Hmm... tattooing, and not doing what the customer asked????
I’m trying to wrap my head around THAT concept!
Oh no, people came to me asking for tattoos in my style because they liked my style. Then, during the design process changed it to someone else's style because they didn't like mine anymore. Somehow they only started researching after I've spent 4-6 hours on designs. It always had to become a style they saw in some discovery/TLC/TV tattoo show in the end.
"I know you work with fine lines and mostly feminine features, but I want fat lines like those coloring books people do with crayons. I also know you don't usually do colors, but I want colors.. And I know you're excellent at making small stuff that lasts for years, but I want this one to be huge, but with thin lines like you do in the small ones, and I want it to still look good after 40 years!" Also "I want you to stop whenever it hurts, because I'm very sensitive, and take a break every 5 minutes, and I also want to drink and smoke in here, I'm paying you good money for that." Stuff like that.
Maori tattoos without being from NZ? Japanese Yakuza stuff without us or the customer ever having visited Japan? Swastika's? Portraits of hitler on faces? Tattooing around an unwashed anus and the customer blatantly admitting she only showered once every 3 days? But at the same time having to accept that when the infection happens, we were to blame.. Dick tattoos (did that one actually, it's harder
and softer than it looks).. I've heard it all.
Mind you, this was not a tattoo real life show, it was not a competition, this was a humble parlor with a few talented people that just wanted to do what they did best.
I can ask my dog to act like a cat, and offer good money, food and long walks for it, but it's just not a cat and it's never going to be one. It would be a waste of time and money to try. But people didn't get that message. Not every bonsai master is good at making pots, or working with tropicals. Asking them to do so anyways "because I'm goddamn paying for it to look good" could be seen as an insult or not yield the expected result. In bonsai we know that, we accept that. In tattooing, that falls on deaf ears.
I was nice enough to divert my course for them on a lot of occasions. Usually with a more than decent result, they were just not something I could defend in public. I knew my flaws. Part of being an artist in that field, is sending your stuff to magazines to get more customers in the end. That stuff never made the cut.
Some customers were even rude enough to just copy tattoos from artist pages and ask me to do it 'just like in this picture'. I know that's not a bad thing in bonsai, but in tattooing, that's heresy and could cost you your business. I know a few guys who didn't care, and other competing artists just started calling our version of the FDA/CDC on them as revenge.
I was young it was fun, but damn, I'm glad I quit that business. My back is very thankful as well.
Still, one of the best and most memorable tattoos I ever did, was a plain and simple "your name" on someones butt cheek. I got 6 cases of beer from him winning bets with people: I'll bet you for a case of brews I have your name tattooed on my butt. Good times, I'm glad it's over.