Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

44 Becoming and Being a Tattooed Person
Locating a Tattooist
Like the initial decision to get a tattoo, the tattooist one decides
to patronize commonly is chosen through information provided by
members of the individual's personal network. Fifty-eight percent
of the questionnaire respondents located the shop in which they
received their first tattoo through a recommendation prOVided by
a friend or family member. Since, in most areas, establishments
that dispense tattoos are not especially numerous, many firsttime
tattooees choose a studio on a very practical basis-it is the
only one they know about or it is the studio that is closest to
where they live (20 percent of the questionnaire sample chose the
shop on the basis of location, 28 percent because it was the only
one they knew about).5
Most first-time tattooees enter the tattoo setting with little information
about the process or even about the relative skill of the
artist. Rarely do reCipients spend as much time and effort acqUiring
information about a process which is going to indelibly mark
their bodies as they would were they preparing to purchase a TV
set or other far less significant consumer item.
Consequently, tattooees usually enter the tattoo setting illinformed
and experiencing a conSiderable degree of anxiety. Their
fears center around the anticipated pain of the process and the
permanence of the tattoo. Here, for example, is an interaction
(quoted from fieldnotes) that took place while a young man received
his first tattoo.
ReCipient-Is this going to fade out much? There's this guy at
work that has these tattoos all up and down his arms and he
goes back to the guy that did them every couple of months and
gets them recolored because they fade out.
(General laughter)
Sanders-Does this guy work in a shop or out of his house?
R-He just does it on the side.
Tattooist-He doesn't know what the fuck he's doing.
R-This friend of mine told me that getting a tattoo really
hurts. He said there would be guys in here hollering and
bleeding all over the place.
5-Does he have any tattoos?