No Ragrets
If you don’t get the tagline of this blog post, go ahead and move on. If you do – this story’s for you.
Last night I was sitting in a reputable tattoo shop in the Tower District getting some fairly extensive ink done to my back. This was my second in-person appointment, and my fourth contact with the artist. My first appointment involved showing my existing piece, providing ideas as to what I wanted done, and putting down a deposit. The artist had emailed me sketches of ideas, I responded back, and then I committed to the artwork that would be forever on my body. You know, something a rational person would do before any type of permanent body modification.
As I’m laying there mid-tattoo, the phone rings. One of the other artists had stepped out, so the owner (my tattooist) answered the phone. He was close enough to me that I could hear the entire conversation. The girl calling asked how much he would charge for nipple piercings. He quoted a price and explained his procedures in-depth to her. She then told him another shop quoted her $20 less than his price. He again explained his procedures and explained he did them in this particular way to ensure she would get a result she was happy with. He also explained that he used quality jewelry for all his piercings. She then reiterated the cheaper price, as if she thought he might decide to price match the cheaper shop. He told the girl, “Cheaper isn’t always better,” and the call ended shortly thereafter.
I asked him how often something like that occurred. He told me that people in Fresno were mostly interested in getting cheap tattoos and piercings and joked that some guys would only charge $30 bucks and some meth and half the meth was consumed before the tattoo ever got started, which is why so many people in Fresno have crappy tattoos. I told him I sure as hell wouldn’t be shopping around for discounts on having my nipples pierced (if I was ever in the market for that kind of body modification) and the owner laughed. He told me I’d be surprised at what people were willing to do just to save $10 bucks in Fresno. He said he did a lot of repair work from these cheaper jobs and wished people would wise up and go somewhere good the first time around to save everyone the hassle.
Is his story true? Are most Fresnans really so cheap that we’d go someplace “cheaper” but not “better” to get something like our nipples pierced or to put permanent ink into our skin? Are we really so stupid just to save a few bucks? No ragrets, right? WTF, Fresno.
