The Age of the Scratcher!!! Isn't it so? With tattoo kits being sold all over the internet on sites such as Ebay and Craigslist we in the Studios are seeing more and more of the above kind of tattoos on a daily basis. Being self taught isn't a big deal to me as long as they would educate themselves the right way. Videos or Dvd's isn't really going to show a person how to set needle depth or machine tuning. Individuals who just go and start tattooing on a persons skin is quiet frankly an idiot. How could they have a mind of ease to just go screw someone up? Before going off on the deep end I think we as artist should really place the blame where it belongs.
It's Tattoo suppliers such as Superior Tattoo who is famous for selling to who ever has the money. This is why hardly any professional shop will by from them. I refuse to buy from any supplier who doesn't request our EIN number or business license. I put much of the blame not on the scratchers but on the Supply industry. The supply industry is the number one industry that SHOULD be regulated. You won't find any medical supply stores selling their items to anyone not licensed to buy. I believe the shops around the country should boycott the suppliers that advertise directly to the non-professional tattooist.
When tattooing many different kinds of bloodborne and infectious diseases exist in the process. Those not trained in the art will most likely get into a situation where disease is spread and walk away without any liability what so ever leaving the person tattooed in the ER with a 10 day regiment of antibiotics if they are lucky. A story of a women who got infected with Hep B can be found here. This lady has some responsibility herself on getting this condition because she should've went to a reputable tattoo studio. Even though the artist was licensed he shouldv'e never did it outside his states regulations.
Now A days it's just not getting a bad tattoo from these people. It's a life threating to go somewhere just because of price. Aberration Pro Custom Tattoo has adopted the policy of giving great artwork for prices people can afford in this economy just to try and help people avoid going to individuals without any training. Our apprentices are put through exercises every week to learn the trade. A lot of them are tattooing grapefruits and bananas right now doing all sorts of exercises. Some probably wondering why the hell they are drawings lines here or shading the entire grapefruit in. The reason behind alot of the exercises is to get them familiar with the machine, controlling needle depth, finding a groove they can work comfortable in. Most scratchers don't even now how to bust down a machine more less control it on skin.
I'm hopeful one day that the government will require regulation of the Supply Industry instead of going after or making it tougher for the studios. If they would go after the source then it would be much more less likely to see breakouts of Hep B like in the 70's in New York that led to a ban on shops until just recently. I can tell you most shops care a lot about how the work comes out and also the customers safety. I've had people call into the shop asking if it were ok to put needles they used on someone in an oven to reuse them. Yes this is the kinds of scratchers out there tattooing people right now. Hopefully the future of tattooing isn't screwed up because of these kind of people running around out there.