Traditional Japanese to more popular new school styles of tattoos from artists like Jesse Smith can be seen anywhere from the TV to the gym, to the workplace. The ancient art form of scarring skin has been adapted and widely accepted by Western culture as the norm in society. As the tattoo industry continues to flourish under the social media umbrella, several tattoo artists weigh in on why the transformation from counter culture to consumer culture might work as a double-edged sword for the tattoo industry.
What is it that pushes society to the question: to ink or not to ink?
“I think social media has done the greatest thing for tattooing," said Skooby, from Legacy Tattoo located in Brandon, Florida.
Skooby has been tattooing for over 16 years.
"Not so much Facebook and definitely not Pinterest," Skooby said. "Social media has done the greatest thing for tattooing mostly, because you can see it, you sell it, I know a lot of artist who market their work, so it's definitely a very positive thing."
Art has always been a passion for Skooby. After being inspired by a number of different artists from Dali to M.C. Escher, he found tattooing to be the perfect medium for him. Like many artists who started in the '90s, Skooby has watched the recent rise and endured through past declines of the tattoo industry.
"As technology grows and grows, I think tattooing will become even greater. The media has taken tattooing to new heights allowing artists to share their work globally with other artists," Scott Fischer said.
Fischer works with Skooby at Legacy Tattoo and has also been tattooing for 16 years. They are both pretty adamant about the positive effects that the Internet and social media mostly has on tattoo culture.
"Now, I get to compete with some guy in Europe or Japan. Or I'll post something, some guy in Germany may like. I get to see their stuff, and I might like some of it. Or think I never thought about doing that or this technique," Fischer chuckles as he leans back in his tattoo chair grabbing his left elbow with his right hand.
He shows off a tattoo of a tattoo machine located just under his left elbow.
“It's my favorite (tattoo) because that's what I do,” he says as he reclines further back. "The thing is, it's the new trendy job."
There is an estimated 15,000 tattoo parlors in America, making somewhere north of $2.3 billion annually, according to MSNBC News US Business.
The legacy Tattoo shop is empty on a Sunday afternoon but full with conversation as Fischer and Skooby thumb through their portfolio and show a few pieces they are proud of. But why is the Legacy shop so empty if the tattoo business is trending?
"Right now its an over-saturated industry, so many artists, not enough customers," said Gabriel Barrios.
Barrios works at The Hot Box located in Brandon, Florida. He has been tattooing for six years but unlike most tattoo artists, he isn't covered in tattoos. He has a few small, hidden tattoos, and he is very quiet at first. As he spoke more about his work, he opened up more about where he thinks the state of tattooing is headed.
"I like psychedelic art, I like skateboard art, I like surrealism, and a lot of classical neo-classical to classic Mexican art, and I'm Puerto Rican," he said. "I did my first tattoo. It’s a real gutter tattoo of a guy losing his mind."
He points to his leg, where there is a stick and poke style tattoo of a man with his brains coming out of his skull. He laughs for a second and then turns back towards his station and continues cleaning.
"Instagram is great, but what's having a big effect now is television. Television is making it hard for up-and-coming artists. It's all politics, Barrios said.
Thanks to the rise of tattoo TV shows like "Miami Ink," "Bad Ink" and "Tattoo Titans," a lot of people been exposed to tattoo culture as a consumer culture and not a counterculture. Naturally, all the glitz and glamour introduced tattoos and the idea of becoming a tattoo artist to a larger demographic.
“For me, tattooing is the greatest job in the world," said Aaron Foxwell.
He works at Trilogy Tattoos located in Riverview, Florida. He stands at about 5'8" and is mostly covered in tattoos, from swallows on his neck to a labyrinth of geometric shapes on his arm. He seems pretty committed to supplying the best work he can for his customer.
"So many bad tattoos. I've seen so many people with a bad tattoo or they might be happy with the tattoo but unhappy with the experience," Foxwell said.
"Everyone wants to be a TV star, no one wants to start at the bottom and work their way up," said Skooby.
"People chase the experience more than they chase the tattoo," Fischer said. "They think, I got me a kit off of the Internet, and I’m tattooing for fun. Those people, they're not going to last."
"It's (tattooing) that kept me away from drugs, getting rid of the crowd that I was hanging with," said Matt Lange.
He's another professional tattoo artist from Riverview, Florida. He works at Mike Parson Ink and has been tattooing for over 10 years after using art as a gateway away from his addictive tendencies.
"I’m living good and I enjoy what I do," Lange said as he prepares for his station for his next client. "I got into tattooing after having a bad drug addiction at a young age. I decided to get the hell away from it and those types of friends."
Lange says he went into a tattoo shop to get a tattoo that he drew on himself. The artist started looking through his book and offered him an apprenticeship. Lange took it.
"The world is like ants, a lot of people just follow other people. No one breaks out and uses their own mind and creates something good anymore," Lange Said.
“For me, every tattoo I’m doing is the latest thing I’m doing, and if I’m not doing that to my full potential, then I’m wasting my time, and I’m wasting the client's time," Foxwell said. "If you want to progress, then you have to push it and learn it and challenge yourself in other ways."
"You have to show a lot of interest because there's a million people that walk into a tattoo shop, and we don’t know if you're serious or not. So to make sure they're serious, we tell them nope, we’re not hiring. But if they keep coming back, showing the interest, bring in pictures, even though we say no. Show up next week, bring in pictures, ask do we have any advice, then we might hire you," Skooby said.
"The first thing I ask people, the kids that come in here 100 times looking for a job," Fischer said, "is 'Do you have a portfolio?' If they say I’m working on it or I don't have one. I'll tell them get one and come back."
Skooby comedically interrupts “As far as we know, you’re talking sh*t.”
"We have an apprentice here—she has grown a lot since she’s been here. But she wanted the notoriety before the work. She wanted the instant star and cool name, and we're like, don’t worry about that," Skooby said.
"Unfortunately it's very hard to find a mentor. I ended up teaching myself because I walked into 10 different shops asking for apprenticeships, and they all just looked at me with really rude attitudes, and they didn’t want to teach some Hispanic kid," Barrios said.
When his friends convinced him to buy a tattoo kit and start tattooing them, he never thought six years later he would be working at one of the busiest tattoo shop in Brandon.
"I didn’t have a mentor or fake skin or pig skin, I just tattooed on skin," Barrios said.
"Computer and technology have become so vast, and everything is so readily available. The information is more readily available for people to succeed in the industry," said Skooby.
Since 2013, the State of Florida has required all tattoo artist to have license. Acquiring a tattoo license is as simple as attending a educational course covering blood-borne pathogens and disease relevant to the tattoo industry, then shopping around until you find a tattoo shop that will accept you.
"Tattoos are a permanent life change," said Jeff "Bosco" McManus from Atomic Tattoo in Brandon, Florida. "A change that should be respected. There are a lot of guys that just buy equipment and just jump right in to it, and these people don’t have any education. And one of the most crucial parts is learning how to respect what you're doing to someone's body."
McManus has been tattooing over 22 years—to him, the tattoo is more than just a paycheck, it's quintessential life experience.
"My first tattoo was a cross on my hand. This was before I was even thinking about tattooing. Pick and poke style, with the sewing needle and ink, while I was still in the navy," McManus said.
Not a smartest idea, but an idea that would lead him into professionally tattooing after his enlistment ended. McManus said he was lucky and smart enough to get under someone tutelage.
Social media, the Internet and TV have given quick glimpse into the world of tattooing. Viewers are only getting a reader's digest version of what tattooing is. They are never shown the education the artist has gone through and all the risk to their health they endure constantly, swimming in other people's blood.
"At 18, the first piercing I ever did was on the person who taught me how to pierce." This from Lainey, who works at Atomic Tattoo as a professional piercer.
She briefly relives giving her friend Jessica snake bites at the age of 12 with her mother's gold studded earring. She says that Jess still has the snake bite piercing but that the experience definitely doesn’t count as her first piercing as she was an unlicensed 12-year-old.
"Most apprenticeships are eight to 12 months, although a lot of them nowadays seem to be getting stepped over," said Lainey.
"Things from health, to the composition of tattoos, even ethics. Things like not tattooing hands and necks on 18-year-olds. People don’t realize and try to take advantage of the fact that tattoos are across the board accepted now. But it’s not," McManus said.
Society has rapidly changed perspective about tattoos, allowing for more employers to lower their ink barriers and focus on the individual. Once condemned to only working circus sideshows, inked individuals are now free from discrimination to hold political positions like Vladimir Franz, registered candidate in the 2013 Czech presidential elections, whose face in entirely covered in tattoos.
There's still a stigma attached to tattoos, whether it’s the art or the artists. There are a lot of things an aspiring tattoo artist should consider. Time is the biggest. The amount of time spent learning, witnessing and observing things under a professional, the more professional the work you produce will come out.
"As long as people continued to uphold tattoo in a positive way, it will keep going. When I started, you never told anyone what goes on behind closed doors. Now, information is everywhere, so I guess it helps the industry more in some ways," Fischer said.