Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

89 The Tattooist
feeling their pleasure were rewarding. The positive social experiences
contained within the client relationship came to be defined
as the dominant rewards of tattooing for a living. 12
As with all service occupations, the relationship with the client
is of central importance in tattOOing. The client not only consumes
the service/product, but also interacts with the service deliverer
to shape and define the characteristics of the service
outcome (see Spiggle and Sanders, 1984; Schroder, 1973: 8-15).
Consequently, interaction with clients is central to the tattooist's
experience of the rewards-and, as we will see later, the problems-afforded
by his or her occupation.
One tattooist spoke of the pleasure of interacting with people
who were, like him, "renegades."
I am in (tattooing) because I love the people. It isn't what most
people think. I don't tattoo strictly bikers and criminals. I
tattoo everyone-doctors, lawyers, musicians, psychologists.
But most people who get tattoos listen to the beat of a different
drum and they are interesting, forceful people. They are
making serious statements about themselves. It is interaction
with artists. My customers are artists because they are creating
right along with me through their choice of tattoo, where they
put it, and how they wear it.
Tattooing is unique in that it is an arUcraft service in which the
client is not only a member of the practitioner's "public," but is
also a central resource in another sense. The tattooee is, in essence,
the tattooist's canvas. No other creative product involves
the intimacy and indelibility of the tattoo. The tattooist creates an
objecUservice that is a part of the client's "self" and his or her
appreciation (or, in some cases, regret) is of paramount importance.
Interviewees consistently expressed vicarious pleasure over
the initial joy experienced by their creatively altered clients.
Let's assume the person is reasonably intelligent and isn't
getting the tattoo just to prove a point. Let's assume it was
done when the person was cold sober and that the person who
was working on him is as interested in making art as he is
interested in making a day's pay. The tattooist has worked with