Tattoos on tattooers

[Deb Yarian]

I have a white girlfriend. She really likes dark, black, African-American men. The darker the skin the better.

She likes Motown music and Tyler Perry movies.

She loves going to soul food restaurants.

She even wears her hair in corn rows.

Right now she's limited her dating to walks in the park or going for coffee with them cause she is concerned what her mom will think.

She's thinking about teaching a class or speaking about "Civil rights --- the black perspective"

She just loves the black race and as a white girl wants to embrace the African-American experience.

[Ursula]

Yeah good for her but it doesn't really relate here. She seems to have dove right into whatever culture she seems to like. This person with two tattoos has not.

[Deb Yarian]

It does relate!

[Scott R]

Since this site is open for anyone to join I suggest a policy of no "breaking into the business" related questions as a forum rule. All that does is keeping tattooers away, thus making it alot less fun for all of the other members who are genuinely interested in talking about tattoos.

Iwar- I dont know what the right answer is but I agree to do something that will get the artists to frequent the site more often. I think LST is awesome but this is the second time in a few weeks an artist has mentioned not coming here as much.(stewart and mario) I have learned so much from the other enthusiasts but as a guy who just wants to give to tattoing by being a consumer it bums me out that the takers are limiting my chances to get the perspective of artists on different subjects.

[Ursula]

What I meant was your friend seems to be doing all she can to be black, she wearing the clothes and hair, listening to what's considered black music watching movies and whatever. Obviously she will never be black or actually know what it's like to be black.

This person wants to be a tattooer but doesn't want to jump in and do all those things like wearing the tattoos or spend all her money to try and reach this goal. Until she does she will never know what it's like to be heavily tattooed and in my opinion shouldn't even be thinking about being a tattooer unless she's willing to devote a lot of her life to it. If someone is willing to teach someone who isn't even dedicated enough to get tattooed then they are likely doing it for the wrong reasons.

So yes I guess it does relate in the way that they are both trying to be something that they will never be.

[MsRad]

i think an improved response might have been to link to the previous thread and also to the new tattoo newbie guidelines. just my own .02 as i slowly come back here. i was impressed enough with how this thread was handled to sign back in (not that my opinion counts for much, but just wanted to say "good job!").

and i think i get Deb's point (maybe?), and possibly another point she didn't even mean for others to get. her friend is missing out on the whole experience worried about what others will think, and on top of it, she'll never completely understand the experience of African Americans or other races for that matter, simply based on her own ethnicity/race. tattooing is kind of similar. if you're not born or develop that drive to be tattooed, then you're never going to understand the full experience, and if you're worried all the time about what others think, then you're probably never going to have that innate drive.

[kylegrey]

Also from a dudes perspective I'm only cool for a certain number of coffees and walks in the park .

[Deb Yarian]

MsRad you are too kind. But i admit i was being sarcastic and speaking metaphorically.

[jayessebee]

Thread starter, this is gonna be one of those things like your parents told you when you were a teenager that you didn't believe at the time but down the road, realized "shit they were right"

There is a very hard to define point where you turn from a tourist with a couple of tattoos into a tattooed person, and you can only get there by getting tattooed A LOT and living the lifestyle. If you ever DO get there, you'll remember this thread with some chagrin.

I too have a cushy college admin job, and I've had it for 11 years with sleeves visible, stretched ears, etc - everyone I work with sees me as I am because I can't and won't hide it. I kinda hate the job, but I respect the $$ it provides.

[Ursula]

I feel like this would be a good time to mention that I, and I'm sure many others here, were at one point more of a 'tourist' with only a couple tattoos. I've heard people say before that everyone who's been tattooed at some point thinks it would be an awesome job that they could do. I'm included in that. It took me a very short time to see what a fool I was to think that. As soon as I realized what being a tattooer is I knew it wasn't for me but that getting heavily tattooed was for me. Ten years or so later I'm glad with the decision to dedicate my time and hard work to what I am truly passionate about and it turns out that even though I'm not a tattooer I can still be an artist and I can still be part of the tattoo community.

I know someone said this earlier but you can become part of tattooing without being a tattooer. I still get to be around tattooers whenever I want, go to conventions and sell my art and work in shops.

[jayessebee]

just for fun:

[Shannon Shirley]

ben folds is cool.

[JAllen]

Fine, so I'm a parasite. I'm not sure exactly how to formulate a response to this that expresses how I feel about it without generating a whole lot more inflammatory responses. Again, you don't know me.

i never claimed to know anything more about you than what you have expressed here and the reason its inflammatory is that you have such a limited experience and exposure to tattooing so being able to form the views you have expressed to people who have literally devoted their lives to tattooing and to make assumptions that you can do a good tattoo is what evokes the types of responses that you received. i don't doubt that you have a passion to pursue a career and devote yourself to it but i think it is just a lack of understanding of what it really means to say that you have no plans to get any more tattoos but yet you want to put them on other people. tattooing, even the "art" of it is far more involved than just drawing a picture and being able to execute it in a way that looks appealing. also understand, that i'm not one of those folks whose worried about competition or how many people are tattooing or those aspects of things.

think of this as an example, i like to eat food. i like to cook food and have a certain curiosity and interest in food and how to cook it. i can cook some really tasty and appealing dishes that i imagine lots of people might like. i do think that i could enjoy being a chef but i know that if i were to ever really want to pursue being a real chef and not a line cook at a food chain, then i'm going to have to try lots of different kinds of food and figure out the best ways to prepare them. my key to being successful would rely on my ability to have a broad pallet and know everything i could about food. i think most serious chefs or people who have a passion for food might give me hell if i stated i'm going to be a chef/i want to be a chef/i think i could be a chef.. but i'm only willing to try 2 kinds of food...and maybe if something sounds good enough sometime in the future then i'll try something new.

[areilla]

Okay I get it. Are my ass cheeks pink enough yet?

[Jaycel Adkins]

Jut thought of something : on some other non tattoo forums I've joined to become a member you have to validate your account through your email. This requires users to read an initial emailed message and click the 'activate account link'. I don't know much about how forums work but I though maybe if we had something like that where all new members received an email or personal message here that they are required to read before having their username validated it would cut down on the type of stuff we dont want here. Or maybe every new member can be sent a link to the suggestions for newcomers thread and be told they should read it before posting.

I believe this in what is happening now, if I understood my exchange with 'steve' in the newcomers thread.

Quote Originally Posted by Jaycel Adkins View Post

- Is there a way for everyone who registers to make comments in the forums to see that article as part of the registration process? If it stays as an article, when a few new ones come up, won't it just disappear?

Yes, there is now messaging built in to the initial registration pages, as well a notice that displays for any user with less than 6 posts - directing them to the newbie article.

Thanks again for your suggestions and feedback - keep them coming!

[Ursula]

ah awesome Jaycel! I hadn't been keeping up with that thread like i apparently should have! I'm glad they did that, hopefully in the future people will actually take that advice. Maybe it hadn't kicked in when the chick who started this thread signed up, or maybe she just ignored it. Either way it's good to know it's there so when people post stupid or offensive shit in the future we can all go "read the rules like you were told to or get out" instead of having these threads that just go on and on and on repeating things we've gone through a number of times.

[MsRad]

MsRad you are too kind. But i admit i was being sarcastic and speaking metaphorically.

yolks on me then! (well hopefully not, but you know what i mean)

it's hard to tell sarcasm from sincerity through text sometimes. and here i thought i was helping haha

[Ursula]

haha Deb I'm sure by my reply you figured out that I also didn't realize you were joking.. anyways in that case yes spot on.. hahaha

[Deb Yarian]

William Shatner and Joe Jackson - Common People.

One of my favorites.

This is what I was quoting from on the other thread.

"everybody hates a tourist!"

[dari]

Such a bummer to sign on and see 3 pages on this thread that only started yesterday. For the record, I can close a thread so we don't have to go on and on in circles, I might've closed it as soon as the other thread on tattooers with little to no tattoos was referenced. I appreciate that everyone was civil and thoughtful in their responses, and everything has been resolved, but I'm going to close this thread. Please feel free to "report a post/thread" if it ever feels needed, that's the little ! in a triangle on the bottom of every post, left of center. And the next time someone new to LST asks a question about "breaking into the business," we can refer them to THIS thread.

BTW, welcome to LST areilla.