Next in line for the 12 freebies is Scorpion/Sub-Zero. Hard to tell them apart in black and white, but they’re equally cool and Will grew up during the time when the Mortal Combat game blew up. Face it, you were either Street Fighter or Mortal Combat and Mortal Combat won, at least the live-action war.

Seems like some artists took a page out of the capitalism at all costs workbook. Charge so much that even if you barely work, you can get by. People are legit trying to get rich doing tattoos and when Will started tattooing that was never going to be the case. You hoped to make enough money for beer and cigarettes, feed the kids, keep a roof over your head, pay for gas. If you could make a living doing something you loved, that was reward enough.

Then they put tattooing on TV. Public acceptance of tattooing kept pace with it’s popularity and all of a sudden tattooing seemed not only like a legitimate professional choice for young artists, but something sort of prestigious. Then social media got ahold of it and a lot of people fell in love with something they didn’t even try to understand, but tried to tame instead.

In recent years tattoos have become so trendy it’s gotten a little gross. Facts: Tattoo shops aimed at tattooing drunken tourists have become a niche in Nashville and while that SOUNDS like it could be a lot of fun, it points out a big problem: Putting dollars ahead of the artwork and making money more important than people. It is an unsustainable practice and it’s obvious.

Tattoo shops are relocating to more affordable areas. Some artists are leaving the business altogether. Backlash and vitriol directed at the advent of generative AI (while deserved in some ways) is more of a knee-jerk reaction to a general thinning of the client base. Add to that the development of influencer-tattooers who charge spectacularly high rates because you only have to do one tattoo a week if you charge $4000 a day for them, people who may do nice tattoos but act like it causes them physical pain to do so, charging the shit out of unsuspecting customers who have no idea they could get the same quality of work from someone 20 minutes away whose only been tattooing for a few years and could really use the work. It’s called fleecing your customers, making suckers out of them, and it may be a good way to make money, but it’s a shit way to treat people.

We’re not firing shots at anyone here, just trying to point out what we see and over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to explain it’s effects and what we, specifically Will, intends to do about it.