baberry64

Oh what the hell. My leg, done in November by El Monga Sasturain.

I usually tell them that I have one tattoo from each continent that I have visited,they ask how many I have,and I tell them 50 plus,most don't get it!
As for the price,I get very creative!

Methinks someone is trying to pick a fight!

It's amazing how far this will get you in life in general.

Keepcalm, it's entirely possible you won't be a lucky as to have an artist or situation where you feel you don't need some input. Like above people said, personally I have never changed a design simply because I approached them for their style.
99% of most clients are not like that. That's a special breed. Ok maybe 97%.
I have been stuck redrawing something a bit too many times and it does get aggravating in some cases. It happens but thankfully not often. It's kind if part if the deal; we try to make you what you want, with the exception of professional judgement calls of technical aspects such as design structure. But if it's as simple as "I'm not sure I like the way those wings look, it's too ____ for me" then it's part of the job to try to make it more appealing to you, without the ego of "this is what I wanted to do so that I can get a picture of it.". I would rather re-draw the wings and make you happy than have you go to a different shop later and say "this isn't what I wanted".
The other day I drew up a bird and roses and banner for someone brought in some shitty JPEG that they liked. I took down what they wanted, made an appointment, and then spend some time making a drawing for that tattoo. When he came in for a follow-up before the actual tattoo he looked at it and I could tell something bothered him. Apparently the bird I used (thanks Jerry) wasn't to his liking, he wanted it closer to the lame one on the JPEG. To me it looked rad because it was a classic looking bird. To him he just wanted a different style, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just a matter of personal taste. I was a little bummed, but I gave him the kind of bird he wanted. And he left super happy. Which means he'll be coming back and bring his friends and maybe one of them want the 'cooler' bird.
Don't be scared to speak up. You live with this tattoo until you're dead. I will see that tattoo maybe once in my life at the most. You should be comfortable with what you wear, I often hear that they didn't want what the artist wanted to do. Well if you don't speak up then it's not our fault!
Be assertive and make sure that if you don't like it then don't get it.
Edit; Siri made all kind of blunders here, Apologies for odd sentence structure or the use of wrong words.

that sucks. i work with the general public, so i know how shitty people can be. as you mentioned, there are also some really great people that you'll come across. i always try to be as courteous and studious in regards to appointments and getting tattooed. this may sound lame, but the people i've chosen to get tattooed by i hold in high regard, and treat them with respect accordingly. they're putting something on my body that will last forever, so why wouldn't i want to be nice to them? i'm also a huge nerd, so i'm always super excited to be able to bullshit with someone about tattoos/getting tattooed, because i don't really got to talk about tattoos outside of a few forums i frequent.
from what you wrote, i think the owner handled that very well. kudos to him.

Yeah shop friends are great, self dubbed VIPs I can do without. If an artist or shop wants to bend a little because they know the person well enough that they won't take advantage of a situation -- whether a drink or two, a phone-in when you only book in person -- whatever, that's a bonus but when the clients think they call the shots, not cool. We run our shop in a way that makes it function best, that works for the artists and the greatest number of clients. No amount of familiarity should make a customer think it has to beworked to suit them alone...but damn if people don't still walk through the world thinking it's a set built just for them.

Over the years plenty of people come in to the tattoo shop and friendships are bound to develop. I feel like a lot of friends I have started out as customers in the tattoo shop, or me patronizing their business, which is great. We all seem to be able to still do business with one another, with no real issues, because everyone respects the friendship and each others business enough for the two to co exist.
On the other hand a person doesn't have to be my best friend to be a good customer. There are plenty of people that come in get tattooed, we have a nice conversation and we never see each other outside of the shop. They show up on time, sometimes even take your design advice. Some people don't say two words and just want to get tattooed, that's cool too.
I guess what I am getting at, is there is a group in between that seems to give me the most trouble. People who maybe have a couple tattoos, they really like their tattoos and or the vibe of the shop, and they think because they spent a little money they have achieved VIP status. They will call about coming in on a certain day and not show up, then call the next day and ask if there is any walk in time and not show up again. I won't make appointments over the phone, it's always first come first served, but still it's annoying when people flake.
In certain cases I have allowed a person (a friend) to drink a couple beers (2 maybe 3 at most) while getting tattooed, I don't advertise it but if someone asks I am usually okay with it as long as they are of age and take their empties with them. Unfortunately a few people have interpreted this as show up drunk and drink a whole six pack during your tattoo and not be able to sit still and have to pee every five minutes. I am not their mom or their bartender and it's hard to tell a person who is drunk that they are cut off especially mid tattoo. Recently a guy who was tattooed by my boss who pulled the get drunk thing, and a 3 hour tattoo took just under 5 hours to complete. There were a couple spots in the black that needed to be touched up and honestly he didn't get to blend all the colors' in the tiger as he would like to and the guy came in for a touch up, after calling three different times saying he was going to show up, finally showed up three hours later and was really not very pleasant, he expressed he wasn't happy with his tattoo. So my boss took him to the side and explained that he would be happy to sit down and finish the tattoo free of charge, but explained to him that he just became really hard to tattoo while he is drinking and he would need him to not do so in the future while getting tattooed. The guy seemed to understand but then was kind of pissed off because he had to come back in an hour to get it fixed because my boss was in the middle of a walk in tattoo on a friend who didn't keep him waiting for 3 hours. A half hour later he shouted some stuff from the door way about customer service and stormed off in his car with his girlfriend. My boss stopped him in the parking lot and had another talk with him, but he just wanted to talk about how much money he spent and that he deserved to be treated better.
I don't know, I think the guy got treated fairly. I am interested in people's thoughts on this. I really everyone to feel at home at the shop, but it seems to me like some ass holes just ruin it for the others.

I've never solicited an artist for a trade, however, this past June I got a portable gas powered generator as a safety bonus award from my job. A nice, pricey generator. That I had absolutely no use for.
I was at my tattoo shop of choice getting some work done and mentioned the fact that I had the generator, new in the box, never taken out, and as soon as I could get it up on Craigslist and get at least 2/3 what it was worth I'd be able to get started fixing up an old (1988) tattoo of 2 dragons. Apparently he had either always wanted or saw a need for a generator, so he offered to trade fixing this fairly large tattoo for the generator.
He got the generator, and I ended up with a really nice half sleeve of dragons. He worked on it for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours every Wednesday night the month of July.
(I felt like I was getting the better end of the deal, so I made sure to tip nicely every week).

i think most people do things out of ignorance of their actions, they've either not considered all the information in regards to their actions or they are completely unaware of anything that exists outside of their own narcissistic desires. the offer of her services in trade without making all considerations is more likely that she doesn't have access to the available funds to receive the quality work that ya'll are doing and this is the first time that she has had the availability to offer anything of any value for trade. given that scenario, she probably hadn't even considered the difference in value of the services she is offering. most trades that i've done, i usually get burned on them in one way or another...and usually in a fashion that if i were to apply the same thinking towards how i did their tattoo, they would be more than upset by it.

Chances are this guy is lying about his apprenticeship. People do that all the time to try to gain credibility. And it's a real shame that most people reading the article won't be able to read the subtext of what this guy really is saying which is that he sucks too horribly and is too lazy to get a spot at a real shop, and because of that he could never actually charge anyone for his work. He's probably just using this to be "cool" with his jerkoff hipster friends. Yet another crappy side effect of tattoo TV shows.

Well I got most of my tattoos under wraps when I'm not wearing shorts so people don't really ask me much, as the only tattoo that really pokes out is the bottom of a skull/dagger. When people do bring it up usually they ask how much and I just shrug and say I don't keep track. If it is more recent, and they see my leg, it's kinda understandable that it wasn't cheap as I got half my one leg covered.
If people poke and prod about meaning or anything and you don't want to talk to them, don't. I've found the more I get the less people prod about them and usually they just want to see them. Luckily I usually get a lot of compliments and "holy shits", or people asking where I got them.
Also do remember you are modifying yourself a bit, so people will naturally be interested. This does come with the territory.