Field Study: the Tattooing Nanny State

So yesterday...

In the midst of chaotic school shopping and errands, Miss M. and I drove in to the downtown core so I could make appointments at Sacred Heart on Davie for nose piercing and the last tattoo. We pulled into a pay parking lot, and I didn't bother to pay, as I rationalized that I was only going to be in the shop for about 2 minutes maximum. We walked in, and a pleasant gothically-coloured and tattooed lady with a welcoming smile greeted us and asked what we were looking for. I said I wanted a nostril piercing, and a tattoo behind my right ear. She smiled sympathically and explained that they don't do nostril piercing at that location (the other two do), and that they won't do my tattoo behind my ear they don't do tattoos on "Public Skin"

Are you fucking serious?? "Really? Why?"

And some of what came next was both surprising and revealing. She explained that the big boss frowns on his staff doing tattoos on hand, wrists, necks...in other words, places where they can be seen plainly, because having them there makes it harder to get jobs and mortgages. She explained that she had a friend with a little tiny heart on her hand, and she can't get jobs despite being a University graduate. She explained that another friend couldn't get a mortgage because he had a pink breast cancer ribbon tattoos on the front of his neck to honour his mother. I have heard similar stories like this before, when I went to a place in Edmonton, and the guy refused to do the one on the back of my neck because I was, and I quote, "too cleancut, and nice-looking" and it would ruin my appearance so I can't get jobs and stuff.

It didn't occur to me the first time it happened, but this time around, a little older, wiser and more educated, it hit me like a ton of bricks...tattoo artists can be downright conservative and judgmental. Here I am, asking for a service that they provide, willing to pay, having obviously given this a lot of thought (evident by the way I was describing it to her), and I was being given the politely verbal equivalent of a tsk tsk, a pat on the head, and being told that I don't want what I want, as if I were a flatchested 12 year old asking for a training bra. That's twice now I've encountered tattoo situations where I was being nannied. I wasn't being given my rights over my own body to do with it what I will...I wasn't even being given the choice; I was outright being denied my requests because others made the decision about what's in my own best interest.

Let's tackle this job problem for a moment. I got the second tattoo on the back of my neck last month, before I started a temp job at a Crown Corporation (which is semi-governmental). I dressed accordingly, in smart business casual attire. I wore my hair up because it's summer, it's crazy hot, and my hair is crazy long. I was polite, professional, courteous, and good at the job. I worked with people who were in their 40's and 50's. And not once was I looked down on because of my tattoos. In fact, when I left on Thursday, my last day, people were telling me that they wanted me to stay on, and next summer I'd better be available to request to come back (I'm not, unfortunately). They loved me there, because I was competent and good at the job, regardless of some body art and slightly purple hair.

I know this is only one situation, but the point is that there are opportunities out there with people who value the work and skills, and the ones that are going to get freaky about a few small, tasteful body markings are not likely to be cool people to deal with anyways, and I would probably conflict with them in other more fundamental ways that would be counterproductive.

The nice sacred heart lady added the surprising part that made the anthropology student in me click into place...tattoo artists who *don't* do public skin look down on those who do. This comment was like gold to someone studying the culture of tattoo artists, because it revealed what seems to be a near-universal fact: in any career field, I would assume that a hierarchy existed in terms of good work and bad work, skilled vs. just getting by, etc. I know there's snobbery too, but I never would have expected to have it openly verbalized to me, a customer (thus an outsider). It made me wonder if I too was being looked down on for my choice by these people who had never met me, and who felt it their duty to protect me from myself.