Does personality/attitude/lifestyle matter when choosing a tattooer?

[BoMcConaghie]

Got tattooed by Horitomo about a month after he moved to the states. Rad experience with very little conversation.

[hogg]

Got tattooed by Horitomo about a month after he moved to the states. Rad experience with very little conversation.

Yeah, incredible experience, and incredible tattooer.

[ian]

Ill add Chris O Donnell, Jondix..

I second that notion :D

[Dan S]

And I might find out about that language thing.

My cousin lives in Moscow, married a Rooskie, and after looking through Den Yakovlev's work, I do believe I might have to take her up on her offer of a couch anytime. Just incredible, bout all I can say about the work I saw. Hope he can speak either some German or some American.

[rarehardtofind]

Personally speaking, in the final analysis. it's all about the tattoo.

That's all you will be left with long after the memory, about the experience, fades.

It's a bonus if getting the tattoo is a nice experience, but for me, its not a deal breaker.

.

As a whole, I agree with this, after all I'm just there to get a tattoo, not looking for my new BFF, but I admit to having been turned off from a tattoo deal by the artist being an asshole beforehand. I guess it also depends whether you have booked the appointment in advance for a more serious/elaborate piece or if it's just some spur of the moment dumb walk-in.

[donbcivil]

Interesting thread.

I've gotten tattoos from three different artists so far and all were cool, professional folks. Probably the best of the three was not very talkative the first time in but the second time, we had a good yack about kids and stuff.

As others have said, I don't go in expecting to make a new best friend but I would be put off by an arrogant/obnoxious attitude. I'm a programmer and we geeks are stereotypically not very social. But while I don't yack a lot at work and don't see it as part of the job description, I would never treat a client unprofessionally or rudely. Word gets around.

[Mark Bee]

I'd avoid an asshole, largely because I don't like giving my hard-earned cash to douche-bags. I've been tattooed by all kinds of types. Some are super friendly and talkative and others are the silent types - and a range in between. All are totally cool with me. Just don't be a dick! I've noticed a really unpleasant trend on instagram recently - some artists have taken to posting pics of their clients, mocking them for being fat or ugly, or generally dissing their choice of tattoos. That's fine, I guess, but I sure wouldn't go to their shop. It strikes me as an odd way to do business, but hey, its their choice.

[taaarro]

I'm not looking to necessarily "connect" to a tattooer when I make an appointment, but just as I wouldn't buy products from a business or corporation with politics I don't agree with, if I knew that a tattooer is homophobic, racist, or sexist, I would not go to them. Another trend in addition to making fun of customers, which I saw a while ago on Instagram, was white tattooers using "jigaboo" imagery. To me that's not funny and the idea that it's transgressive because it goes against notions of common decency is stupid. We still live in a predominantly racist society, so reiterating racist ideas is essentially conservative.

As far as personality, I wouldn't think you'd be able to tell until after your appointment, but I would never give my money to a tattooer if I knew ahead of time that they're going to be an asshole. You're already paying him or her to put you in pain. That said, I would not base my opinions on a person's personality based on hearsay either. Fortunately, I haven't had any negative experiences in these regards.

[fizz7283]

When I first started getting tattooed I did all walk ins and all at the same shop. They were all decent artists, but quite a few were kind of rude. I finally found two artists from that one shop who were really friendly and sociable and I really like their work, so I've stuck with them over the last six years. I honestly don't like the silent types when getting tattooed. It makes it very awkward for me sitting there for hours just completely quiet. So I have to have an artist who is willing to engage in conversation with me.

In the end I'd rather have a good balance of a good artist who gives me a good tattoo rather than an asshole who gives an amazing piece of art or the most amazing person I've ever met who tattoos a piece of shit on me. Neither of those are pleasant sounding to me. I'll take the less than perfect tattoo though, which might sound dumb to some people, but I like to be comfortable while I'm getting the tattoo as well and I don't want to line some assholes pockets with cash and be uncomfortable getting the tattoo the entire time.

[Killercook76]

i think personality is super important.. This is a customer service industry.. I've been tattooed by some of the best all of them were super nice..

[iowagirl]

I don't see why you can't have both. I don't think necessarily I need to have like some deep cosmic connection w/an artist, but I want to feel comfortable around them. The shit hurts. Why put yourself thru pain and be irritated or uncomfortable right along w/it? The first 5 I got were all from the same guy, and he was gruff/abrasive. It wasn't anything I couldn't deal w/but later on it got to just be too much. He did bend the rules for me a few times since I'd been there so much and had referred others to him, like no deposit, and he came in 2 hours early and left the closed sign up to tattoo my husband who worked crazy hours and couldn't get in any other time. But then when we went back another time he acted like we were idiots b/c we didn't bring a deposit (which he'd not asked for the last 3 times I'd been there) and b/c I wanted mine on the back of my neck.

We tried a different shop on recommendation from someone in town I met by chance who has some gorgeous work. When we went in, we were not greeted nicely or treated nicely, and it just about got to the point my husband almost said something. The rudeness was coming from the apprentice, go figure. We met who would be doing my cherry blossoms and he was really nice, and we felt comfortable immediately w/him. It's nice to be able to chat about stuff during-he and my husband are into guns, so they spent a lot of time talking about that. He's moving however, so we'll be switching to the owner, who we've met and both really like.

I wouldn't want to see a dentist who was a jerk, or a physician who berated me, so I'm not going to sit and have my skin ground on by someone who thinks he/she is the cat's ass.

[sbhikes]

My first tattoo was by a lady who was very gruff and intimidating. I wanted another tattoo but every time I thought of her I didn't want to go back. So first I went to a different place but got such a horrible tattoo that now I was even more reluctant to ever get another tattoo. I really thought my only option was to go back to the mean lady, which I just couldn't do. So I went a long time before I ever got another tattoo. So far I have gone to a number of people who have been pleasant enough. I don't expect us to hold hands and become best of friends, but I've been surprised how genuinely nice and, dare I say, "normal", they've been. The last one even gave me a hug when I was all done, which was kind of a surprise as I'm not exactly the hugging type.

[beez]

I got my first AWESOME tattoo from an artist who I am reticent to go back to because I felt like there was some weirdness between us. He is an established curmudgeon, but certainly not unprofessional, but there is this lasting feeling of weird! This was 7 years ago, and I'd like to go back to get some more work from him, because I really loved the piece he did and the work is damn good, but because of this weirdness, whether it's his attitude or maybe I was just too green at the time and my nerves were off-putting to him, I haven't gone back. I did gather up my courage several years ago to go talk to him about options for what we could do around the piece, but I was so afraid of talking to him and the attitude was so fucking WEIRD that I stuttered and stumbled and ended up leaving. And to be more specific re: "weird", which I've overused in this post: gruff, unfriendly, attitudey, angry? It was really an amalgamation of adjectives that apparently I can't fully place, and though my imprecision is annoying to me, I'm gonna go with it for now. (but apologize for it: sorry re imprecision ;)).

So I guess the point is that I at least want to go to someone who I am at least comfortable approaching! And as much as I'd like to get more done by this guy, whose work is excellent, it's too much stress to even go in. I do recommend him to other people though, because part of me feels like the attitude was generated by my nervousness at getting my first large, visible tattoo - if I were approaching him now, maybe I wouldn't notice it?

One thing - if I hear a tattoo artist talking major shit on other artists or customers, I won't go to that person. Bad manners! Unprofessional, impolite. Bad juju for my tattoo, I think. The tattooist doesn't need to be my best friend, or chat me up the whole time (after all, they're working and I'm dealing with getting tattooed!), or even make a total 'connection' with me, but I do appreciate eye contact, a smile, basic manners, and a professional attitude. Soo...my .02.

[Colored Guy]

When I first started getting tattooed I did all walk ins and all at the same shop. They were all decent artists, but quite a few were kind of rude. I finally found two artists from that one shop who were really friendly and sociable and I really like their work, so I've stuck with them over the last six years. I honestly don't like the silent types when getting tattooed. It makes it very awkward for me sitting there for hours just completely quiet. So I have to have an artist who is willing to engage in conversation with me.

In the end I'd rather have a good balance of a good artist who gives me a good tattoo rather than an asshole who gives an amazing piece of art or the most amazing person I've ever met who tattoos a piece of shit on me. Neither of those are pleasant sounding to me. I'll take the less than perfect tattoo though, which might sound dumb to some people, but I like to be comfortable while I'm getting the tattoo as well and I don't want to line some assholes pockets with cash and be uncomfortable getting the tattoo the entire time.

I have to have a rapport with the artist too. I've walked out of good shops before and I'll do it again if there is a negative vibe going on. Since I'm sitting there for an hour or 4, I like the experience to be as nice as possible.

Rob

[Doger Mayer]

Some of the artists I thought were assholes have become great friends of mine. What's important to me is a hard work ethic, passion for tattooing, and a quality portfolio in the style I'm after.

[Brock Varty]

Some of the artists I thought were assholes have become great friends of mine. What's important to me is a hard work ethic, passion for tattooing, and a quality portfolio in the style I'm after.

Same here. While I can appreciate the general likeability of a person, I don't need to like them to get tattooed by them. I'll use this example...If Kore Flatmo was an asshole(which is false), I would still get tattooed by him. Making good tattoos is what I care about. If you have a awesome attitude then that is a bonus, but not required.

[HaydenRose]

I've found, in my experience, that the best tattooers are the nicest and most professional ones. Tattooers that have big egos and harsh personalities are probably just overcompensating for/grumpy about their sub-par work. Just my $.02.