LA Ink: Initial Impressions
Wednesday night Alana and I watched the first episode of LA Ink. On these tattoo reality shows you have to take everything you see with a grain of salt, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. For example, I’m fairly certain TLC actually puts up the money for these shops and owns them, which is why they can’t advertise when they’re not filming. That said, the suggestion that Kat Von D presented a contractor with architectural renderings of her own design is both hilarious and preposterous.
As far as the space itself is concerned, what is this, a boutique lounge or a tattoo shop? Personal taste preferences aside, having all that crap all over the place (skateboards, skulls, guitars, miscellaneous kitsch) is inviting dust and places for germs to hide. You shouldn’t have anything in a shop you can’t easily take down and clean.
The quality of the artists is far superior to Miami Ink. Chris Garver is the only person at that shop I’d let near me with a tattoo machine. While Corey Miller’s been a big name for a while, his work doesn’t really resonate with me. He’s a talented pen and paper artist, but all his detailed work doesn’t translate well to skin. From any further than a foot away his tattoos look like grey mush, which is a shame for something so intricate up close. I don’t think much of Kim Saigh’s work either, but she’s professional and her personal workspace is clean.
Hannah Aitchison on the other hand, is the one real reason this show is worth watching. It’s a shame the crappy photos the show took of her work don’t do it justice at all. Alana and I both almost peed ourselves when she name dropped Gil Elvgren, our favorite pinup artist. You get the opportunity to see her draw up an amazing pinup girl tattoo with barely any reference. I love her line work style. She exemplifies professionalism. She’s also the only artist on the show with good tattoos.
Possibly the most audacious part of this show, however, is when Kat herself does house calls, which is beyond disgusting. It’s extremely offensive, and irresponsible on TLC’s part that she would perpetuate the practice on national television. She doesn’t even attempt to set up a clean room in her friend’s house, she just tattoos him in his dirty living room. (A professional artist will never tattoo out of a house unless they have a dedicated tattoo studio in their house approved by the local health department.) She proceeds to touch her greasy hair with her gloves during the tattoo, her gloves that are supposed to be clean and uncontaminated. All the while her wrist bands are rubbing around on his arm. In addition, she doesn’t bother covering her machine or clip cord with barrier bags. This is something a respectable artist would do even in a clean space! Not to mention the tattoo came out looking like a big blobby grey mess. I wouldn’t be surprised if this dude gets a staph infection.
It’s pretty apparent she doesn’t know much about running a business from the get go, given all the attitude she gives the construction workers. Shouldn’t you already know how long each phase of construction is going to take? And then the real kicker is when she infers a shop full of women cannot possibly run well, they need a man to keep them all from getting catty. If she’d said she need an experienced professional who has run his own shop for years, that would’ve been a different story. Way to put your industry back 10 years.
I want to like this show. I want to see talented and professional women doing great tattoos and running a great shop. With the exception of Ms. Aitchison though, so far all I’ve seen is stereotypes, poor business sense, unsterile practices, and mediocre tattoos. I hope it’s just poor editing on the part of TLC.
I’ll be waiting to see Needled do a more in depth take on the show. “But the show is about about serious female tattoo artists. How come they never dressed up Miami Ink’s Ami in stilettos?”
Very interesting to hear it from your point of view. Personally, I can’t stand Miami Ink or the other one. I find the people very annoying. From what you are saying it sounds like the show is completely fake, not that it surprises me. Im sure the majority of these so called reality shows are. What I find curious is that the networks who air these must be aware that professionals in like yourself are sure to spot these inconsistencies. My guess, however, is that this show is boxed for the average joe who knows nothing about the business. This why I hate every single “reality” show that follows this format….