Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

82 The Tattooist
or misinformed and then you just give them whatever they say
they want and they are not enlightened enough to make the
right decision. you are part of the problem and not part of the
solution. What I mean is ... Dad came home from World War II
with some garish anchor and some eagle that today looks like
some ball of shit-you have to have someone point out all the
elements before you can even recognize what it is. Cousin
Charlie came back from the Korean war with something very
similar-maybe a rose with a dagger. Your brother Henry came
back from Vietnam with a skull with a dagger going through it
with "death before dishonor" or some other garish shit. If this
is all you have ever seen then you have the tendency to think
that this is all that is available. Now if the tattooist-I don't use
the words "tattoo artist"-does not inform the public that
things have changed. that there is a renaissance. he is a part
of the problem. My job is to tattoo people but it is also to
inform them, to give them choices. to help them make an
intelligent decision. As long as there are people scratching,
doing low quality work, that don't have a regard for the public.
tattooing will always remain somewhat underground. Your
mother would never ever think of getting a tattoo, But if it
were socially acceptable. if it were part and parcel with the
local beauty salon. if Nancy Reagan could go public and sport a
tattoo-or Princess Di-then your mother might consider it.
While presentations such as this are indeed noble. the social
skills developed by the tattooist have. for the most part, an eminently
practical function. As emphasized in the following chapter,
the tattooist's major goal is to control the interaction within the
shop in order to ease his or her worklife and increase the profitability
of the commercial operation. Studies of other types of service
interactions clearly indicate that client satisfaction is based
primarily on the experienced quality of the relationship with the
service deliverer (see. for example, Ben-Sira, 1976; Greenley and
Schoenherr. 1981; Zeithaml. 1984). Since the vast majority of tattoo
customers are drawn by word-of-mouth recommendations
from personal associates (cf. Schroder, 1973: 207-210), the satisfied
client is the source of new business as well as a potential returnee
should he or she desire additional work. 10