GODDAMNIT!!!! FOR THE LAST TIME!!!!

Guys, I don't know if I can bear one more person out there starting some lame assed thread to the effect that either: 1. Can somebody help me think of an idea? (without offering any backround info at all of any kind) 2. Can somebody draw me up something really cool for free? 3. All I wanted to do was have somebody give me some ideas (again offering no background information) etc. etc. etc. The list goes on, and on, and on. Here's the deal guys, if you are one of the people posting one of these insults to Artists of all kinds everywhere, I just want you to try something. Here's a little experiment... 1. Go to an architect, and ask him to draw you up a little something for free. See what he says. 2. Then, go to a lawyer, and ask him to sit down with you and give you a couple of hours for free. See what he says. 3. Go to an interior designer, and ask them to come out to your house, and spend a couple hours for free to see what could be done with your place. 4. Go to H&R Block and ask them to do your taxes for free, or like for trade-out. 5. Go to an auto mechanic, and ask him if he'll diagnose your car for free cause you are a little low on cash... 6. Go to a therapist, and offer to pay them $12 an hour. See if they accept you as a client. 7. Go to a Graphic Designer and tell them you've got this great logo job for them and tell them that they should feel lucky if you pick them... have em whip up 4 or 5 quicky designs for you so you can see if you think they are good enough to do your job... and if you pick em, tell em the job pays $50. 8. And then, finally, go to HELL!!! God people, it's one thing if you have an idea about something and you want to bounce it off of like minded people to see what the possibilities are. It's also not such a big deal to have no idea at all and ask people if they want to kick in a little advice... but I'm getting really sick of this prevailing mentality that artists are somehow not worth your money as much as other professionals, lawyers, doctors, architects, etc. There is NO difference! Oh yeah, wait, yes there is, Lawyers, doctors and architects don't necessarily have to be creative on command and on a deadline!! If you want a little advice, ask. It's cool. Lots of us will help. But if you wanna really get down in it, do some sketches, kick some ideas around, look at the possibilities and come up with the perfect idea, that sounds like an appointment to me!!! Make one!!! With a custom artist!!! And Artists!!! Everytime you let somebody pull this bullshit on you and talk you into doing SPEC WORK you lower the bar for all of us. This kind of crap gives people the impression that artists are not professionals, that we are all just hungry, desperate lowlifes that will do whatever it takes to scrape up a few bucks. Low bid mentality. It's crap! When you see one of these posts, or you here these comments, do what you've been doing all along, and just keep saying, GO PAY YOUR DUES AND SEE A CUSTOM ARTIST. Believe me, every motherfucker in the world and his friend's brother is an artist... until they see what a trained professional can do. Artists!! Be cool, but keep the standards high!!! Just like everyone else in the service industry. And to you guys who think people around here are gonna be GRATEFUL to help you, think about it a little. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. AND IF YOU AREN'T SERIOUS AND WILLING TO PAY SHIT FOR IT, THEN LESS THAN SHIT IS WHAT YOU DESERVE. DAMN! GOODNIGHT!

Bad night? No, seriously.. I agree though.

There does seem to be a lot of requests lately...more than average...well, the average as I know it to be, lol. Jeremy

Amen. The only things I've EVER sketched up for tattoos have been for people I know on a close basis, that I get paid for. And I worked closely with their artists (not a lot of custom work here) to ensure placement/color/shape/etc would mesh well with the tattoo design. In any case, I don't do it that often, and when I do, I'm hyper-picky about how I do it. If it needs to be redrawn 18 times before it fits the placement AND the person likes it, fine by me. In any case, I never even pay attention to those posts. I skim right over them and don't even click. It's not worth my aggravation to deal with these kids.

Seriously. If you can't afford a car, you have to wait until you can. If you can't afford to pay for a washing machine, you have to wait until you can. If you can't afford a logo, you have to wait until you can. If you can't afford a tattoo, you can't afford it yet! So you're going to have to save your money until you can!!@!!

Free designs usually end up getting applyed by free tattooers............not tattooists, or tattoo artist's. It's the perception of a free ticket into the club................. It's like coming into an exclusive club wearing Toughskins and Trax.......................for those of you in the club that know what I'm talking about. TCE

I know how that goes. I actually have a buddy who does websites for a living. He tried to 'help' me by getting some guy he knows to request a drawing via long distance email. Guy wanted a wizard with lightening and all that jazz but super-small (maybe two inches high) with some name in block letters wrapping around the rest of the arm in a band. (I think it was his kid's name) I informed him that the design would be near impossible to do in the detail he wanted. Even if I could draw it teeny, no artist in his/her right mind would apply it. It would turn into a mess over time. So then he wanted me to draw him three different versions of it. I said $50 each for the roughs and he was so insulted that I wanted him to pay in advance and that he'd have to pay for the couple of sketches that he didn't want. It got even worse when I said that a final clean copy would cost him again. He insisted then that I do all clean copies. I said $150 each. Well that deal was dead. He wanted nothing to do with me and I was happy about it. My buddy was confused though and I had to explain in very small words that if I sent him a client who wanted him to design three full web-site layouts without promise of payment, he would have told me to fuck off.

Exactly. Couldn't have said it better myself. Y'all know any Lawyers out there who will come up with 3 good solutions to your problem for free and then let you pay $50 for one of them? Nuff said, right?

Agreed. It's one of the unfortunate aspects of the internet that you can get so much for free, some folks begin to EXPECT things for free, without thinking where it's coming from. Next time one of you guys is asked for freeness, why not try some barter? Ask what the cheapass... er, i mean, uninformed consumer, does, and, if they're a programmer, ask them for free service. A grocer, ask for food. But since most uninformed consumers are kids who probly haven't grasped the free market system, say they can get freeness in return for something: cleaning service, sex, chauffeuring... On second thought, why stress? Just keep chasing them away. I'll help.

As for my 2 cents on this: http://www.tattoojohnny.com/ I've been pointing people there. You can find flash(cheap) and take it to a custom artist to get what you want drawn up. Or try going by the shop and looking at the flash... and then have them draw it the way you want it. I found a black and white flash I liked and had the artist colorize it.

Or just go to a good CUSTOM TATTOO ARTIST IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!