Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

63 The Tattooist
individual drifts from job to job before. almost accidentally. encountering
tattooing and coming to define it as a viable occupational
alternative. Entry is relatively spontaneous and impelled by
a variety of situational contingencies.
Tattooists base their initial decision to pursue tattooing as an
occupation on the perception that they possess some measure of
artistic talent. While grOWing up the potential tattooist has commonly
been involved in artistic activities and his or her talent has
been recognized and employed by family members. peers. and. especially.
high-school teachers (cf. Griff. 1970).
I mean. like. I could draw. I never went to art school or
nothing. In high school I never did anything I was told. I just
drew. Some of my teachers loved it 'cause they were. like.
throwbacks from the sixties. The ones that weren't used to tell
me what to draw and stuff. They always let kids. like. draw and
paint on the walls at school. They never let me do that. They.
like. wanted me to paint football players and stuff like that for
the school. I went back to myoid high school the other day and
I told my art teacher that I finally got a job that involves my art
talent and she flipped.
When recounting how they had become involved with tattOOing.
all of the interviewees reported experiencing some form of occupational
dissatisfaction at the time they began to realize that tattooing
was a viable career alternative. Most of the tattooistsespecially
those from working-class backgrounds-were employed
in routine. laboring jobs when they encountered tattooing. 1 The
fine art tattooists. on the other hand. typically were purSUing
commercial art careers or were attempting to "succeed" as serious
artists. They saw themselves as being creatively Stifled or as having
limited chances of success in the highly competitive fine art
world.
The more I looked at art in the contemporary culture. the more
I got involved in the business of art in America. the more I
realized I was like the monkey on the end of the organ grinder's
string. I really felt desperate about that because art had always