Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

103 The Tattooist
tattooists. as we will see, simply attempt to do the best they can.
They try to provide the best service possible by working around
these problems or by being prepared to deal directly with them
should they arise. The client problems that are most troublesome
for and annoying to tattooists are those over which the customers
can exercise overt control. Clients who choose to be disrespectful
of the tattooist's expertise, refuse to abide by the rules of the
house, are obviously intoxicated or high on drugs. or who do not
display a minimal level of care for their personal hygiene are the
source of the major problems tattooists encounter in their occupational
lives.
Like many workers who provide an expert service, tattooists
chafe under the problem of haVing to deal with clients who are
ignorant but demanding and who evidence little respect for their
hard-won skills. One tattooist became quite agitated when he
spoke of a particularly pushy and critical client who was seen as
haVing attacked his artistic skills and self-defined expertise.
You have these morons who have absolutely no idea of what is
artistic ... to have them sitting there telling you how things
ought to be done.... Nothing galls me more than to be
putting a piece on and have them look at it and say, "That's
enough shading:' I've done years in art school. If it shouldn't
really be that way I wouldn't have been doing it that way. One
kid came in last weekend and wanted a Tasmanian devil. It was
on a t-shirt and when you reduced it it didn't look right. So I
added some shading to give it this three dimensional look.
There's nothing like haVing a seventeen-year-old kid standing
there and saying, "Well, should this really be there?" Of course
it should be there. fool!
Another tattooist expressed his annoyance for problematic customers
who displayed disrespect for his other clients, as well as
the physical setting, and his own authority.
(I have problems with) people who come in and are really
belligerent. They don't respect. first of all. the situation ... the
situation being the front of the studio. being the open area
where people can move in and out freely. The books are