When you are a tattoo artist, you are faced with all kinds of demands. Asylum applications, M&A applications, job applications, t-rex applications surfing a sea of fire tossed by east-west winds with a ray of moonlight escaping of an orange sky. Sometimes it is better to turn a deaf ear.
1. Tattoos on the palm of the hand
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Tattoos on the palm of the hand bleed, look ugly and fade quickly. Most artists therefore refuse to do them. Not to mention the problem of sweaty palms. The same problem arises for the phalanges.
2. White ink
White ink does not hold up very well over the length and often turns yellow or pink. If a tattoo artist refuses to do it, it’s because he doesn’t feel like he can do it. He will then have at heart to explain his refusal to the rejected client, story that he finds himself not tattooed by an unscrupulous competitor mainly interested in money.
3. Tiny tattoos
Tiny tattoos don’t age well. They aren’t necessarily difficult to make, but they have a low life expectancy and most people who get a tiny design inked later find themselves having to have a larger piece cover them up.
4. Tattoos with bad motives
On Reddit, a tattoo artist says he was approached by a friend of his who was tired of being hit on all the time and wanted to get rotten lines tattooed as a result to look ugly. Faced with this kind of motivation, a good tattoo artist will tend to refuse to work. And that’s reassuring.
5. Projects not specific enough
If someone comes to an artist whose work they don’t particularly know and asks them to do whatever they want on a dedicated area, the tattoo artist will refuse, most of the time. Some world famous artists like to be allowed to express their creativity (we don’t discuss the work that Picasso offers us, if we want); but a client without a project is a client who risks regretting his choice or creating a fuss.
6. Projects that are too messy
Ideas that look good on paper will not necessarily be suitable for their realization on the skin. Some customers try to put too many things in their project, and it becomes absolutely unreadable, unachievable, or incompatible with the desired dimensions. In this case, if the tattoo artist fails to reason with his client, he will refuse to do so.
7. The impossible things to do
For example, it is extremely difficult for a tattoo artist to make a tattoo with an aged effect, as if it were an old piece. Some adults who regret not having tattooed when they were young claim this kind of effect; but tattoo artists can only refuse to tattoo them, because they will never manage to obtain the desired rendering.
8. Bad Ideas
On Reddit, a tattoo artist says that a young girl asked him to tattoo the name of her dead cat. That name was Hairy Potter. The girl wanted the word hairy is made of cat hair. It was better to refuse.
9. Location, based on customer experience
For a first tattoo, artists recommend choosing an unexposed and not too painful area. A young person who, for his first tattoo, would like to have his hands inked would therefore easily be refused.
10. Certain Patterns
If you arrive in a salon to get an SS or KKK logo tattooed, a Hitler’s head on your skull or a tribute to Jérôme Rothen, you’ll be told no.
There you go, tattoo the info.