Peoples opinions on private tattooing

Kast0r

just wondering what people opinions are regarding tattooing from home, and before you jump the gun i will point out a few things..

i understand that scratching from home and tattooing from home are 2 completely different things, one hasnt a clue what he/she is at and the other has been trained and or working in a studio for a number of years.

Basically the reason i ask is due to internal politics (you will find in alot of shops nowadays) ive stopped tattooing in the shop i was in for the last 6 years, the rest of the staff left with me.. given that i have a wee mouth to feed and plenty of work to finish, i took to changing up a room in my house and tattooing from home in an effort to continue developing my skills, finish work and to try and push myself harder because the shop was very restricting.

ive always had a very negative view on people tattooing from home because unlike many i had training and place to work, i also had to fix, cover or basically lend a sympathetic ear on many occasions where the tattoo was beyond repair and the person was just coming in to ask some questions..

when i went to dublin to pick up some supplies it dawned on me that a lot of reputable tattooists are now working outside of the shop environment because rent is just too expensive and given the economic growth of Ireland has come to what would seem a crawling pace... in the wrong direction.. people just dont have the money to be spending on grand designs to decorate their various bits.. many tattoists have returned to their homes and are continuing their trade privately..

when i heard this i didnt feel so bad, but still like to maintain that i keep the area i work in very clean, everything is disposable, and needles are disposed of in a hygenic manner.. part of me is still very wary of public opinion so i leave it here to be discussed.

what are your views on people tattooing privately from home given they have relative experience and proper Knowledge and equipment?

kas

Star Lord

IMHO, it'd depend entirely on their set up. If they have a studio-like room, all the proper equipment, autoclave etc... then I don't see why it'd be that different to a commercially rented studio. However, as I'm sure you know, most of the people doing tattoos from home don't have a lot of the proper equipment, because let's face it, it's not cheap.

Hellrazer

Kast0r wrote: »

what are your views on people tattooing privately from home given they have relative experience and proper Knowledge and equipment?

kas

Oh this is going to be a touch subject but my take on it is this :

given they have relative experience and proper Knowledge and equipment?

As long as they are clean and safe I dont have an issue with it and would gladly go to someone that worked from home.

Couple of questions though.

Are you useing disposables or have you got an autoclave.
If you have a clave is it tested?
How do you dispose of your used needles?How do you ensure that the area you are tattooing in is clean and hygenic?Do your clients use the front door and walk all sorts into your clean area?
Are you insured for public liability--most household insurance doesnt cover public liability if you are running a business from home.??
The room youve made in your house--what flooring is on it?What are the walls covered in.Does it have a sink in it with hot/cold running water?Have you a separate area for cleaning up?

All little things but they all add up to complete and trusted cleanliness.

Melion

There is an absolutely massive difference between a scratcher working from home and a reputable artist leaving a shop and working from a home-based studio.

Hellrazer

Melion wrote: »

There is an absolutely massive difference between a scratcher working from home and a reputable artist leaving a shop and working from a home-based studio.

Of course there is but someone who may be looking at getting their first tattoo may not know the difference.

You know the difference,I know the difference and Id say a lot if the users here would know the difference but that first timer may not.

Melion

Hellrazer wrote: »

Of course there is but someone who may be looking at getting their first tattoo may not know the difference.

You know the difference,I know the difference and Id say a lot if the users here would know the difference but that first timer may not.

We actually had someone in the shop who was going to a glorified scratcher today. Her mother messaged us on facebook, told us what was going on and was only to happy to come in and bring the daughter with her. She had to pay that bit extra but was delighted to do it as at least this way she has the piece of mind that if someone goes wrong, she can come back to us.

Hail 2 Da Thief

If a studio is fitted out & maintained to meet the highest standards, I personally couldn't care less where it's located!

Please Kill Me

My tattooist works from home. He has a ground floor room completely renovated. Has all the gear, pictures of his work everywhere and VERY clean. He even has the "token" collection of metal CD's to put on in the background while working! LOL. Nah, no problem with it mate.

Jake The Fat Ma

A friend of a friend on facebook got 2 tattoos the other from some fella in his house here in Dundalk and they are terrible.
One has script and I cant read it, And the other is a weird superwoman with a gun and im not jokin when i say its possible of of the worst Iv ever seen.

bodice ripper

you know what? it isn't a grey area at all. Fairly straight forward:

1. tattooing out of your kitchen for money, whether you are a "proper guns and gear off the internet, and I am mad clean with Dettol n'all" self teaching/scratcher/Lone Wolf jackass or an established artist who wants to downsize/pull nixers/work alone for a bit - Scratcher no doubt. If you need it explained to you why this is a problem, you shouldn't be tattooing.

2. established artist with experience and confidence required to work alone and the shop experience to outfit a purpose area for tattooing and cleaning, and to equip it properly does so at home. Alsohaving the understanding of cross-contamination needed to treat that room as the serious potential threat it actually is to family, guests and pets and the harder-to-deal with serious potential threat your family, guests and pets pose to the room and clients. It doesn't matter that your kid been round tattooing since birth and won't touch anything. Your kid is as snotty and just as fond of jamming half of his hand into his mouth, seemingly with the sole intention of stimulating drool production, as every other kid. Small kids have been shown to be "super-spreaders", a highly mobile and inventive germ spreader who is too young to reason with about his hands and his mouth etc, and simultaneously sheds more and for longer than adult would. Yeah, your hyper intelligent kid. This isn't obscure or technical knowledge or anything either - its a pretty basic concept in contamination control. Not to mention the small matter of how unfair it is to expose some one so short, physically unstable and too young to make and informed choice on whether to expose them selve regularly to an activity with a significantly raised chance of exposure to hepatitis et al, not to mention all the standard bugs that go round.

But

I have personally seen artists bitched out by people who would think of themselves as in the know, and they get snotty about "yeah, scratching out of his gaff now he is". On these occasions- had I not caught the comment and by chance was also familliar with the tattoo spaces in question and had been in said gaffs on a number of occasions to see the purpose-built and properly equipped studios for myself and butted in to say so- the slanderous comment would have gone unchallenged. Gossip like that has been known to be taken as tattoo scene gospel by some unfortunate punter. A chatty tattoo enthusiast, eager to share whatever tattoo gossip they might have heard can unwittingly get a baseless claim to a lot of people quicker than you'd think. Don't go messing with someone's reputation and livelihood if you don't know what you are talking about..

3. you and/or your friends decide to tattoo yourselves and/or each other at home for no money. Providing the people in question are sane, of age and aware of the potential risks, choosing to be involved is your own look out - regardless of experience. Not necessarily a good idea, but ethically neutral I think.


In all situations, there must be a safe sollution to disposing of contaminated waste.

sorry about the length

baron von something

Jake The Fat Ma wrote: »

A friend of a friend on facebook got 2 tattoos the other from some fella in his house here in Dundalk and they are terrible.
One has script and I cant read it, And the other is a weird superwoman with a gun and im not jokin when i say its possible of of the worst Iv ever seen.

i must say i got tattooed by 2 different guys in their houses in dundalk,but 10 years ago there wasnt any studios open here.(i have since got one from the guy in the studio here and let me say,never again).one of the artists/scratchers does good work and has gotten so much better in the last 10yrs (i still would never go back) but i cant say the same for the other one.i would have no problem going to a professional who was doing it from home tho