tattoo industry turning to shit

fuckin idiots that dont tattoo opening up shops and letting scratchers learn the slang and where to buy shit supplys so he can open shops and tattoo outta thier trailors, or whatever. yea the tattoo industry is turning to shit, i understand that the good tattooers will prevail and stand ground but it really sucks tht this is happening. people need to stop half teaching people to tattoo. soon tattooing will be like pizza shops, every 5 miles , oh wait its already like that. for real 90% of the worlds population are dense retarts and will feed those shop and the scratchers that work there. 90% are brainwashed sheep. 90% dont know the difference between a good tattoo and a bad tattoo. PEOPLE ARE BORN RETARDS, WE WILL BELEIVE almosT anYTHING OUR IMAGINATIONS CAN MAKE UP.

Tattooing is like ANY other business. The market sets the price. The bottom of the business gets filled in with less qualified people doing less than the best work. Unfortunately, tattoo shops are the ones doing it to themselves. Their prices have no basis in these times. If you want to be selective and only tattoo those that can afford $150 - $250 per hour price, be prepared to have a shop open up with prices that are half that within close proximity. You can badmouth that shit all you want, but the days of selling your name alone, no matter what your rep is, is limited. I can open a 3 person shop and reap a fortune at a reasonable fee.... people are just big headed and greedy.

well, I agree that most people are sheepeople, and dont agree that the industry is going to shit at all... I am a non-tattooer who owns a studio, and from my perspective, the industry is growing, kicking ass, and taking names. Sure, there are lots of hacks, there are lots of hacks in any business. Of course tattooing is permanent art on someones body, so there should be little tolerance for the hacks, but whatever, there are customers for everyone... That is, I tend to think artists should stop bitching about non-artist owners and the hacks, and focus on bettering their art and building their cliental. Prices and whatnot... we have artists that charge $100 and guest artists that charge $225 an hour. The artists that charge 150-250 an hour do so because of the demand for their work, and many of those artists are still wicked busy despite the times and hacks charging less... And of course there will always be cheaper artists, but you get what you pay for... Good luck with your fortune... and yes, there is also no doubt that some artists get big-headed and greedy.

No problem with charging what you can get. That was not my point. But you can't control all sides of the industry and you don't deserve to gripe about it (although people will anyway).

i as a tattooartist who specializes in coverups i say bring on the scratchers they make me big money.if people are stupid enough to let these scrathers tattoo on them that is their big mistake.i own 4 shops and in all the shops i own most of our money comes from covering up other peoples bad work.there isnt anything we can do about talentless people doing tattoos so we will have to make the best of a bad thing.all my advetising is directed at doing cover ups and fixing bad work.i personally love scratchers they pay my bills.

yeah, you wont see me gripeing about scratchers or people who charge $50 and a six pack... though I feel bad for their customers... Lasering hurst, it sucks! But hey, if your going to be dumb you gotta be tough...

We'll believe anything our imaginations make up? Like outlandish, untrue, completely biased statistics? I manage Off the Map Tattoo and I don't tattoo, and the shop is owned by Gabe who doesn't tattoo, and I can promise we give people better advice then a huge amount of idiots who do. I get calls or drops ins at least on a weekly basis of people asking where to get tattoo supplies, how to make their machines work, what inks to use blah blah, and I tell them politely, to go screw. We would never offer up info, or encourage someone to tattoo unprofessionally and without the proper knowledge. Saying the industry is going to shit is absurd. With time, things change, and tattoos have become more popular and more main stream. No matter what somebody's gonna bitch. First everyone's mad because tattoos weren't accepted, they couldn't get jobs, everyone though they were a biker or criminal, then fast forward a decade or two and your doctor has sleeves, your dad has his neck tattooed, your teacher has a chest piece, and you're pissed its so popular. It's supply and demand really, and eventually time will weed the shitty shops out. It is what it is, it's better to stay focused on what you're doing (like sick custom tattoos) then waste your time being concerned with everyone else.

I couldn't agree more with Mary's post. I would like to throw in the fact that I'm being blown away more and more each day by the work I'm seeing from artists I've never heard of that is pushing me to improve and jump as far forward as I can just to keep up. To me, that is just one sign of the industry improving and not being stagnant.