Vocation not a job
In life many people wake to their alarm and think about how they can avoid their job that day, if they do go in they clock watch all day waiting to when they can escape the drudgery to their home where they feel their life begins. I feel for these people as perhaps they have not yet found their calling. Me and my husband we are the lucky ones we found our calling, me to care work and him to his tattooing but just because you love a job does not then mean everything is plain sailing. Take the case in point of my wonderful husband. He always dreamed of being a tattoo artist, but it was not handed to him, he spent years of drawing and building a portfolio to try and get the much sought after apprenticeship to a craftsman mentor. We survived on one wage while he dedicated his time to this and with three then four children a mortgage and a Ill tempered mother in law in tow this was no picnic. He did stray to the dreaded idea of trying to teach himself but quickly realised in learning a craft there is no quick fix in life. He then found a mentor and a apprenticeship and spent the next three years learning, cleaning and also investing in his future. He makes sure he invested what ever he earned into equipment, stock, books, reference materials and art to develop himself. He spends every minute he is not at work thinking about tattoos, drawing for people, networking and

learning all the time. Not for him this rock and roll life style, long days, no holidays and sacrificing much to be able to be the best he can. He and his mentor are from the old school of craftsmen where respect is due and given to those who went before you, where old traditions are important to keep the heritage and culture of the sacred art alive. So why am I writing about this subject today readers? The answer is simple to highlight the journey a true artist has to make, small independent craftsmen who work hard to build a business in a changing world. In our own area tattoo studios are springing up daily, in a small Coastal town such as ours from having two studios at the beginning of the year we now have four with the talk of yet another, so what will this "competition" do to my husband and his mentor, well initially yes it will have an impact as any new thing does but this is not what concerns me. My husband and his mentor have roots in this town it's their home and the studio has been here for twenty years, my worry is the tattoo studio being seen as a cash cow by unscrupulous artists who rush people through apprenticeships so they can make a buck off them churning out poor quality ink. Surely this must be good for my husband and his mentor you are thinking, more work for them to sort out others mistakes, people going to them when they see their friends poor quality ink? Well no, you see there is my point tattooing for them is more than a job, more than money. To see a poor tattoo causes them distress, to see people tarnishing the craft with shoddy work. And this is why they are artists and craftsmen, not a shopkeeper or shop worker. So please think before you take a chance on the new boys on the block, take the time to check out their ethics and back story, there is no such thing as a cheap tattoo, buyer beware. And to my husband and his mentor keep true to hour craft, for their are many who truly understand.