Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

106 The Tattooist
I refused a guy last night because he was too dirty. It was about
100 degrees out and he works in a body shop all day and he
comes in straight from work and he was filthy. I just told him,
"Look, I don't give baths here. Go home and clean up and come
back. I'm not working on you like that:' The other day there
was this guy in here getting a coverup, and he was filthy and
sitting here farting. A real pig. That was real obnoxious. I was
about ready to tell him to leave and go take care of his gas
problem.
I don't like it when people come in here and you spray their
arm with alcohol and all this dirt comes off like they never took
a bath before. You think about going to the doctor ... most
people I know shower before they come in.
Finally, customers who shop for tattoos solely on the basis of
price ("What can I get for $25?"), complain about the cost of the
piece they select, or attempt to bargain with the tattooist for a
lower price are also negatively defined. These clients are seen as
not being respectful of the tattooist's expertise ("You wouldn't bargain
with your dentist about how much he charges for fixing your
teeth") or as not displaying sufficient commitment to tattooing
("They don't want a tattoo, they just want to be tattooed").
It pisses me off when someone doesn't even understand what I
am doing. I draw something for someone that is highly
detailed, intelligently colored, a very exciting piece, real
nut-busting type of work and I give him a price-say eighty
bucks or whatever-and the guy rolls up his sleeve and he
says, "That's too fuckin' high because I got this in the
Philippines for thirty cents in 1952:' How do you combat that?
Look jerk. don't you see that there is a difference. There is a
difference between 1952 and 1985. In those days it was a dime
for a bottle of beer and now it is a buck and a quarter. When
people are so blind that they don't know that there is a
difference I find it very frustrating. All I can tell them is to go
back to the Philippines and go back to 1952. I don't ask people
to agree with me-just to understand.