Hey, everybody! It is QCKND, and welcome back to Tattoo Talk Tuesday!
If this is your first time joining us, Tattoo Talk Tuesday is our weekly
Interactive Q&A where I take user submitted questions and try to lend myself to you guys as a tattoo collector
Please forgive me if there is any like,
focusing errors or anything or you catch me looking at the monitor at all during the filming of this, this is the third video I
have ever made with this camera, and I'm really trying to learn how to use it.
Everything online has been pretty helpful
but for the most part it's a lot of reviews of the camera and not how to use the camera and
believe me, I am beating myself up for not taking a photo class in college, but I'm trying my best, so...
bear with me. This week
I am
going to be talking about something that is in my inbox all the time from you guys--I see it in the questions down below--
I know it's a pretty popular topic and that is
what do I do if I don't love the tattoo the tattoo artist shows me? And
I have a couple stories for you guys today as always,
you know, I have a story about a tattoo that I was shown
that we changed a little bit and I have advice about that, and I also have a story about a tattoo
I just had to walk away from and
it sucks, believe me, but I'm here to tell the tale.
I think the question I get a lot on here is
from people who are nervous. It might be one of your first tattoos, or you're traveling to get a tattoo and you want to know
it'll be perfect and you're afraid that when you show up you'll look at the sketch the artist showed you and you hate it.
There's just no way around it you hate it, you hate it. And I know that can cause a lot of anxiety it's something
I still worry about but there are a lot more things I implement in my current life that kind of helped me with that situation
versus when I was 19, and I had to walk away from that tattoo.
So you hear me say it all the time?
And it's find an artist that you love I can do no wrong by you
and I'm sorry to keep saying it
but this is how you guarantee that you're going to get work that you love, you know, my best advice is
to follow your favorite tattoo artists, and if you find yourself being like "Yeah, I love that tattoo. I wish it was on me,"
every single time they post, then you know you found someone that you can guarantee that you'll love their work. If
you see something like a girl head, and you're like "No matter what I love that girl head," [ehh] something, an anchor, a bird
realism, you know, something really fine and dainty whatever you love, if you see them
and you're like "Damn, he has posted hot fire every single day, wish it was me,"
then you kind of know, if you're gonna make an appointment with your tattoo artist,
they're going to knock it out of the park no matter what.
You know the worst that could happen is you're exchanging emails with them, and they're like, "Hey,
I can't do that," and then at the same- it,
you know, if anything, they'll be like, but I can do this and then you can meet somewhere halfway
and you might end up with something you love. You know, when I was at Rose Tattoo
I was talking to the shop assistant, and he said something along the lines of
"Clients who are more willing to be open about their design and
are more willing to, you know, give the artist creative freedom, those are the clients who leave the most
happy because they receive
genuine and organic art from the tattoo artist," and I love that phrasing. I always thought that- that really always stuck with me and
you know, that is the best way to get a tattoo that you're going to love. That's the best way to avoid the headache of
being worried about this tattoo
not coming out the way you want.
However, you know, I do have some stories from tattoo artists I love,
can't get enough of, you know- when I went to see Ashley Love for the first time, I
love Ashley Love. I continue to get tattooed by her.
Um, she was in New York, and I sent her an email because I wanted a Yellow Spider,
Yellow Leaf tattoo for the Me Without You song Yellow Spider,
Yellow Leaf so it had to turn out exactly right because it was based on something and not a concept
So when I got there, you know, she brought out the sketch, and it wasn't exactly what I had imagined it,
so I told her like
"Hey, you know the leaves have to be a part of the tattoo", and maybe you know, in my email
I said like "a spider with a yellow leaf", so
when,
when I got to the shop
And I talked to her, you know, it took her
five minutes to go in the back and just adjust the leaves to make them bigger
so they were more apparent in the image
so it made the tattoo more cohesive with what I wanted, and you know she was happy to do it-
happy to understand.
You know, sometimes it just takes a little bit of
meeting someone and speaking to them verbally versus on the computer to hear what they actually really want.
So it was no problem at all. You know, I was a little shy to ask,
but I'm happy that I said something because it cleared everything up, and it was perfect. The sacred heart on my wrist,
you know, it's done by Mark Cross and
originally it did not look like this at all.
Originally this sacred heart was actually going to have a cross, and you can kind of see
where it takes up that space of where cross might actually be?
And
I totally understand, you know, any little bit of a hiccup in translation.
You know, I had been watching a lot of Scrubs, and I was like "Man,
I really want a sacred heart tattoo", and that's when I contacted Mark, and that's what I said on the phone with the shop.
So a traditional sacred heart, taking from,
you know,
religious types of relics have the cross, and they have like, a very strong like,
religious attachment to them, and I think in my mind I was looking up a lot of cuter sacred hearts.
You know, ones that were already
tattoos when I was looking it up and getting familiar with the concept? So when I showed up for the appointment and
Mark had the cross on the
tattoo?
You know, I kind of backpedaled a little bit. I told Mark like "Hey, you know,
I'm not really ready to have like a religious tattoo". I've seen like really good Mary tattoos
I've seen really good Jesus tattoos, and I always thought they're really cool, but for me at the time
I was working at the coffee shop, and it was such a high-volume
kind of atmosphere that I was like "I'm a little nervous to have a tattoo that might have some sort of affiliation to it and,
you know, me just wear it, versus someone who might you know, have it because they believe in it, and
I told him that I wasn't ready to have like, an aesthetic tattoo like that.
After we had a conversation about how crosses don't always equal religion, Mark met me halfway
and he put the rose there,
and I love it because it's pink, and super cute, and impossible to show you guys...
Did you even know I had this tattoo because I don't even know how to show it to you guys...?
But... I
love it, and it's exactly what I wanted because, you know, I was not ready to have a big old cross tattoo right there. I
still imagine what it would be like to have it, and I think that like pop of yellow might be really cool right there?
So I actually did end up ordering a shirt
(... do I have it?) that kind of looked like what the tattoo was originally supposed to look like.
Um, I'll wear it next week for Tattoo Talk Tuesday. I thought it would be a little cheesy if I wore it [laughs] for
this episode but,
yeah, I mean
I'm happy that I had that conversation with Mark and
got the tattoo that I wanted, and it only took like, a little bit of minor changes and
he didn't mind at all.
So...
Finally, the tattoo I walked away from.
And
my
pre pre-little warning to this is- I
was young, you know, I did not do a ton of research and there weren't as many
like, available
resources out there as there are now, and
before I could ever practice what I preach, I
didn't have many tattoos at the time,
I was kind of inexperienced,
and I only am so experienced now because I've been through situations like this.
On my commute back and Forth to school,
you know, it used to be like a two hour bus ride for me to go to school. Every day
I would pass this tattoo shop on my ride,
and I would see it all the time.
So I started to like, get off the bus and like, go in there and check it out.
And that's how you used to have to find tattoos. You used to go to the shops and check them out. And
I just talked to an artist, you know, I had just been through a pretty bad breakup
and I wanted a tattoo that said, "I only have eyes for you",
with like a traditional girl head and that text, maybe in a banner. I was really into banners then. That was something
I really wanted, and I wanted traditional tattoos.
You know, I'd only had a couple tattoos at the time,
but I knew that traditional was kind of the tattoo way
I was going to go. Before that, you know, I didn't really have a consultation with this artist.
I didn't go through their portfolio. This is kind of just somebody that I picked out, and I was like, "They look cool,
sure, I bet they can do cool stuff," and
really,
you know, when I came back the next couple of days the sketch was ready and
my heart just kind of...
instantly knew I didn't want that tattoo.
And it wasn't something like the previous two cases where they could tweak it, just make the leaves bigger,
just take out the cross. You know, this was a full tattoo done in a style I just didn't like. And
there's not much you can really do at that point, you know, other than
walk away, and I know that's hard, and I know it's unfair so you know, I paid that $50 deposit
and I didn't expect it back, but a lot of it was just user error on my part. You know, I
didn't look up this tattoo artist before, you know, I didn't like obsess over their work like I kind of do now, I walked in
ended up getting somebody who is more into new school tattoos, and
that's just not what I wanted, and I think, you know, I went in there kind of guns blazing, like, "I want a big tattoo!"
and I think people are like "Oh really? I'll do it! A big tattoo?"
so
you know, that was kind of like,
something I had to walk away from.
But, you know, it kind of had a happy story. The tattoo artist ended up like
putting it out there, the sketch, on like Facebook or whatever kind of realm they live in, and
someone did end up getting the tattoo. And you know, that kind of makes me feel better too.
You know, "Hey, a client decided they didn't want this tattoo, now it's up for grabs", that kind of stuff.
So that kind of like helps me sleep at night, but at the same time I
don't feel really upset that I walked away from a tattoo
I didn't want because you know, I did feel really guilty and I almost was like
okay, I'll just get it, and
now, looking back on it five or six years later, I have had a lot of the tattoos
I got when I was younger removed or reworked or covered and this would have just been another tattoo that I never really loved,
but just got in the heat of the moment because I want it to be tattooed.
So you know, that's why I feel comfortable paying deposits
and if anything, I can tell myself I paid for that sketch,
and I paid for the artist's time, and I didn't like, completely fuck them over like, I don't think that's the case at all
you know,
so...
That's why, you know, I have that other video like "Tattoos
I was refused," and I do think it's a little bit different than the stories
I told there, you know, I told a story about an artist
who
didn't want to change my sketch, so, he was like "It's this or nothing," and I was like, "I guess nothing."
These are a little bit different. You know, all the artists I work with in my current life are all really awesome,
really artistic and into challenges and
really owning their craft. So I just truly believe if you find somebody who wants to give you a fun, amazing tattoo,
then that'll happen, and it's worth the research and it's worth the wait, and it's worth the travel
but don't feel hesitance and don't feel anxiety.
You know, if you're scared that when you show up that the tattoo won't be exactly what you wanted,
because if you view it, and it's still beautiful, why not wear it?
That's how I feel. I love you guys!
Please don't hesitate to share your stories down below. I love reading them!
I love the community that kind of forms in the comments section here!
I know it's all love,
so definitely share your experience. Give this video a thumbs up, you know, with the Youtube glitch all I can recommend is to interact with
all of your favorite creators, and that's the best way our content will keep coming up on your feed.
And don't forget to subscribe if this is your first time here. I make videos like this every Tuesday and...
until next week...
I love you guys! don't forget to ask your comments, your questions down below! And, until next week!
Bye!