Senior year of high school I used to joke around with my mother when asked what I was looking for in a college. Time and time again I would find myself constantly going back to SUNY Potsdam. “Why?” My mother would ask; “What’s so great in Potsdam that the other colleges don’t have?” There was the obvious, a Criminal Justice Program, excellent Art Studio Teachers, and the Swim Team. Upon further discussion however, there was much more. The very idea that the campus was located right next to a village excited me. Not only do I come from a small town, but I happen to live at least 4 miles from any kind of town habitat. Lastly, I would jokingly add to my mother, there were the many tattoo shops. I would empathize with my mother on this note, from one artist to another, this could be my break to make some money with my art by selling it to the shops, and surely any kind of publicity was good for an aspiring artist. What I hadn’t expected however, was to actually fulfill any of these “Garbage Ideas” as my mother would call them. Within the first month of my freshman year, I had already secured myself an apprenticeship at one of the local shops downtown.
There are currently three tattoo shops in the town of Potsdam. At one time last year, there were as many as four! However it is not so much a competition between the three shops, as it is more of a “territorial” encounter. Every shop has its regulars and everyone has their own biased opinions about the shops. Last year, during my apprenticeship at one of the tattoo shops, I would occasionally notice the glances we would get from people on the streets. Due to stereotypes about tattoos being all about a from of rebellion and vandalism, many people have biased opinions about tattoo shops. However tempting it may be to just believe these popular stereotypes, a tattoo parlor is just like any other normal business. There’s no trickery or sleazy scam that turns every man and woman that walk through its doors into some ill favored scoundrel ready to unleash itself unto the world. Like many businesses, tattoo parlors go through basic procedures to create a satisfying business between customer and artist. If you were to put aside the trade, and take a simple look at just the process, you can understand that a tattoo shop is nothing more than an artistic business.
Let’s start with the beginning: why would we want a tattoo. People get tattoos for many reasons, beliefs, memoirs, labels, uniqueness, rebellion, the list goes on. In an article in the New York Times; people have been known to get wedding bands tattooed on their ring fingers. Donald G. McNeil, the author of this article, tells of his distaste for a wedding ring and his tattooed solution. An interesting fact I found within this article is that this solution is actually well suited for doctors and mechanics. This is useful for these professions since a ring could get in the way of their job and could prove to be harmful (Donald). In a second New York Times article, Kerry Cohen explains getting tattoos to cope with breakups. She claimed that after every hard boyfriend breakup, she would find herself running to the nearest shop for a fresh taste of ink. However Cohen’s decisions were later regretted, and she explains her distaste for the permanent marks she must explain to her children(Cohen).
Working at the tattoo shop, I experienced many different reasons for getting a tattoo. Here is the best advice I could give due to my experience: if you want a certain tattoo, write down all the reasons why you want it. If your reasons reach no farther than, “it’s cool”, “I like it”, or “it’s for my boyfriend/girlfriend”, then chances are you should rethink that particular idea. If you feel at all embarrassed when someone asks you why you want that tattoo, then you do not feel strongly enough for that piece and will more than likely regret it later. So when thinking of an idea, take your time. And whatever you do, do not think up an idea under any influences of alcohol or other related substances, the results could be devastating the next morning!
When going into a tattoo shop, feel free to ask the local artists to help you with your design. This is your first chance to working with your artist. In the tattoo shop where I worked, the artists would take a customer's idea and draw it a few different ways, once this was done we would take the new drawings back to the customer so that now the customer would have a variety of the same design to choose from. This is helpful because sometimes people don't quite know what exactly they want, until they see it. This part of the process helps unite artist with customer. The artists like to create a comfortable atmosphere: that way customers don't have to feel nervous or scared upon entering a shop.
Now that we have established the basics of picking that perfect tattoo, we need to find credibility and a style we like. In Potsdam, with three shops to choose from and more than one artist in each shop, we are able to find a variety of styles. This is very helpful in determining which type of art would best suit the image you are looking for. During my apprenticeship, I found that obtaining your own unique style was key to becoming successful. In searching for the right style, people tend to go for the more original styles, so that their piece has more uniqueness about it. In Potsdam, determining which style each artist has is as easy as entering the shop. Most of the artists in town have pieces and designs they created all over the walls in the areas where they work. This sort of display can help you to view what each artist excels in. Also most of the artists and shops have websites online that you can browse to see the artist’s work. You can find these by searching the names of the artists or shops on easy search engines like Google. If not successful there, most of the shops have sites on myspace.com that are open to the public so that customers don’t have to have a site of their own to check them out.
Not only is style important, but credibility as well. No one wants a tattoo from some guy in his trailer using a Bic pen and a battery-operated motor for a machine (G, Dennis). This is of course a dramatization. But nothing says nervous like your first tattoo with an artist you’ve heard nothing about. Consider it like searching for a surgeon. Getting a tattoo isn’t anywhere close to risking your life, but risking your social life is a much different story. Especially when that tattoo of a ferocious man eating grizzly ends up looking like your baby brother’s overused, shredded teddy bear. Working in Potsdam I found most of the new customers had been directed to the shop via friends or well spoken veterans. Not many people had come in on their own without getting some sort of opinion from local people within the area. How to know which tattoo artist is right for you? That decision is solely based on you yourself. Upon asking people with tattoos who and where they had gotten them, and who they would recommend, everyone would stick comfortably with biased opinions on which artists were the best out of Potsdam. Even I myself could be caught directing newcomers to the shop I was apprenticing at, like a salesman on a good run pointing out the different styles and abilities my shop had to offer.
Now we’ve established a design, and figured out which style we’re most looking for. One of the most important and crucial things to tattooing is cleanliness. Brand new needles, well cleaned tubes, and wiped down rooms are essential. When you get tattooed, you will bleed, and if you bleed there is a chance of bacteria entering into your blood stream, which is why cleanliness is so important. No one wants a bad tattoo experience from infection due to dirty needles or workplace. Since tattooing deals with open wounds, a work place is much like that of a doctor’s office. Cleanliness, cleanliness, cleanliness! I could not stress that more. Not many people are aware of how exactly a tattoo is made. Most people see it as just putting ink onto skin that is somehow permanent. Well what makes that skin permanent? Believe it or not: it's not the type of ink but more the placement. Found on a Teen’s Health website, the best definition for what a tattoo is states, “A tattoo is a puncture wound, made deep in your skin, that's filled with ink” (Nemours). In fact the ink is placed in the Second layer of skin, rather than the first, which is how it is able to remain permanent and not fade as quickly as your skin peels (Nemours). Artists must take all sorts of precaution to prevent transmitting diseases and bacteria.
Walking into a shop for the first time, if you have doubts, ask. If you still have doubts after that, find a different shop. If the shop doesn’t look clean or professional, then get out of there. There is nothing scarier than a dirty shop.
Being an apprentice last year, I was made to do all the dirty work. Or in this case, the clean work. Before and after every tattoo I would come in with special cleaners and wipe down every surface. I would then throw the used needles in a special bucket for disposal and then clean the tubes using a long process. Something I was very pleased to see in the tattoo shops in Potsdam was the attention to cleanliness. If your tattoo appointment feels more like a hospital than your doctor’s appointment, you’re in good hands.
It is true that many people find tattoo shops threatening, or view them as an ugly scar in their community. This idea can only spawn from the very idea that people fear what they do not know. A tattoo artist is just the same as any other person in the community, they are social, friendly, and willing to answer any questions you may have about tattoos. I find that many people find it easier to just avoid what they do not know and follow the easy flow of most stereotypes. Now that I have established what goes on in the process of getting a tattoo, youcan see that it is not as “foreboding” as it may have seemed the first time around. I urge everyone to take some time on a boring day to just go in and check out what a tattoo shop is really like on the inside. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or just browse: not everyone that goes in must get a tattoo before they leave. The tattoo community within Potsdam is an ever changing body as people come and go, new faces and old faces spilling into the shops. Not everyone may like tattoos, but that is expected in everything. However I still encourage people to give them the same respect they would to any other business on the streets of Potsdam.
CITATIONS:
Cohen, Kerry. “The Breakups That Got Under My Skin.” New York Times. 11/22/09.
G, Dennis. "How To Make a Prison Tattoo Gun". Rank My Tattoos. 11/3/09.
McNeil, Donald G. "With This Tattoo I Thee Wed". New York Times. 11/3/09. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/fashion/14tattoo.html?_r=2
Nemours. “So What Exactly Is a Tattoo?” Teens Health. 11/29/09.
Other Works Read:
Guy, Trebay. "Tattoos Gain Even More Visibility". New York Times. 12/05/09
Natasha, Singer. "Erasing Tattoos, Out of Regret or a New Canvas". New York Times. 12/05/09
"Tattoos ". New York Times. 12/05/09
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