things to know while dating a tattoo artist
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When dating a tattoo artist things are NEVER simple. There are always factors that will be eating away at your relationship. In fact, this will be one of the hardest relationships to sustain, especially for a couple who is known to be jealous.
The first thing you must realize is that rarely, if ever, will you be the absolute first on his/her mind. Tattoos WILL come first. For a tattoo artist, it is not simply a job or carreer. It is more than just a life choice or lifestyle. This is a passion. It is in their blood, and just like most artists in this world they may come off a little selfish.
What you must realize is that this is not selfishness. This is just simply how they are built. Everywhere they look all they see is something they can put on someone's skin.
The second thing you need to know is LEARN HOW TO SHARE.
Your tattoo artist boyfriend/girlfriend will constantly be surrounded by attractive members of the opposite sex. Not only surrounded by them, but they will be touching them and close to very private areas on the body almost all of the time. So ladies, get used to your man having his hands on a hot girls booty or chest, and men get ready for your woman to be tattooing some washboard abs. If you can not handle this, then simply stay away, all you will do is create a problem for yourself.
Third, you should always be willing to sacrifice for your partner. Tattooing is a bussiness that goes up and down on a regular basis. Yes, Kat Von D makes a ton of money and Paul Booth is world renowned but this has taken them years. To start in this career you must be willing to put materialistic possessions aside for a while since there may be less and less money to just spend around.
Finally, get ready to have some long nights alone. A tattoo shop can stay open all night if needed and a lot do. If he/she is in the middle of a tattoo and ten o'clock rolls around they are not goin to stop to get home and cuddle up with you. They will stay until the job is done.
I have been with a tattooist for the past two and a half years and in our short relationshio we have fought like cats and dogs over everything you can imagine, though in the end we are always better for it. This kind of relationship is not for the weak hearted. It has taken more work than any relationship before it. There are nights when he doesnt get home until three in the morning and then there are times he wont have one tattoo come in the whole day.
The ups and downs of this lifestyle are one of the many reasons why it has been so hard to stick by him day after day, but those ups and downs have also made our life together one of the best roller-coasters I have ever been on...and I dont plan on getting off any time soon!!
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Excellent Hub on "tattoos"! I certainly liked the advice. Continue to keep it coming!
I have been with my man for 6 in a half years.He is a tattoo artist.We recently have had some problems.My man took a nude pic of one if his customers in exchange for a touch up on a tattoo the chick got from someone else.He never told me until I found the photo.He said it was only for art purposes.I said I wanted to talk to the chick to get her side of the story and he said no because he didn't want me to start fighting with her and it would get back to his boss.Should I believe nothing happened between them?
Cool, I'm working on a story and one of my main characters is dating a tattoo artist so I need as much insight as I can possibly can online. This article was pretty amazing, thanks!
thanks to u all, i will get another hub on this subject again soon. lurchs girl, i am not an advice writer, and each situation is very different. i would not and could not feel write giving u advice on such a personal matter.
cool hub. But it is very painful to get tattoo removed. You need to do this when your gf misunderstand.
You have no idea how much this ment to me to read this I have been with my guy for two years and its really not easy being with someone in this field of work. I'm just really glad I'm not the only one out there. I felt like I was reading about my own relationship. I think the jealousy is very hard in the beginng but the loneliness is what kills me everytime. Thank you for writing this.
Liz
thank u so much for ur comment. i think its one of my favorites i have ever received. i hope things are going better for you and your man. blessed be.
This article meant so much to me. I just recently started dating and artist and it is without a doubt the most difficult relationship I have been in. But I'm learning to deal, because being with him is better than being without. He has even read this article and agrees with it completely so I thank you. It may be hard but I know it's well worth it. So again, thank you so much. This has helped me understand just what I've gotten myself into, and I wouldn't change it for anything.
Kelly,
thank you for your comment, and tell your man i said thank you as well ;) i hope all is well for you two! Blessed Be.
WOW I dont feel so crazy now. Ive been with my tattoo artist bf for 3 years. I only became jealous when he lied about tattooing a womans nipples and i later found out. I understand the business and truly am supportive. I know it was strickly business, but it still eats at me. When i friend requested the woman on FB, she must have told him and both my bf and her blocked me. Ive been blocked from his fb page for 6 months. Now all i do is worry about who is tattooing and who he is friends with. I know he is not doing anything wrong. Its my imagination that gets the best of me
tat2kim i appreciate your comment and thank you for reading. jesse and i will have been together five years in april. trust is a major part, and the only way to get trust is to earn it by always being honest. jesse and i share a mutual facebook for this reason, not because there has been issue with facebook (but there was with myspace years ago) we just learned its better without the drama if we share one. if he isnt trying to hide something from you he would have no reason to keep you blocked six months later. by this point he should be over it, especially since its his own fault for lying to you in the first place. typically i dont like to voice my opinion on others relationships, however this struck a cord with me. maybe friend requesting her was a bit much, i do understand that because thats a client and just cause he tatted her nips doesnt mean she wants him. its him lying about it thats the issue. but remember, he could have lied because he felt that ur jealousy of his necessity of putting his hands on women would get the best of u. he didnt realize that him lying about it only makes it ten times worse. i hope he is more honest with you now, and i hope that the two of you in the future can share everything in each others lives, including stupid facebook friendships ;) thanks for reading
Wow I have a lot to learn I thought I was the only one going through it jessica I have a question if a girl send a text to his phone saying they had sex I comfront him and he tell me they trying to break us up what am I suppose to believe
Is there a support group for us
He told me the same thing when I ask him I didnt go through his phone it was by our bed and the message came across the screen he said they she doing that to break us up cause she wants him and he told her he have a old lady me. I feel much better hearing it from somebody who went through it. Thanks Jessica
thanks guys for your feedback, things havent gotten any better, he is doing a free sleeve on a young girl who is not paying for her work. she is to promote him and get him business. Isnt that what i am for? I am the live in gf of 3 yrs? I have tried to talk to him, it always ends in a fight. I have tried to drop hints that Im upset about it, and he gets mad. Basically, today, we got into it again. I got an ultimatium, Either I stop barking at him over the way he promotes and stop questioning him and trust him, OR I walk away from the relationship. I truly know that he is not cheating, nor doing me dirty. He is mr tough love and dosent see how much this is hurting me. I want to be supportive and he says that he is with me everyday, he dosent party or go out with out me, but this is for his business. I know how girls are. They are skanks. I thought I was special bc i got free tattoos from him. now hes doing them on only cute girls. I m so frustrated!!!
Hey kim I feel what u r saying I hear the same thing but why would they argue with us if we just telling them how we feel makes u wonder dont it
ive gone thru the "free tattoo" thing as well, and jesse does not give free ink away, unless its a close friends birthday or something like that. i am the only girl he gives free ink to, because just like he knows that anytime i pierce at the shop, all those men are hitting on me, i also know that women will do a lot for those free tattoos. if it was just for the advertisement he wouldnt have to find some stranger when he has a gf willing to do it, although, some tattoo artist are not attracted to women that are covered with tats. i know that sounds odd, but ive heard it many times from artists. jesse knows that him giving tats away to hot little tramps is out of the question and will be an offense that will cause me to walk away. he should be able to listen to u without causing an argument as long as u bring it up calmly and without crying, men dont respond to tears, even if we like to think they do, and i am sorry kim, but if u know that he is not doing u wrong and is not cheating on u than dont worry, and let him do the tats on whoever he wants, its simply more work he has to do...if ur not comfortable with this than there are more trust issues than ur admitting to urself, but u still need to follow ur gut. like i said, i personally believe its a personal respect boundary. i understand that his job is to tattoo pretty girls in private areas, but i will not tolerate him doing this for free, as this tells me its purely enjoyment. if he wants to advertise he can do it on a male friend, or on me. period. but each relationship is different. follow ur instincts. they will lead u down the right path. i will be writing a follow up article soon. thanks all for reading!
A's Girl ok, like i have said, i am not an advice columnist. however, ask urself why this other woman would try and break u up? OTHER than the fact that she "wants" him... since if she wanted him so bad, she wouldnt put herself on his bad side by chasing him in a way that would pretty much make him hate her. if u kno the girl urself, and have had issues with her then she maybe just some trouble maker, out to get u. it does happen, and women are vindictive. there are ways to read the signs my love, the way the text was written, what it says. but what all comes down to, is really if he is a man that you feel u need to go thru his phone in the first place, then he is not the kind of man for u. it seems u are already having trust issues in the relationship, and if he is a tattoo artist, those issues will more than likely get worse before they get better. listen to ur gut
Any guy could be cheating, but I may be able to help. I am a tattooist. I tattoo my gf for free. Tattoos are our advertisements, our billboards. Sometimes a free tattoo is nessecary to get you more work. If your man tattoos only you for free, then he is limiting where his ad can be seen. If he knows a person is someone that goes a lot of places and his ad will be seen by many and net him a better return on investment. I'm reading this because my gf was reading it before I went to work, and I am bucking to get a job at a local shop today. She is extremely jealous and I am afraid she will flip out at the wrong time and get me fired if I do get the job, or hang out there way too much and " wear out her welcome" with the boss.I love her dearly and would not cheat on her. Sex and skinny women are overrated anyways. When I tattoo, I am so close to the area I am working on, it looks like it could be anywhere on the body. My focus is on the art, and making money to have a better life. We are all men and we may think she looks good, but those type of women usually have problems.....big problems. I would rather be with a woman that was with me before I was a full fledged working tattoo artist than someone that came along afterwards. Most women would kill to be with a rockstar but the best woman is the one that starved with a want to be rockstar till he got famous, she will be there when he isn't a rockstar anymore or can't be a rockstar. To her his worst song is a hit, and unless he is an idiot, he knows that and loves her more for it.
Well... sadly he moved out.. he left because I was still bitter about the free tattoos while we were struggling to pay bills. I'm heartbroken... I let my imagination get the best of me and lost my best friend and love.
i am so glad to finally have an artist's voice on this topic, other than my own man! i hear ur problem tatguy, for women who are used to the tatting being done in a place where she is always there, and then to have her man suddenly in a shop is a true change, and eye opener. now WILL be a true test and im sorry tatguy but u should prepare urself for it because she may flip out. best thing i can tell u is when it comes to certain things, like the free tattoos to women, think about what it may LOOK like to ur woman from the outside. even in the most trusting of relationships, women see this as a gift, no matter how u explain it to them, and they will not like it. if u want to give free tats to people for ads, do it on the same sex, and if u really want it to be a woman because u want to do something pretty and fem...then i am sure there are women that ur girl knows, or is in the circle of friends somewhere that she would be comfortable with. just try to keep her in ur mind, as i know with u guys it is hard to keep anything in ur mind but ur work, ur art, and trying to get ur rep. up, but u still need to think about what ur doing and how things will look to ur girl. and ur right, she will overstay her welcome if she constantly hangs around the shop....owners dont like it, and it will make ur female clients quite uncomfortable to have ur gf leering at them. ease her into it tatguy, do some special things for her, remind her how important she is to u while she is trying to get used to the shop, and SHOW her, NOT tell her, SHOW her that she has nothing to fear from u. best of luck on ur new job dear!
i am not trying to be callous kim, but look at it this way; a man who was completely unwilling to compromise on a subject he knew made u extremely uncomfortable, even tho nothing may have happened, he should have at LEAST seen ur side and realized how it looked to u, and been understanding of the way u felt. understanding is very hard, especially for men who usually never got it a lot themselves growing up...understanding and compassion is something that we women hold close...its harder for them. it is not ur fault the relationship ended kim, u should not think it is, it is a mutual street, and he could have understood a little more, just like you.
Kristie C 22 months ago
This made me feel not so alone lol :)