IF TATTOOS WERE FOOD!...

There’s a phrase tattoo artists hear so often that most of us barely even react to it anymore.

“Can you draw something up first… and if I like it, I’ll book in.”

Now, on the surface, that probably sounds perfectly reasonable. Until you translate it into literally any other skilled profession.

Imagine walking into a Michelin-starred restaurant and saying:

“Before I decide whether to book a table, could the chef prepare samples of a few starters, a couple of mains and maybe a dessert platter first? Then, if I enjoy them, I might come back and make a reservation.”

You would quite rightly be laughed back onto the pavement.

Yet somehow, when it comes to tattooing, people occasionally expect exactly this. The strange thing is that tattoos carry infinitely more permanence than a meal ever will.

A disappointing steak ruins your evening, but a disappointing tattoo can stay with you for decades.

And yet people often approach tattooing with less thought, less respect and less understanding than they would when choosing somewhere to eat on a Saturday night.

“It’s Only a Quick Drawing…”

Here’s the reality most people never see. When a client asks an artist to “just draw something up first”, what they are actually asking for is unpaid professional design work.

Not doodling.

Not five minutes with a biro.

Actual professional creative labour.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the artist is simultaneously running a fully legitimate business with all the costs that come with it:

• Studio rent

• Business rates

• Licensing

• Insurance

• Sterilisation equipment

• Needles, inks and consumables

• Training and continued education

• Marketing

• Software subscriptions

• Electricity

• Accountancy fees

• VAT

• Corporation tax

• National Insurance

• Booking systems

• Furniture and studio fit-outs

  
  

And that’s before considering the years — often decades — spent learning how to actually tattoo properly in the first place.

People often see the final tattoo.

They rarely see the infrastructure required to create it safely, legally and professionally.

This week, for example, I spent 12hrs designing and stencilling a tattoo that took 6hrs, because keeping the bar raised is what it takes.

The “Free Sample” Mentality

The funny thing is, people instinctively understand this in almost every other industry.

Nobody expects an architect to fully design a house before deciding whether to hire them.

Nobody asks a lawyer to run a court case for free “just to see how it goes.”

Nobody walks into a high-end tailor and asks for a finished suit before deciding whether they’d like to place an order.

And yet tattoo artists are occasionally expected to provide hours of bespoke artwork upfront simply for the possibility of securing the booking - It’s an odd contradiction.

Particularly when you consider that tattoos are one of the few things people carry on their bodies for life.

Tattooing Is Not Fast Food

Good tattooing is much closer to fine dining than fast food.

You're not simply paying for just “the tattoo.”

You are paying for:

• experience

• judgement

• composition

• technical application

• hygiene

• long-term understanding of skin

• problem solving

• artistic interpretation

• and years of accumulated mistakes, lessons and refinement

  
  

A good artist is not merely drawing pictures, they are rendering a permanent visual piece of art on the human body.

That process takes thought, It takes planning, and most importantly, it takes trust.

The Real Question

When clients ask: “Can you draw it first and then I’ll decide?”

What they are often really saying is:“I’m not yet sure whether I trust you.”

And honestly, that’s a fair stance - Choosing a tattoo artist should never be

impulsive.

But trust is built through:

• portfolios

• healed work

• reputation

• consultations

• professionalism

• communication

• consistency

  
  

Not by demanding free speculative labour before committing. If a client truly trusts an artist’s body of work, style and experience, they generally understand that the design process itself is part of the service they are booking. Its no different as trusting a chef to cook, an architect to design, or a lawyer to advise.

The Bigger Irony

The irony is that the clients who try hardest to control every tiny stage of the process are often the ones who end up disappointed. The best tattoos usually happen when a client chooses the right artist… then allows them to actually do what they are skilled at doing.

No different to any other profession.

You don’t stand over a Michelin chef explaining how long to sear the scallops.

You don’t tell a pilot how to land the aircraft.

And you probably shouldn’t micromanage the person permanently marking your skin either.

Final Thoughts...

Tattooing is a strange, unique industry.

People simultaneously want it to be:

• permanent, but cheap

• bespoke, but instant

• artistic, but entirely controlled

• highly skilled, but somehow undervalued

And perhaps that’s because many people still fundamentally misunderstand what professional tattooing actually is.

It isn’t simply “buying a tattoo.” It is commissioning an experienced artist to create something that will live on your body for years — hopefully decades.

Which, when you really think about it…

Probably deserves at least as much consideration as choosing somewhere for dinner.