Welcome to Florida

I got this from Brandon, mentioned in the previous entry, who owns Foolish Pride in St. Petersburg. It’s a flyer that he found on the street in front of his shop — I’ve censored the studio doing it because I don’t want to drive any business to them. That said, it is an interesting idea, offering an environment where inexperienced people can tattoo each other — I can think of many situations where this could be desired, for example, parents who want their child to tattoo them (which is certainly quite common among children of tattooists, and regular customers or shop friends), or people who want to tattoo or be tattooed by their partner. But to overtly advertise for it? And to do it with this particular wording seems like a recipe for creating legions of kitchen scratchers. What do you think? Great idea? Terrible idea? Good idea done wrong?

bad idea censored

Oh, I can’t resist. After having looked at their portfolio, my suspicion that this is a shop to be avoided were confirmed. I gotta share a few pictures from their published portfolio — the stuff that they presumably think best represents the sort of quality they aspire to. It really blows my mind that shops so terrible that they can’t even get flash right consistently seem to be able to pay the rent. It’s really a testament to how incredibly stupid and devoid of self-respect the average person is that shops like this have no problem luring people in tattoos that emphasize cheap prices over talented artists…

garbage tattoos

20 thoughts on “Welcome to Florida

  1. The name of the studio is still ascertainable in the body of text, fyi. BUT I think the idea is nifty, but there really is good cause to be worried about the scratchers it could create. Then again, what if somebody realizes their talent because of this? I am not one to stifle creative ideas, so this will get a thumbs up from me.

  2. The name of the studio is still ascertainable in the body of text, fyi. BUT I think the idea is nifty, but there really is good cause to be worried about the scratchers it could create. Then again, what if somebody realizes their talent because of this? I am not one to stifle creative ideas, so this will get a thumbs up from me.

  3. Didn’t do a very good job censoring the flyer Shannon. It clearly states that this service is available at “Designs for Life Tattoo” in the middle of the flyer. Kinda surprised that you of all people would censor something like this… but I guess that if you don’t agree with something…..

  4. Didn’t do a very good job censoring the flyer Shannon. It clearly states that this service is available at “Designs for Life Tattoo” in the middle of the flyer. Kinda surprised that you of all people would censor something like this… but I guess that if you don’t agree with something…..

  5. I have to admit, if this were a sit down with a big name artist, or even someone with a good portfolio, I’d bite. You’d get to have a chance to take some kind of knowledge away from it. But these guys are not good at all… I’m sure they get tons of people looking to learn to make tattooing a career, and pretend to be much better than they actually are, so the client looks up to them. In the end, I feel it is only fueling the scratcher movement. Any person without training can walk up with fifty dollars and tattoo their friend? It only benefits the people running the show, and probably brings them even more business. Shameful.

  6. I have to admit, if this were a sit down with a big name artist, or even someone with a good portfolio, I’d bite. You’d get to have a chance to take some kind of knowledge away from it. But these guys are not good at all… I’m sure they get tons of people looking to learn to make tattooing a career, and pretend to be much better than they actually are, so the client looks up to them. In the end, I feel it is only fueling the scratcher movement. Any person without training can walk up with fifty dollars and tattoo their friend? It only benefits the people running the show, and probably brings them even more business. Shameful.

  7. zzz – You must have seen it the instant I posted it because I fixed it just a couple minutes later. But I’m not sure why you’d be surprised that I censored it. I mean, it’s not like I’m silencing the politics of someone I dislike here! I just don’t feel ModBlog should be used to increase the ranking of scratcher shops, so I prefer not to do anything that might drive them traffic. But by all means promote them if you’re comfortable with the quality of work they’re producing 😛

  8. zzz – You must have seen it the instant I posted it because I fixed it just a couple minutes later. But I’m not sure why you’d be surprised that I censored it. I mean, it’s not like I’m silencing the politics of someone I dislike here! I just don’t feel ModBlog should be used to increase the ranking of scratcher shops, so I prefer not to do anything that might drive them traffic. But by all means promote them if you’re comfortable with the quality of work they’re producing 😛

  9. @shannon: “I just don’t feel ModBlog should be used to increase the ranking of scratcher shops, so I prefer not to do anything that might drive them traffic”

    and why not?
    myself, I am a scratcher. I have in excess of 40 tattoos (feet, full sleeve on the left arm, chest, etc). I am no tattooist. I have no artistic talent whatsoever. I have no training in this art. I just bought needles, a tattoo machine, ink and gloves and started this journey on my skin 6 yrs ago.
    I have no guilt being a scratcher 🙂
    Still, I scratch only on personal skin 🙂
    I do not have the nerve to tell someone else “hey, I’m a tattooist, wanna have one?”

  10. @shannon: “I just don’t feel ModBlog should be used to increase the ranking of scratcher shops, so I prefer not to do anything that might drive them traffic”

    and why not?
    myself, I am a scratcher. I have in excess of 40 tattoos (feet, full sleeve on the left arm, chest, etc). I am no tattooist. I have no artistic talent whatsoever. I have no training in this art. I just bought needles, a tattoo machine, ink and gloves and started this journey on my skin 6 yrs ago.
    I have no guilt being a scratcher 🙂
    Still, I scratch only on personal skin 🙂
    I do not have the nerve to tell someone else “hey, I’m a tattooist, wanna have one?”

  11. It’s funny to me that even the flyer needs a cover-up. I think that this is a horrible idea to sell to the general public. Now if you had this as one of the services that your shop offered, that would be a different story.

  12. It’s funny to me that even the flyer needs a cover-up. I think that this is a horrible idea to sell to the general public. Now if you had this as one of the services that your shop offered, that would be a different story.

  13. Shops like this are a disgrace to the tattoo industry! Horrible, horrible idea! Scratchers are scum and they need to be discouraged, not incouraged by money hungry, low grade shops like this. I think it’s funny that the font they chose for their flyer looks sloppy- just like their tattoo work! I think it’s smart to censor the shop’s name- no need to promote morons like this. I really hope it’ll soon be illegal to sell tattoo and piercing equipment to unlicensed hacks- it’s dangerous and breeds uneducated idiots claiming they’re pros which just end up mutilating their naive “customers”.

  14. Shops like this are a disgrace to the tattoo industry! Horrible, horrible idea! Scratchers are scum and they need to be discouraged, not incouraged by money hungry, low grade shops like this. I think it’s funny that the font they chose for their flyer looks sloppy- just like their tattoo work! I think it’s smart to censor the shop’s name- no need to promote morons like this. I really hope it’ll soon be illegal to sell tattoo and piercing equipment to unlicensed hacks- it’s dangerous and breeds uneducated idiots claiming they’re pros which just end up mutilating their naive “customers”.

  15. @ Tat – so you think it would be a good idea for body modification to be regulated? Because our legislators have such a progressive track record of leaving us free to do with our bodies as we choose?

  16. @ Tat – so you think it would be a good idea for body modification to be regulated? Because our legislators have such a progressive track record of leaving us free to do with our bodies as we choose?

  17. @ Tat – so you think it would be a good idea for body modification to be regulated?

  18. @ Tat – so you think it would be a good idea for body modification to be regulated?

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