LISTEN TO THE QUEEN OF SOUL
This lesson is fourth in a series (lessons 1-3 can be found in the Categories search bar, to the right). I’m skipping ahead a bit, but I thought I would respond to a major complaint that established tattoo artists have, when a wanna-be or even a tattooist with some previous shop experience comes knocking at their door, looking for employment.
Aretha Frankilin said it best: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I’ve heard this from shop owners over and over again: “Someone comes into our place with a pile of incomplete drawings stuffed in a brown paper bag. No resume and no calling ahead. A complete lack of respect.”
So many applicants have no idea about how to present themselves or their work. They want R-E-S-P-E-C-T, for how good they think they are, but their presentation is amateurish and thrown together. As for resumes (and every applicant needs one), I ran a business-writing company for fifteen years and I’m not exaggerating when I say that, in those years, not one person who came through the door with a self-written resume did an adequate job. They left out important information, didn’t describe the jobs they did properly, forgot to include their correct contact information and had a long list of misspellings, bad grammar and terrible punctuation. What does this say to a prospective employer? It says you don’t even respect yourself enough to present yourself in a professional manner. How on earth can I hire you, if your work ethic (represented by how you put yourself and your work out there in the world) is mediocre? I want a first-rate employee, not someone who can’t get it right from the get-go.
As for the portfolio, if you painted a portrait of a tattoo legend like Bert Grimm, for example, would you slap it up on the wall with roofing nails? Of course not. So why would you present your artwork to a prospective employer in a manner that looks haphazard, disrespectful and lazy? Shop owners work hard to make a living and create a shop that attracts a solid clientele, so, at the very least, assemble your photos, drawings, etc. in a binder or artist portfolio from the local art supply store and look like you have some R-E-S-P-E-C-T for your work and yourself.
I didn’t think I’d have to mention this, but I will. I will because I’ve heard this complaint again and again: “They show up looking like they just rolled out of bed. Some of them smell like they haven’t showered in a month. ” And the language: I don’t know what it is, but some people feel they are more acceptable to the tattoo community if they act tough and use the F-word every other sentence. Wrong. Not in front of customers, especially on the first visit. I know that some artists feel that part of the tattoo shop “magic” is the characters who reside there, but being non-respectful to strangers, who are there to get a tattoo, is just plain ignorant. Get a feel of the place and what is acceptable and what isn’t, before you open the floodgates.
I know this is a time in our history when “i lv u LOL” is considered proper English, but shape up, folks, you can do better than that. Many of us have worked long and hard to elevate tattooing to a place where it is considered “fine art.” Why? Because it’s a 5,000-year-old art form that we R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
—Bob Baxter
WHAT HAS HE DONE?
Daily Blog of Bob Baxter, editor-in-chief of TattooRoadTrip.com and past editor-in-chief of the award-winning tattoo magazine Skin & Ink, for 14 years.
