Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

213 Notes to Chapter 4
increases the certainty that the performance of the service deliverer will
be acceptable. The artist’s technical and creative skills, while perhaps not
of the highest caliber available, are a known quantity. Another reason for
the loyalty to a particular tattooist typically shown by returnees is found
in the personal relationship which is a core feature of all service interactions,
especially those which involve significant perceived risk and are correspondingly
high in experience and credence qualities (Zeithaml, 1984).
Tattoo collectors cultivate and value the relationship with “their” artist.
They routinely visit the studio, even when not desiring work, to socialize
and discuss tattoo lore. They act as part of the tattooist’s “performance
team” by testifying to his or her skill, displacing completed work to potential
clients, and generally helping the tattooist to maintain interactional
control over the tattoo setting. By fostering a personal relationship with
the tattooist the collector is increasing the chances that his or her work
will be of the best technical quality possible and thereby maximizing the
likelihood that he or she will be satisfied with the service provided.
5. As discussed in Chapter 3, cover-up work on dissatisfied tattooees is
the bread-and-butter of even the most moderately competent tattooist. To
some extent, the tattooist will purposefully “educate” a customer about
the inferior quality of his or her other work in order to prompt dissatisfaction
and generate more business.
There are what—seven or eight tattoo artists in (the state) and
probably about forty bootleggers. There are a lot of butchers out
there. This guy came in the other day and he had gotten some work
by a scratcher out in R——. It was a disgrace. He came in with a
friend who was going to get some work. He wasn’t going to get
anything done but he showed it to me and he could see from the
work I was doing and from how I responded how shitty it was. Most
people don't know bad work from good work. I convinced him to let
me fix it up because I just wanted to see if I could do it. I usually
give people like that a break. People like that are usually so tickled
with the cover-up or some reworking that they tell all of their friends
and they come in and get more tattoos and so on. It pays dividends.
In addition to covering or reworking a technically inferior piece, tattooists
ease client dissatisfaction by obliterating names or initials which tattooees
commonly have indelibly inscribed on their bodies. Usually, these cover-up
clients come to the establishment propelled by the intense prompting of the
people with whom they currently have relationships or because they want
to symbolically obliterate the last vestiges of relationships which ended
unhappily. One tattooist recounted a unique name cover-up story:
I hold the record for name cover-ups. (This comes after he has
concluded a rather snippy conversation with a guy who wants to get
his girl’s name put on him. S—— [artist] had said, “You really
shouldn’t do this. Didn’t I just cover up another name on you? Is this