Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

212 Notes to Chapter 4
of female clients’ bodies. When I observed tattooists working on or near
women’s “private” areas they routinely maintained a serious facial expression
and did not engage in the usual joking interaction. Like some gynecologists
(see Emerson, 1970) they adopted a rigid business-like
demeanor so as to avoid the potentially conflictual sexual implications of
the intimate physical contact. On their part, women clients commonly
exercised some care when planning for and receiving tattoos on their
breasts, buttocks, hips, thighs, or other private locations. They usually
were accompanied by a female friend and wore leotards or bathing suits
under their clothes. In the shops I frequented curtains commonly were
used to conceal the process from the casual observer (cf. Becker and
Clark, 1979: 14–15).
2. Those shops in which commercial values are dominant—especially
those which cater primarily to military personnel—deal with the time
problem by speeding up the process. Some shops employ an assembly line
mode of organization. The least experienced employee applies the chosen
design using a plastic stencil and fine carbon powder, the senior tattooist
does the most exacting work of outlining the design with black pigment
and, finally, the client is passed on to assistants who shade and color the
design. While this procedure was generally denigrated by the tattooists I
interviewed, it was, at the same time, seen as a reasonable approach for
high volume shops located near military bases.
3. At times, watching customers react negatively to their experientially
enlarged understanding of the tattoo process. For example:
Did I tell you about the guy who fainted in here the other day? Well,
actually he didn’t do it in here, he did it outside. He had come in
with his friend, not even getting a tattoo, just watching. I noticed
him leave. He was out sitting on the front step and he just went
over. We thought he was dead. He was foaming at the mouth and
didn’t move a muscle. He had wet himself and there was all this
blood on the sidewalk—he had cut himself when he went down. We
did the thing with the poppers and the wet towels. His buddy—the
guy who was getting the tattoo—said he “had a weak stomach.”
Needless to say he didn’t get a tattoo.
4. It is understandable, therefore, that experienced tattoo collectors
who purchase custom work and who have developed a personal relationship
with an artist consistently express the highest level of satisfaction.
On the other hand, tattoo initiates with little or no experience and who
impulsively decide to be tattooed in the first studio they enter are far more
likely to regret their decision. As would be predicted on the basis of the literature
on high risk purchases (for example, Cunningham, 1967), tattoo
consumers who have been satisfied with past work and who choose to get
additional tattoos display considerable “brand loyalty.” Returning to a tattooist
who has provided satisfactory service in the past significantly