tap or trap? more of the latter…

in my continuing series of educating the public on why some tattoo concepts are just bad, i present something i had to discuss last weekend…

…the “tapout”.

now i don’t mean this:

no, i support that brand AND it’s late founder. not enough to get their logo on me or anything, but i still have a shirt or two as well as a hat or two. and some shoes. and a couple pairs of board shorts. and a bunch of socks. fuck me, i guess i do have a decent amount of tapout shit.

but that wasn’t the point here…

the “tap out special” is a current trend in tattooing that has its roots in the food industry, namely the “all you can eat buffet”. a “tapout special” is a tattoo special whereby you pay a flat rate, and then sit, or “take it” as long as you can.

that’s fucked up.

while everybody loves a good challenge, you’re essentially setting it up to where it is literally YOU against your artist. while it’s in their best interest, in your eyes, to do a bigger, better piece for the money, in most of THEIR eyes it’s better for them to have you tap out (i.e. quit) after an hour or two and still have to pay them four to five to six hundred bucks (the typical “tap out” rate i’ve seen online).

and there’s a trick or two they can do to make it happen. let’s face it, from where the artist sits making it more uncomfortable for you is FAR from a fucking challenge.

you can let the skin go too dry. you can wipe people down with rubbing alcohol instead of green soap. you can slap the needle into the cup and barb it so you’re essentially hitting a tiny hook into their skin at 1000 RPMs.

doesn’t that sound fun? and all for only five bills!

not to mention most GOOD artists know their real talent and real time is worth real money and won’t do this kind of shit, so most of the time even if you DID pay this guy retail you’d get a shit tattoo, not to mention when he’s kinda TRYING to make it unpleasant for you…

…so do yourself a favor, if you’re considering this, and just tap out on the idea and go get a good tattoo at a good price. as the old saying goes, “good tattoos aren’t cheap and cheap tattoos aren’t good”.