Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

123 The Tattoo Relationship
dio. They are generally careful to follow the aftercare instructions
provided (we will see later in this chapter that tattooists negatively
define those clients who disregard the basic rules about
how to care for a new tattoo). The symbolic hygiene of the tattoo
establishment and the tattooist's ritual display of competence are
effective in reducing this aspect of the client's risk experience.
Before I got my first tattoo the only other tattoo parlor I had
ever been in was near a military base in Texas. I was just a kid
and I remember I had shorts on and the guy offered to tattoo
my knees for free. The place was real dingy and dark and the
guy looked like a bum. Years later when I decided to get a tattoo
I went down to the (shop) in N---{city] and looked around. It
was like a doctor's office-white walls and plants and a waiting
room. The guy even had one of those white coats that doctors
wear and he wore rubber gloves. It wasn't like I expected. I
thought it was a good experience ... I went to bed that night,
got up the next day and washed it. didn't pick the scab or
anything. I did all the things they said-put that vaseline stuff
on it. It worked out all right. I'd do it again.
Even when he or she chooses a small design, the tattoo client,
armed with minimal pre-purchase information, encounters an
unanticipatedly high "financial risk." Confronted by this risk, the
tattooee may attempt to bargain for a lower price-a practice that
is, as presented in the last chapter, not acceptable in most commercial
tattoo studios. Discounts are given only to steady customers
with whom the tattooist has a friendly relationship or, less
frequently, when business is slow and the tattooist is desperate to
have, at least, some income for the day. The following excerpt
from my fieldnotes describes a typical encounter with a customer
who attempted to reduce his financial risk.
[Quote from fieldnotes] the door to the shop opens and a
middle-aged, working-class guy with a sizable beer belly comes
in. He says he called before and that he wants to get Yosemite
Sam put on his arm. He shows us a standard conventional
Marine tattoo on his left forearm-a skull with dagger and
"Death Before Dishonor." On the other bicep is a rose with the