Summary
At the beginning of this I-search I set out to find out more information on custom tattooing and tattoo artists. I had already known about custom tattoos some what at the start. Like I knew what a custom tattoo is and how the tattoo process works. What I did not know was mostly about the artists and how to become one. Like what some artists favorite work was and what there favorite pieces were. I found a bunch of information on individual artists via internet searches and magazines. I have also done a personal interview with the tattoo artist who I go to. He gave me some good information about himself that helped me write this paper. As for becoming a tattoo artist and opening my own shop I found out the difficulty's of doing this. Like doing a long apprenticeship and dealing with all the stuff every business deals with when they first open. I made the conclusion that I don't have the availability or the proper funds to do anything like that in this part of my life. Maybe in the future but not now.
The future
Now that I know what is involved with getting a tattooing license and setting up a shop I realize that I don't have the time or the money to be able to do this in the near future. Maybe once I am more financially stable and can afford to do an apprenticeship for two years. As for setting up a shop, I would rather but a house first. Then invest in something like that. But I don't see any of this for myself in the near future except getting some more tattoos.
Semester Review
I was not completely sure what to expect when I first came to this class. But it has seemed to work out for me. I feel that the writing taught in this class was much different then that of what I learned in high school. This writing was much more personal and I feel like I was able to just cut loose sometimes in my essays. Which I was never able to do in any of my previous writing. Though I will never be a writer in my life I feel that I did learn some good stuff in this class. The class also introduced me to blogger which I may decide to keep using in the future. I also (not to be a kiss ass) found Goldfines writing to be interesting and entertaining. I did have a chance to visit many of the other students bloggs but I never posted that I did and now it's to late. It was also difficult for me to do the weekly posts because I don't own a computer or have the internet in my apartment. So, I did the best I could and I think I did ok.
Bloggs I visited
http://lblair.blogspot.com/gspot.com/
http://ruthmc.blogspot.com/
The answer
Throughout these past few weeks researching the topic of custom tattoos I have found the answers to most of the questions that I had along with additional information. I spent most of my time researching custom tattoo artists, trying to find out what their favorite kind of tattoos are and what there favorite pieces were. I found most of this information from Tattoo Magazine and Tattoo Flash. Every issue they have different highlighted artists that are interviewed with similar questions as mine along with others. A piticular artists who I found a lot of information on and I also find his artwork along with his self fascinating. He is a tattoo artist from California who has featured on the Comedy Central debate show Crossballs. He does a lot of high profile atrwork on clients like Dennis Rodman, Janet Jackson, and Debra Wilson from Mad TV. He has a very spiritual outlook on tattooing and body modification, unlike other tattoo artists who do it for there own fulfillment, Zulu tattoos because he believes that it helps the collectors spiritually.
Another tattoo artist whom I obtained information on was the tattoo artists who I see personally when I want a new tattoo. His name is Rick. He is one of the better artists in the state of Maine. He started as extra hands in a shop called Caveman in Lewiston. He basically just cleaned up the shop and did some paperwork here and there. Eventually he started his two year apprenticeship with the head artist at Caveman. When he finished his apprenticeship he worked at Caveman for a while then he started working at a shop called Perminant Addictions. This is where I had gone for my tattoos. Now he currently works at a shop in Lewston called Captian Morgans. During the interview he stated that his favorite pieces of art were large individual pieces that stand out by themselves. Many people now get smaller individual tattoos and incorporate them together in some way. But he just fancies larger bolder pieces.
Becoming a licensed tattoo artist is not a very long and difficult process. First you have to find a tattoo studio and artist that will take you in as an apprentice. You must do an apprenticeship for two years before you can become licensed. This means doing a lot of bitch work for probably the first year or so. Then after that you might be able to do some simple flash tattoos. It is also a good idea to be certified in CPR, First Aid, and Equipment Sterilization. During this two year apprenticeship you must do what ever is asked of you. Often times an apprenticeship will cost about $10,000 or more depending on the shop. So in most cases you are required to sign on with the shop for a certain number of years to be able to pay off the apprenticeship.
Depending on where you are, opening a tattoo shop could be a difficult thing or it could be very easy. Some things you might have to deal with are city zoning and concerned neighbors. Some areas of city's wont allow tattooing so a special permit is needed. And to get this you need to go to the town or city council and they will review your case and then have a hearing where and neighborhood citizens can come and state if they will think it is a good thing or a bad thing. Most of the time the only people to speak up at a hearing such as this are people who think that the only people to get tattoos are bikers and gang members. So they are worried about increased crime and other such nonsense. But basically all you need to set up a shop is a place to do it, the equipment, and maybe some employee's. The biggest thing to have is your tattooing license.
The Search
Internet- Finding information about custom tattoo artists online I found to be slightly tricky. If I were do do a google search for "custom tattoos " I would get a bunch of web sites on businesses and people who sell custom tattoo artwork online. But when I tried a search for "custom tattoo artists" this gave me information and links to many, many different tattoo artists web pages across the country. Few of these pages actually did any good though. Many of the pages were for shops and had just a very brief background of the artists. Most of the pages however had an E-mail like where you could hopefully communicate with the artist. I tried E-mailing a few of the more reputable artists who's homepages I found but with no success of hearing back from any. As for becoming and artist I found a very helpful page that tells you how to go about getting an apreniship with a licensed tattoo artist. I also found a article about a man who purchased a commercial piece of property in Chicago and he wants to set up a tattoo shop. The article tells about the steps he need to take to be able to set up the shop in that area of Chicago.
Magazines- This was probably one of my more helpful sources of information about tattoo artists. For about 10$ I went to a local conveyance store and purchased three tattoo magazines, Tattoo, Tattoo Flash, and Savage. All of these magazines are from I believe the same publisher. I found the two Tattoo and Tattoo Flash to be the most helpful. In these they have interviews with the country's best tattoo artists. However they really have nothing about setting up a tattoo shop or becoming a tattoo artist.
Interview- I recently did a brief interview whit the tattoo artist whom I see when I want some new ink on my skin. I really did not get a chance to talk with him for too long because he was setting up for his next appointment and I did not want to impose on his business. But some of the information I got from him was helpful. He likes to talk really fast about one thing then the conversation kind of moves on to another direction so it was hard to get a direct answer out of him. He is one of the better artists in Maine. He was just up in Bangor at a tattoo convention at the auditorium a few weeks back.
Stressful, Frustrating, Helpful
I really don't like my job very much. I never really have and I never really will as long as I keep doing the same thing. I like the people that I work with and the people that I have worked with. But the job in it's self has caused much stress and emotional frustration for myself and my girlfriend. Since I was about 16 I have worked in kitchens. Washing dishes, prepping, line cook. Just about anything that you can do in a kitchen, I have done it. And I have had enough. Working in a fast paced restaurant atmosphere, though frustrating and stressful most of the time, has changed who I am by making me learn a new trait, introducing me to some good people, and showing me how the real world worked.
When I first got the job I was a dishwasher. There was no real thinking needed for this job at all. All I had to do was send the dishes through the dishwasher and do some general cleaning. Now this was a good job for me when I first got it. But after a while it became boring and it was not getting the bills paid anymore. I talked with the kitchen manager and he gave me a promotion to line cook. I made sandwiches and cooked the fried foods. At first I thought that this would be as mindless as dishwashing but it payed more and it was a change of scenery. I had thought I had known quite a bit about being a sandwich cook just from watching from the dish pit. But once I got up there I realized that I had really known nothing. There was always a ton of prep work to be done in the mornings for the upcoming day and then in the summertime, sandwich was the worst position to work during the day. Being directly next to L.L. Beans in Freeport means there was a lot of business. Aside from line cook, I also did some prep cooking for the restaurant. This job required knowing a bunch of recipe's for different soups, chili, salsa, and things like that. This previous experience helped me get my current job as a grill cook for Smokey Bones Barbecue and Grill. I was hired as a fry cook but they decided that they would rather have me as a grill cook. Knowing how to cook I have found to be very handy in the past year or so. Not only can you cook for yourself and friends but raises and promotions seem to come more often when you know what you are doing behind a line.
Getting my first job was not an easy thing for me at first. Before I started working I felt kind of nervous about it. But there were some great people who I worked with that made the whole working thing easier for me to adjust to. At first I only worked nights so I got to know some of the night crew right away. I have herd that many people think that line cooks are mean and sort of crazy in one way or another. But I did not find this true when I first started my job as a dishwasher. Everyone was able to help me when I needed it. Like if I did not know where something went, I would just ask and they would tell me. Once I was there for a little while I started to get to know more of the people and became kind of friends with some. Making jokes and poking fun at each other was a daily routine in the kitchen at Jameson's Tavern. The summer after I graduated high school I worked almost all day shifts. This had given me more of a chance to know the day crew. I knew all of them already and had worked with most of them before. But I did not really know much about them other than there positions at the tavern. Most of the people that I worked with at Jamesons were good hardworking people who I held respect for. But just like everywhere there were a few people who should not have been working there more than a week at most. These people thought they were the greatest things ever to walk this earth. They would steal food and kitchen supply's along with some tips for the bussers and hosts every now and again. They would always come in drunk or stoned or both and not be able to do there job correctly. But the people who did this sort of thing never really lasted too long. At my current job I have meet a new group of people whom I enjoy working with. There are still a few incompetent people who should not be working there but it is a big corporate chain and they have already been weeded out some and the restaurant has only been open two weeks.
Getting this first job not only introduced me to cooking and new people, it showed me how the real world works. Me being only 16 when I started working was one of the youngest people working at Jamesons. Most of the cooks were from the Freeport area and the servers were from a much wider area surrounding Freeport. The only positions that high school students held were dishwashers and bussers. There were a few other people that worked there around my age. But most of the employees were adults and had family's. I questioned how some of these people could raise a family on a income slightly better than mine. Then I realized that they could not. I could barely make car and insurance payments at the time. These people will never know anything other than Jameson's Tavern. By some this was choice because they felt content with there work and by others it was by force because they dropped out of high school and had kids when they were 17 or 18 years old.
Working in a kitchen has sort of made me who and what I am today. By doing so I was able to learn what now gets my bills paid and meet some new people along the way. But I suppose the largest effect that a kitchen has had on me was it showed me what I need to do to me successful and what will happen if I just kind of give up.
Re: Roxanne Quimby
Well, lets see here "Anonymous". How is what Roxanne Quimby is doing immoral and wrong. The population of the state of Maine is about 1.3 million people. Baxter state park which consists of most of central Maine is only about 200,000 acres, maybe a little more. A 3.2 million acre national park will be about 15 times the size of Baxter state park. Now that's a lot of land. And a lot of families live on this land and have for many generations. And Ms. Quimby will buy this land, and raise the leases to what she thinks is fair, forgetting that the rest of the world does not have millions and millions of dollars as she does. By doing this it forces families out of there homes. Yes it is her right as the land owner to do this but it is not moral to kick people out of there homes. Also a large part of Maine's economy comes from hunting and fishing and boating and any other outdoor recreational activity's. So if you think that what Ms. Quimby is doing to the state of Maine okay. Then you "Anonymous" are just as bad as she.
Fun Or Just A Big Waste Of Time?
"Grab the net" I yelled as my line was screaming out from my reel. Poll bent over, seeming as if about to break. But it was not the poll I was worried about, it was the line. Though it was 20lb. Test I noticed a small burr in it before casting. Hauling on the reel bringing my dinner in closer to my hungry hands. It must be a big one I thought to my self on account of the fight that it was putting up. Then, yes it happened, the line snapped. My heart dropped as the poll kicked back at me and the line went flacid. I would have actually landed the fish if I had prepared correctly before I casted.
Before setting up my hook or lure I inspect the line very closely. Look for burrs or frays in the line. Not doing this has caused heartbreak for many fisherman, myself being one of them. Not only have I lost the catch of a lifetime this way, I have also lost many hooks and lures when thy get snagged on a sunken log or some weeds under the water. When I find a flawed piece of line or if I see several spots then I find the one farthest away from the end or the line and cut behind the burr. While inspecting your line I check if the reel is functioning properly. See if it will cast and reel in smoothly as is should when it was brand new. When my line is all ready to go I will move on to setting up the hook or lure.
The second step in setting up a fail safe fishing rod is setting up the hook or lure. Swivels are a fisherman best friend. They make it easy to change hooks and lures as the fisherman or the conditions see fit. Choosing the correct swivel is not very hard. If I am saltwater fishing I will choose a slightly larger swivel so it wont pull apart if I hook a big Stripper or Bluefish. And for freshwater fishing I use a medium to smaller one. A large one will prevent the fish from biting and a small one will just bend and pull apart if I caught anything. After making my swivel selection I now face the difficult decision of what to put on the swivel. This can be a tricky decision for me. I personally prefer live bait over a lure in most circumstances. Fish just like it better. So most of the time I will use a hook. A smaller hook for smaller fish and a larger hook for larger fish. Pretty simple. But selecting a lure is a little more difficult. First of all I need to decide what kind of fish I want to catch. Lets say Large Mouth Bass for this piticular occation. Now I need to see what the water looks like. If it's dark and murky I will want a green or maybe a pink colored lure. If it's nice and clear I will want a darker colored lure like a dark blue or a purple. Now I need to look at the weather conditions. If it's cloudy I will need a lighter colored lure. If it's sunny I can go a bit darker. Now I'm not a fan of the plain old rubber worms that you see in every tackle box across America. They don't work. Period. But some of the fancier rubber lures work okay in the right conditions. If I were to use a lure for bass I would use a small popper or a jitter bug. In clear water on a sunny day I would probably use a spinner. But as I said before, live bait is the best.
The final step that needs to be done is to double check everything. I do this to make sure everything is going to work the way that it is suppose to. I make sure that my bait is securely on the hook so the little good for nothing bastard sun fish don't swim off with my valuable bait. Then I check my knots. I have had some trouble tying knots before. A poorly tied knot has the same results as a flawed line, lost lures and a pissed off fisherman. Give a good tug on the hook, just not on the sharp part. Watch out for that part, it can make for a bad outing if handled improperly.
It seems like a long process on paper but when I am actually at a lake doing these things it takes no time at all. And it's definitely worth it. Inspecting the line, setting up the lure and double checking everything will result in success for me most of the time. As long as the fish are biting. But it's funny, for me the fish only bite once every other year. But when they do it's always a big one worth the wait.
Life As I Know It
Life has a funny way of slapping you in the face. You never really know how life works until you actually get out into the real world. Life in high school was very simple and easy going. It seemed hard at the time but now that I don't live at home anymore I realize how easy I had it. I do still have support from my mother and some from my father. But nothing like when I was living at my mothers house. Life with your parents and life on your own differ in several ways, financially is probably the biggest. Finding a job, and general responsibility.
Financial independence is probably the hardest thing to accomplish while moving out of your parents house. Most high school students don't realize how easy that they have it. When your parents pay for the roof over they're heads and most of the food that they eat. I was one of these kids when I was in high school. I thought that life was tough and I had it very hard. But the truth was that I had it easy like everyone else. My mother would often give me money to go out and do something with my friends. And help me out with my bills when I was a little short on money. And she still does to an extent. So I would not say that I am financially independent yet. Once I moved out of my mothers house I soon found out how fast one bill comes after another, And another one after that. The only bills I had in high school were car and insurance payments. Now I still have those bills plus rent, electricity, phone and a loan payment for a piece of crap A.T.V. that I got a raw deal on. The only way I can pay all these on my own is to have a good paying, full time job.
Getting a job in highschool is is important to many students and parents alike. A part time job in high school kind of introduces students to the real world. But most of the time these jobs are acquired very easily by most students. Often times the student knows someone who works where they get the job. Whether it is a parent or it is just a friend. I was hired at my first job when I was sixteen as a dishwasher at a restaurant in downtown Freeport Maine called Jameson's Tavern. One of my good friends worked there along with my girlfriend. My friends mother was the Taproom manager and she helped me fill out the application and got my the job with out even an interview. My second job I got when I was seventeen during the slow season at the restaurant where my hours were cut back. My mother is a nurse at a Alzheimers facility in Falmouth Maine and she talked me into applying in the kitchen there. I did and she talked to the head of the dietary department and I got the job quite easily. So getting work was not hard at all for me in high school. Now I live on my own and live in a different part of the state where I don't know anyone or have any family. I had done all I could to get a job in the area. I have filled out almost fifteen job applications in about 2 months. I finally got a job at a new restaurant that is opening up called Smokey Bones as a line cook. The place has not even opened yet so I don't know what working there is going to be like. I don't think that I will be there too long because I kind of wore myself out at cooking at Jamesons. And it's just not my calling ether, but it's a job and will get the bills paid. Finding this job without the help of friends or family was a difficult process for me. But the process of finding a job was part of the responsibilities that I had gained upon moving away from home.
Parents do many things that we as the children take advantage of quite often. And we as children don't really realize that we do this until we live on our own. Housekeeping is maybe the largest thing. When I moved out. I moved from a large two story colonial house in the woods in Harpswell Maine. It was usually only my mother there on account of my brother and I working through the week and my mother worked doubles on weekends. The house was always immaculate. I don't really know how with four dogs and two cats but it was. The floors were always free of any sort of animal hair. Everything was always put neatly away in it's proper place. And even her car was clean most of the time. Though the car was a little harder on account of the house being three quarters of a mile in the woods down a dirt road. I moved out I moved into a small one bedroom apartment that kind of looks like something out of a Picasso painting. The building is in rough shape as far as physical appearance goes but it seems structurally sound and the heat and water has worked good so far. But it is always messy and I don't even really own anything yet. It's mostly a combination of junk mail, laundry, and the tangled mess of wires running from my T.V. stand to the power strip 3 feet away to the small 1 gallon aquarium where my Betta fish "Professor Chaos" resides. Now that I have to clean, I realize how much time it must have taken my mother to clean that house and keep everything in it clean.
Stepping into adulthood has been a difficult process for myself as I'm sure it is for most people when they move out on their own. Though I believe that I am doing better then some people who have been living on there own for years, I still don't feel completely independent yet. But once my job gets going and the restaurant opens I believe that I am on the right track to achieving complete independence of my parents and other family. Although I will still expect a few good feasts provided by my family between the months of November and December. No matter how independent I become.
