Between me any my husband we have 14 tattoos (well ok..NOW it's 15). From several different tattoo shops/artists. Needless to say we have just a teensy bit of experience with tattoos and their implications. All of my tattoos are easily covered. My husband, on the other hand, stepped over the 'cover them all up' line about six tattoos ago. We are always talking about our next tattoo, some ideas are in and then right back out of our heads and other ideas stick around long enough to make it on our bodies.
My husband decided that he wanted to go ahead and get his next tattoo. After about the third or fourth one, this isn't such a big deal anymore. He decided on a guitar pick. Playing the guitar has been part of his life for over 15 years now, so it seemed fitting enough. The tattoo artist that he has seen the last several times ended up moving to Austin (Boo!) so we thought we would visit a newer tattoo place in town. I've seen quality work coming out of this shop and thought it would be worth a visit. When we drove up there were a lot of people standing outside. Hmmm, never a good sign. One of the guys was picking up trash and asked us if we were there for a tattoo or a piercing. Once we told him why we were there he pointed us to another guy, who was also already outside. After Jeremy showed him the print out picture of the guitar pick the guy tells us that all the tattoo artists are out of town for the weekend. This little statement had me wondering why dude #1 pointed us in his direction. And then he tells Jeremy flat out 'I wouldn't get the whole pick, man'. Oh really? You wouldn't? Well, I guess it's a good thing it isn't YOU getting it then. And THEN he tries to talk Jeremy into getting just the logo on the pick. Because, to his thinking, anyone that knows anything about guitars will know what the logo is. He went on to act out this little vignette:
Tattoo guy: So, if someone tells you 'Yeah man, I know what that stands for', you could be like 'Oh yeah, what's it stand for?' and if they can't answer..you just kick 'em in the balls, man.
That's right. This person suggested to my husband that he just 'kick them in the balls'. lol. When he saw that this route of reasoning wasn't really working on changing Jeremy's mind he went to Plan B. He started to say something about 'as that tattoo ages'...and maybe something about some fading it he were to get the whole entire green pick. Jeremy nodded very politely, but it was at this point that I folded my arms and turned half away from him. This is CLEAR woman body speak for 'I am SO done with you'.
We wrapped it pretty quick after that. What else was there to discuss? Besides he wasn't even a tattoo artist!! I just wanted to ask him if he had eyes in his head because if he bothered to look he would have seen my husband isn't new to the tattoo scene. We are fully aware of the natural wear and tear on a tattoo, and the idea of upkeep and touch ups. And even after 14 tattoos, from eight different tattoo artists, spanning over twelve years, we have never had someone try and flat out talk us out of getting the tattoo we wanted.
We went right back to our usual tattoo shop, even though our usual tattoo artist was no longer there. They hooked Jeremy right up and it looks great.
What a weirdo! That's pretty much the reason Ronnie no longer tattoos, because it was getting to be too much of "I'm a rock star because I'm a tattooer" or "because I work at the shop" or "I know a guy who's a tattooer". LOL...Glad he finally got a good one though! :)
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