Tattoos and Televison
Last night was the premier of NY Ink. I am so happy for our friends on the show. Our friends have been on all the TLC shows, Miami, LA and now NY. I always hear so many tattooers say that by being on these shows, people are selling out. Really? Selling out? Wouldn't they if they had the chance to be on TV jump at the chance? I'm sure 8 out of 10, if not 10 out of 10 would if they could. I watched it. I had to see what the new shop looked like. I had to support my LA friends and give them a little west coast love. I can't say for sure that I will watch it on a regular basis. Having lived thru most of my 20's in a tattoo shop working as the shop girl, when I watch TV I like to escape my own reality and dream about someone else's. Never the less it's a cool show with wonderful artists and some of our dearest friends.
After I watched NY Ink and studying for finals and cooking dinner. It was time for some good old fashioned scripted television. I was watching a show on NBC. It was and hour long 'dramedy' about four couples I think. I say I think because it was kind of all over the place. I couldn't even tell if it took place in New York, LA or San Francisco. Truthfully, I wasn't really watching it. I was practicing my guitar and had it on in the background. Anyway, I have a point. I promise. There was one couple, who the husbands character was a tattoo artist. The wife had black hair and a raspy voice. They both wore leather cuffs on their wrists. I guess if I had been the costume designer I probably would have dressed them the same way, but since I wasn't, and I am actually married to a tattoo artist, I thought it was pretty typical. Typical costume and casting. The man kept bringing up that he was a tattoo artist. Going so far as to point to the one tattoo he had on his arm (put there by the make up department), and even drawing a tattoo design to give to a girl he sat next to on the plane. As I watched this I sat and wondered. Is it so main stream now to be a tattoo artist that television is writing 'tattoo artist' as a character? For me I'm married to one so naturally many of my friends are tattoo artists and their wives, but is this true for people outside the tattoo industry? Or is it that now there are just so many tattooers in general. Has tattooing become as main stream as lawyer, doctor, barista? Cut to the commercial break. It was a commercial that said turkeys don't make good tattoo artists, they make good turkey burgers. Seriously? They even had the turkey doing a tattoo on a girl in a tattoo shop. What will they think of next?
As I sit here and write this I wonder. Is the old school of tattooing so old now that future generations of tattooers will only have the era of tattoos on television to base their careers on? What will the tattoo industry be like then? Will people's kids grow up will they want to buy tattoo equipment because they are bored and need a new hobby? I can't say.
But I can say this. If tattoos are so main stream now, than you can stop touching my tattoos when I'm in line at the grocery store, the mall, the post office, the bar, at a concert or anywhere else I may be.
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