I’ve been tattooing for a while now and I’ve seen it all, people falling asleep, people passing out, and everything in between. But every time I sit in the chair as the client, my stomach still doing backflips and I get those “first tattoo” jitters. I know exactly what the needle feels like, I know the process, and I know I’m going to love the result, yet I still find myself overthinking the pain or the long session ahead. Is this a common thing for pros, or am I just a bit of a wuss when the roles are reversed? [Image Context]: These are my legs so far! Lots of heavy blackwork and botanical details. I love the art, but man, those sessions near the ankles had me questioning everything. Would love to hear from other artists or heavily tattooed people, does the “pre-session anxiety” ever actually go away, or do you just get better at hiding it?
I’m not in your industry but I briefly flirted with the idea. I’ve had a lot of my drawings, for better and worse lol, be used by others for tattoos. When I was considering it I was primarily doing apprentice work as a piercer, which in South Florida was (is still maybe) pretty common to do both.
I’ve never done a piercing on someone that I haven’t done on myself. Had a friend come in for an eyebrow and insisted I do it. They bled a lot, more than usual but otherwise everything was ok, the pierce was fine, they loved it. That was it for me. I couldn’t settle myself with screwing something like that up
So I would appreciate knowing you take your role seriously. Maybe try to reframe the stress you feel into the honor you have to be trusted to do what you do. Unsure if you did any of your leg work but if so, as a fan of pure black I’d trust you