining interactional control
during the tattoo process. Learning to tattoo. therefore. involves
learning how to structure the ritual performance that is central to
building client trust (cf. Hughes, 1971b: 321-323; Rosenblum.
1978: 77: Schroder, 1973: 198-218; Henslin. 1968).
Fostering client trust is of particular importance in tattooing.
Customers typically feel some degree of anxiety when entering the
tattoo studio. The major source of this apprehension is the anticipation
of pain. Unfam1l1arity with those commercial settings in
which tattoos are applied is another source of anxiety since most
tattoo customers have never been in a tattoo studio prior to entering
one to be tattooed for the first time.
The interactional skills fostered by the tattooist are more than
ways to maximize income while minimizing conflict. The ab1l1ty to
"read" the client and shape his or her needs have another practical
function. Simply complying with the customer's requests may
result in a product that will have negative consequences for the
tattooist. the client ancLbr the reputation of tattOOing. Most tattooists
routinely refuse to place tattoos on "public skin" (usually
defined as above the neck and below the wrist) or to inscribe
overtly anti-social or racist symbols on their customers. Tattooists
understandably see their trade as being defined by the general
public as. at best, of marginal propriety. The creation of permanent
stigmatizing marks could well generate increased public outcry
and intensified efforts at legal repreSSion.
The desire to become skilled at defining client needs and controlling
the commercial outcome also derives from an ethical concern
for the impact of the tattoo on the social and psychological
well-being of the client. In a particularly moving account one fine
art tattooist described an encounter with a client early in his ca-