Tattoo Regret

Though never inked, I'm certainly not opposed to forever etching into my skin something of grand significance. Came close once as I contemplated the Japanese symbol 'iki' (粋), loosely defined as 'an aesthetic ideal'.

A few months ago, I asked a friend if he, as a tattoo artist, would ever turn down a potential customer's request - in effect, to spare them from future regret. This was his rather candid response:

"I'm at a point in my career where I think there is some moral responsibilty to what I tattoo...but at the same time, the customer has to take responsibilty for his or her decisions also. It's almost as if I'm a hypocrite...I would have zero problems tattooing a tribal on a guy's face, but once, a girl I know asked me to tattoo a 3rd eye on her forehead with blacklight ink, and I absolutely said 'no f*ckin' way'.

"I can't think of a tat that I've ever regretted doing based strictly on morals...if I'm not into it, I just won't do it. I've done a few that I've regretted because it was my artwork, and I felt that the person wasn't 'deserving' of it. And I've regretted plenty based on poor technical work...bit off more than I could chew, or just things went wrong during the tat. Most of that was during my apprenticeship. There have been a couple of tats that I refused to finish because I just didn't like the guy...perhaps, they didn't keep their end of the deal, or they moved way too much. So I ended the tat as they were. There was one guy who demanded that he get a specific tribal tat2 that was on another person...I told him it was bad luck, but he pushed the issue. In the end, he couldn't finish the tat and I left him with half a tat2, and told him it hurt so bad because it wasnt his tat2 to begin with and he was stealing from another person. I regretted caving in to his demands...but I did warn him, and nothing bad happened to me.

"Ultimately, it isn't my job to decide what people want...it's my job to do a good job, if I decide I want to do it. And frankly, most of the time, I don't give a sh*t why people want things. If they regret it later...well, that's not my problem. Talk to a shrink, have it covered up, laser'd off, or learn to live with it. Your dumb ass wanted it, and that's that. People are too used to blaming others for thier own stupidity...kinda like blaming the mirror because you look like sh*t."

There you have it...one point-of-view from the other end of the needle.