I’ve managed a tattoo shop in Manhattan for about nine years and I’ve worked with many artist. Some I consider to be the best I’ve ever seen. I have come across a lot of people and have seen the changing trends in tattooing. The good and the bad. Working in the business can give you a thick skin. You come to certain realizations about how tattoo artist and customers interact. The differences between the tattoo culture and the people outside the culture looking in. People outside the culture who like tattoos but don’t understand the steps needed to have a good tattoo. It can be fustrating for both tattoo artist and tattoo customer.
Most people know the saying ” The customer is always right”. To bad that’s incredibly wrong.
Its wrong especially if you work at most tattoo shops in America. The countless number
of stupid tattoo ideas are enough to convince anyone. “No sir we can’t cover a Chinese character
with another Chinese character”. I mean really. My intention isn’t to be mean. The ones who get offended are usually the perpetrators. They are the ones who some how know more then there artist. I wonder if they tell there doctor how to operate. The thing that really boils my blood is what I call the price heckler. “Wait! How much is it?! That’s crazy. I paid twenty dollars for this.” Now that leads me to a quote I can agree with. “You get what you paid for.”How true it is. 
But a generally new problem has emerged. What I like to call the Miami Ink syndrome or the reality tattoo syndrome. Miami Ink syndrome is when the customer thinks a custom tattoo can be drawn in the time it takes for a commercial break. Sorry people but that not reality. That’s reality TV. Now not all customers are like this. On the other side of the spectrum is the educated consumer. The educated consumer knows what good art looks like. They know that good work takes time. The educated consumer knows that good tattooing cost more money. They understand the process and truly work with the artist to create something both artist and customer can be proud of. If you’re an educated consumer then you are welcomed. If your the opposite … well then I hope you don’t walk into my place of business.