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TATTOO ARTISTS THE LAST SURVIVING "REAL" ARTISTS?

By DG Wilson Dec. 2007

When I gradaduated from art college I was charged to go into the illustration field. I had spent years studying how to accomplish a visual image that describes a story so richly that the consumer just HAD to start to read! Ah but then reality came crashing down. I was released out into the professional world, portfolio in hand...only to stand in line with all my other class mates! Not to mention the previous competition that was working before I graduated, and all the classes since!

TATTOOING saved me. It was an open field, green pastures ripe with opportunity. Tattooing was DIRECT ILLUSTRATIONS to me. Each was a spot illustration that needed to be accomplished quickly, perfectly, on a wiggling, screaming, bleeding patron. The tools are difficult to learn, handle and use...but the drive was being able to do art for people and get paid.

Eventually a customer would come in and even ask me what I wanted to do. Real art, my expression on the customer. They would step out of the creative process and allow me to use their body as a pure canvas.

Like a true artist, we let go of our work. Immediately we may take a photo of our tattoo, but the customer leaves our shop. The art goes out into the world for all to see. The people take our work and get more people to come in.

What does the customer get with a great tattoo? Unwavering adoration. Constant attention, love and appreciation for them and their courage. People immediately respond to the art, thus giving the customer a greater sense of pride. Esteem rises, people do better and succeed when they are happy. A tattoo enables the customer to reveal inner secrets about them to others. And the customer responds to the positive feedback in a wonderful way...they enable the artist to continue doing their art.

So are tattoo artists the last artists? The last pure form of illustrations and paintings in the skin? It does seem to be the case, because the tattoo artists seem to be the only ones that get paid well enough to do their art and live.

But at the very same time, the tattoo artist is also becoming a dying breed. It seems that once a market is flooded with talent then there is too much competition. Too many artists have discovered the tattoo world, so now the art has become cheap. When the customer feels that the original art hand created for them should only cost $25 for a full sleeve then the artist must either tell them to disappear and get real OR do the work for that price.

If a tattoo artist can afford to turn away people the artform is actually purer than one when they will do anything for a few bucks out of need. The compromise is not lost on the artist and the work doesn't have as much pride in it.

What is the answer? Simple, just like in the previous article, go out and buy original art from artists in ALL fields. When you find a tattoo artist that you want to work with, spoil the crap out of them. Buy them gifts, tip them heavily and pay what ever they want. And if you think you can't do that, remember to keep the art alive you have to keep the ARTIST alive!

Besides, how much have you spent on your cell phone in the last two years? The tattoo that you buy NEXT should cost AT LEAST the same! SOOOOOOOOOOO Now doesn't paying a wee bit more at the request of your talented tattoo artist sound better than all that dough you wasted talking nonsense? I thought so.