yeah, this is a particularly grating problem in my neck of the woods, and i may post an adjunct thread (if it does not already exist) about shops opening up close to each other.
anyhow...i think that there's several factors at play here. because tattooing is no longer a marginalized subculture, and because in general, there has been a huge influx of new shops opening up everywhere, i think entrepreneurial/opportunistic "civilians" look at tattooing as a legit business opportunity.
from our perspective, of course, this is completely wrong. i don't think that people coming in care about respect inside the community. success, sure....
the rub for me (at least in the specific case in which a shop has opened up two doors down from us) is that these people are not opening without help from tattooers...wtf is up with that?