FROM MY PERSPECTIVE- giving deals or running specials like friday the 13th tattoos doesnt do you or anybody any good.... i have been guilty of running specials or "hooking people up" the only thing it did was cut my own throat... .consider this- you are training people to only come to your shop when you run a sale...i looked on facebook this morning to see people posting photos of all these people lined up around the corner to come in to get a 20$ tattoo.... its awesome to have a ton of people at your shop but where will all those people be tomorrow ... they wont be in your tattoo shop.... they have no need to be they just got a 20$ tattoo.....a cheap price cheapens the product.....remember all those rich kids that use to have all the cool toys and all the cool stuff remember how they treated it....they didnt care because they didnt have to earn it..is that how you want to show tattoos... things that come easy bring no sense of value... when you give tattoos at cheaper prices you are essentially devaluing tattoos as a whole...giving deals doesnt birth client reliability it only gives way to deal seekers when the deals arent there they wont be either.... next friday ask everyone that comes in if they came and got a friday the 13th tattoo a week ago....not only are you hurting yourself you are hurting other tattooers by running specials .... united we stand divided we fall.... we have to remember those who worked so hard before us so that we can make a living wage.... those who cared more about doing one tattoo and making it perfect for a fair price rather than working all day doing quantity over quality packing in as many tattoos as we can working our fingers to the bone just to keep our lights on..what do you want to be remembered for the amount of cheap tattoos you did or the quality of tattoos you did... history tells us that quality will be the only thing that is remembered..what would the old dead guys say about this ...the ones we all respect and emulate their work... lets not take a step backwards on what our tattoo forefathers worked so hard to make for us lets respect them and their views on what tattoos should be....if running specials or doing cheap tattoos is the only way you are making it than maybe you should consider another business... i dont mean this in a rude way i mean this with honesty.... if you are newer to tattooing and friday the 13th is your most money makenest day maybe you should consider another line of work....it would offend me that the only people that wanted tattoos from me are people who dont want to pay full price for them....clients that dont care about quality or my well being... are these people coming in your shop only to get cheap tattoos are they going else where to get their tattoos the rest of the year or are they even getting tattoos the rest of the year.... are you comfortable with this fact.....again i dont mean any disrespect or judgement and i do feel like all of us are just trying to do the right thing , have fun, and also support our familys... but lets take a step back and look at our actions from a wider perspective ..sure its fun to do a bunch of goofy tattoos and have a full shop but at what price.. lets follow in the footsteps of our tattoo forefathers take their advice and there lead i think they had if figured out long before us... lets not cut our own throats... lets not sell tattoos cheaper than scratchers...
this is the last you will hear from me on this subject...
with love, matt headley
ps.... i welcome all responses and thanks for your time in reading this....i would also post some photos of tattoos if i could find my camera cord...arrggg
