the TATTOO ZINE.com

THE 14 YEAR ITCH WHY TATTOOISTS CHANGE

By DG Wilson Nov. 2007

Maybe you have noticed how an aritst who is young and full of life will be very willing to spend all day to hold your hand and help you decide what you actually want tattooed upon you. (Believe it or don't, but even I used to be like that!) Then you see that same artist again a year later and they are a bit curt. Later on still you find that same artist somewhat jaded and cynical...why? Why does a tattoo artist spend years in this field and then suddenly start to look for ways to get out of it? Not every tattoo artist goes though this but I suspect a great many do.

Part of the problem is the customers. I've said it before, and will say it again, this buisness would be GREAT; if it weren't for the customers! This is a service based industry and unless the lone artist can charge $600 an hour or better then they just can't make enough money to feed an entire family, run their shop, make personal rent AND shop rent, bills, food, fun entertainment and crap that you want. There just isn't enough time for the tattoo artist with a family and all those responsibilities to work AND be with the family.

That is one of the main reasons that big artists with a lot of talent start to move out on their own, get their own artists working for them. This takes the pressure off of the artist and spreads it around to everyone in the shop. It also gives the head artist more time to relax and run the show at home and in the shop.

We go from young artist just wanting to do a tattoo, it doesn't matter what or where or even on whom. When we first start out we have no financial responsibilities like we will in a few years of work, so a small tattoo is all we want. But then an artist may attract a woman, get married, have a kid or two and then they NEED to work.

The job shifts from art and getting paid for what you do, and well...to needing to make a certain amount of money each and every day or you fall behind. Also the seasonal change in customers will kill an artist faster than an angry customer. The life of an artist is difficult, to make a living at your talent is damn near impossible.

We the tattoo artists have a very specialized talent, skill and trade. With the explosion of tattoos into the mainstream public consciousness we have more people wanting more tattoos. But we also run into many, many more tattoo shops in our area. All of these factors wear down a hearty artist that just wants to do art and get paid.

The 14 year itch, it is when a tattoo artist of exceptional skill realizes that their talent and work is not enough to live off, and raise a family. So the typical tattoo artist begins to make other products within their field like Tshirts, and Flash Art. But they don't sell as fast as you need and usually the artist sells their shirts and stuff to customers that walk into their shop. So after about a decade and a half of working on difficult, stupid and poor customers the tattoo artist starts to look for a way out.

They love their job, don't think they don't, but the simple mathmatics forces the artist to consider other fields of work. They do this for no other reason than job security and for health insurance. Sometimes a great artist that is famous will work for some other company in a different field altogether like security. They may get a steady job that pays by the hour, gives them benefits that the artist wouldn't be able to afford on top of all their own bills, like dental, and physical insurance but they STILL tattoo on the weekends or off hours.

What we tattoo artists need is to eliminate the poor quality chop shops that tattoo around our fine work and destroy our customers bodies, we need to take tattooing to a new level that is on the other side of where it is today. Tattoos seem cheaper these days, which only creates more struggle for the artists. We the artists need to stick together and elevate the art back to where it was years ago before it was so mainstream and common. We need to become more mysterious, harsh, strong and work our magic that much faster.

Customers, you have the most important job. If you want to continue to get great tattoos by great artists then you must seek out the best artists that you can find and pay them more than they ask. If you do not you will not find the quality that you have come to expect. Why? Why will the quality of the art fall? Because we the older artists have the KNOWLEDGE that makes our machines and work that much better than an artist first starting out. There are levels, degrees of expertise in everything and an older artist has more experience, more skill and better quality work than one starting out simply because there is so much that we learn over time that no one except an older artist will know.

For example, tuning a tattoo gun. A young artist will buy a machine and do the best they can to set it up. They will pay hundreds of dollars for a tattoo gun because it "Runs right" right out of the box. An older artist like myself bought the cheapest gun I could find and tuned it, modified the frame and customized the entire machine so it would run the way I like to work. The young artist needs their expensive machine to work well all the time and don't know how to make adjustments as necessary so they send the machine back to the manufacture to have it reset and adjusted. This takes time and money for that artist because they need to have at least one more expensive machine to work while the other is out...so for YOU the CUSTOMER that means that your tattoos will actually cost YOU more because that artist needs to make more money because they pay out so much unnecessarily.

Not to mention the pain.

I can do a tattoo that would take a younger artist several hours, in just half an hour. I know what to do that will give the best effect for you and your tattoo. I know how to work my machines so if an adjustment is needed in the middle of a session I can do it quickly and get back to work. If I didn't know what to do when and how, then you might be stuck with a half finished or crappy tattoo!

The older artists want to get out of the business after a certain amount of time because they are tired of the customer crap, not making enough money and because they have more financial responsibility; they need to move on to provide for their families. What you the customer is left with is a bunch of young artists that have art skills but do NOT have the knowledge of experience in the tattoo shop to really give you the best tattoo for your money. Eventually our true art and tattoos will be lost. There will have to be a rebirth of knowledge and experience to recreate what the tattoo industry has right now-great artists that do great work with a level of skill that ONLY comes with time.

What you the customer can do is appreciate your artist. If you do find someone that you like, works well and appreciates you and your business then HELP them survive. Take a big stack of cards when you leave and make sure they all go out to your friends, family and coworkers. Not everyone wants a tattoo, but they may want a book, or Shirt, or some other art that the tattoo artist also does on the side because if you don't we may all wind up making tattoo related sites on the web... like THE TATTOOS ZINE.COM