Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

104 The Tattooist
available to them ... it's a public area. But that public area
should also be respected. So that putting your cigarettes out on
the rug, coming in and eating a sandwich and throwing your
shit on the floor, spilling beer all over everything-I don't
tolerate that, But I don't go out there and just throw them out.
I come out and remind them that this is the situation that
you're in. Don't throw your shit around, don't put your
cigarettes out on the floor. Act like a decent person here. Don't
be hassling the other customers. Sometimes I have guys and
there will be a girl in there and they will be all over her. "Hey
baby, you going to get a tattoo on your tits?" Then I have to go
out there and lay down the law. The law is that this is an
opportunity for you to express yourself in terms of a visual
form. I would be glad to help you do that. But if you want to
come in here and hassle people and don't know how to behave
socially in this context, then you are going to have to leave.
That's it. So then if they come up to me and they say, "Well, I
want you to do this." I say, "Look at the designs, take your
time, think about what you want to do." "Well, I don't care,
man. Get this guy out of here and take care of me." That kind
of belligerent stuff. I just tell them, "Look, I'm not going to
tattoo you. I don't have to deal with you. Go someplace else."
So I just nix it off before it even gets started. Although I have
been caught up in situations where people have gotten to the
next stage which is getting through (the next) door. I have
thrown people out of here for not stopping at that door. That's
the portal; the territorial limit.
Clients who enter the tattoo establishment while intOXicated or
stoned also violate the practical rules imposed by the tattooist and
are defined as problematic. Not only do these customers tend to be
belligerent and disrespectful, but they also are difficult to tattoo
because of their inab1l1ty to maintain the "appropriate receiving
demeanor" demanded by tattooists. They move about, talk incessantly,
jerk away in reaction to pain, spew vomit on the tattooist
and his or her eqUipment, and generally make the tattooist's work
more difficult and unpleasant.