JasonTuckerTattooer

Stock replies for silly questions:
"yeah how much did that cost?" ...side note, this is a pretty rude question from a stranger and i usually
-pretty rude question buddy
-sorry buddy they are not for sale
-A LOT
-you don't want to know
-$50...for everything ;)
-140 hrs @ $150/hr...you do the math..."that's really expensive/waste of money"...eh thanks Dad! buddy, that's over 10 years. how much have you spent on blow and fast cars over the last decade? really it's a piss in the bucket.
-respond with "hey how much did your <house/car/diamond ring> cost? yeah pretty rude question isn't it?"
"what is the meaning/symbolism" ...side note, there is nothing more boring than crappy tattoo with overt contrived meaning.
-it means something different everyday.
-meaning? it's a fucking <tiger puking blood>. do i need to explain further?
-sorry lady, i don't really feel the need to explain the personal meaning of all my tattoos to a stranger in the grocery store line
-it's just a fucking tattoo.
"did it hurt?"
-no, i didn't feel a thing
-yes, it is the most horrible pain you will ever imagine
-yeah it hurt, so gnarly, i barfed in my mouth (true story)
i especially like this one in the tattoo shop..."i bet that hurts eh"...yeah a bit eh, but not as bad as that upsidedown script on your wrist is going hurt! yikes i don't envy you.
"yeah man my tattoo took like 8 hrs"
-dude, you got ripped off.
how do i deal with the stock retarded questions? i don't ;) i wear long sleeves all the time and keep my gentleman art below the collar and above the wrist line. that way i don't advertise the unwanted attention and i don't get called out for being a total tattoo snob haha
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oh and my personal fave (i've had this same conversation multiple times):
"sick tatts brah. you do time in the pen?"
"haha you think you can get colour like this in prison"
"no doubt brah. RESPEK"

If you really don't want to talk to them, you could always respond to their questions with a series of clicks and chirps.

It could be because I'm a long-haired and bearded burly dude with skulls tattooed on my arms, living in a place where I feel I see more tattooed people than non-tattooed people, but I don't really experience people asking me about what my tattoos mean. I think that women on the whole get this a lot more than men. People mostly leave me alone. I was a little bit concerned about getting "what does it mean" questions about my (in-progress) sleeve because there's a specific visual reference there that I don't really want to explain, but thankfully the raven's head there is hidden by a t-shirt so hopefully I'll mostly avoid that question while I figure out a stock bullshit answer.
I have nothing against tattoos with meaning (for that matter, I have nothing against tattoos without meaning either) I just think that the way most people go about getting a "meaningful" tattoo is all wrong. From what I've seen on the internet, the "meaning" takes priority over the strength of the image, and that's all backwards. You're going to associate your tattoos with whatever meaning you choose to give them anyway, there's no need to have hidden initials or a representative number of flower petals or whatever there. I spend too much time looking at pictures of tattoos on the internet.

weve talked..i hate the yelp, i dont agree with the way they conduct business, or try to strong arm businesses into advertising with them. I hate that if people have an issue with me or anyone who works with me they cant take it up with me, but they can go bitch and moan about it on yelp and i have no recourse. Ive had a bad review from a lady who thought she paid too much for her tattoo weeks after getting it. Said the tattoo was fine but after thinking about it she thought she paid too much..whatever..its a societal issue, the last generation of people are a bunch a whiners and complainers who take no responsibilty for their actions and they are constantly trying to shift the blame onto someone else for them being pussys..
but unfortunately we have to play ball
ive said too much i might get another bad review

Man so this is is more a story about a story, but a few years ago I worked with my buddy Dave, who has been in the game FOREVER. Anyway LST's own Pat (gougetheeyes) and I were at the shop having a conversation along the lines of this thread, laughing about people passing out/shitting themselves etc. when from the back of the shop where Dave was drawing I hear him chime in;
"had somebody die once"
uh... EXCUSE ME!?
"Yeah a girl, she died."
He's shuffled over and started in like it was a cross between a campfire ghost story and the monologue from Jaws.
"It was back in the 90's, Hawaii, 94 maybe? Anyway, crazy production shop sailors would come in, you'd work 12-15 hour shifts, go upstairs, sleep a few hours come back down, do it again. Make all your money for the next 6 months in 3 weeks. Anyways, it was one of those stretches I'd been going for hours, next tattoo was a girl, wanted a flower. She went into the bathroom, came out, and as she was walking to my chair she hit the floor. Dropped fucking dead. Paramedics came but she was blue, shot up in the bathroom before the tattoo, killed her. Fucked me up for a good bit. Good thing she didn't make it into my chair before she died, I probably woulda quit tattooing."
Pat and I were in awe, and just like that Dave went back to his drawing. I don't think anyone said another word for about an hour.

julio i'm with. you bust your ass to get a clientele and then spend every night at your drawing table doing day of the dead mary sleeves. or koi sleeves with cherry blossoms. could be worse i could be tired of doing cherry creek flash. or i could get up at 4 in the morning and break beef for quarters for three hours then make ground beef and then clean all the cases all in 40 degree cutting room floor. ill stick to finding a anew way to do marys cloke, hahahaha were all jackasses

back in the late nineties broads used to call the shop trying to get beauty marks tattooed on them. ala cindy crawford i guess.
once such woman came in the shop and asked for one. i said NO. the boss was all.... come on dude. itll take you 2 minutes to do. i held my ground and said no. he said fuckit and did it. a week later she came back in wanting it bigger. a week after that she came in wanting it darker. a week after that she came in wanting it lighter haha.
i looked over at the boss and asked him if the $50 he made that dumb shit was worth it.
im positive all that weirdo did was look at herself in the mirror and critique that little spot on her face. fuck her and her fake ass beauty mark

do get a bit tired of doing pocket watches, i must have done ten this year (four in one week) most of them had a magpie on it, i'm still happy to do them but it's a pain trying to draw new watches as i'm not a fucking watchmaker!

Hey Folks, Thanks for this thread. Instead of it being a big ole bitchfest, it really has given me a good outlook, stuff to remember when I feel like I have to write a six paragraph bible verse the size of a postage stamp. I tattoo whatever walks through the door, and sometimes it is taxing to my soul, but what is more taxing is the thought of not tattooing.

i wish mine was funny but i guess that would depend on how warped some of u fuckers are. i was in between appointments and some older guy comes in looking real stressed out. so, in my head im like here comes the bullshit. so he asked who does portraits and of course the dude i work with points at me. so i start to help the guy and hes acting real strange but i keep the convo moving well. he eventually shows me the picture and im like oh ok so this guy is upset that hes got a black grandchild(he was a seemingly well off white dude) so i try to explain to him that since the pic was of a new born baby there wasnt much unique features and that he should wait till the baby was older... i went on to try to explain the lack of features like, "there are only slits for eyes and barely a nose" but when the baaby got older he/she would be more identifiable as his kid grandkid whatever. long story short the guy storms off unhappy with what i said. calls my boss screaming and cursing that i was a racist unsensitive scumbag cause the baby in the pic.... was his dead, turned black from decay, half asian baby and that the slits for eyes comment was a dig at his asian wife who wasnt even present during the convo.
so yeah :/ thats the worst for me ever.

I think a lot of the hipster generation throw that word friend around to loosely.It seems like when I'm in NYC,and approach a person and ask who did their work,it's like 80% of people will say ''my friend'',so and so.It's like it's not cool unless they say my friend did it.I think it's just a hipsterism...to say your friends with somebody,when your probably only an acquaintance.

Call me old fashioned.

tat-zaps, tat-wizard, ink, get some ink, inked up, get inked, tatted, color bomb, trad, neo-trad...

All those terms are fine by me.... As long as a tattooer is using them. If the person doesn't tattoo and uses them, I wanna smash their head down into their neck.
I'm a jerk

The one I really hate is tats