Does your tattoo supply company care more about our craft, or their profits? I am Marc, owner of Needlejig Tattoo Supply. Of course I care about my companies profits, but we don't want to sacrifice the future of tattooing for just a little bit of money. That's why Needlejig has been vetting artists the best that we can since the very beginning. We're not looking tosell tattoo supplies to everyone, just those that really care and the art of tattooing. We refund tens of thousands of dollars every year to people that just can't prove that they're a professional. This probably puts us at a disadvantage financially to some of the bigger supply companies, but we love tattooing - they love their bank account.
So let's talk tattoo!
Tattooing isn't saving anybody's life, but it definitely changes people's lives daily. All tattooers have a responsibility to operate professionally in order to keep the freedoms and benefits that this great lifestyle affords us. The last thing we want is overbearing laws and regulations forced upon us by a bunch of bureaucrats that have no clue about tattooing. Some regulations are completely necessary in order to separate the wheat from the chaff and ensure professionalism, but they should be practical. Making sure that our tattoo supplies only get delivered to professionals is not easy, and it costs us time and money that other tattoo supply companies are eager to take. Our website is not private because we do not want to impair the ability of a legitimate tattoo artist to be able to buy the products he needs quickly. But no orders are shipped until we have, in fact, verified professionalism. These days most professional artists have great websites and detailed social media places where we can verify that they're working in a professional environment pretty simply.
If not, we have to contact them and get some documentation. And for those people that want to try and pull one over on us - we refund all your money, less a small fee for the time it takes us to verify your (non)professionalism. Some tattoo artists find this verification process a little bit frustrating, but they really love and appreciate it once they understand why we do it.
These policies build loyalty with the customers that we're looking for, those that really care about tattooing. So what about those crappy artists that are working legally? Honestly, there's no way to address that, but at least they're working in a legal environment and hopefully with healthy standards. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, nothing's different in tattooing. One man's Taz is another man's backpiece.
So what do you think?
Do you care if your supplier sells to the public or not?
Leave your comments below and tell us why you agree or disagree.
0 Comments