I’ve been a tattoo artist for 23 years, and I’ve encountered so many things in my journey – both good and bad. And just like you, I’ve been at the receiving end of criticism and discrimination because of my passion for tattoos.
There are still so many people who associate having tattoos with downright irrational negativity – which is a notion that I totally and firmly disagree with, just like many of you! We’ve all been called all sorts of names and given a bad rap just because of our tattoos. We have been judged unfairly so many times in the past, and even to this day – which is quite funny if you come to think of it.
It’s funny because each one of us, including the naysayers, is somehow descended from an ancestor who used skin art or body modification as a form of self-expression. Tattooing is something that was highly celebrated by our race and it has been a part of human culture for thousands of years. Tattoos have been used to signify important milestones, achievements, religious beliefs, and cultural identity.
It’s clearly an art form that is unique in its permanence, and it is a powerful way to express oneself. However, negative opinions about tattooing still persist even in this modern age – which is really a strong way of denying our own heritage as a people.
This kind of negative perception and thinking could easily pervade the creation of rules and regulations that are sure to follow the MoCRA. This is really urgent because it’s not just a mere bill – it’s now an effective law!
You need to understand that if we don’t take part in the creation of rules, if we don’t voice out our opinions and share our experiences in our practice, the creation of these rules may be left in the hands of the wrong people, which is something we absolutely don’t want.
We don’t want anyone who has no appreciation for what we do to have a hand in creating rules that will ultimately tell us what we can and cannot use in the tattooing craft. This includes inks, balms, oil, needles, and all the other things we utilize in our practice.
In other words, the rules and regulations that we will be following very soon cannot be based on antiquated beliefs that are held by antiquated politicians or people who don’t even care about the subject of tattooing, much less, the very practice of skin art. We need to tell them what works best in regulation because there is nobody who is more familiar with the intricacies of the tattoo industry than us!
This is why we need your voice. We need you to pitch in to the discussion. It’s not enough that we just react to the naysayers and bite back with our own snarky remarks whenever we feel that we are being discriminated against or maligned.
What we can do is respond. We can join the dialogue with the government, the manufacturers, the politicians, and all the other experts. We should have a voice that they should listen to so that they ultimately impose rules that make sense to the kind of work that we so love doing.
Don’t be left out. Drop a question in the comments section. Waste no time and join the conversation today.