Talking during a tattoo session?

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Permalink Reply by Black is the new Black on November 2, 2008 at 10:36pm

I'm with you Syann, I'm not sure I am capable of holding a real conversation while getting outline work. During fill in/shading I too tend to be chatty, which is why I interviewed the artists I was looking into as much to determine if we clicked as for their artistic ability - I wanted to have the experience of getting the tattoo be a fond memory.

I ended up passing up several "rockstar" SF bay area artists in my search purely based on their attitude because I kept thinking "do I really want to be under the needle with this guy for 100+ hours?"

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Permalink Reply by Chris on April 17, 2008 at 7:33pm

You've all made some really good points, thanks for responding. Just for some clarification; I do talk a lot, but that's only because the artist I go to likes to ask me about what's new and loves hearing different stories from me and such. I don't just chat away for nothing ;)

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Permalink Reply by Dana on April 17, 2008 at 7:41pm

I spoke during sessions when my artist engaged me in conversation, but I rarely asked him questions when we weren't in the middle of a conversation because I didn't want to throw him off. As long as the artist initiates I think talking is great, it definitely helped the time go by faster...but I laugh alot, and laughing isn't so good when being tattooed.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila on April 18, 2008 at 12:27am

Thanks Chris for starting this convo...I often wonder what is appropriate and what is not. With both of my artist I would ocassionaly (sp.) shoot the breeze. I have even fallen asleep while getting tattoed. I love to talk so I usually let Katie (my new artist) lead, for the most part we catch up on all that has happened since we last met and what my future works consist of. I however like another contributer find that I lose my focus if I am talking. So I try to keep things to a minimum.

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Permalink Reply by Chris aka Creepinbean on April 18, 2008 at 11:13am

Well i see by reading these comments that everybody does whats combfortable for them i mean some people talk while getting tattoed and others dont. There is no right or wrong way to get tattooed you do what makes you combfortable i mean at the same time respect your artist. You want his work to come out the best way it can so keep that in mind as well.

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Permalink Reply by Erin on April 18, 2008 at 4:10pm

I love to talk if the artist is up for it. A couple artists I go to love to talk (we have become friends over the years), and others do not. Like everyone else said I just take a cue from the artist.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah on April 19, 2008 at 12:32am

I think that it depends on who is tattooing me, who is in the shop and where I am getting tattooed.

I was much quieter with the artist who did my arm. He didn’t seem to want to talk too much, we would say hi, update a bit about each other’s lives etc., but nothing too crazy.

Denise and I chat or not chat depending on her mood, my mood and the above mentioned conditions. When we go over really painful areas, I have a hard time answering her so that stifles conversations.

Regarding the cell phone, I try not to. I have once or twice for something of urgency but I usually wait until breaks and call the person back. Artists that I’ve gone to usually don’t answer their phone, I think that is only fair.

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Permalink Reply by Judy on April 19, 2008 at 10:01am

Sometimes we talk a lot. My artist is a gardener too so in my springtime sessions we have a lot to talk about. When the conversation lags I watch movies on hubbys iPod.

My artist is the owner of his own shop now so he actually talks to other people "over" me. That was a little hard to get used to. He was really respectful and didn't do it when he was doing my hip/butt thankfully. Last session, when he was doing the back of my shoulder people were in and out. They were watching what he was doing and talking to him about my tattoo. It's kinda weird being talked about but not really being part of the conversation, even though your sitting right there.

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Permalink Reply by Dana on April 19, 2008 at 10:12am

I had the same thing with my last artist. I found it odd as well. It would have been fine if I had been included in the conversations...there were many times others would come in, watch, and talk to my artist about what was going on with him and I felt like I was the third wheel in a conversation I shouldn't be hearing.

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Permalink Reply by Elle To The W. on April 22, 2008 at 5:08pm

I am very talkative before getting tattooed but during in am pretty quiet but so is the tattoo artist. I think I go into this mediative state and then start to think of the next tattoo I want to get. :)

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Permalink Reply by kemeigen on April 25, 2008 at 12:30am

Before I started with my current artist (who is now my "forever artist") I was known to bring a book and read during sessions.

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Permalink Reply by Erin on June 1, 2008 at 1:39pm

I'm generally a talker, but when it comes to getting tattooed, I'm not. My last ink hurt so bad that I was biting on a big hunk of my t-shirt while he was doing it (yeah, guess I'm a wuss! ; ) and my artist is a talker... luckily my husband went with me though, so they could talk about cars and whatnot while I was sitting there trying not to move even an inch, ha ha.

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