I found this on the Reuters website. An interview with a tattoo artist from Portland, Oregon. it's a pretty interesting article. Most of what the guy says is fairly obvious, I think, but it's always good to hear insights from people that have been in the business a long time.
A couple of things stand out to me from it:
How do some of these artists get such great media coverage? What Reuters shows of his work is pretty good, but I know artists FAR better than this. What makes him so suitable for fame? So primed for international glory? Answer: writing a book. It seems that Jeff Johnson of the superbly named Sea Tramp Tattoo Company has written a book about some of his experiences in the tattoo industry. It seems to have been inspired by the fact that you hear a lot of interesting things from people of all walks of life when you are tattooing.
I've touched on this a bit before, in terms of enjoying tattooing friends because the conversation is usually so easy. But there is a huge advantage to tattooing people you don't know - you don't know them. They might be interested in some weird martial art that you've never heard of, or be a concert flautist. Perhaps the girl that you expected to be a skateboarder is actually the head of a Masonic Lodge who teaches Irish dancing in her spare time. Tattooing puts you in the company of a huge variety of people from all walks of life. And not only that, you're sat down with them for large chunks of time.
I think that often the process of talking to someone that you don't know about what's going on in your life can be very therapeutic too. Perhaps that's sometimes the reason that people get tattoos - it gives them someone to talk to.
If you've got the wherewithal to write a book, then you're probably going to have a lot to say after 19 years in the tattooing business. The book, by the way, is supposed to be excellent. If anyone fancies buying me a copy...
The other thing that I noted in the article was Jeff's final comment about tattooing more intimate places on a woman's body. His take on it is that it's like being "a bouncer at a strip club - you just don't see anything anymore".
I'm not entirely sure about that, although I have heard the suggestion from an artist I know that it's like being a doctor - that there's a professionalism about it that removes the sexual from the situation.
I don't really know, and I'm resolved not to tattoo certain areas of the body. I took good advice from my good friend, Jean-Pierre Rioux, who said that you shouldn't do anything that you feel uncomfortable doing, certainly don't do anything that your wife wouldn't feel comfortable with you doing, and always make sure that you have someone else around if the area is a little questionable.
But more on that another time - I'm off to write down some stories of people I've tattooed...
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