"Those" Shows

So I recently had the honor of being tattooed by Joe Capobianco. He's kind of a legend in the tattoo world-- which until a few years ago meant you never would have heard of him.

Now, you probably know Joe as the lead judge on Best Ink.

Now, meeting Joe was an incredible pleasure-- he's down-to-earth, passionate about our art, and pretty fucking cool. Over the course of the day-long tattoo, we talked about all the usual stuff: people we knew, materials and techniques, the state of the industry, These Kids These Days and, of course, 'those shows'.

TV has changed everything.

Waaaayyyyyy back in the days before Miami Ink started us on a steady diet of backbiting, bitching, and drama, back before it started a slew of imitators and turned a mediocre egomaniac into something resembling a rock star, tattooing was a different profession.

TV educated our clients. In with all the sob stories and fake 'interactions', the public learned about making bookings and giving artists time to draw. They learned what good ink looks like, and yeah, too many of them got the impression they had to tell some sad story to justify that pinup girl or Sacred Heart Hotdog tattoo....

The 'soap opera' shows paved the way for the competition shows: Ink Master and Best Ink. Now, Joe has his misgivings about going on TV. Ours has been a clannish and secretive profession, and we still tend to act a bit like punk rockers whose favorite band just got a recording contract. Me, I say the competition shows are some of the best things to ever happen to our industry!

Now for me, I'm a Best Ink fan: the contestants bitch at each other less, and that goes a long way with me. But for both shows, we get a regular weekly treat of solid tattooers pointing out the good and the bad in a whole bunch of tattoos across a range of skill levels.

For anyone thinking of getting a tattoo, it's a hell of an education.

Now, we've also got the coverup shows. I have my own pluses and minuses with Tattoo Nightmares and America's Worst Tattoos, but overall it's great to have someone out there showing what's possible.

The more people know what to expect, what a GOOD tattoo looks like, the better for our industry. Yeah, it's gonna suck if you're the sort of needle jockey who ten years ago would have got by on bad tracings and lots of attitude. But for artists who make the cut, and the clients who wear our ink for the rest of their lives, "those shows" are definitely making it better!