Question time

[Lennart82]

I have a question. And I’m a bit torn actually, cause I recently discovered, that there are some other tattooers badmouthing me. And I really dont know why….
It dosent bother me that much though. But I just met a former client, the guy with the Scania Truck Logo. Apparently there was a place on it, were I missed a spot… Oops…. But hey, I told the clients that I would fix it, if there were problems.
And I will stand by that.
Now it seems that his girlfriend, after I made his tattoo, startet for herself. And they both dicided that my work was crap, and they didnt want to contact me. The the girlfriends mother ALSO tattoos (more destroying things actually, but hey)
Well I met the guy, he was kind of being strange. Well I asked him, if he was satisfied, and he said, that there were a place were I messed up.
I asked to see it, but before that, he told me, that his motherinlaw tried to fix it, by giving the crown a yellow colour, and the tounge a red…. I saw it, and I was shooked. The red looked very infected, and the yellow was thrown in with a shovel….
And that out weighed the little black dot i messed up.

Now, should I fix that tattoo now? After he went to another???? I mean, the girlfriend and the mother all bad talks about me. I did a tat on the girl. Her design… Nothing wrong from my part, and now shes telling everyone, that it didnt turn out the way she wanted it…..

Should I just play it cool, and let that go? I dont want to sink to their level and bad talk….

[Infamous]

I wouldn’t touch it.. But that’s just me.

[Buller]

i wouldnt touch it… If you offered to correct the tattoo and they go about hacking up the skin themselves… Their problem… I dont touch other peoples work unless im allowed by the client and/or artist…

[Lennart82]

I’m thinking of not touching it with a firepoker.
First up, that mistake I did, could have been corrected by some awesome shadings. Now he just got a colour fill….

But what is your take on touch ups? When do you do them? And when do you not?

[Infamous]

I do almost all of them if needed, my policy is to give out free touch-ups whenever needed except on hands and feet. (Even though I haven’t tattooed a hand or foot yet)

But once another person works on it, it is no longer my responsibility

[Ramenuzumaki]

The people who talk shit are gelouse bru. People talk shit sbout me all the time. Especially when I take their clients. Its just them feeling threatened. As far as fixing it go ahead. However buddy is going to be paying full price for the fix. This is because you are no longer fixing YOUR mistake.

The reason you’ll want to fix it is because your name is on it. You don’t want people to see that and have them think that’s your quality of work.

[Spider]

I can agree charging him for the fix, I wouldn’t touch anything up if he allowed someone else to jack it up. It’s shop policy here that if you come in, pay for a small session on a large piece and get the outlines done, then goto johnny handpicker down the road and he/ she jacks it all up then you come back to have it “fixed” you are more than likely to get cussed out and told to leave. It may sound a bit rude, the cussing out part, but I honestly feel that person not only disrespected me personally, but insulted my talent by allowing some hack to even touch it. At that point it has become personal to me.
As for the smack talk, that’s more normal than anything in this industry. I have seen other “artist” use an eye loop to look for and then point out the smallest mistake on a tattoo done by someone else. It’s that pms bitchy school girl mentality is how I see it. Ignore it and just keep putting out good work. Haters can be one of your greatest forms of free advertising sometimes…. :lol:

[Lennart82]

He just called me, and wanted me to give him a touch up…. Told him no. Boy he sounded shooked. I told him, that once he had another tattooer do stuff to my tattoo, scapping it to the bring of destruction, I can be of no blame. Then he just hung up on me, didnt even reply to my facts.

Well, just have to suck it up and leave it as it is, and dont sink to their level. Let my work speak for it self. I’m actually learning not to be so nice all the time. hahahaha. thats not easy for me :P But I can see it would backfore eventually. And thats no good.

I’ve been thinking. I have had alot of clients looking at their clock while I’m tattooing. They dont want to pay for me to finish things to my complete satisfaction. I tell them; This could take to hours. Then if it takes more, they will not pay. And then they hindge on the Free Touch-Up. And then I have to “finish” the tattoo for free….
Can I say to a client. “If you dont let me finish this I will not give you the Free Touch Up.”
They want a quality tattoo, but dont want to pay me to finish it…..

[Ramenuzumaki]

If its not finished its not a touch up its not a touch upo its a second session. Make sure they know that if they try to stop before its done. You need to really step down and really get stuff straight when they leave. Don’t waste money dude.

[Infamous]

@Ramenuzumaki wrote:

If its not finished its not a touch up its not a touch upo its a second session. Make sure they know that if they try to stop before its done. You need to really step down and really get stuff straight when they leave. Don’t waste money dude.

+1, What he said

[Spider]

I blame those stupid freaking tv shows! I have actually had people since those shows have started look at me in surprise when I tell them a full sleeve will take about 15 hours and then ask me, well what can you do in one session? uh….the outlines!

[Lennart82]

@Spider wrote:

I blame those stupid freaking tv shows! I have actually had people since those shows have started look at me in surprise when I tell them a full sleeve will take about 15 hours and then ask me, well what can you do in one session? uh….the outlines!

Yes agreed… Those shows really messes with people idea on how long a tattoo takes to do. Worse one I ever had, was a person who tried to “cheat me” when I told her I charged 50 $ an hour.
She asked; How much could I do in two hours? And then showed me 6 tattoos she wanted… I was annoyed at that point all together.
But I could only finished 1 tattoo…. On her foot. And she was actually mad inside, that i wasent fast enough to make the flowers along her sides, the heart on her forearm, 3 stars on her shoulder, and a lyric from a song all on her back.
I told her of a guy who is fast, and suggested she would go to him. (Hes not good, hes fast) One moment I actually saw a light in her eyes. But when I told her, he charges around 300$ per started hour, the light vanished :P

But really……? I tell people, that its not going to be fast. The more details, the longer it takes, and if its on that special place, it could take longer.

[littleinker]

@Lennart82 wrote:

@Spider wrote:

I blame those stupid freaking tv shows! I have actually had people since those shows have started look at me in surprise when I tell them a full sleeve will take about 15 hours and then ask me, well what can you do in one session? uh….the outlines!

Yes agreed… Those shows really messes with people idea on how long a tattoo takes to do. Worse one I ever had, was a person who tried to “cheat me” when I told her I charged 50 $ an hour.
She asked; How much could I do in two hours? And then showed me 6 tattoos she wanted… I was annoyed at that point all together.
But I could only finished 1 tattoo…. On her foot. And she was actually mad inside, that i wasent fast enough to make the flowers along her sides, the heart on her forearm, 3 stars on her shoulder, and a lyric from a song all on her back.
I told her of a guy who is fast, and suggested she would go to him. (Hes not good, hes fast) One moment I actually saw a light in her eyes. But when I told her, he charges around 300$ per started hour, the light vanished :P

But really……? I tell people, that its not going to be fast. The more details, the longer it takes, and if its on that special place, it could take longer.

I’d rather pay more and get something really great than get something cheap just to have ink on my body. It’s why I haven’t got more tattoos because I haven’t been able to afford to get what I want by the artist/s that I want and I’m not prepared to settle for just anything. So I’ve been saving and am about to get a couple really nice pieces. :)

As for the tv shows, they annoy the crap out of me! Apart from give customers an unrealistic view and making every kid out there think that tattooing is the next quick and easy way to fame, it also makes it harder to to land an apprenticeship and be taken seriously. Every time I’ve spoken to someone in the industry about wanting to get an apprenticeship they look at me sceptically and ask why I want to do it and point out over and over again that it’s not a quick way to fame and money and is a lot of hard work. I get why they are doing it but it’s frustrating from the point of view of someone who understands this and has little to no interest in fame, etc and just wants to create amazing lasting art for people to wear. I’ve already had my share of media exposure and success in my last career, now I just want to get on with doing what I actually love… Damn tv! :evil:

[Lennart82]

Agreed. Pay that extra, and get what you dream of.
But I dont think she thinks that way.

And those damn shows… Really gives a complete wrong view of things. Caught an episode of Cake Boss, were the big guy went to a tattoo parlour to get a portrait done of his wife… Took about half an hour, the wife was with him, and she looked like she had only sat there around 10 minuttes or so…. For me a portrait takes atleast 4 hours.. At LEAST…..

The whole thing has been blown out of proportions. People think, to have a carrier as a tattooer, its like being a rockstar/moviestar, and you get paid a shitload of money. When in fact, thats far from the truth.
I havent been tattooing for that long, but in that time, I have had 3 kids, wanting to be my apprentice. One of them actually had skills. But HEY…. Wait 5 years, and then we can talk again. (5 years for me getting better ;) )

[littleinker]

Good on you for saying no for the right reasons. It’s always good to hear that someone either doesn’t take an apprentice before they’re ready or isn’t a jerk about it. :)

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