Scatchers Go Home!

As a professional tattoo artist working in an established shop I make a conscious effort to maintain a professional attitude toward the competing shops in my area and beyond. It is not my style to bad-mouth another reputable shop just because we are in the same business. We are in competition with each other but it does not mean that we can't offer mutual respect to one another. Not only for each others business, but also for each others talent. Studio 42, Crayons and Mushrooms Tattoos are just a few examples of local tattoo shops of whom I am proud to call my colleagues. I love to praise their work and happily invite their critique of mine. Holla! (Ok, so I'm not gangsta but still...)
The word 'talent', however, like 'art' is subjective. But, I think most of my fellow tattooists would agree, when it comes to talent in this industry, talent, or lack thereof, is much easier to spot than in other art worlds.
We all know the old saying 'I don't know art but I know what I like.'. Go to any museum and you will see many beautiful pieces of art from many different periods and ages. And you and your cohorts may spend hours debating on who has more talent: the guy who sculpted a mother and child out of marble circa 1837 or the dude that took a piss on two blank canvases before dumping his ashtray on top of them in his basement this morning. And, by the way, both of these pieces exsist.
Tattoos, though, do not require as much debate because, subjectives aside, it is easy to see when a tattoo is clearly nothing but bad. A technical point of view might focus on shaky or blown out lines, un-even color fill, blank spots (also known as 'holidays'), scarring. An artists point of view might notice the terrible rendering (at the Butler fair I saw a guy getting a tattoo of a lion with perfectly cut bangs. The most ridiculous looking lion, tattoo or otherwise, I have ever seen.), poor composition, off kilter body placement. These are all techniques in the tattoo world that are preformed by those we call 'scratchers'. And they do not have my respect.
Scratchers are annoying to our business, as well as to each of us, and by that I mean me personally, for many reasons.
One. They're dangerous. Forget about art for a second. Let's talk about sterilization, cross contamination, Hep-C, HIV, AIDS. Scratchers aren't any good at tattoos because they never took the time to learn how to do it right. And if they never took the time to learn the craft, I'm sure they didn't learn anything about bloodbourne pathogens and anti-microbials either. There is currently no recorded case of a person dying from a tattoo. But with as many scratchers as there are out there, I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
Two. They suck at everything. Ok, that's a bit vague. They suck at everything tattoo related. Remember what I said about not bad mouthing another reputable shop? Well, sir or madam, if you are a scratcher then you do not fall into that category. I see scratcher tattoos come into my shop all the time. Tattoos that look as if they were put in with a chisel and coal dust. I do not hesitate to tell that victim that they have been terribly scarred and to never ever go back to that person again. Even if they don't come to see me, just don't go back to that scratcher. Sometimes these people agree. And sometimes they look at the tattoo, shrug their shoulders and say 'Eh. Twenty bucks.' Idiots. Which brings me to my next point of annoyance...
They take my business for the worst reason of all: money. I call this the worst reason not because I need more money (well, I do but... anyway). Because, as I have already written about at length in previous blogs, the general, un-educated tattoo consumer looks at dollars before anything else. As many times as I have been asked for prices over the phone that I refuse to give, the scratcher shop will answer his phone, give his low, low price to the thrill and delight of the stupid hooray-I'm-gonna-get-tattooed-and-it-won't-even-cost-me-my-whole-allowance kid (who, when they get there, they won't even be carded). And they might not even be taking my money just today. That same person who the scratcher screws up on might have been a potential customer who, due to this terrible experience, is now completely turned off of ever getting a tattoo again. Thank you, scratcher.
But perhaps the most annoying thing about scratchers, and this is more for me personally, is that THEY THINK THEY ARE GOOD! Look, I know that I am not a world renowned tattooist and I have much to learn in this craft. I still learn, with every tattoo and I get better every day. But I do feel confident enough in my moderate ability that I feel comfortable enough to keep going. That being said, the scratcher should just effing quit. But they won't, because they think their work is good and seem unable to recognize how absolutely horrifying and horrible they are.
Just here on myspace alone, find yourself a couple dozen 'tattooists' and look at their work in the photo albums. Out of that two dozen there will be at least one or two (or more) whose tattoo work is so bad that it would make you want to personally kick their ass. Yet, the captions for these pieces of crap are things like 'Sik azz tat i did', 'Sic as fuk', 'str8 m*thaf*ken masterpiece' 'Picasso aint got shit on me' and 'Gatta love it'. These are all actual quotes under pictures of different scratchers here on myspace. Even more sad than this is the fact that these photos receive comments under them full of praise and encouragement, like lemmings following their leader off a cliff. Any true artist will be hesitant to comment on their own work outside of stating how much fun they had doing it. Even the ones who know how good they are will accept any praise at all with great, great humility.
I look at the work of Bob Tyrrell, Nikko Hurtado, Mike Devries, Joshua Carlton and Guy Aitchison, just to name a few, and I see artists levels who I am inspired to aspire to. These scratcher dill holes look at the same work and see their equals. I don't get it. Perhaps it's a mental illness, like a compulsive disorder or paranoia, where they are completely unaware that their behaviour is not normal. Or maybe they do know how bad they suck but think that if they appear confident and keep telling people how good they are, despite the truth, we will all believe them. Duuuuh.
In any case, sadly, it doesn't appear as if these scratchers are going to quit and go away any time soon. You would think they might know when to quit but they don't. They think they can draw well (they can't) so they think they can tattoo well (they even more can't). They think doing tattoos offers them some sort of rock 'n roll status that they otherwise could not acquire. I changed my own oil once but I'm not going to open an auto body shop in any near future. I make decent barbecue chicken (falling off the bone, I tell you) but have no plans to open a restaurant.
'I don't know art but I know what I like'. Well I know art and the art I like might not be the art you like and that's fine. But I know a good tattoo when I see one. And to all you scratchers out there, shading whole pieces with your liners. Going too deep with a re-used needle and using an empty bic pen for a tube. You'll get my respect when you quit.