43 Tattoo Artists Share the Most Shocking Client Requests They Regret Inked Forever
Furthermore, you can then point out that you, the artist, and they, the client, need to share the artistic vision. If you don’t feel enthusiastic about the design, the end result might be a far cry from what they wanted.
If the design is outside your wheelhouse, niche, or style you focus on, you could always point your customer toward another artist you respect and can vouch for.
‘Business Insider’ notes that clients who come to tattoo parlors should treat the space and the artists respectfully.
“Oftentimes, a client comes into the shop and treats it with a weird level of disrespect that they would not normally do at any other place of business. I would encourage clients to treat their shops with the same kind of respect that you would treat a bank, a clothing store, or a restaurant,” tattoo artist Jordanne Le Fae told BI.
I’ve told this story before but why not.
Guy comes in with girlfriend, want each other’s names, I protest, they insist. We know they’ll get it elsewhere and I’m in a walk-in shop at the time so I say okay it lets go. Get’s it across his stomach in old English, the moment we’re done she yells some like: “next time you’ll think twice before sleeping around behind my back!” And runs away.
It was awkward to ask for the money….
I was getting work done and the receptionist came in to speak with the artist. She had someone at the front desk looking for a quote on “Barbed wire starting around his wrist and wrapping around his arm all the way up to the shoulder,”
“How about nothing, because that’s stupid and I won’t do it.”
“Oh, uh, okay, I’ll tell him.”
He looked at me and said, “Sometimes you have to be the good taste police. I did a Nike Swoosh once when I was broke and I still regret it.”.
A guy came in and got his wife’s name covered up with a portrait of his new girlfriend. My coworker used part of her shirt in the picture to cover up the name. Then two months later he turned his now ex girlfriends portrait into a demon.
I started working at another shop and in came in the same guy with a third girl and they were getting matching tattoos on their hands. When I walked to the front and saw him he totally pretended he didn’t know me.
When it comes to pricing, it’s bad form to try to haggle over the price of the designs. Have some respect for the artists.
“You would not go into a clothing store and suggest that they lower the price of the jeans you want, so do not go into a tattoo shop and ask your artist to lower the price of the tattoo. It is insulting to your artist and it can result in your artist refusing to tattoo you,” Le Fae explained to BI.
Asked my artist (25+ years experience) this during my last piece. His most notable was a guy who wanted a solid bright blue “speedo” tattooed on. Over every square inch that a speedo would cover. Said it was super awkward as it was one of his first tattoos but he made good money off of it. Nothing has really fazed him since.
Other end of the spectrum- I got asked “are you sure?” About 15x. I was 18 and the tattoo artist who did my first professional tattoo had posted a photo of a piece she wanted to do and it was going to be roughly $900. I didn’t have the money but was in love with the piece so sadly someone else scooped it up. A few months later, she posted the piece again and said that the person had backed out and she wanted to do it for a competition piece at a tattoo convention. It was roughly 13×8 inches, so a large piece ya know. I saw the post, ran down to the shop and paid the deposit and said I would do it as a present to myself for my 19th birthday. She explained it would have to be all done in one sitting (roughly 9 hours) the day of at the convention in time for judging, and I told her I wouldn’t change my mind. It hurt a lot and took forever, but it was one of the best experiences and one of my favorite pieces.
Well, my friend recently got 汤, the chinese word for soup, tattooed on his ankle
he’d been planning it for like 3 years. he reportedly did his research to make sure they didn’t tattoo “truth or beauty or some other thing”
edit: he didn’t get this from the big bang theory. he first proposed this idea like 3 years ago, idk when the big bang theory did it but i can guarantee you neither of us have watched an episode
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