Exploration #1

With my most recent observation I went and met with Tony of “A Minds Eye Tattoo”. From the first day that I met with Tony I knew that my previous perceptions of tattoo artists were very off and miss guided. Tony was very laid back and mellow guy. One thing that surprised me right off the bat was how soft his hands were. They were as soft as any girls hands I had ever felt. For the image that he portrays does not go along with how soft his hand were. That was a total shocker to me. The question that came from that was why they were so soft but that was soon answered a day later when I went back for my first observation.
In my resent observations I have notice that my previous ideas and thought of a tattoo parlor have been drastically wrong and have been misguided by T.V. and the movies. My ideas going into this project have been that these places would be a bit more run down, dark rooms, they would have pictures and drawings all over every inch of the walls, the rooms would be filled with smoke and hard heavy metal music would be blaring over the speakers. In very contrast what I found was the shop was very clean, with the entrance seeming to be like entering an office building with a front waiting room and a desk. As you enter the back room there was two soft padded leather chairs that were up right but could be also reclined depending on the tattoo that was to be was given. The walls had a nice read paint that went well with the Asian theme of art and statues that were placed all around the room with a few Volcom stars around the room as well. The room was also very lightly lit so that Tony could see what he was doing without the assistance of a lap or light. The music playing over the speaker was some rock music but not too heavy and over bearing that one could not have a conversation in the room. What it added was some back ground music to the constant noise from the tattoo gun.
As I sat there watching Tony give a man a tattoo I was just flooded with questions that I would like to ask Toney in an interview later on in the process. A question that has come to mind is why has Tony chosen to give the parlor an Asian them? Is there any significance to the Asian statues and if so what kind? Is there a reason why he picked to be in the particular location the he is in right now? After seeing him do some work on the man that Tony was giving the tattoo to the thought came to my mind was who was it that gave him his tattoos? I would have been too difficult for him to give them to himself. The man that was getting the tattoo seemed to be very relaxed and enjoying the process which brought up the question; Do people fall asleep while getting tattoo and if so do you continues and are there any rules on what kind of condition a person must be in to receive a tattoo? Some of my best question came when I observed Tony’s apprentice prepare to give a lady a tattoo in the shoulder. These ranged from what kind of training does it take to allow someone to give a tattoo to another person? Then towards the end a whole load of question came surround the ink that is used to give tattoos. Like what makes it different form ink in a pen? Where do they get it and is it expensive and many more questions.