Tattoo Serendipity
Recently, I've offered a couple of "free tattoo" promos to help me pad my portfolio with some tattoos of my original designs. I got a lot of responses to the ads, some surprising, some very nice, others not really what I was looking for. But it did help me to become very appreciative of where I am at right now, in more ways than one.
First, I got a reply from someone whom I respect as an artist (she does very neo-pinup modeling). And, although she lived too far away to make it practical for her, it was a nice compliment that she was interested. So, that was a good surprise.
Second, I live and work in an area that seems to have an overabundance of tattoo shops. Not only because of the population density (around 18,000 citizens in my city), but also because the 3 shops in town never seem to have any customers. But I've received dozens of replies from local people wanting more color. This made me realize that there was interest in the area, despite the local shops not being busy. Another happy surprise.
The third thing which made me appreciative of my situation relates to someone who answered the ad, but wasn't exactly the kind of customer I was looking for when Michelle and I first brainstormed the idea for getting some portfolio pieces. It was surprising, but not the most positive experience. However, an even bigger surprise was the positive end result.
My ad asked specific questions such as which design, and placement of the tattoo. It also included some wording about how I will select someone, and also a message to not call, that I would contact them instead. A major reason for this was because some weekends I am very busy and my paying customers always have to come first. So I needed to be careful about scheduling some free work to not interfere with the normal course of business. Since I, like most tattoo artists, are not employed by the shop we work at and are merely contractors renting out space in the shop, I wanted to make a distinction that this was not a shop promo, it was offered by me as an artist. I had a problem with the way one of the respondents acted to the ad, and it ended up with an unhappy non-customer.
So, that wasn't the uplifting part. What this showed me was that I am in a really great shop, with some very good people. I've always had problems seeing when people are being genuinely nice, and I worry about not doing a good job at work. Michelle and I came up with the "free tattoo" offers as a way of building my portfolio, but also to bring more people to the shop itself by promoting the shop as a good place to get custom work from real artists. I worried about how the guys would react to it. Being laid back, their reactions were along the lines of "That's cool." But I did still worry, because the offers hadn't yet trickled down to more new paying customers. So when I received a phone call from Myke today, telling me someone had come into the shop and wasn't happy with their "free tattoo" experience (or their lack of it), I felt really bad for inadvertently putting the shop into this position.
But then, something nice happened. The guys at the shop backed me up. I don't know what was going through their heads at the moment some strangers walked in and acted in a not very respectful way (paraphrasing Myke's choice of words), but they didn't hold it against me. Afterwards, I talked a bit about it with Myke, who recognized that there wasn't a problem with the promotion itself but with people not paying attention to what was offered, or the problem was what they were expecting from it. In fact, he had ideas of his own for promos in the future, which will be great for getting more people to the shop. (So keep an eye out for those!!!)
So, although I may have lost a couple of potential customers, they weren't the kind of customers I want anyway and I feel more comfortable with my place in the shop. I'm thankful for both, and I can't wait to get back to work again.
*** On a side note, I was able to give three tattoos to three incredibly nice people. I am very happy with how their tattoos turned out, and that I got to meet them. ***
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