I have a love/hate relationship with all of the reality shows that have to do with tattooing and piercing.  While I’m grateful for the attention it has brought the industry, I don’t like the way these shows make the industry look. The shows are more about sensationalism and money than substance: like most TV you see these days. Regardless, it still annoys me. But, I have to confess. I did watch one not long ago.

I was at my cousin’s house and this tattoo show was on that I had never heard of before. The premise of the show had to do with tattoo shop makeovers. The host, whose last name just happened to be Tattoo…what are the odds….swoops in and saves a struggling shop. Same premise as those restaurant, hair salon and home make over shows that we’ve been seeing for a few years now.

 

I have to admit, the longer I watched it, the more it was pissing me off. Here’s why:

1.       The way the owners and staff looked was embarrassing. Everyone in the shop looked like they were going to a Halloween party. The makeup was just as thick on the guys as it was the girls. I get that they are expressing themselves and being who they want to be, but honestly, I couldn’t take them seriously. And if I’m getting tattooed by someone, I would like that person to take their job seriously; but that’s just me.

2.       As Mr. Tattoo moseyed through the shop, he would point out outrageously large dust bunnies. I mean these things were the size of baseballs and sitting at the base of the client chairs, the autoclave and even by the bottles of ink. Seriously? If it was truly that dirty, they should have been shut down. But looking at the dust, I questioned whether those bunnies were even real. They looked more like shredded yarn than dust bunnies. Did I mention that the floor was one of cleanest floors I had ever seen? Hmmmmm….

3.       The layout of the shop. Now, I don’t know where this shop was, so I don’t know what their laws are; I only know Illinois law. With that said, I looked at this shop with our laws in mind. According to Illinois, all tattooing and piercing rooms need to be private. They each must have a door and some sort of wall high enough that it prohibits others from seeing what’s going on. Makes sense to me. I wouldn’t want to be sitting there getting a tattoo on my boob or getting my hoo-ha pierced with strangers gawking at me. Hell no! We have private rooms at our shop. Our place used to be a dental office with private exam rooms, so our clients have always had privacy. The place on this show had no rooms, no walls or door separating the clients. It was one gigantic open room. The bathroom was the only place that had four walls and a door. Not a bit of privacy for any of the clients. I hope their clients don’t have modesty issues. After the makeover was done, there still were no walls. Regardless of what their state law is on privacy, I would think you would want your clients to have privacy. Again, that’s just me.

4.       The owner and staff’s attitude and behaviors. You would think that since they looked like clowns, they would be just as jovial. Nope. They were not only rude and crude to each other; they were not so pleasant with their clients. If anyone working at our shop treated customers that way, they’d be gone. Period. Business rule #1…..Be kind to your clients if you want them to come back. That should be a no brainer. But, who knows...they couldn've been acting the show.

Maybe I’m a little more cynical or more sensitive to these kinds of shows being that we are in the industry. I don’t know. I just don’t want this industry to be more criticized and looked down upon because of shows like this. This industry has gone through a lot and to have it further degraded is frustrating. I guess entertainment value rules.  But truth be told, reality shows aren’t really reality, are they? With that said, I have to go……Kitchen Nightmares is on!