Tattoo Talk Episode #9

BOB BAXTER’s

TATTOO TALK

I was just reading through the opening editorial from an old copy of Tattoo World, the short-lived magazine of Henk Schiffmacher, Amsterdam’s illustrious Hanky Panky. It got me to thinking. In his Note From Your Editor, Schiffmacher quite plainly asks his readers to get off the stump and demonstrate their support. In order to kick start his magazine, he admonished the readers of the August 1994 issue to “show your solidarity with this magazine—a magazine that does not hurt your trade by publishing supplier ads.” Unfortunately, Hanky Panky’s call to arms did not result in enough new advertisers, and Tattoo World vanished from the newsstands.

Thanks to my first publisher, Larry Flynt, we were given a bit more slack than Schiffmacher received. Even though Mr. Flynt flies around in a solid-gold 747, very little of that 24-carat stuff rained down on the me and my crew. That said, Flynt was very supportive and we were not under the same pressures that shipwrecked my friend from Amsterdam. In fact, many of my readers got the word and ordered a subscription. And the incoming phone calls and fan mail from artists and collectors was the best part of each day. But it didn’t make the cash register ring like it could. Hey, we didn’t want to go the way of Tattoo World and disappear because there weren’t enough tattoo shops, record companies, jewelry suppliers, T-shirt manufacturers and book publishers who were willing to “put their money where their mouth is” and invest in what we were doing. From our very first issue back in May of 1997, we would not accept tattoo supplier ads in our publication. Not having that big, full color supplier ad on our back page took a big hunk out of each budget and represented one or two less articles that we could publish on individual shops, twenty to thirty less photographs of tattoos, or one less plane trip to an important convention that the promoters wanted featured on our pages.

You might guess that we received a lot of flack for not accepting supplier ads, but time has passed, thanks to our persistence, the problems are less flagrant. Many of the suppliers have cleaned up their act and only sell to approved customers who are legitimate tattoo artists working for established shops. Today, the issue is starter kits, and any publication or website that I head will never accept advertisements from those who try to foist second-rate equipment without an autoclave sterilizer onto youngsters who don’t know any better. As a dedicated supporters of the art of tattoo throughout the world, I feel it is incumbent upon Tattoo Road Trip to assume a leadership role in addressing the health of our industry.

Quite simply, the amount of advertisers not only dictates what we can afford to present in a magazine or a website but—when you think back on the demise of Hanky Panky’s Tattoo World—whether or not there is a website or magazine at all.

Tip of the Week: If you are a young tattoo artist that has high hopes of being the next Flip Leu or Bob Tyrrell, don’t listen to your friends. Friends love everything you do, because, more often than not, you are tattooing them for free. If you really want to excel, ask the artist you admire most and listen to what he or she has to say. Get the truth, swallow your pride and master your craft.

—Bob Baxter

baxter@tattooroadtrip.com

www.tattooroadtrip.com

As editor in chief for thirteen years, Bob Baxter guided Skin&Ink magazine to a Folio Magazine Editorial Excellence Award, making it America’s most respected and educational body art publication. He currently edits www.tattooroadtrip.com, the ultimate E-zine and resource site for international tattoo artists and collectors.