- I'm like, oh my god!
And so I'm freaking out.
Do we need to call an ambulance?
You know what I mean?
What should we do?
(soft music)
My name is Diana Lopez, I'm a tattoo artist
from Upland, California,
and I've been tattooing for over six years.
One day we were tattooing one of our rapper clients,
when we came to his friends house,
and I was gonna tattoo him.
We have a table that we lay people
on when we do certain tattoos,
so I was doing a tattoo on his hip,
so I was sitting right behind him during the tattoo.
All of the sudden he starts coughing a little bit,
and then he farted on me.
It was pretty bad, I was kinda shocked,
but I felt more bad for him, because he just
started coughing uncontrollably,
trying to play it off like it didn't just happen,
and he's like oh, I just need a minute,
and I was like oh my gosh, just mortified,
sitting there in his fart air,
and I'm like okay, it's all good.
Obviously I'm not gonna be a jerk and be like um,
you farted on me.
I was like oh it's all good, no you're fine.
So he walks out of the room, me and my boyfriend
start laughing, unfortunately I was just there,
basking in the air, it was embarrassing for both of us.
- Hi, my name is Amber Tilden.
I'm an artist and a tattoo artist.
Right now I'm working in Montebello at Carpe Diem Tattoo.
In the late 90's I tattooed a friend.
He really wanted the tattoo.
He's very happy to get this particular design,
it was a little logo.
He's a die-hard fan of a certain car company,
so he wanted the logo on him.
So I was like great, he's not gonna regret this,
he's gonna love it.
When it came down to it, I prepared everything.
I put the design on him, the stencil,
on the back of his leg, he laid down,
and he started freaking out because of the pain.
It was his very first tattoo, never had one before.
He almost said, I don't want to do it,
I don't want to do it,
and then he said okay wait,
do a little dot first, and he was really anxious,
and he was kind of flinching before I even began.
So I did a little dot and he said
oh okay, I can handle that.
I said okay, good,
and then he said start a line,
so I did a little line, it was just about a half inch long.
He didn't scream, but he kind of yelled out,
and he said nope, that's it, I'm not doing it anymore.
It hurts too much.
He kinda walked out, and I said really?
You're just gonna have a line?
And he said yep, and he's walking around
with a half-inch line on the back
of his leg for the past 20 years.
(laughing)
- I had one client who was doing a big tattoo,
so he was getting two portraits in one day,
so I had him laying down on the table
for over like six hours.
Once we're done, of course you have to take
like tons of pictures, otherwise it didn't happen.
I have him standing for the pictures.
I'm pretty sure I told him don't lock your knees
because sometimes people pass out
from locking their knees,
so maybe like five minutes in, he collapses.
His girlfriend's right there, she's like oh my gosh,
but luckily he only passes out for like a second
and we kinda managed to like sorta get him up
and then he kinda starts waking up on his own,
so I'm freaking out like letting him know
you'll be okay, just breathe, you need some cold air.
Don't lock your knees, sit down for a second.
I don't know, you need some water?
I'm trying to help him out.
His girlfriend's kinda like okay,
she doesn't seem to be freaking out
as much as I am, and he's like I'm just really hot,
I think I need to get some air,
so he starts walking outside.
Me and his girlfriend are still in the back,
and I'm just kinda like does he need water?
She's like oh, he just gets hot sometimes,
and I'm like okay, so does this just happen?
He's walking in the front, he's like right by the door,
and he collapses again.
I'm like oh my god!
And so I'm freaking out, me and his girlfriend
both like run towards him.
He just passed out, he's having one of those seizures
like after you pass out.
His girlfriend's there, she's like he just gets really hot
like she was explaining it away
like it was something that happens or something.
I'm like it's not okay, you should not
be walking and passing out, like this is crazy.
After a couple minutes, he starts coming to.
His girlfriend's kinda like playing it
off like it wasn't a big deal.
I'm freaking out 'cause he's obviously
having a little seizure.
I've seen people pass out, but to have a little seizure
afterwards, I mean it was just terrifying.
Luckily he gets up after like,
I don't know, maybe three minutes,
he walks out, he gets some cold air and he's fine.
They were cool, I wasn't.
Yeah, don't lock your knees when people are taking pictures.
- I have a client I've known for a while
and she's bought merchandise and I've tattooed her
a couple times, so I started this piece
and I need to finish it up but she is not reliable,
and she keeps making appointments, canceling,
rescheduling, if I want to finish a tattoo,
I don't like my work going out there looking unfinished
because it's representation of my work.
Gives me anxiety.
She's canceled on me so many times.
It's always a different excuse like she's hungover
or she over slept and it's like two o'clock
in the afternoon, she's still sleeping.
I'm like what the heck?
It's like, you know, 20 minutes
to the appointment, I'm like mm,
no you need to show up here.
Always a different excuse, but it was never a good excuse.
It's kinda like a doctor's office,
there's one appointment after another,
and if you mess up your appointment,
it affects the other people behind you.
Every once in a while, she'll still message me
and be like, what are you doing this weekend?
Can you tattoo me?
I'm like (laughing) no.
You can come in and show up and give me money
then I will tattoo you.
I thought she was a friend, and I got
to the point where I said no more.
I'm done, I stopped talking to her.
(soft music)