William Burgess

I think it goes beyond the price haggling and complaining, you have to size someone up as they walk in the door, how they are dressed, what they drive up in, what kind and how much source material they have with them, what their other tattoos look like and how they conduct themselves as a person. If they act like a cartoon character or try to come off as super cool or do they interact with you like a normal person. My main red flag even if they pass the other tests is when someone says they would never get something off the wall, that means they might be more likely to be difficult when it comes to the drawing. But we try not to turn away business and deal with most people, i would say price haggling is the only real deal breaker and once a number is thrown out there it never goes down. If someone is going to be a pain in the ass, you should at least get paid what you are worth for it and price will weed out a lot of crazy and hopefully avoids the scenario of losing your cool on a customer. But don't be mistaken, some people need to be kicked out of a tattoo shop, but most people don't they are just sensitive yuppies who need a little extra attention.

I think part of what it means to be a living being is not calling other living beings warped pieces of garbage.

Haha...that's my shop, Tattoo Technique in Bremerton Washington...all my other tattooer friends think I am crazy...really love the Olympic lifts and try to practice during slow times.

One of the old timers who mentored me in this biz said something to the effect of "sometimes a customer is gonna be difficult but they themselves don't realize it" meaning you gotta turn them away when they do certain things even if the customer is not recognizing their own behavior.
TOTALLY flipped out on a customer tonight...got talked down in price quite a bit but still decided to go the extra mile. Drawing kept me up LATE the night before...one of those "double the work but really want to do it" kinda pieces. So its taking a while, as I had planned because I was putting a lot into it. He can't hang because its getting too tender...says can we finish one part and do the rest later. I say cool, we will be at the 3/4 mark then so how about 1/4 your money back and pay when we finish...he looks all disappointed...so I asked is that fair..."We'll it could have been easily cheaper". I actually refunded his money, bandaged his half completed tattoo and told him walk.
Every time this has happened, I realize there was some truth to what my mentor said and have compiled a list of red flags. In all cases it would have been easier to just to turn them down as a customer and deal with someone else who won't give me such a hard time.
-Price haggling...especially the "that's a rip-off" type response.
-Looking like they aren't trusting you to do a good job..."your'e gonna do a good job, right?" and such
-Complaining about other artists work that is competently done. "he messed it all up"
Any other things come to mind? Tattooers please respond.

Haha...that's my shop, Tattoo Technique in Bremerton Washington...all my other tattooer friends think I am crazy...really love the Olympic lifts and try to practice during slow times.

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

Sessions 1-5 by Aaron Bell...16.5 hours on the clock so far.
- - - Updated - - -
Killer Don Nolan design! I remember getting this design sheet when I was just starting to assemble some equipment from spaulding rogers back in '90...anyone know what year it was drawn?

While I can relate to being pissed off about general rudeness, I feel some things tattooists need to lighten up on. Basically being unknowledgable about tattoos in general, asking questions we have heard a million times before, bringing references on phones, wanting stuff that is too detailed or won't work. A gentle approach goes a long way.
The way I look at it, I patronize a lot of business where I don't know jack, and I don't appreciate being treated like an idiot for not being in the know. A good example is when I went back to my local print shop. I was asking why I couldn't open a certain file which was a flash sheet I had scanned to a tiff file. The print shop guy snapped at me "ITS A MULTI PAGE TIFF FILE!! YOU CAN'T OPEN IT UNLESS YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP!!" I am like ok, can you change it to a file that I can open? Again snappage "I CAN'T DO THAT! YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL IMAGE!" I am like "ok, I have that, could you please scan it again?". I also had them saved as PDFs for easy printing. So he was like "I am just going to change these PDFs into JPEGS". I said I would prefer to have both, as the PDFs print original size and all. Even more snappage " UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO PRINT THEM OUT, THERE IS NO USE". I calmly explain to him that they are commercial art, of course I am going to print them out. Then I ask if I have the jpegs and alter them, they can be saved into PDFs again, right? More snappage "ONLY IF YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP!" The guy was literally yelling at me. Needless to say, I won't be doing business there again.
Think about that the next time a customer says asks about things that seem readily apparent to you. A lot of times people are not trying to be difficult. You are the expert, not them. Try and take this into consideration.

While I can relate to being pissed off about general rudeness, I feel some things tattooists need to lighten up on. Basically being unknowledgable about tattoos in general, asking questions we have heard a million times before, bringing references on phones, wanting stuff that is too detailed or won't work. A gentle approach goes a long way.
The way I look at it, I patronize a lot of business where I don't know jack, and I don't appreciate being treated like an idiot for not being in the know. A good example is when I went back to my local print shop. I was asking why I couldn't open a certain file which was a flash sheet I had scanned to a tiff file. The print shop guy snapped at me "ITS A MULTI PAGE TIFF FILE!! YOU CAN'T OPEN IT UNLESS YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP!!" I am like ok, can you change it to a file that I can open? Again snappage "I CAN'T DO THAT! YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL IMAGE!" I am like "ok, I have that, could you please scan it again?". I also had them saved as PDFs for easy printing. So he was like "I am just going to change these PDFs into JPEGS". I said I would prefer to have both, as the PDFs print original size and all. Even more snappage " UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO PRINT THEM OUT, THERE IS NO USE". I calmly explain to him that they are commercial art, of course I am going to print them out. Then I ask if I have the jpegs and alter them, they can be saved into PDFs again, right? More snappage "ONLY IF YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP!" The guy was literally yelling at me. Needless to say, I won't be doing business there again.
Think about that the next time a customer says asks about things that seem readily apparent to you. A lot of times people are not trying to be difficult. You are the expert, not them. Try and take this into consideration.

Got my full back piece started by Aaron Bell today...I do have large rib shots as well as stomach done so I had some idea of what to expect. Most was pretty tolerable, except for the edges of the back where it wraps into the ribs...but he saved the worst for last...a wee bit near the base of the spine sucked and he started to go a little on the butt cheek, just the very top. That hurt! Makes me wonder how I am going to make it as its a shoulders to knee ditch composition.

Got my full back piece started by Aaron Bell today...I do have large rib shots as well as stomach done so I had some idea of what to expect. Most was pretty tolerable, except for the edges of the back where it wraps into the ribs...but he saved the worst for last...a wee bit near the base of the spine sucked and he started to go a little on the butt cheek, just the very top. That hurt! Makes me wonder how I am going to make it as its a shoulders to knee ditch composition.

Got my full back piece started by Aaron Bell today...I do have large rib shots as well as stomach done so I had some idea of what to expect. Most was pretty tolerable, except for the edges of the back where it wraps into the ribs...but he saved the worst for last...a wee bit near the base of the spine sucked and he started to go a little on the butt cheek, just the very top. That hurt! Makes me wonder how I am going to make it as its a shoulders to knee ditch composition.

Never believed in the whole "small starter tattoo" deal. How about those people getting full bodysuits by Horiyoshi III? I am sure some of those people had no work to begin with and commited to heavy coverage from the get go. If I could do it all over again, thats what I do. Have one tattoo and one only!

...can they consent to a tattoo? I am of the opinion that they can't.
Someone came into my shop today and I felt ethically compelled to turn this person away. She was higher functioning in the sense that her intelligence level was high enough to say, have a job doing janitorial work with supervision. Her demeanor had me guessing she had the intelligence of an 8-10 year old. She knew what kind of design she wanted and where, but that was about it. The kicker was when she said..."I have permission"...and then pointed to her guardian who she had in tow. Not to hurt her feelings, I pulled the other person she was with to the side and explained that I cannot tattoo anyone who is not legally competent to enter into a contract( the release form).
Just wondering how others felt about this. In all honesty, there are some people who get work who are not playing with a full deck...earlier this week I tattooed someone who kept going on about how some unknown entity injected a tracking chip into his bloodstream and how his enemies are using satellites to track him and control his thoughts, even saying how he went into a hospital with a loaded gun because they fucked with his mind somehow. I just made sure any potential deadly weapons were out of reach and finished up. Maybe crazy is different though.

While I can relate to being pissed off about general rudeness, I feel some things tattooists need to lighten up on. Basically being unknowledgable about tattoos in general, asking questions we have heard a million times before, bringing references on phones, wanting stuff that is too detailed or won't work. A gentle approach goes a long way.
The way I look at it, I patronize a lot of business where I don't know jack, and I don't appreciate being treated like an idiot for not being in the know. A good example is when I went back to my local print shop. I was asking why I couldn't open a certain file which was a flash sheet I had scanned to a tiff file. The print shop guy snapped at me "ITS A MULTI PAGE TIFF FILE!! YOU CAN'T OPEN IT UNLESS YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP!!" I am like ok, can you change it to a file that I can open? Again snappage "I CAN'T DO THAT! YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL IMAGE!" I am like "ok, I have that, could you please scan it again?". I also had them saved as PDFs for easy printing. So he was like "I am just going to change these PDFs into JPEGS". I said I would prefer to have both, as the PDFs print original size and all. Even more snappage " UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO PRINT THEM OUT, THERE IS NO USE". I calmly explain to him that they are commercial art, of course I am going to print them out. Then I ask if I have the jpegs and alter them, they can be saved into PDFs again, right? More snappage "ONLY IF YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP!" The guy was literally yelling at me. Needless to say, I won't be doing business there again.
Think about that the next time a customer says asks about things that seem readily apparent to you. A lot of times people are not trying to be difficult. You are the expert, not them. Try and take this into consideration.

To much of the tattoo is in the execution. No two renderings, no matter how exactly copied will ever look totally the same. This is not like photocopying someones artwork and printing it for sale or selling bootleg CD's of someones music. Each tattoo is still individually applied by hand, millimeter by millimeter.