Warning: There may be an over amount of ranting, raving, and fowl mouthing in the following "News Letter". None to be taken or given on a personal basis, Yeah Right!
I have been going over the vast expanse of my imaginative, artistic, or maybe autistic, mind. How to begin this to leave a permanent imprint on the readers mind that will keep you all on the edge till my next rant comes out.
It seems the only time I have to sit and write is in the evening after work and dinner when i have my butt planted on the couch watching TV. Yes, yes I know i'm multi-talented. Oh and since we are on the subject of TV....we were right? Anyhow, I have a beef about all these reality tattoo shows and their "Trickle Down" effect that is selling our profession down the tubes. Oh they may have some great art and artists that do 5-6 hour tattoos in a matter of 15-20 minutes. But my real bitch isn't how fast they are or their degree of talent. It is how they are giving every Tom, Dick, and Dick the very idea that he or she can be a tattoo artist by merely watching a half hour every week, going out and buying a machine, or as some of these clowns are calling them, "a gun", 4 or 5 needles (not too many cause they can boil the old ones), some black ink (bought at staples) and they are ready to tat someone in their moms cellar. No apprenticing, or they get an apprenticing from someone who has been tattooing for a whole year and is charging them 5-10 thousand dollars. Oh this isn't where it ends, now that they did their 6 month apprenticing, they go out into the world eager to work and get hired at one of these shops down on "Palisades Strip". They pay 70% of what they earn to their employer, who owns one of the "drag the drunk off the street" shops. We won't get into what the work looks like the day after. But it sure looked (Hic...hic) good last night. I guess i kinda got off track again. What and where was I going about the reality shows was, with all the people wanting to be tat artists, its kinda like our immigration problem. They don't want to go through the proper channels. They just want to reap the benefits and get right to making the bucks.....ok ok, I got off track again.
Have you noticed how supplies and suppliers have taken advantage of all this inks, tubes, tips, grips, and machines (everyone is making them). They have got so much more expensive, ok, needles are still cheap (made in china). Oh sure you can still get stuff at the suppliers known as Walmart tattoo supplier and you get what you pay for, I understand. It's a competitive game but people who know nothing at all about our art are taking advantage of us. Wow, I should have put sniveling along with ranting and raving at the beginning. Well this is my news letter, I can say what I want. I promise you I will pay more attention in my journalism classes, after all, I am going for my Masters. Hey if book keepers, piercers, opticians, car salesmen can become tattoo artists, why can't I become a writer?
Anyhow the shop has moved to North Versailles. According to some of my customers, it's the other side of the world. It is a house by itself that I have started to remodel. I have a nice big garage that I can pursue my second favorite love ....custom painting. Business is picking back up and i'm paying the bills. What more can you ask for?
If anyone has some input or something they would like in the news letter that's constructive. Please send it along and we may include it in the news letter. Hopefully the next news letter will be better. I hope to find out more about what is happening with Allegheny counties Health Departments and their assault on the tattoo artists.
In all seriousness, I would like to see more communication between the professional artists in town so in the near or not too far future, we will be able to stand together should our government decide they need to find a way to make a couple extra bucks and point the finger at us. New frivolous laws are being passed every day without us having any say so.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next news letter. It gets more exciting! Send any comments or ideas to me at animal@animalstattoos.com
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