Oh, those Russians...
Jan. 7th, 2009 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ferrumaeternumI. Something fishy is going on with LiveJournal. Ever since the Russians got a hold of it, strange things have been happening. (It’s not that I don’t like Russians, I just don’t trust their government.) A few days ago, my default icon was mysteriously replaced with an image of a Rubik’s cube. This is the second time it’s happened in less than six months. Now there’s talk about the site going under, which would be such a shame. I don’t know of any other blogging site out there that has a real sense of community. Most of why I use this site is for the communities, friends page, and all of the customization options. All I know is that LJ laid off a bunch of their employees and there have been several glitches reported recently. I’m backing everything up just to be safe.
II. I’m getting more tattoo work done on Friday, and for the first time, I’m not looking forward to it all that much. Part of it is because most of the next session will be on the back of my ribs and kidneys, but there are things about the shop that have changed a lot in the past two years.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that Lane’s wife is now working there, since her crappy hipster clothes haven’t been selling on etsy. I think it’s unfair that she got to skip the entire apprenticeship process just because she’s married to a tattooist. She does not have the personality you need in this business, either. She hardly talks, and when she does, it’s to whine to Lane about something or ask him a question. The rest of the time, she stares at all the clients in the shop, and it really creeps me out. I understand that she’s from Poland and English isn’t her first language, but Laurent has more broken English than her, and he’s very friendly. Also, Lane’s attitude has changed dramatically now that he has his bitchy wife constantly hovering around. He doesn’t talk as much and gets annoyed easily. He also got irritated at me before he started the peacock when I told him I wanted to wait to a while before getting more work done because I wasn’t sure what I wanted exactly.
Last time I failed to mention that one of his friends was in the shop, not getting tattooed, just hanging out, and the first thing he said to me was, “How am I supposed to keep my dick up, looking at that?” Before I could say anything, Lane continued to cut me down by adding onto the insult. I’ve noticed that he’s been very quiet and agitated these past few months, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to be rude to your client. Maybe Lane was joking about it, but his friend certainly wasn’t. It just bothers me that he wasn’t kicked out of the shop, especially when he was doing nothing but loitering. It’s also really discouraging that now tattoos are more accepted by Western society, it only seems to really be true for men. I don’t think Lane’s wife even has any tattoos, and his heavily tattooed friend doesn’t seem to think it is appropriate for women to be heavily tattooed, let alone “sexy”. I know a lot has to do with the Western standard of female beauty, but it’s annoying that men seem to either love or hate tattooed women based on their visual preferences. I understand that some people simply see it as further adorning and drawing attention to one’s body, but why does it always have to have sexual connotations attached? Before this guy opened his mouth, I wouldn’t have even touched him with a ten-foot pole, so I shouldn’t take it so seriously, but it does hurt. This tattoo is for myself, not for sexual appeal, and has a lot of heavy symbolism behind it. Also, what is so off-putting about a nature scene done by the best artist in the state? This guy had a lot of poorly done, faded, gory tattoos, so he should be the one to talk.
The bottom line is even if Lane turns into a total asshole, I’m still going to get tattooed by him. At least until my backpiece is finished, anyway. I’ll probably have Adam or Laurent do my next piece. I’m also going to tell him that I’m going to need to take a bit of a break after the peacock is colored in because I’ve spent way more money on tattoo work than I ever thought I would and there are a couple of other things I would like to buy before he starts on the background. I’m also going to have to cancel Sunday’s appointment because I don’t think it’s healthy to put my body in shock again two days after Friday’s session, and there will probably be only 2-3 more sessions before the whole thing’s colored in.
I’m not so sure I even want to try to get an apprenticeship there after I graduate. Hell, if the economy doesn’t come out of the recession, I probably won’t be apprenticing anywhere because the body modification industry is suffering. If I can’t get a job because my concentration was in painting and drawing, I’ll get an associate’s degree in graphic design because that is something that comes naturally and I enjoy doing. I was going to major in it in the first place, but UWM’s program is ridiculous and has ten more credits of required useless classes than the rest of the visual art concentration areas. As I’ve mentioned before, their printing lab is a living hell every time I’m there (mainly because it’s run by hipsters), so I need to avoid it as often as I can. I just want it to be known that I’m not giving up or lowering my expectations of myself like so many of my peers have been doing. I definitely have a bit of a change of heart about the body modification industry after delving further into it and would be just as happy doing other art-related things. I would also probably be better off getting into tattooing after I’m financially independent, if I even decide to. Just look at Guy Aitchison – he’s one of the best of the best in the industry, and he started out as an illustrator, which helped set his designs apart from other tattooists.
III. On Sunday, my mom and I went to the Starving Artists show they always have advertised on TV, looking for a new picture to hang in our living room. There wasn’t a lot to pick from. The whole show seemed like there were five or six different artists that painted the same scenes from around here, France, and Tuscany. There were also some Harlem Renaissance-influenced and abstract postmodern pieces, but they wouldn’t have matched the style of the room. When my dad was living here, he insisted on spending well over $200 on this ugly piece of scheisse print, and my mom ended up spending just a little over $100 for this framed, hand-painted canvas: 01 | 02 | 03
Although it’s not completely my taste, I deemed it the best at the show, and I’d definitely say it’s an improvement.
II. I’m getting more tattoo work done on Friday, and for the first time, I’m not looking forward to it all that much. Part of it is because most of the next session will be on the back of my ribs and kidneys, but there are things about the shop that have changed a lot in the past two years.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that Lane’s wife is now working there, since her crappy hipster clothes haven’t been selling on etsy. I think it’s unfair that she got to skip the entire apprenticeship process just because she’s married to a tattooist. She does not have the personality you need in this business, either. She hardly talks, and when she does, it’s to whine to Lane about something or ask him a question. The rest of the time, she stares at all the clients in the shop, and it really creeps me out. I understand that she’s from Poland and English isn’t her first language, but Laurent has more broken English than her, and he’s very friendly. Also, Lane’s attitude has changed dramatically now that he has his bitchy wife constantly hovering around. He doesn’t talk as much and gets annoyed easily. He also got irritated at me before he started the peacock when I told him I wanted to wait to a while before getting more work done because I wasn’t sure what I wanted exactly.
Last time I failed to mention that one of his friends was in the shop, not getting tattooed, just hanging out, and the first thing he said to me was, “How am I supposed to keep my dick up, looking at that?” Before I could say anything, Lane continued to cut me down by adding onto the insult. I’ve noticed that he’s been very quiet and agitated these past few months, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to be rude to your client. Maybe Lane was joking about it, but his friend certainly wasn’t. It just bothers me that he wasn’t kicked out of the shop, especially when he was doing nothing but loitering. It’s also really discouraging that now tattoos are more accepted by Western society, it only seems to really be true for men. I don’t think Lane’s wife even has any tattoos, and his heavily tattooed friend doesn’t seem to think it is appropriate for women to be heavily tattooed, let alone “sexy”. I know a lot has to do with the Western standard of female beauty, but it’s annoying that men seem to either love or hate tattooed women based on their visual preferences. I understand that some people simply see it as further adorning and drawing attention to one’s body, but why does it always have to have sexual connotations attached? Before this guy opened his mouth, I wouldn’t have even touched him with a ten-foot pole, so I shouldn’t take it so seriously, but it does hurt. This tattoo is for myself, not for sexual appeal, and has a lot of heavy symbolism behind it. Also, what is so off-putting about a nature scene done by the best artist in the state? This guy had a lot of poorly done, faded, gory tattoos, so he should be the one to talk.
The bottom line is even if Lane turns into a total asshole, I’m still going to get tattooed by him. At least until my backpiece is finished, anyway. I’ll probably have Adam or Laurent do my next piece. I’m also going to tell him that I’m going to need to take a bit of a break after the peacock is colored in because I’ve spent way more money on tattoo work than I ever thought I would and there are a couple of other things I would like to buy before he starts on the background. I’m also going to have to cancel Sunday’s appointment because I don’t think it’s healthy to put my body in shock again two days after Friday’s session, and there will probably be only 2-3 more sessions before the whole thing’s colored in.
I’m not so sure I even want to try to get an apprenticeship there after I graduate. Hell, if the economy doesn’t come out of the recession, I probably won’t be apprenticing anywhere because the body modification industry is suffering. If I can’t get a job because my concentration was in painting and drawing, I’ll get an associate’s degree in graphic design because that is something that comes naturally and I enjoy doing. I was going to major in it in the first place, but UWM’s program is ridiculous and has ten more credits of required useless classes than the rest of the visual art concentration areas. As I’ve mentioned before, their printing lab is a living hell every time I’m there (mainly because it’s run by hipsters), so I need to avoid it as often as I can. I just want it to be known that I’m not giving up or lowering my expectations of myself like so many of my peers have been doing. I definitely have a bit of a change of heart about the body modification industry after delving further into it and would be just as happy doing other art-related things. I would also probably be better off getting into tattooing after I’m financially independent, if I even decide to. Just look at Guy Aitchison – he’s one of the best of the best in the industry, and he started out as an illustrator, which helped set his designs apart from other tattooists.
III. On Sunday, my mom and I went to the Starving Artists show they always have advertised on TV, looking for a new picture to hang in our living room. There wasn’t a lot to pick from. The whole show seemed like there were five or six different artists that painted the same scenes from around here, France, and Tuscany. There were also some Harlem Renaissance-influenced and abstract postmodern pieces, but they wouldn’t have matched the style of the room. When my dad was living here, he insisted on spending well over $200 on this ugly piece of scheisse print, and my mom ended up spending just a little over $100 for this framed, hand-painted canvas: 01 | 02 | 03
Although it’s not completely my taste, I deemed it the best at the show, and I’d definitely say it’s an improvement.
