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I've been watching this thread since it popped up and have enjoyed seeing the respectful post from multiple perspectives of LSTers, thanks. I think some valuable feedback and ideas have been put out there. This sounds like a frustrating experience though to go in to any business from an entitled perspective as a customer we are bound to hit friction, sometimes aversion in our interactions, and overall unhappy outcomes. I do think some good feedback has been given and don't think verbal retaliations need to exist on this site. If that is what any LSTers are looking for I strongly encourage you to go elsewhere as this is one of the reasons we started LST as the other tattoo forums have too much of this negativity. We designed this forum in hopes of positive interactions from tattoo conversations to tattoo pictures to what-have-yous for both tattooers and tattoo customers. This thread is heading in a manner that I don't think it needs to go and honestly hope it doesn't as we don't need that here. This topic is a good one so if it is going to continue lets continue to go for overall ways to support/facilitate better interactions with the tattooers and customers who respect tattooing humbly.

Shawn's comments make perfect sense. Your reaction to them leads me to believe that you look for things to offend you. He said he treats every customer with respect. However, he realizes that taking money from a jerkoff comes with a bigger price, so he chooses not to deal with them at his business. I follow the same thought pattern. Maybe it is because he and I are both from the Philly area. Either way, maybe you are too sensitive. People need to realize just how nice the tattoo business is now. It is much more customer friendly than it used to be. Customers should be treated PROFESSIONALLY. It doesn't mean like friends. Sometimes I become friends with customers and, other times, I never want to see them again. Regardless, I treat them professionally as they are paying for my service. I welcome anyone into my shop and expect that nobody treats them badly. On the other hand, I'm not really there to hold a customer's hand and pat them on the back. Sometimes customers are looking for friendship and usually I'm looking to do a good tattoo. Lastly, counter people have a lot going on in a busy shop. They are not paid to get the customers food and drink. At my shop, sometimes they ask customers and sometimes they don't. It isn't personal either way. If they have a lot going on they may not think about it.

Maybe Tattoo collector /corrector could become Tattoo Enthusiast ?

did this one the other day. mariachi t-rex.. OLE!

I don't think tattoo artists are different than any other group of people in that you need to take them on a case by case basis. If I had a couple bad service experiences at various restaurants I wouldn't think all waiters are douchebags. Yes, at the end of the day, you are their source of income and that's often most important to them, but that doesn't mean that every one of them will treat you poorly. Same deal here. Personally, I tend to have quite pleasant interactions at tattoo shops. It could be due to the shops that I choose to frequent or the manner in which I try to approach situations though. I've had plenty of tattoo appointments pushed back, rescheduled, etc. Generally the artist is sincerely apologetic though and it's not a big deal. I love punctuality but shit happens and everyone runs late sometimes on both client and artist side. Don't get offended when I say this, but perhaps there's something you don't realize you're doing that facilitates these constant negative interactions. More often than not if any one person is getting repeatedly burned/used/insulted it tends that they're doing something to put themselves in that position... Or maybe you just have picked a lot of asshole artists to visit. It's hard to tell when an outside party like us LST'ers only hear one side of a story ya know? As for the coffee thing, you could have communicated with the staff more about when you would be getting tattooed and whether you had time to get something sooner rather than just expected them to ask you if you wanted something. The helper already has to deal with plenty of other things besides serving food and beverages to customers as well. Straight up- we have it pretty posh as tattoo customers nowadays compared to what anyone wanting to get tattooed in the past had to deal with. In the big scheme of things, we as customers really don't have much to complain about (and if there is a legitimate complaint then fuck it find a more appropriate fit.) Good luck- I hope you find a more positive tattoo experience. I promise they're out there. I see your profile says socal- what part of socal you in? I can think of several great tattoo artists with welcoming shops down there- some of them are even on this forum...

You might as well be asking "how long is a piece of string" Pauly. I know some great tattooers who are absolute D-bags. If they were dentists, they'd be d-bag dentists. Tattooing is a hustle to them, and yeah.. you're the mark/trick. I also know some great tattooers who have so much humility that you want to smack them for being so dang nice. And while it may sting to hear, if you think that everyone treats you poorly, it might make sense to internalize the situation and see if you may be contributing to it in some way or the other. Sure, I've had counter people ask me if I want anything on a store run (one got me bbq ribs once) but that's not a make/break situation for me.

In Scotland a tatti is a the name used for a potato.

Thinking about making this my FB status.

Eagles to me are like Rock of Ages, classic/timeless tattoos! The mental association with the word "tattoo" within the top five images that will pop into my head are eagles. Something about them always catches my eye in tattooers portfolios and flash at tattoo shops. I'm often drawn to the older flash at shops and will look for long periods of time at each eagle. I love seeing old tattoo pictures as well with people who have large eagle chestpieces (I couldn't find any online so pls share if you have some). I have seen some amazing ones pop up on this tattoo forum as well and hope the users will post theirs here that they have collected, tattooed, and drawn. I have quickly gathered some eagle pictures from tattooers who I think do great eagles: Lindsey Carmichael, Nick Colella, Thomas Hooper, Chad Koeplinger, Stefan Johnsson, and Tim Lehi. Share your favorite eagle tattoos and tattooers who do the eagles you like.....have at it!

hahahaha I love this shit. It makes me giggle like a little kid every time

interesting thread for sure. at the shop i work at, its open plan with the counter being the dividing line between waiting area and tattooing area, it's barely hip height. i tattoo right beside it and when it gets noisy/busy i try to ignore everything around me and concentrate on setting up, finishing a drawing or most importantly on the customer im tattooing and thats paying for my time. i dont expect anyone to think of that as being rude, it just gets hectic at our shop, its a very small studio and sometimes i can't stop to talk to everyone that comes in asking for me. i run late only occasionally, and i try to make sure im ready for my first customer because i hate how sometimes that can cause me to run late for the rest of the day. sometimes i have the drawing ready, sometimes i dont, it depends on each and every tattoo. we work our staff very hard, sometimes when someone does a coffee run the tattooer might ask their customer if theyd like something, but usually theyre bringing back 5 or 6 drinks back already so sometimes they dont. personally id recommend staying hydrated for a tattoo by drinking water which we provide at the shop anyway. every tattooer ive ever met works differently from eachother. trying to get my first tattoo at 18 got me thrown out of a shop cos the main guy was drunk and didnt like the look of me, so im kinda glad i didnt see that as a challenge and didnt go back to get tattooed, instead finding a place more suited to a first timer. when i did eventually get tattooed, it was at Richard Pinch's shop in aberdeen, no red carpet, no Champagne, just a great, clean, fast tattoo and thats what i came to expect from tattooers. i am really lucky to have some awesome and loyal customers, i dont tattoo that many new faces, and in the time theyve been coming to me for tattoos, theyve become used to the way i am/work, kinda quiet for the most part, erupting half way through with some crude humor then going quiet again. i also work with some guys who just love to have a chat, personally i frown and concentrate a lot haha!

Great traditional tattoo and immediately i think - Valerie Vargas .She can bust out some of the best even on the tricky spots ,so many great ones from this lass it's hard to choose what pics to post .

i get and understand that side too Mario. and i definitely don't think i'm better than the next person who's coming in to get a tribal armband or a heart with the word mom in it. but at the same time, i recognize that i am actively seeking out individuals based on their artwork, just as i could do with any other form of art, and having work made. i have invested money and time into trying to get work done by certain individuals, and i am actively collecting this work that happens to cover my body. so i'm sorry if my word choice was seen as comment on status, as it wasn't intended to be so. however, i'm not sure that there's a better word to describe who i or many others are. and i, as a client of you Mario, sincerely appreciate that you value every customer that you have, because that's part of what makes you a great artist. and like any good business, the client should be valued and respected, because they are supporting you financially, regardless of how small or big the task they're asking you to do. i just wrote this whole long response, thinking i had gotten to the end of the thread, then realized i hadn't and that everyone had basically said what i wanted to haha. also Pat, i was in no way angry, just sort of annoyed haha.

Pauly, even your initial post on this thread makes me think you came here looking for a fight. I can sympathize with the frustration but if you've had more negative experiences than positive at tattoo shops, then take a look at these situations and try to understand the root causes. Maybe the guy was a dick and it sounds like the time management and professionalism could have been better on his end, but no one is obligated to get you drinks or be your best friend. Like others have said, as little as a generation ago, chances are you wouldn't have even gotten in the door. We've all had times where maybe we've had to wait around, or appointments run long, or maybe the tattooer is just having an off day. We all have shitty days. But it's no reason to think all tattooers (or waiters, etc.) are assholes across the board. You get the same cross section of people in any industry. There are a lot of dipshit people in general. I wasn't going to comment on this, but I can understand your frustration. Instead of trying to force people to like you and treat you with respect, you have to show some respect first. If you're serious about continuing to get tattooed, just relax and try to enter in future situations with a positive outlook and no expectations other than a great tattoo. How'd the end product turn out?

Sorry.....it's me again! Had Dave Cise at The Baltimore Tattoo Museum finish off his tattoo yesterday on my neck! I think my neck is totally done now! He added some lines around a phrase he has put on the front of my neck from ear to ear and did a negative drop shadow throughout the whole thing! It turned out awesome and i am stoked to have my neck totally finished!

I've never referred to myself as a collector, but I've heard many other people describe me that way. The best was when I was visiting shops in Japan and artists would say, "Tattoo artist?" I'd say, "No, no, no" and they'd say, "Oh...tattoo corrector!"

i never thought of collector as an elitist term either, but being smug and thinking your "above" other clients is typical elitist behavior. reminds me of an old saying. "its not what you say but how you say it."

I've never thought of "collector" as an elitist term, just as a way of saying, "I'm not getting a bodysuit from one person, I like the work of so many tattooers and I'm working on a collection bit by bit." I have a substantial rock collection. If I only had one, I wouldn't be a collector, I'd just be another person with a rock. Does that make sense? I just thought it was a way to classify ourselves here, as in "Are you a sweet tatz wizard, or are you hoping to get into some squid slacks?"

Eagles rock ! Heres another tuff chest piece this time from everyones favourite Bryan Burk .

Oh wait, I just found two quarters.

Consider the $1.53 the tip for the tattoo, cheapass.

Can you break a $2?

I'll pinprick that som'bitch on you man. Free of charge. That will make me a tattooer and I can use jargon with full autonomy! The original art is available for $5000, but for you... for you I can sell it for $0.47

When I was just getting into getting tattooed, I was getting worked on by Bud "Just Plain Bud" Pierson of Ancient Art in Orlando. This is... 1990 maybe. When I first went in I was pretty young, but we hit it off pretty well. I was worried that I wouldn't be taken seriously by the "collectors" or the "serious artists" due to my age and my lack of large tattoos. Bud was about as politically incorrect and offensive as they came, and he summed it up like this: "I'm just a guy who does tattoos and you're just a guy that gets them. That makes us as special as the guy who fixes the toilet and the guy who uses it." At the time I was all butthurt that he equated tattooing (something he had been doing for 20+ years, but my 16yo pride wanted to defend) with that, but as I got older, I totally got what he was saying. So yeah. God I miss Bud.

This isn't preferential treatment, but I blew a tire once on I-95N and pulled into the PA Welcome Station to wait for a towtruck. (someone had borrowed my jack). I was sitting by the car grumpy, and this older gent came up and started hitting me up. Given that it was a rest stop, I assumed he wanted a little roadside fun and cold shouldered him a bit... until he showed me his full DON FUCKING NOLAN backpiece that he got back in the day. We ended up talking for two hours, traded info and all that, but I never heard back from him. Shame I never got pics. I always said tattoos were passports; sometimes they take you to Tahiti to sit on the beach and lounge and sometimes they take you to some god forsaken hellhole, but if you sign up for an adventure, you're likely to get it.

A tattoo shop should only and always be referred to as "Ye Olde Tattzappery."

tat-zaps, tat-wizard, ink, get some ink, inked up, get inked, tatted, color bomb, trad, neo-trad...

Another great collection by the look of things Avery ! Perfect sizing on that Eagle ,i've attached another along the same lines by Bert Krak ,think the solitary Eagle is super strong . So many good Eagles but my favourite piece of Eagle art is Scott Sylvias picture .This is just crying out for a back to adopt it . I love Chad Koeplingers birds too Lochlan especially his talons which often are supersized .

the only skull I have on me is by Mike Lucena and is below. Gotta say I love skulls by Rudy, Hooper (who has that whole book of skulls), Jondix, Jensen, Garver, the usual suspects.... Both Stewart and Valerie over at Frith St have pretty radical day of the dead skulls on their website. Surely there's people I'm forgetting right now though.

I have full sleeves and have worked at Wells Fargo and now I work in a Federal Building. People def. treat you way differently in a office environment. Wells Fargo, some people were more uptight about it than others. I had a guy in a cubicle next to me that was OFFENDED by my tattoos. None of my tattoos are offensive. The government building, people just mostly stare. They think I am here for court.

Also: Roseanne and I Love Lucy. UNASHAMED.