Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

146 The Tattoo Relationship
tattooists use in response to these customers is to point out the consequences
oftheir choice and try to persuade them to reconsider.
A young chick came in the other day and had "born to be wild"
put on her wrist. She's going to have a hell of a time getting a
job when they see that. (Are there any tattoos you won't do?) I
don't refuse to do many things. I try to talk people out of some
of the things they want. I don't do political stuff-swastikas
and things like that. I don't want people thinking this is a
place for a bunch of Nazis.
Another tattooist interpreted the customer's design choice as an
indication of his or her intelligence.
If someone comes in here with an arm full of garbage from
swap meets and they think that it is really nice stuff and they
can't see the difference between that and something that is
really nice, then what's the sense. I'm not saying do something
as shitty as what they got. I just do the outline, shade it, color
it solid. Whereas maybe with someone else I would get into
putting in highlights, feather in the colors. But this guy, fuck
it, just color it in solid. They're happy. It's bright. solid. It's not
shitty if it is done technically right. Now someone who really
appreciates tattooing and has got a lot of nice work ... 111 do
water shading and white highlights, put white instead ofjust
leaVing skin. On the leaf 111 make the outer edges dark green to
light green to yellow green and white highlights. I won't do that
on some bozo. But they won't get shitty work in the sense that
I got bad needles and won't stop to change them. No one gets
the bum's rush. You can usually assess someone's intelligence.
If at age thirty they want a pink panther smoking a joint with a
can of beer in the other hand then the guy's kind of a bozo.
Tattooists' definitions of their clients and the resultant relationships
are, to a major degree, based on their design and location
choices, their physical condition and demeanor, their apparent
dangerousness, and their wilingness to accede to the tattooist's
attempts to control the tattoo event. The tattoo client also has a
vested interest in fostering a positive and conflict-free relationship
with the tattooist. Within the immediate tattoo setting the