- People think tattoo artists as rude, scary, and all that.
I'm nice.
(upbeat music)
Hey, how ya doing?
My name is Taka Tamada,
I have been tattooer for almost 20 years.
- My name's Jose Herrera,
I've been tattooing for about seven years now.
- My name is Denise Pinto,
I've been a tattoo artist for eight years.
- Tattoo artists make a lot of money.
Yes and no, if you're great at what you do,
you'll make a lot of money.
But if you're not great at what you do,
you're not gonna make a lot of money.
- It's definitely a good career, yeah.
Definitely, I know a few people that probably make,
well, a really good living.
- [Denise] Tattoo artists' arms and hands
are sore all the time.
- Yeah, and also your back and your neck.
- Necks, and backs, pelvis, legs, heads. (laughs)
Tattooing is very physically taxing.
In the same posture for many, many hours,
over many months, over many years.
- At the moment, my hand does hurt, yeah.
Tattoo artists have a hard time telling people
if the tattoo is a bad idea.
- I disagree, I would say bad tattoo artists have
a hard time telling people that.
- Most artists will be pretty honest with you
just because it would be a compromise
to tattoo something that's kinda bad.
And generally, people take it pretty well, you know?
A lot of the times people trust you as an artist.
- No, because the skim is something on your body forever,
so I will tell you straight as possible.
But in the end, it's up to you.
It is your body, you know,
you do whatever you'd like to do.
- [Denise] Tattoo artists have a lot of tattoos,
as well as piercings and body modifications.
- I've met some tattoo artists that are just being
an artist who don't have a tattoos,
and they are great tattoo artists.
- Yeah, they absolutely do.
I mean, being around it and just being part of the industry,
you just kind of get sucked into it
and you start collecting from all the artists that you know.
- It's true for me.
I stopped counting how many tattoos I have after 80.
- [Jose] Tattoo artists have been on a reality show.
Yeah, they definitely have been.
I mean, they definitely do it.
- Most don't do that,
most tattoo artists will not show up on television.
Tattoo artists have a really high pain tolerance.
- Ah, no, I don't have that.
I can only last for an hour and a half nowadays,
not that I'm 44.
- Some do, I'm sure, but I know a lot that don't.
As a matter of fact,
I think most tattoo artists don't like getting tattooed.
- No, no, we're probably bigger babies than anybody.
The most painful one I've had were these,
I don't know if you can see.
- [Jose] Tattoo artists are more skilled
than a normal artist because they can't erase anything.
- Well, it's just such a different skill set.
Tattoo is a unique medium in itself.
- You can't erase anything so yeah,
you gotta be super freaking careful.
Every moment matters, you have to have, you know,
you've gotta concentrate 100% of your focus
into the tattoos while you're tattooing.
- [Denise] Tattoo artists really
like mid-90s rock and metal.
- Yeah, absolutely.
I would say the majority of them do.
- Definitely, totally, yeah.
- Yes, I freaking love it, yeah, metal.
- [Jose] Tattoo artists change tattoos to their liking
in order to make them look better.
- That's, I would say, that's not necessarily true.
Tattoo artists may change a tattoo design
to make it work better compositionally.
- Most people will generally stylize what their drawing
or add a little bit of their own touch to it
to make it like a more original and cooler concept.
Generally, with the client's consent.
- But to sometime convince people is hard
because sometimes people have that heart set on their
tattoos and they don't wanna hear, yeah, it's bad,
you know what I mean?
I think I can do better.
What are you trying to say?
Is my tattoo bad?
No, I think it would be better if you did this.
- [Denise] Tattoo artists are tired of people asking them
how many tattoos they have and what they mean.
- I don't think so, I think it's cool.
I like talking about tattoos
and I think it's cool
to share your stories with people, you know?
- Yes, oh yes.
I get asked at least once a day, every day.
- No, because kinda innocent, you know?
People don't know, you know?
But it's hard to tell how many tattoos you have
because everything's kinda become connected all together,
so I guess I have one.
- [Jose] When they were learning,
tattoo artists practice on themselves.
Yeah, I think a lot of tattoo artists did that,
I know I did that.
I did a few tattoos on my thighs,
kinda like right above my knees.
They're pretty horrible.
- Oh yes, it's true for me.
A lot of leg, I don't wear shorts.
- A lot of people do, I didn't.
I was lucky enough to tattoo my drunk friends.
- I've heard pretty much all of these before
and it's impossible,
I can't have a beer without somebody asking me anything.
- Tattoo artists are normal people,
they just happen to be tattoo artists, you know.
- I think back in the days,
tattoo parlors a very scary place to go.
But now, it has changed a lot, you know?
Tattoos become more accepted to everybody
and instead of like a gangster type of things,
more become an art, you know?
Tattoo become an art form.
(relaxing guitar music)