Hey all, on a throwaway account because my coworkers might lurk here. Names have been changed.
I’m \[30m\] a tattoo artist specializing in japanese with about 2 years of experience under my belt. The shop I work at is a small town shop, not a ton of walk ins, there’s 3 artists in the shop including myself. we do our best to keep a rotation for walk ins so everyone gets to eat. none of us, including myself, are possessive of our clients and encourage them to get work done by others in the shop. we keep a generally very homely vibe.
We get a walk in, it’s a repeat client, let’s call him Lucas \[30’s m\], that previously got work done by my coworker, let’s call her Betty \[40f\]. Betty specializes in watercolor. she loves watercolor, has expressed to me she only wants to do watercolor and outright told me she does not like the japanese style or enjoys doing it. Lucas comes in and says he’s ready to get to cover up a lot of old work with a Japanese body suit. i start talking to him, excited to start a big project like this. it’s exactly the kind of work I want to do and advertise for the rest of my career. I mean he wants it all. snakes, samurai, yokai of all sorts. I’m stoked.
Betty starts talking to Lucas with me, which I already thought was kind of odd. we usually respected eachother when work like this comes in. betty starts talking about how she would love to do a traditional Japanese body suit collab with me. lucas is easily excitable and gets really hyped up, saying yes to everything. he wants to be apart of a really cool project and cover up a bunch of old work. we get him scheduled a couple months out to start on this project.
Betty maybe my senior as far as time in the industry, but, if im being very frank, she cannot pull a straight line to save her life, nor does she know any of the rules to Japanese tattooing. so I’m already pretty chapped that she butted in the consultation in the first place, but I let it go and started planning this thing that night.
the next day, Betty comes up to me and starts talking about the project. I have a rough draft of the major elements already sketched out and show her. She says “I don’t think you should go designing the whole thing right off the rip, it’s a collab. We both need to be apart of that process”. i tried talking to her calmly, even tho that absolutely floored me. Lucas wants the work I’ve been doing, not what she’s been doing.
i explain to her that this collab is a silly idea because neither of us are skilled enough to mimic each others tattooing styles. I use coil machines, she uses rotaries. this project will be ruined with both of us working on it. I just think shes butting in because it’s a lot of money to be made. For the sake of the client, I think, the Japanese guy should be the sole artist in charge of this project. Betty just says in response,”I think we should just stick with the original plan and do the collab” and walks off. so, AITA and what should I do?
NTA. Talk to the client without Betty and explain your reasoning. You can even show him the mockup you’ve got. I’ve got a few tats myself and I would hate for someone who isn’t skilled in what I want to work on me just because they have before. Tattoos are expensive and usually permanent. You really what to get your bang for your buck and don’t want any regerts. Womp womp.
Edit to add: actually, if you and Betty do a mock up as well, so you have yours and the one with Betty. The client can pick which they like better. Just don’t forget to have her show her other stuff and her inking style on that mock up if you can.
NTA.
She sounds like she’s in solely for the money. The “original plan” she alludes to actually did not include her.
Ultimately, if you cannot solve it between yourselves, bring your concerns (about the problems in different styles and how it might end up looking) to the client and let him decide. He will be the one wearing it on his skin, after all.
ESH. This is a failed operation from jump because you guys are not working together. If you’re going to collab then you need to fully collab. You do line work and she does coloring?
I totally get that this was your project and she totally highjacked it and she’s absolutely the asshole for that, but the customer agreed. This isn’t about your portfolio or your desires anymore, **it’s about the client.**
You can mix coils and rotaries during a collab and I think if you both used your strengths together you could make some truly stunning pieces but if you can’t work together you need to tell the client *why* what he wants won’t be possible.
Do not collaborate. Tell either the other stylist or the customer or both that this is not a good blend. Have the customer take a look at both portfolios and let them pick.
I mean, NTA, but it’s the clients choice right? Do your own mockup, do one with her, and let the client choose.
NTA – Tell her the collaboration is 100% off.
Allow the customer to decide who to proceed with based off of skill set and previous work.
YTA as soon as you said “Lucas gets really excitable” like he’s some idiot child. Didn’t you say he had Betty do work previously? He came back to the same shop and he wasn’t giving her side eyes and was receptive to her ideas, which tells that he liked her work.
You don’t want to work with Betty and because of that you’re willing to throw the project. So excited for your “big break” that you bulldozed ahead and did your own thing regardless of everything that you guys and the client already discussed. Because he’s ‘excitable’ and so the whole *consultation meant nothing to you. You sound like a narcissist.
NTA but you should’ve stopped her long before this started. And now you know for the next time to stop artists while they’re ahead. You may even want to tell her there is no collab and have a separate conversation with the client about it PRIOR to him entering so there’s no weird vibes or confusion.
NTA, but you would honestly find better advice from the r/tattoo subreddit than here from a bunch of random people who don’t tattoo. It does generally need as she hijacked your consultation, likes to talk big, and declares that it’s per project too once the client starts feeling interested. That’s just not good shop practice in general