I just got asked by someone on TikTok if I’d be open to a tattoo trade — they wanted a full sleeve—and they didn’t even say what their profession or service is. Just “I own a small business.” Like… what?
Tattooing is how I make my living. I have overhead to run my shop — rent, insurance, supplies, internet, phone — and then I still have to pay my own bills, buy groceries, make my car payment, all of it. I can’t realistically give away large tattoos and still run a business.
On top of that, the few times I have done trades, the value shifted after the fact. I’ve traded tattoos for things like shop shirts or photography, and what I ended up receiving wasn’t what was originally agreed on — wrong items; for example; the trade was for black Rock City t shirts. Pretty straightforward, right? How could this go wrong? Well, the guy made RED shirts in only huge sizes and also made me a WHITE LAB COAT??? WTF. That wasn’t part of the deal.
Or changed pricing- the trade was for a couples photo session and the photographer initially said it was $200, so I agreed. But when we got there it had magically changed to $350. Even when that happened, I still felt obligated to hold up my end of the deal.
The good news is I’ve started making my own T shirts, that way I’m GUARANTEED the sizes and colors I need. I also started doing my own photography projects, and that work has been in print. (Check out the cover of Inked Revelations; issue eight :) There’s even a blog post in August about my journey with self portraits.
The issue is that tattoos are permanent. Once the tattoo is done, there’s no undoing it if the trade turns out uneven. That puts all the risk on me.
If I need an order of shirts (or a service), I would much rather just pay out of pocket. That way, it guarantees I get exactly what I want and am paying for — not what happens to be convenient for someone trying to “use up” unwanted inventory, or something they don’t feel they’re really getting “paid for” anyway. So at this point, I don’t do tattoo trades.
If someone values what I do, paying for it isn’t an issue. It’s not personal, and it’s not about being unsupportive — it’s about running a business and being able to keep doing this work for a living.
