Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

99 The Tattooist
The demand for the tattoo service tends to fluctuate with the
season (summers are commonly busy while demand drops precipitously
in the winter), the local economic situation (the tattoo is a
luxury item, so demand decreases during economic downturns),
and other factors beyond the tattooist's control. The sporadic and
often unpredictable pattern of client flow is a key problem in the
tattooist's workltfe organization. Work is characterized by alternate
periods of feast and famine.
I hate the waiting ... the winter months. You aren't working
by appointment. Walk-in only. You have to wait for your people
to come in. There are days when you sit for 8 hours and tell
jokes and look at each other and there are some days when you
want to come in and shut the door and not look at anybody. I
like it busy ... an even pace. I don't like to work on twenty-five
people in a day but I like an average of eight or ten people a day
over ten hours.
I don't think anyone gets into tattooing that doesn't like
tattoos. But there are some people in it with no talent for art at
all. It looks so easy to do and it looks so lucrative. The amount
you get for a tattoo for the time you put into it is quite high. I
would probably make as much money as a dentist when I am
working. The dentist, however, has half-hour appOintments
and he works steadily through the day, whereas I sometimes
spend all day in the shop and not do anything. Sometimes
youll spend a day in the shop and do ten tattoos. It's very
sporadic. If you did have a constant flow like a dentist you
would make that kind of money.
As a consequence, tattooists face considerable uncertainty when
trying to organize their economic lives.
I like least the uncertainty of not knOWing whether I'm going to
make a liVing or not. I'm getting over that. No matter how bad
things have gotten I've always managed to get by. I generally
can count on enough business to make ends meet. Some parts
of the year you're making fifteen hundred bucks a week and
then another time of year you're lucky if you make a hundred