Sense and Sensibility. The new editorial by Miki Vialetto

I pick up one of today’s papers, one of the main Italian newspapers, and what do I see right on the front page but a story about a tattooist trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records – and advertise her shop – by tattooing for 63 hours non-stop with a five-minute break every four hours.

We can only imagine the quality of the work she did for the clients who lent themselves to this undertaking… But this, evidently, was a priority for neither the artist or for those getting the tattoos.

There are plenty of stories out there to show how the world over the relationship between a client and their tattooist has become increasingly superficial: clients who cancel appointments like they would a blow dry at the hairdresser’s, or intervene in the execution of a tattoo with suggestions about design and technique as if they were experts on skin art, not to mention the demand for prices which glorify whoever “offers the most”. And then there are those tattooists who increasingly, in their own words, consider their clients a “canvas” rather an individual who will be wearing a tattoo for the rest of their life.

This is the evolution and consequence of an underground subculture turning into a media culture, and the lack of that education which was once passed on through the apprenticeship. This did not serve merely to teach an aspiring artist how to draw, use a tattoo machine and colours but also help them to understand their relationship with the client, what they could allow and should refuse, and how with all due authority and respect, each had their place.

This is why when I read this sort of thing I shake my head in tired resignation. Because if I think of what it was like to get a tattoo from someone like Horiyoshi III or Filip leu, how long you had to wait for even the first session to do the outlines, and the thrill of watching a piece unfold on your skin from an embryonic drawing to the finished piece.

Then the only sensible thing to do when you come across a news story like this is to shake your head and hope that the clients asked for tattoos that were so banal and basic that they won’t impact too greatly on their personality. All they will remember about that tattoo is that they were the umpteenth client of a tattooist who didn’t melt down after 63 hours holding the tattoo machine. What a great honour, what a memorable experience.