#MeToo in the tattooing community

[zetroc]

It was only a matter of time.

Over the last week there have been more than a few posts on Instagram, and probably other places, naming a few fairly prominent tattooers as being disgusting creeps and serial sexual predators. I won't name them here as I'm not interested in getting sued, but if you follow the accounts "watchdogtattoos" "how_to_not_get_tattooed" "prettytoughtattoos" (Dawn Cooke) or "shitwishtattoos" (Jon Larson) you'll see some of what has come out recently, most of which seem to be from customers. Being a largely macho, male-dominated field, I'm sure sexual harassment has been a widespread problem for a long time, but I'm glad that people are feeling safe enough to share their accounts of what happened to them. It's truly sickening.

Many of the posts they make are in their Instagram Stories, since they are ephemeral and disappear after a day or so. 

[Dominiccjs]

I'm glad they are being outed, no place such behavior in the tattoo community or anywhere for that matter. If the accusations are true, i hope they never find a job in the industry ever again.

[JAC1961]

It's sad to see happen anywhere, but not surprising.  It happens in every walk of life, every profession, so there's no reason to think that tattoo artists are immune to it.

Some may find it barbaric, but I believe in the old fashion ways.  If that type of thing happened years ago, the woman's father, brothers, uncles, etc. would impress upon the over-sexed prick the error of his ways and explain why it wouldn't happen again.  Of course today you can't do such things.

When my wife and I got married MY dad told my wife that I if I ever laid a hand to her just to let him know and he'd take care of it... and he would have.

[Colored Guy]

Unfortunately it happens. Tattoo artists are a little quirky in some way, I see this in every artist and not always in a bad way. They are not like a 9-5 Monday-Friday worker. My current artist is female and I hear the stories as she was coming up in the trade. Some of the customers are creeps too, I was there once when she asked someone to leave. He made some comment on the breast size of one of her artists. 

[Synesthesia]

It's awful in any profession, but especially awful in a position like tattooing because your client is so vulnerable and exposed. It takes a lot of trust on a client's part, especially a female client getting tattooed by a male. While I'm not opposed to things like politically incorrect humor or the more vulgar aspects of a tattoo shop, there's a line that shouldn't be crossed and I'm glad it's being addressed.