A while back, David told us about another side of the artist-client dynamic. While most customers are great people, there are some bad apples here and there. Some folks simply don’t understand that what tattooists do requires a lot of time, effort, and experience.
“We do get people asking for discounts, but it’s not as common as it was. I think we’ve a reputation now for not taking nonsense,” he said that some industry professionals generally tend to get more customers asking for discounts. For instance, bakers and hairdressers get these requests more often than others.
“It’s insulting though. These people trying to barter certainly don’t go into their supermarket or travel agent and try to get the price down,” the tattoo artist said.
David said that he’s run into some rude clients who don’t respect the artists’ time and think that “it’s ok if people cancel last minute, or fail to turn up, as they think we can just do some drawings to fill our time, when we should be earning money.”
In his view, people really need to call out rude customers instead of ignoring them. “In the last couple of years, there’s been a rise in entitled, over-bearing, and spoilt attitudes from a certain minority that think the sun revolves around them… when it doesn’t! It shines out your tattooist's butt!” the Scot joked.
