Could this

be magic?

Tattooing as
Liberation
Work Tamara Santibañez
 Contents

P 03 Introduction P 73 Racial Justice

P 07 What is Trauma? P 78 Sex Work
P 15 Liberation Work P 80 Kink and BDSM
P 17 The Radical Potential P 81 Formerly Incarcerated/
of Tattooing Justice Impacted
P 20 Shop Environment P 82 Fatphobia/Body
P 21 Physical Space Shaming/Fetishizing
P 24 Unpacking “Safe Spaces” P 83 Economic Accessibility
P 30 Power Dynamics P 88 Transformative Justice:
Modeling Community
P 35 Navigating Consent
Accountability in a Shop
P 41 For Clients
P 97 Intergenerational Trauma
P 43 Crisis Intervention: and the Tattoo Industry
In the Moment as Family Unit
P 53 Confidentiality P 102 Trauma, Stress and Chronic
P 54 Recognizing and Honoring Physical Ailments
Our Own Limitations
P 104 Recovery and Coping
P 60 Trauma Stewardship Strategies for Tattoo Artists
P 66 An Intersectional Theory P 106 Creating our Microculture
of Client Care
P 108 Setting Boundaries
P 67 Disability Justice
P 117 In Conclusion: Shaping the
P 69 HIV Ethics Future of Tattooing
P 70 LGBTQIA2+ Communities
 All those wearing, giving, or
contemplating tattoos will do
well to remember this definition:
Magic is the science and art
of causing change to occur in
conformity with will.

Pat Fish

P1 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P2


Introduction
Two years ago, I was training as a volunteer on a crisis hotline.
During one of our sessions, I shared with the group an observation
of their practices that I noticed overlapping with my work as a tattoo
artist. Afterwards, one of the people from the cohort came up to
me and said “I liked what you said about seeing tattooing as social
work.” It was a huge moment for me. My comment was something
that felt so natural to the work of tattooing that I don’t even remember
what I said, but I remember so clearly what this social worker had
heard within it. The comment deeply resonated with me.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of tattooing as social work.
I knew, of course, that tattooing was meaningful and important for
people, but would never have conceived of it in those terms. Their
offhand compliment opened up an entirely new way of thinking about
what I and other tattooers were regularly achieving without consciously
trying. I became newly attuned to the personal stories my clients
shared and to the motivations behind their body modification choices.
I listened beyond their design ideas to the life experiences that brought
them through the door in the first place. As time went on, I started
to realize how similar my clients’ stories were to the calls the hotline
received.
At the time, I was also teaching weekly drawing classes inside
a New York City jail, coordinating a prison art project via hundreds
of letter exchanges detailing people’s often painful life stories, tattooing
full-time, and maintaining my own visual art practice. If it all sounds
like too much, it was. I learned a hard lesson about the physical effects
of so much emotional work and secondary trauma exposure by
having a serious flare-up of chronic health problems that kept me from
being able to do the work I wanted to be doing.
All this forced me to be honest with myself about what I was
really doing when I was at the tattoo shop—healing work. Most
tattooers might not conceive of themselves as healers, and many might
be actively resistant to the term. I think all tattooers, though, would
admit there’s a magic to the craft. Watching someone mix their
inks in the caps during one of my first tattoo experiences struck me
as a mysterious alchemy and immediately made me want to learn how
to do it myself. We as tattoo artists possess intuition, attention to detail,
and the ability to calm nervous clients, all while applying permanent
markings to the body of someone who has chosen to trust us.
I’ve been tattooing in shops for a decade, and have a wonderful
clientele whom I love meeting and getting to work with. We have
transformative exchanges where I’m able to help bring their body closer
to their own vision of it. I give tattoos of nopales to honor Mexican
heritage, leather tattoos of roses and gloves to declare a queer kink
identity, portrait renderings of loved ones to memorialize them after
death. I learn so much from my clients. They get tattoos that are fun for
P3 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
me to do and that engage my creative mind, pushing my drawing
abilities. Despite all this, training for the hotline made me realize
that in many ways, I was already doing exhaustive trauma counseling
in my daily work life. I had to think very seriously about giving
that the consideration it deserves, and what my own capacity for
that type of exchange was.
I see so many tattoo artists doing this work without naming it
for what it is. For many of us it feels like part of the job—chatting with
people, putting them at ease, following the conversational thread
wherever it may go and steeling ourselves for the serious topics clients
sometimes broach in relation to their tattoo. All tattooers have done
memorial tattoos, pieces for survivors of cancer, concealed scars,
or marked clients with text and symbols that had serious significance
for the wearer. We’ve all developed our own ways of folding these
into our work life. Though they’re universal experiences for tattoo
artists, we rarely talk with each other about them or support each
other through the ways this practice can affect us as individuals.
Alongside the newfound diversity in the tattoo industry and a
larger range of what tattoo settings and practices look like, I also see
changes to how clients more intentionally seek out the people they
work with. Finding people that you’re comfortable being tattooed
by or share an identity with can open up even more of a sense
of trust and intimacy on top of what tattooing inherently requires,
and it can demand an increased accountability in the industry at large.
Conversations around tattooer and shop responsibility have exploded
into industry consciousness this year, with clients and artists alike
taking to task harmful practices that have been deeply embedded in
tattoo culture. As these dynamics grow and change, I believe it’s crucial
to have open and honest exchanges around how this asks us to step
up as artists, how we meet those challenges, where our limitations lie,
and how best to prepare ourselves and support each other in that.
This year, a global pandemic brought tattooing to a halt for
months. Most tattoo artists, myself included, had never had such
a long time period where we were not able to do what we love.
Many tattooers expressed secretly that though they were worried
financially, they were grateful for a long pause that they never would
have been able to give themselves. Tattooers spoke of being burned
out going into the pandemic, but having difficulty using the time
off to recover, and of their sense of selves being called into question
once tattooing as their daily work was off the table. I’ve heard so
many tattoo artists question how they were able to sustain such a
heavy workload before the pandemic hit, and that the time off has
made them seriously reevaluate how they want to work going forward.
Partway into the shutdown, the world erupted with protests
and radical uprisings. In the U.S., the police murders of George Floyd,
Breonna Taylor, and others were the catalyst for still ongoing daily
actions against police brutality and racial injustice. The failures
and violence of the systems we live under are being unmasked in clear
and undeniable ways, even to those who have been able to turn a blind
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P4
eye before now. People are being called to work in solidarity with civil
rights and racial justice movements, calls to defund police and abolish
prisons have entered the everyday lexicon, and mutual aid networks
have sprung up all over the country. Tattooing is in no way exempt from
this transformative energy. Abuse and racism by tattooers and shops is
being called out, made public, and accountability is being demanded.
When I began writing this book over a year ago, I did not see these
conversations happening in tattooing. The presence of trauma and the
psychically draining work tattooers were doing felt like a suppressed
industry secret, one that people were afraid to talk about because
it would mean admitting the weight of what we do. People told me
in confidence that they were afraid to speak on the subject because
they knew that taking on any more emotional labor would be more than
they could bear. At the beginning of the pandemic, I began hosting
weekly tattooer discussion groups so that some of us could continue
to connect and support each other despite being out of work. For the
first few months the group was small and made up almost entirely of
women, queer, trans, and Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color.
We spoke about tattoo ritual, magic, working to divest from capital,
utopian visions of tattoo futures, long-distance tattoo science fiction
fantasies—topics that felt miles away from what the mainstream tattoo
industry was attuned to.
Quotations: I called upon the knowledge of my broader community
for this resource, sending out a survey asking how trauma enters
the workplace for individual tattoo artists. I have also included here
survey responses from people in other service industries that parallel
the client dynamics we experience—sex workers, hairstylists, herbalists,
acupuncturists. Unless otherwise noted, the quotes included here
are from tattoo artists. There is a comprehensive list of individuals
in other fields whose input I referenced in writing this at the end
and an index of resources. Sources are also credited alongside their
quote or at the bottom of each page as footnotes.
CONTENT WARNING: This work will discuss structural violence,
trauma, PTSD, and sexual assault, among others. Some sections
will give specific examples as a way of illustrating how tattooing
interacts with these.

Once the political uprising began, our numbers swelled to over

a hundred people meeting weekly to discuss racial justice, safety,
cultural appropriation, and other topics people urgently wanted
to confront. I created a separate discussion group to talk about
racial justice in the tattoo world, a group that keeps growing and
now has its own forum, weekly meeting notes, and has broadened the
conversation in a way that I never anticipated. I never could have
imagined that this book would come out into the environment that it is.
I see people being anxious and desperate for answers and direction.
I don’t have all the answers, but to see changes I never thought
possible being discussed, between people I never imagined listening
to one another, gives me incredible hope for what tattooing can
become. I’ve spent the last year trying to compose a map of sorts,
one that connects all the needs I perceive with the radical changes
I dream of. I hope this can be a valuable addition to the conversations
that are taking place at every corner of the tattoo world.

This work was the result of many conversations with artists and
clients alike, a survey sent out to a broad cross section of tattooers
and other bodyworkers, my own ongoing research and therapy
journey, and consulting with folks in activist, mental health, social
work, and anti-violence fields. I acknowledge my own experiential
bias and blind spots and hope that I can continue to expand and
evolve this resource in future editions as I am able to continue learning
and hearing from the perspectives of others.

P5 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P6


The act of tattooing itself, causing
“skin trauma” in many ways helps
people cope with emotional pain
they may have suffered.
Tina Lugo
As a person who gets tattooed
frequently now, I go into getting
tattooed knowing that I will be
facing an acute form of trauma
followed by healing.
Jinhee Kwak
Many clients have been explicit
with me about how they use getting
tattooed as a form of therapy. Some
have said that the pain realizes some
internal pain. That they see this as
a “healthier” coping mechanism,
as a replacement for other coping
mechanisms including self harm.
Angela Maria
The tattoo industry’s approach
to client care needs attention.
We have courses and seminars
on everything BUT how to talk to
clients and service all bodies.
Lizzie Renaud
I often find myself in an awkward
position to help counsel or mediate
my clients through a situation without
any understanding of this person’s
life or history.
Zac Scheinbaum
I think we might be missing empathy.
People are so money hungry and
hustle driven they forget we have
a client to care for.
Debbi Snax
What is trauma?
Trauma is the result of feelings triggered by events or
circumstances such as medical interventions, grief, accidents or natural
disasters, childhood abuse or neglect, abuse and/or violence, and
cultural and intergenerational trauma1. The word trauma describes the
often debilitating symptoms that people suffer from due to perceived
life-threatening or overwhelming experiences2.
…Almost all of us have experienced some form of trauma,
either directly or indirectly…In short, trauma is about loss
of connection—to ourselves, to our bodies, to our families,
to others, and to the world around us.
Peter Levine
Healing Trauma (p.9)
While trauma can be caused by cataclysmic events like war, a car
accident, major surgery, sexual assault, or domestic violence, it can
also be in response to more unseen causes such as social inequality,
neglect, racism, body shaming, forced displacement or encounters
with systems like police, foster care, and prison3.
Long-term symptoms of trauma can have effects that include
hyper-vigilance, exaggerated emotional and startle responses, abrupt
mood swings, reduced ability to deal with stress, panic attacks
and anxiety, chronic fatigue, psychosomatic illness, depression, and
feelings of detachment, alienation, and isolation4.
What is a trauma-informed approach and why is it important?
A trauma-informed or trauma-aware approach means that we are
aware of the lived experiences people may be showing up with, and
that we are prepared to encounter that. It describes a practice that
makes space for the ways that past trauma or PTSD might show up
in your workplace and professional life. It is an approach that has
practices, safeguards and supportive structures in place around the
possibility. Tattooing can activate trauma in a number of ways, most
immediately because we are working directly with people’s bodies, and
bodies can often hold complicated histories and experiences.
A trauma-informed approach must also take into account the
conditions that cause trauma to begin with. If we are only reacting and
responding to the symptoms and effects of trauma, we are not working
to heal the systems that perpetuate harm and violence. Acknowledging
the presence of trauma is the first step. Beyond working not to re-
traumatize or further hurt our clients, our work as tattoo artists should
1
Source: National Council for Behavioral Health
2
Healing Trauma by Peter Levine
3
Infographic, Alyssa Mancao, LCSW
4
Peter Levine, 17-19
P7 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
center justice and ethical practices. This calls upon us as individuals
to resist perpetuating abuses of power in our daily lives as well as in our
I used to not see trauma entering into
the work I performed at all. It was
something the men who taught me
work lives. to tattoo definitely acknowledged
as part of the job but also made light
of—perhaps as a coping mechanism.
While trauma-informed philosophies and approaches are becoming Virginia Elwood
popularized in many fields beyond therapeutic work, including yoga,
personal training, harm reduction fields, and others, there can be The whole center of my work is
as a “tattoo ritualist” who provides
limitations to the frameworks this produces. Understanding trauma
tattoo as ritual healing work, and
holistically asks us to look beyond simply acknowledging “symptoms” all of it entails ritual/ceremony during
and towards healing that celebrates the individual and their resilience. the client’s session. Many clients
I work with share with me that they
People and communities that are trauma-impacted possess enormous
want to receive tattoo in ceremony
strength, and are more than their pain or hurt. By creating space in to heal from trauma. Other times
our work practices for whole individuals, rather than only their presence it’s also to honor their cultural
as clients or the harm they’ve experienced, we are better able to or ethnic lineage, but always has to
meet them where they are at and facilitate the best tattoo experience do with their healing journey. My role
as the practitioner is someone
we can provide.
who can facilitate and cultivate
a sacred healing space for clients
Trauma, as conceptualised and defined by the mainstream field to move through their trauma. I am
of psychology, is a medicalised term that obscures violence and a holistic healing practitioner who
human suffering...This professional distancing abdicates our collective utilizes tattoo as the modality I work
responsibility to change the social structures that make these with for healing work. So I don’t
oppressions and suffering possible and to change the social context technically consider myself a tattoo
in which the privatisation of pain occurs...Experiences defined as
artist/tattooer.
trauma are often better understood as exploitation and oppression Julz Bolinayen Ignacio
rooted in the political inequities of our unjust societies.
Vikki Reynolds The philosophies and ideas of the
Justice-Doing at the Intersections of Power modern “primitive” movement
should be more commonplace and
If trauma is collectively experienced, this means that we also have to understood by tattooers, especially
consider the environmental context that caused the harm in the first place. the ones surrounding the value
By only treating the individual we only address part of the equation of pain in growth and personal
leaving the toxic systems, policies and practices neatly intact. development and the need for ritual
Shawn Ginwright, PhD in contemporary Western society…
The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed what we [do] is both a craft that
Care to Healing Centered Engagement should result in safely performed,
well-executed tattoos as well as
What does this have to do with tattooing? a process that can be transformative
and powerful for the clients.
­Ciara Havishya
Tattoo artists are professionals that encounter the body daily.
We aren’t typically labeled as “bodyworkers,” though we do fall
into the category alongside yoga teachers, acupuncturists, massage
therapists, chiropractors, personal trainers, and others. We are
tasked with permanently altering a client’s body with prolonged
physical contact as part of that process. Other fields that perform
similar services are often strictly regulated through licensing, codes
of ethics, human resource departments, and professional review
boards. Tattooing is so decentralized that our trade has virtually none
of these things. Licensing requirements typically focus on safety
regulations and bloodborne pathogen certification—which are
important—but leave out emotionally aware client care almost entirely.
Tattooing is a customer-centered profession but goes deeper than
most service jobs in how we relate to clients or how we spend time
with them. Clients can come into the shop again after years and years
of not seeing them, or we might see them once every two weeks for
a year while we work on their backpiece. Most of us haven’t had
a cohesive customer relations model passed down or demonstrated
to us. A common experience seems to be that if a client’s emotional
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P8
It could be engaging helping
someone talk through an issue,
but if I need to concentrate on
a tattoo for them that takes priority.
If there’s too much information
or talking I’d defer to the fact I
have to focus on their tattoo.
Justin Weatherholtz
I unconsciously adapted my practice
to trauma awareness from a fairly
early stage in my tattooing. It was
fairly intuitive, but it happened
as I encountered clients who got
emotionally triggered during
the tattoo process, and as I learned
to coach them to push through
to the end of the tattoo. It was
completely subconscious, but
I started to become aware that this
was happening more than what
I saw my coworkers experiencing.
Ciara Havishya
When I started tattooing, I had no
understanding or concept of how
deep I’d get into the history behind
it [and] medicinal and spiritual
practices…I’ve increasingly been
able to see things from a larger
perspective, empathize, and discuss
things with people where they are
able to teach me something through
their traumas as well. Some of it
was conscious, some unconscious,
but the results are the same.
Jess Fang
Everything I know in holding space
for clients comes from my experience
as a holistic healing practitioner,
and what I have learned from various
healers in my life who are still to this
day my mentors and teachers.
Julz Bolinayen Ignacio
I was told early on that it’s a part
of the job, dealing with people’s
feelings and emotions.
Justin Weatherholtz
My mentor told me “There’s already
so much built-in discomfort with
what we do, its important to try and
make people as comfortable as
you can in any other way possible.”
It’s was a very simple statement
but it’s always in my head.
Andy Perez
needs were acknowledged by mentors or coworkers, there was
an element of dismissiveness or joking about oversharing customers
needing to tell their “life story.” In an era of tattoo reality television,
we can sometimes shift blame onto the media for giving the general
public the idea that a tattoo must have a deep meaning or story
behind it, but I believe that this bypasses the historical and cultural
significance of tattoos as markers of rites of passage—something
that has existed as long as humans have tattooed themselves.
The high incidence of trauma in our society means that it is more
likely than not that the client in our chair at any given moment has been
impacted by traumatic events in their lives. The National Council for
Behavioral Health estimates that over 70% of adults in the U.S. have
experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives.
There is a growing understanding of the pervasiveness of trauma
not only in military veterans, survivors of sexual violence, survivors
of natural disasters or medical crisis, but also of more unseen forms
of intergenerational and institutional trauma and childhood neglect.
Medical fields are increasingly moving towards a trauma-informed
approach to care in response to the ways the mind and body can be
re-traumatized. Other body and care-adjacent fields such as personal
training, breathwork, and acupuncture are following suit and often
creating radical new models for what this practice can look like.
Being tasked with tattooing people, whether they are consciously
moving through a formative moment or not, is a heavy order. Tattooing
is a valuable and rare opportunity to bear witness. It makes sense that
to perform well at our primary task—applying a beautiful and well-done
piece—we’ve had to develop coping mechanisms to allow us to
do our jobs. This sometimes looks like compartmentalization. When
I did my first few tattoos, I remember having to put out of my mind
that I was working on a person and a body, and that it was permanent.
I had to filter that pressure out entirely to focus on doing the best
technical job that I could without spiraling into anxiety. The way
I allocate my focus and energy still changes with particularly
challenging tattoos, even after 10+ years of tattooing behind me.
Witnessing speaks to an experience of being held up collectively
with others who share our collective responsibilities. For community
workers, a witnessing stance invites a connection alongside clients,
but says I am in this struggle with you as well. The worker is not
an audience to this person’s individual struggle, but relationally
connected to it.
Vikki Reynolds
Doing Justice as a Path to Sustainability in Community Work
As we get more comfortable with the technical aspects of
tattooing, we are able to bring more of ourselves in and be more
available to clients; however, we are always having to weigh
that against the importance of the tattoo itself. Tattooing is physically
and mentally challenging, even without considering the conversational
aspect. Some artists find they need to work in silence to properly
concentrate, while some find that talking with clients helps them
relax and do the work more easily.
P9 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
I came up in the gay tattoo shop
I want to be generous to tattooing as a whole and believe that of Toronto and the kink and fetish
the majority of us are trying to do a good job in the ways that we can. clients, as well as the owner of
So many of us were drawn to practice this craft because we felt like the shop, were great role models.
outsiders in one way or another, and craved the freedom of a career The way I experienced tattoos
other shops when getting work
that allowed us to be creative and unbeholden to a 9-to-5 office culture. done pushed me further into an
In that, we’ve had to shape our own ways of working, especially empathetic approach to the work,
because many of us are self-employed. Without a blueprint, we rely and current day, I seek out training
and education whenever possible.
on what information we get from coworkers or mentors, firsthand
Lizzie Renaud
observation, and lived experience, tackling challenges as they arise.
Since tattooing has no central structure, we rarely talk about I knew going into tattooing that
the challenges of our work in a macrocosmic community-wide sense, I wanted to create an environment
that exuded warm energy where folx
turning to smaller and more immediate communities that we develop would feel comfortable to be their
over time (shop coworkers, other artists in our cities, close friends truest selves. This was definitely
in tattooing). intentional.
Raychelle Duazo
What this means is that we often learn by doing, relying on our At first it was unconscious and
intuition and good intentions to lead us in the right direction. Working as I became aware of the impact it
with a broad population of people can challenge us, asking us to had on me and my clients it became
meet one person completely differently than we might meet another. a fully conscious decision to dive
into this work. My father is a social
Oftentimes we might not know what the best way is until the moment worker that specifically works
we meet them or partway through a tattoo session. Artists describe in trauma. So from a young age
their forms of client care as “evolving naturally” and feeling the I was taught that people go
expectation to perform a wide range of abilities that can change through all sorts of things in life.
Tea Leigh
from moment to moment.
The act of opening a new physical
In some ways this maneuverability can be a positive as there wound can have the power
of reopening a psychic wound
is no one correct approach. An individual artist trying to apply
and give a new opportunity for
a one-size-fits-all approach towards their personal clients will find both to heal in tandem.
that it falls short of serving everyone’s needs. Shaping what works Andy Perez
for each of us and finding a rhythm of adaptability and flexibility
I love when people are done getting
is something that will look different for everyone however, having tattooed and are beaming with pride
tools and models around what our practices can (and in some cases at their own strength. If I can give
should) look like can be an enormous asset. It might seem daunting, them tools or the ‘pep talk’ to access
but I want to underscore here that we are all already doing this their mental fortitude I feel like the
session goes well and leaves them
work to some extent, whether we are aware of it or not. with a feeling of accomplishment.
Olivia Britz-Wheat
An important distinguishing feature of trauma is that it comes
from an experience that is overwhelming to a person. While tattooing
may seem inherently traumatizing since it is a process that causes
pain, pain does not always result in trauma. If a person feels able
to handle the pain and its surrounding experience well without being
overwhelmed, the tattooing won’t have a traumatic impact. Being
able to consent/assent to experiencing the pain of a tattoo is a major
factor in making a person feel empowered and not negatively affected.
Consent and assent will be explained in more detail.
In this writing I am working from three central theories which
I have formulated based on my overlapping experiences in tattooing
and social justice work.
1. All tattoo artists are already practicing emotional labor
around trauma with their clients whether they are aware of it or not,
and whether they are performing it in a way that ultimately heals or harms.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 10
 2. Our work as tattooers/tattoo artists requires us to dissociate
from early in the learning process, putting out of our minds that
we are creating painful permanent markings on another human’s body.
Witnessing bodies in pain as a daily practice brings us to a baseline
point of emotional saturation, leaving little energy available for the other
more intuitive and social aspects of the work.
3. If we name the emotional support work we are doing
for what it is, and build skills for ourselves in understanding
our capacity for it, we will make space for a healthier practice,
client-artist relationship, and tattoo industry overall.
Tattooing asks so much of us socially and emotionally. Though
many of us chafe at the idea of being therapists, there is something
exciting to be said for the ways we are entrusted with so much about
people’s lives. There’s an element of voyeurism, as well as feeling
honored that our clients have chosen to divulge so much about
themselves to us. Some artists thrive on feeling allowed into the depths
of our clients’ psyches. As tatttooers, we have to practice fast trust-
building, and juggle technical precision with social graces. We are by
turns confidants, authorities, craftspeople, entertainers, and often all
these things at once. Whether or not we lean into the confessional
aspects of our work, emotion is simply in the ether of what we do,
swirling in the background of every tattoo that we apply.
Being involved in social justice and anti-violence work, I have
noticed striking parallels between tattooing and social work, and
the effects that both professions can have on their practitioners
long-term. Both fields often have emotional heavy lifting as a side
effect of the primary service meant to be provided. Getting someone
housing might require understanding more about how they have
experienced housing instability. Counseling a survivor of sexual assault
might mean listening to background information about a person’s
early life. Applying a tattoo might mean hearing intimate details of
someone’s recent loss of a loved one and their grieving process.
Burnout is commonplace in both fields, as is the number of people
who push through to do the work despite finding themselves depleted.
*Source: Vikki Reynolds, Tattooers are community workers*. Vikki Reynolds uses this term
Doing Justice as a Path to
to mean “an inclusive description of all people, regardless of academic
Sustainability in Community Work
qualifications, doing relational change work in relationships that dignify
and help the client make preferred changes.” We are in a unique
position to help affirm people’s “identity stories”, and to help them
reclaim their full selves. We are often bound up in the same systems
our clients are impacted by, and working to heal our own personal
traumas alongside them. When these undertakings collide, we can
find ourselves exhausted and feeling out of our depths.
As our jobs require us not only to often fulfill a therapeutic role,
but also to inflict sometimes profound physical pain and to guide
people through the experience of it, we unconsciously develop coping
mechanisms to sustain ourselves. Letting ourselves forget that inflicting
pain on others takes a toll on us can be necessary to being able to do
P 11 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
our work. I believe this conditioning—one that is initially necessary
to perform our primary work as best we can—sets the stage for
us to disassociate and minimize from the beginning of our careers,
making it easier to dehumanize our clients whether or not we are I see trauma entering my work
aware of doing so. This type of downplaying does a disservice to our primarily in the form of folks seeking
space to be held for them during the
clients as well as to our own scope of emotional experience, in effect process of getting their tattoo. This
numbing us to all types of feelings in our lives. also shows up in the booking
process, where occasionally people
There are two universal aspects to tattooing that I see as go very in depth in their booking
forms/emails as to why they want a
underserved and underacknowledged, and as inextricable from specific tattoo/design, often naming
one another. We cannot provide the full scope of client care being specific trauma experiences/healing
asked of us or know what we are capable of without honoring our processes before we have had any
own needs and desires. We cannot see the complexity of our own type of interaction.
Jay Crosby
needs without understanding what it is our clients are asking us for.
In sending out surveys to a broad cross-section of tattooers and
in having these conversations nearly daily with coworkers, clients,
and tattoo artists around the world, I am more convinced than ever
that no one is exempt from the emotional toll of our work.
Apprentices newly into their careers feel this pressure acutely
as they struggle to learn technical skills and have little to no energy
left for easily socializing with clients. Industry veterans twenty years
or more into the work find themselves defensive with their clients,
shutting down in order to preserve the energy they do have for their
families and loved ones. Across the board, whether in street shops,
private studios, homemade environments, ritual tattoo ceremonies—
all tattoo practitioners are psychically impacted by this work. Every
tattooer I spoke with told me in so many words that they long to find
more sustainable ways to keep doing what they love. I believe that
only by exploring the unacknowledged presence of trauma and
its demands on our labor can we enjoy a mutually rewarding
tattooing practice, one that sustains a trusting, symbiotic relationship
between selves, clients, and community. It is through this relationship
building that we can center collective integrity, justice-doing, and
the tattoo magic that ties it all together.
If we are disconnected from parts of ourselves, if we are not consciously
working to heal the ways these systems have splintered us and made
us feel unworthy as we are, then we will never tap into the full extent
of our power. As activists we must take the time to invest in self-care practices
that prioritize emotionally informed care, otherwise we run the risk of burn
out, compassion fatigue, chronic stress and illness…when we invest in self-care
we take back our ability to deeply feel and become whole. By nurturing our
whole selves emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual we open up a new
channel of thought and feeling that gives power to our activism and allows
us to stay rooted in our complexity and fullness.
Brittany Ducham
Emotional Alchemy: Transmuting Feeling into Political Action
I can talk volumes about the whole moral responsibility of people doing
tattoos, because to me this was the ultimate art form for really forcing
you to question what you’re doing as an artist: what your motives are, where
your ego is involved, and what might be pure intent or just fucked-up strutting.
Don Ed Hardy
Modern Primitives
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 12
Toolkit Exercise—write down 5 immediate responses that come to mind
when thinking of how trauma relates to your work. Divide them
into three categories: positive, negative, neutral. Where does your
overall reaction skew? Could some of your responses fall into more
than one category?

P 13 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 14


*Praxis is the application and
practice of theories, ideas, and
skills. It describes translating
theory and concept into real-
world applications and practices.
Tattooing can be so much more than
just the mark. The set and setting,
the experience of getting the tattoo,
the conversations and letting people
feel heard, all of these things are
just as important, and the memory
of them last just as long as the tattoo
(with the advent of laser removal
technology, sometimes longer).
Andy Perez
Liberation Work types of expression can make us feel more free as individuals, and
affirms the values that bring us into ourselves.
All this is to say that I believe in tattooing. Being facilitators
In using the phrase “liberation work” to reconfigure the potential
and creators of this experience for people is a significant role to play
of tattoos, I am asking those of us who engage with the practice
in the community and world at large. Historically and across cultures,
of tattooing to broaden our acceptance of just what tattooing can
tattoo artists have been perceived and honored as healers as well
achieve. Liberation work is any effort towards a more free, just,
as creatives. The shop is a site of community-building and socializing,
and equitable world. I believe that work can begin most effectively
of information exchange and creative collaboration. Tattoo shops
within our immediate communities. We have the ability and power
are often neutral territory in fraught social contexts, where all can
to individually as well as collaboratively shape the shifts we wish
be welcomed.
to see in our workplaces, leisure time, artistic endeavors, and beyond
those into the world at large.
We do not tattoo in a void—we tattoo in a world that is governed
by social forces and structural oppression. As much as tattooing
Liberation work more wholly encompasses the practices that
may want to consider itself an outlaw or outsider culture, the truth
we may not always think of or credit as community organizing
is that we cannot escape or ignore the lived experiences of ourselves
or activism. Liberation work is social and personal praxis* that exists
or those who sit down to get work done. When we approach this
outside of academic theory or government institutions. It functions
responsibility with intention and clarity, we step into the ability
under, within, and around those areas to be sure, but liberation work
to facilitate empowerment and healing. In providing an experience
is anti-hierarchical and comes from a belief that people should have
where a client is affirmed and treated with respect, we can interrupt
agency over their own lives. Liberation work extends beyond lifestyle
the cycles of trauma that they live through in the world at large
politics. It looks past the notions of personal micro-resistances that
and work towards collective justice. We both mark and witness these
do little to unseat broader structural forces, such as empty virtue
moments for individuals, conjuring temporary autonomous zones
signaling or “feel-good” gestures that have little to no real-world
and movement towards collective liberation.
impact. It involves lots of unlearning. It considers wider political context
even in the most microcosmic of individual action. Liberation work Tattooing is basically anti-repressive. I think people’s main
unravels the very fabric of structural inequality, addressing practical subconscious motivation is to clarify something about themselves
and material community needs while simultaneously working to to themselves, and only incidentally...to show to other people.
Don Ed Hardy
dismantle the inherited prejudices we have taken for granted.
Modern Primitives
How is tattooing liberation work?
Tattooing is a unique profession in that it invites participation
from all types of people. Unlike other services that are public-facing,
tattooing requires power exchange and trust across identity
differences. Tattooing has the potential to transcend race, class,
and gender barriers (though these barriers will be discussed more
in depth later). All that is required to get a tattoo is the desire to alter
one’s own body, and some type of access—no matter how simple
or crude—to ink and needles. The practice of tattooing a body taps into
thousands of years of human practice and ritual. Tattooing has moved
fluidly between hand-done and electric methods, do-it-yourself and
professional settings, has been done in punk houses, prisons, freight
trains, outdoor spaces, and any other setting imaginable. Tattooing
is, at its core, unbound by societal norms, and retains, despite its
popularity, the power to challenge our ideas of beauty, art, and the self.
Tattooing is a powerful form of metamorphosis. It can mark
a coming of age or a turning point in one’s life. The exchange
of a tattoo with a friend or loved one is a unique and special way
to bond. Tattooing can be transformative—a way to create a new
version of yourself. A tattoo can be a coping strategy, a manifesto,
a bold declaration. Tattoos are armor. Being able to access these
P 15 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 16

The tattooist is the transformer,
the agent of change, the one
whose power to visualize allows
the embodiment of the image to
occur…It is wise for those in the
tattoo industry to keep in mind
their psychic responsibility to their
clientele. All [artists], without
exception, are having a permanent
effect on the lives of their clients.
Few occupations can claim as
much. For the commitment, the
irrevocability, and the sense of
permanent allegiance without
room for regret, the psychic power
of dermagraphics is unrivaled.
Pat Fish
Sometimes people come to me
specifically to reclaim their body
from trauma but prefer not to speak
about the actual trauma itself.
Sometimes the trauma work is silent
and lying behind everyday chit chat.
Tea Leigh
The Radical Potential
of Tattooing
Tattooing exists as so much more beyond applying a beautiful
image to skin. Often, clients aren’t consciously bringing any of the
following intentions into their session. Even if they are, we aren’t made
privy to it every time. These nuances don’t have to be verbalized,
addressed directly, or be at the forefront of someone’s mind to be
present on some level. They all exist in our work beyond what we
are aware of or give credit to.
• AUTHORITY and OWNERSHIP over one’s own body. This
is especially necessary for those whose bodies have been policed
by external forces. How would you treat a client differently if
you knew they’d previously been tattooed against their will? How
about if they had been sexually assaulted? Been denied gender-
affirming hormones by a medical professional? Had an abortion?
Were chronically ill? Tattooing is a way for those of us who have
experienced a loss of control over our bodies, whether that be
through life events or because of systematic oppression working
against us, to reinstate ourselves as authorities of our own selves.
• Recording one’s own history. Over time, tattoos can create
a permanent record of where you’ve been, who you are, and what
you’ve done in your life. Tattoos play a significant part in the role
of the body as archive.4 Our tattoos accumulate as we live through
the years, layering around and on top of each other to tell the story
of who we are. Whether positive or negative, current or from our
distant past, our tattoo stories are unique to us as individuals.
• Can never be taken away from you. Like the old tattoo adage,
“more precious than jewels—cannot be lost or stolen.” This
could be especially significant for people who have experienced
homelessness or housing instability, intimate partner violence 5,
or incarceration. People who experience imprisonment often say
that having one marker of their individuality that the state can never
confiscate or take away is invaluable in maintaining their sense
of selves. If an abusive partner or family situation forces you
to relocate and sacrifice your possessions, tattoos travel with you
wherever you go, and can provide a sense of home and stability.
• Reclaiming the body after trauma. Tattooing can serve
as a way to practice being present, being embodied, and saying
“my body is mine”. People who work with survivors of sexual
assault have noticed that often, the survivors seek out some
form of body modification even before seeking out support
groups, counseling or other therapeutic services. Tattooing
and piercing are an immediate form of providing what survivors
5
“Intimate partner violence” is a more inclusive alternative to the commonly used
“domestic violence”.
P 17 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
often need—a reminder that they are here, they have survived,
and their body is theirs.
Memorial portraits of dead relatives
or pets were one of the first really
traumatic aspects of tattooing that
• Defying stereotypes or prescribed roles. Tattoos serve as an
I was forced to confront and naively
hadn’t considered when I entered
outlet and form of expression for those who feel repressed by the the industry. I’ve tattooed all sorts
of people who use tattoos to ground
expectations of stereotypes, gender roles, or compulsory codes themselves back into their body.
of appearance. People with conservative religious upbringings
In no particular order: combat
that forbid tattoos often reach for tattooing as a way to symbolize veterans, sexual assault survivors,
a break from those restrictions. Women who have been raised with trans folk, vehicular accident victims,
daily messaging about their appearance being a source of their
medical intervention, cancer survivors,
ex-cons, and even botched invasive
worth can employ tattooing to challenge traditional notions plastic surgery patients, etc.
of femininity. Gay men who have been raised with homophobic Anonymous
messaging about their masculinity can turn to tattooing to reclaim
Even marking people’s identity and
masculinity on their own terms. The potential for empowerment not reworking old work or covering
and rebellion in tattooing is limitless.
up anything­—revealing something—
that is a big one.
• Expressing pride in a culture or identity. Particularly for those Anonymous
whose identities and backgrounds are made to feel “less than,”
tattoos to express cultural pride or strength in one’s identity can
transform their relationship to the world around them. Images
of queer pride, Black power, Chicanx pride, and countless others
can be fortifying statements and make individuals feel more deeply
connected to their roots and communities, as well as become a
way for them to connect with others who share their backgrounds.
• Resisting assimilation and erasure. Particularly in state
or institutional spaces that erase individuality (prisons, psychiatric
facilities, border detention facilities, the military) through
uniforms, dress codes, and regulation of bodily functions
like sleep, showering, using the bathroom, and eating, tattoos
can be an urgent and potent way to remind oneself of their
personhood and values.
• Being seen how you want to be seen. Tattooing is a visual
way to create your own personhood. It’s an ongoing creative
project, a visual language that interfaces with the world around
you to project what you want to project. Tattooing is unparalleled
as a medium for bodily communication and is limitless in its
stylistic potential.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 18
Toolkit Take inventory of the tattoos you’ve done in the last week
(or day, month, year). Which of these traits could you see entering
Shop Environment
into some of them?
Making clients comfortable from the moment that they first step My mentor taught me the importance
of listening to your clients: “You may
inside the shop can go a long way towards making the experience
not remember them, but they will
a positive one for everyone involved. Clients often express that this first always remember you.”
impression is their “make or break” moment when it comes to deciding Tina Lugo
whether or not to get tattooed at a particular shop. Some artists who
[Clients] don’t only go home with
work in private studios or alternative spaces have expressed that a design, they go home with the
they were motivated by wanting to provide an alternative to the often impression we have left on them
intimidating street shop environment. Having a private studio can give spiritually and emotionally.
an artist more control over the scenario. Often, the atmosphere inside Phylo
a studio can be equally as important as the individual tattooer’s vibe. People remember an experience
I’ve heard clients comment on how their own artist was great, but that more than anything!
there were (sexually inappropriate conversations happening loudly Sema Graham
around them)(another artist coming over and being invasive with
watching)(music with racist language playing) that negatively colored
their overall experience.

A brief survey via social media showed me that what makes people Creating an inclusive environment
feel initially comfortable coming into a shop environment is deceptively in the tattoo studio is important.
It should be diverse from the people
simple. Most replied that a warm greeting and smile from the assistant
who work there to the music that’s
or artist at the front desk goes a long way towards making them feel played. I believe that this is one of
welcome and at ease. Other common responses included music that’s the first things people notice entering
not too loud or abrasive, seeing a friendly dynamic between the artists any space.
Anderson Luna
in the space, a lack of the snobbish “tattitude” clients have come
to fear, and seeing a diversity both in the people tattooing and those
being tattooed. My clients have expressed to me on many occasions
that it’s meaningful to see people like them represented as fellow
clients and as artists in a space. Conversely, they can feel a sense
of unease or distrust if a woman walks into a shop where only men
are present, or for a person of color to enter a shop where there
is no racial diversity. This extends to shop internet presence as well—
when an artist’s feed showcases only tattoos on white skin, it sends
a message to potential clients that they either don’t know how or don’t
care to tattoo dark skin. Simultaneously, clients are savvy and can tell
when shops are making performative gestures of allyship, especially
as tattooers scramble to align themselves with civil rights and other
social justice movements in order not to lose business. Shops can
be signaling more than they know by the ways they engage on social
media, particularly when artists choose to express personal views
or opinions on their work pages. Personal lives and work lives can bleed
together, as our work is a creative extension of ourselves and we
are largely freelancers and independent contractors. Consider what
you might be signaling beyond the specifics of what you post—clients
are finely attuned to learning about artists from their social media,
especially as it becomes one of the main ways to keep up with artist
availability, travel schedules, and flash offerings.

P 19 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 20


I’ve worked full-time at a Trauma
Level 1 hospital for 5 years in the
radiology department…Considering
our “patient population,” there is
a lot of trauma associated with class,
homelessness, addiction, mental
health, and very significantly, race.
In either case, in the hospital
or in tattooing, patients and clients
are both in vulnerable situations
where they have to give up a little
bit of their autonomy to a stranger
and learning to adapt to people’s
needs in either setting has really
influenced the way I treat people
(in a good way).
Raychelle Duazo
Physical Space negative experiences they’d had in traditional shops. Those clients felt
safer in a one-on-one setting with an artist they were already
comfortable with or had been personally referred to by others
in their community. In tattooing them and providing an overall positive
Place yourself in the shoes of a client walking in the door for the
experience, I see these interactions as beginning to do the work
first time. What impression are they getting of your shop? What does
of restoring a client’s trust in the tattooing process, though there
the space communicate visually?
is a wide gap to bridge between feeling safe in a private studio
and feeling ready to try out a busy street shop environment again.
One thing in particular that I always notice when I come across
In a perfect world, we want our clients to have both a sanitary and
it are racist and outdated flash on the shop walls. When I worked
quality tattoo experience as well as a customer service experience that
as a counter person at a West 4th street tattoo and piercing shop,
did not discriminate against them or cause them harm. How did we
on the wall directly across from where I sat were tattoo flash designs
arrive at a place where so many people are feeling ready to abandon
that depicted violence against women. I hated seeing them every
mainstream shops altogether in favor of less formal environments?
day and it firmly shaped my convictions about what I would and
wouldn’t reproduce when I eventually started tattooing. Artwork can
Tattooing in a post-Covid world has seen more and more artists
pile up in shops over time, and it’s a good practice to regularly take
starting private spaces. Some have been displaced as street shops
stock of what’s being displayed on the walls, in stations, in portfolios
close due to economic hardship, and some are seeking a sense
and books in the lobby and make sure there’s nothing that doesn’t
of control over safety protocols. I found myself unexpectedly becoming
reflect your shop’s current-day values.
a private studio artist, and was surprised by all the subtle changes I
noticed. I no longer had the shorthand of a shop’s name and reputation
People might bring up displayed artwork or tattoos on a shop
to situate myself within, and felt especially aware of wanting to prove
or artist’s social media and point out that it is racist or appropriative.
my professionalism to clients in my new space. Working one-on-one
Shops must be receptive to that criticism and listen and respond
with clients has felt more supportive and comfortable for them in many
accordingly. There is lots of defensiveness in the industry about
ways, but has also heightened my duty as the sole person responsible
“historical” or “vintage” tattoo flash. What people might not understand
for their environment. It’s also made me more aware of potential risk to
is that displaying or reproducing these images is an implicit co-sign,
me without the safety net of other people in the room.
and signals that you don’t find it an issue or that you are willing to
perpetuate racism. Responding to criticism and taking accountability
The harm clients have experienced ranges from being talked
is discussed more in depth in the section on transformative justice.
over and having their feedback ignored, to hearing racist jokes
and slurs. Clients have been misgendered, objectified, sexually
I’m of the belief that a tattoo shop has the potential to be
harassed or assaulted by artists, been given incorrect information
an important and magical site of community building and
about what was possible for their tattoo, or been pressured into
transformation. Tattoo shops historically have served as a site
a design they didn’t want. In a recent discussion group of over ninety
of expertise where people could go knowing that the work would
tattoo artists, I asked everyone to raise their hand if they had ever
be of quality and that they could trust the sanitation practices
had a client disclose to them harm done to them by another
of the artist and space. This is still important today, and it’s our
tattoo artist. Nearly every person present raised a hand. These aren’t
responsibility to uphold those qualities. But beyond the practical
uncommon occurrences; though these examples run the gamut
benefits of a shop, many of my own clients have had negative
in terms of impact and egregiousness, nearly every woman or nonbinary
experiences being tattooed that led them towards seeking out
client I’ve tattooed over the years has experienced something along
private studios as an alternative that felt safer for them.
this spectrum. This harm is not exclusive to shops, and private studios
are certainly not exempt from perpetuating it. In fact, private studios
As a general rule, we must simultaneously build alternatives
have the potential to put clients in a more vulnerable position if they
to existing models that aren’t serving our needs while also working
are alone with an artist that makes them uncomfortable.
within the existing models to make them serve us better. I value
and respect private studios, but also still believe in the importance
I see a schism happening between traditional shop environments
of tattoo shops. In having folks come see me inside a traditional
and new, increasingly DIY private spaces where younger tattooers
shop environment over the last ten years, I had the opportunity
can work on a clientele they’ve built through their internet presence
to give them a positive experience and demonstrate that shops
rather than needing to establish themselves via word of mouth
aren’t a toxic monolith. I was able to benefit from working and
and a shop’s reputation, as has been historically the case. Younger
growing alongside other artists and to be part of a social dynamic
artists are carving out space for themselves, eschewing the traditional
that supported coworkers and clients alike.
apprenticeship process when gatekeeping practices have kept them
from finding an entry the so-called “right way”. Younger folks
In conversations with queer artists who work in private studios,
are working to create new alternatives and a new vision for tattoo
some of them note the high percentage of their clients who recount
practices, but we shouldn’t abandon the shop model altogether.
P 21 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 22

Lots of folks talk about how they
have been to other artists who
technically did good work, but who
they felt completely lacked empathy,
and it left them feeling uncomfortable
or unwelcome in certain shops or
with certain artists.
Sarah Sun
Nor do I believe in enforcing a binary wherein tattoo shops are bad
and private studios are good. Regardless, we must examine the
ways a shop’s social environment can foster a toxic dynamic.
I would ask tattoo artists, regardless of work setting, to reflect
on where we might have made missteps in the past and to ask
ourselves what longer-term consequences those missteps could have
for the client. How could a lack of consideration on our part reflect
on our profession in a broader sense? Tattoo artists are heavily invested
in maintaining the integrity of the craft and practice of what we do,
and we hold ourselves accountable to tattooing because we see it as
something larger than ourselves. How can we extend this protectiveness
and responsibility to the ways in which we show up for our clients?
Can we look more closely at the habits we’ve developed over the
years and transform what is no longer serving us and our customers?
A crucial part of harm prevention work is intervention work, and
a tattoo studio offers many opportunities for what is called bystander
intervention7 as a way to shift toxic cultural norms. The premise
of bystander intervention is that if you see or hear something racist,
homophobic, sexist, etc, you should say something. Working towards
making a tattoo shop a place where violence will not be perpetuated
involves us checking how we talk about clients when they’re not
around, and where, in our own attitudes and conversations, we are
enabling a culture of misogyny and other discrimination. This can
look like pushing back against casual body shaming or fetishization
in conversation. Ex: “Damn, your last client was smoking hot! What was
it like getting to feel all up on that?” “Dude, I was a professional, like I
am with all my clients. It’s not cool to talk about them like that.”
The relationships we build in the shop are ones of deep trust,
whether they be with clients or co-workers. That mutual trust sets
the stage to be able to have difficult or awkward conversations and
for the outcome to be constructive. Calling out toxic behavior not
only works towards shifting culture overall, but can have an enormous
impact on those who witness it. If a client overhears something
derogatory being said by an artist, but then hears it immediately
squashed, they will feel more confident in the artist or shop’s ability
to handle conflict and create a safe environment for them. These
moments don’t have to be overly performative or dramatic, which can
potentially have the effect of escalating the moment. Tattooers have
great skills with humor and casualness. Something as simple as “Nah,
it’s 2020, we don’t say that anymore” can be extremely effective.
A serious question I want us to ask ourselves is: How do we
make the institution of tattoo shops more trustworthy? How
do we make ourselves as individual artists more trustworthy?
This is a serious undertaking and often comes about slowly
and incrementally. Cultivating trust is often about a “show, don’t tell”
7
Bystander intervention training is available in most cities and often online
via digital workshops. Familiarizing yourself with the steps of this process
or inviting instructors into the shop to teach can equip artists and assistants
to better deal with and de-escalate situations as they arise.
P 23 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
approach. This applies to shops that declare themselves to be safe
spaces as equally as it does to shops that don’t outwardly apply
a social justice framework to their practice. Declaring ourselves
to be one thing or another does not directly translate to the
accompanying values being put into place.
If we’re not cautious we can be come self-righteous and
fanatical, stuck in a pattern of hypercriticism not only of
the world but at ourselves.
Brittany Ducham
Emotional Alchemy: Transmuting Anger into Political Action
Unpacking “Safe Spaces”
It’s commonplace at this point in time for the phrase “safe space”
to be derided and made fun of. People seem to get the idea that for
a space to be “safe,” everything is considered offensive, one must
walk on eggshells, and there is no space for fun or joking whatsoever.
The word “triggered” gets thrown around as a shorthand for people
being “too sensitive” or “PC.” This erases the original intent and need
behind the concepts. In mental health circles, a trigger is a catalyst that
causes a person with post-traumatic stress disorder to re-experience
symptoms of a traumatic event. A trigger can be a sound, a smell,
a sight, an emotion that reminds someone of past trauma in some way.
These are survival based memories and can lead to seemingly
inexplicable reactions*. When someone is triggered, they can *Wisconsin Department of Health
experience overwhelming emotions like anxiety, panic, fear, and Services, Division of Mental Health
flashbacks to their original trauma. Triggers can also cause mental and Substance Abuse Services
health disorders, including substance abuse, eating disorders, and
anxiety disorders to resurface. Being genuinely “triggered” goes far
beyond having a negative reaction to a word, an image, or a person
you simply don’t like.
The creation and enforcement of a “safe space” is incredibly
difficult to form a cohesive practice around, as it means different things
to different people. For this reason, many people prefer the idea and
terminology of “safer space,” implying working towards common goals
of safety rather than having flawlessly achieved them. Other people
prefer terms like “conscious space” or “intentional space”**, **Naya Samuel, Corpus NYC
forgoing the language of safety altogether. For this reason the NYC
Safer Spaces Coalition***, a resource for safer space development, ***The Safer Spaces Coalition further
defines a “safer space” as being
suggests example guidelines such as: : “critical of the power structures that
affect our everyday lives, and where
“No space can be completely safe and free from oppression. power dynamics, backgrounds, and
We would like this space to be welcoming and engaging, the effects of our behavior on others
are prioritized.”
and we encourage everyone to be proactive in creating an
atmosphere where the safety of others is valued.”
We cannot tell someone to feel safe. Only they can define that
for themselves. There is no way to create a space that is perfectly safe
for multiple people, as each person has highly individual needs around
safety. Safety can exist along a spectrum. Most of us may not have
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 24

*A safety plan is a personalized,
practical plan that includes ways to
remain safe while in a relationship,
planning to leave, or after you leave.
www.thehotline.org
*Cisgender describes people whose
gender identity matches the sex
assigned to them at birth.
[Tattooing] has become so popular
and widely accepted, yet our
“professionalism” has remained held
back in the 90’s/00’s. This ranges
from the way consultations and
appointment bookings are handled,
all the way through to sensitivity
training. I think most tattooers/shops
are not managed with this growth in
mind, and if we take a step back to
see where we are, what we provide
to people, and what this requires of
us as human beings, we will see that
things aren’t quite structured in the
most responsible/efficient/healthy
way possible.
Ashley Love
many spaces where we feel entirely at ease, held and supported, and
able to be and express our whole selves without fear. We often make
choices and compromises in the name of safety and being ”safer”
or “safe enough” in a given situation. Anti-violence work often relies
on safety planning*, helping people to be safer when their choices
in an unsafe situation are limited.
We can let go of the idea that safety is an objective, neutral state,
and instead define within our immediate and wider communities what
expectations and practices make us feel safer. Who is involved in this
process of definition? Is it artists only? Are clients involved? If artists
are conceiving of their space as safe without asking clients what their
safety needs are, they could be missing important pieces of the puzzle.
Shops must understand the scope of harm clients experience in shops
in order to be able to try to prevent it. The idea of “safe spaces”
may sometimes rely on the idea that we can assume certain people
or identities to be incapable of harm. If an all-women shop labels itself
as safe, is this operating under the assumption that women are always
experiencing harm and never the ones causing it? How are people
outside the sphere of defined “safety” affected? Are we implying they
are always unsafe?
When working towards spaces that are free from violence or harm,
we first must define what we mean when we say “safety”. Safety
is subjective, and what makes one person feel safe could come at the
cost of another’s well-being. Consider the racist ways that white people
utilize 911 services and police when they feel “unsafe” around Black
and other people of color. Their pursuit of safety endangers the lives
of the people they are deeming a threat. When we think of “safety,”
for whom do we mean? Who gets to be safe as they move through the
world? White cisgendered* bodies have a presumed sense of safety
that others, like Black and transgender bodies, cannot assume. Efforts
towards safer spaces should center the needs of those who are most
at risk for harm.
Creating safer spaces means developing and making clear
the expectations for both workers and clients within a place
and tattoo exchange. Think about ways to facilitate those and
to provide people with what they need to meet the space’s
expectations. Define for yourself where your safety concept will
maintain flexibility and responsiveness, and where its hard limits
lie. Working towards collective safety involves working across
differences to arrive at solutions that address each person’s needs
to the fullest extent possible. Enabling people to support each
other’s need to be safer might require providing education,
guidelines, and clear communication.
Culture as a whole is rapidly evolving, as is dialogue and
awareness around gender, sexual identity, race, class, and accessibility.
As the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare the structural inequalities
of our healthcare, housing, and economic systems and the Movement
for Black Lives demands justice for the Black community’s ongoing
oppression, we are each being urgently tasked with increased
community awareness and action. Public call-outs and asks for
P 25 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
accountability are rapidly becoming commonplace within the tattoo
industry, as fellow artists as well as clients call for tattooers to do
better in enacting social responsibility. As professionals in a customer
service field it is a job requirement to stay current with changing
standards around service and workplace norms. Without doing so,
we find ourselves perpetuating harmful, outdated behaviors. This
can drive away clients, result in social and professional rejection, and
potentially directly cause harm to the people who seek out our services.
What worked great for me ten years ago when I first began
working in this profession is worlds apart from how I do my work now.
We challenge ourselves to stay current and be innovative with our
artistic concepts and techniques, and should apply that dedication
to the more unseen parts of the job as well. This goes for regular street
shops as well as spaces that define themselves as “safe” or “safer.”
Simply stating in a shop’s description that the space is anti-racist
doesn’t guarantee that it is the case in day-to-day operations. Declaring
yourself to be an ally doesn’t replace doing the daily work of learning
and unlearning, particularly when performative “allyship” and virtue
signaling* devolves into internet callouts and punitive rather than *Virtue signaling is the practice
transformative community efforts. of sharing social or political views
publicly, often via social media,
to demonstrate to others that you
are “woke”, one of the “good ones”,
or an “ally”. Sometimes motivated
by seeking praise or positive
affirmation, virtue signaling can
be meaningless and superficial
without action behind it.
The NYC Anti-Violence Project’s Anti-Oppressive Spaces Policy
Above is an image of the policy created by New York City’s Anti-
Violence Project, which they name their “Anti-Oppressive Spaces”
policy. Setting aside any knee-jerk reactiveness or preconceived
judgment, I ask tattoo artists to read and absorb the sentiments here.
Think about how these each might apply to tattoo shops and practices.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 26

I think the largest thing I have
noticed is that moving from working
in a busy shop environment to
a small private studio, the clients
often feel safe expressing thoughts
or concepts that come up during
the tattoo that previously, in a more
social environments, I may have
unconsciously worked into a larger
group conversation as a joke or
an anecdote…in my private studio,
my lack of distraction means that
the client and I often have more
personal conversations rooted in
a sense of sharing.
Alice Carrier
It’s also easy to fall into a false sense of accomplishment in
believing that we are doing “better” than other shops or artists are.
Rather than measure our capacity for growth and what we have already
achieved against an outdated stereotype of tattoo shops’ worst
behavior, we must always be asking where we can grow and improve.
Whether we are perpetuating or opposing it, we are all contributing
in some way to the mythology of tattooing’s “golden age,” an anarchic
notion of lawless tattooing with no consequences, when we collapse
all “other” shops into this stereotype. Assuming all street shops are
still playing by outdated rules denies the artists there the things they
already do well, as well as the ability they have to grow. Assuming that
every artist in a private studio is somehow more progressive and
“woke” gives them a pass on being held accountable or doing the
work to improve. Every one of us has room to learn, and everyone
we encounter has the capacity to teach us something.
The main difference I perceive between DIY private studio tattoo
practices and shop practices is the willingness and openness artists
approach clients with. This is generalizing and not to say that one
is necessarily “better” than the other. Young underground artists who
have only worked outside of shops are potentially more vulnerable
to certain types of burnout. They have in large part lost out on having
the professional work boundaries that exist in a shop modeled for them.
The simple difference in arriving at a hidden-away private space for
a one-on-one experience can set up expectations for a more intimate
and vulnerable interaction, versus a public place of business that
has unspoken codes of customer conduct in play. In contrast, artists
in shops can approach clients in a more transactional manner. A positive
aspect of the walk-in process could be that a client is potentially
more self-directed in the process of getting tattooed rather than overly
investing in a particular artist and the role they wish them to perform.
Public facing shops and private studios both face barriers to
inclusivity. While street shops are open to the public and have available
hours for anyone to walk in off the street, the ways that certain clients
are excluded or discriminated against can be more unseen. Factors like
geographic location, advertising, tattoo styles represented, employee
attitudes and the overall culture of a shop can alienate clients and
discourage different demographics of people from getting tattooed.
While private studios often have more of an eye towards being
welcoming and inclusive in their advertising, they have more barriers
to engagement by being appointment only, requiring email exchanges
to book, sometimes having higher appointment minimums, or being
difficult to find without prior knowledge of the artist or space.
Different tattoo environments can also create different norms
within them that we find ourselves adjusting to without realizing it.
If you’re a tattooer who likes to devote a lot of time and individual
attention to each client, working in a street shop with high walk-in
volume that provides little time for each client might be especially
draining for you. If you’re early in developing your clientele and are
working in a private studio with no walk-in traffic, you might find
yourself understimulated or unable to get the experience you’d hoped
for. Certain needs make particular environments inhospitable to artists.
P 27 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Tattooers who practice ritual healing traditions have expressed that I miss shop camaraderie and shop
they are unable to work in conventional shop environments as their culture, but with established
shops comes a system of checks
sessions often result in huge emotional release from the person being and balances on personal behavior.
tattooed. Wailing, crying, and shouting from their clients necessitates I know that this argument cuts
privacy and space in order to not disturb other artists or clients, and both ways, as I think opening
your own private shop is an
these tattoo artists find themselves having to seek out more private
effective means for outsider artists,
healing studios that aren’t equipped for a tattooer’s needs otherwise. particularly queer and POC
tattooers, to establish themselves.
Tattoo artists in shops are often incredulous that people would Dan Bones
want or prefer to get tattooed in alternative spaces. Tattooers who The underground self-taught tattoo
work hard to gain legitimacy in professional tattoo shops tend to come scene has a more light-hearted,
to view working outside of them as a step backwards or as being trusting and innocent approach
in opposition to professional practices. If we ask ourselves why these to interacting with strangers,
clients, and each other that was
spaces exist, a number of answers emerge. Often those spaces can surprising and refreshing.
meet needs that public shop spaces can’t, whether that be privacy Keegan Dakkar
and a more manageable interaction for someone with crippling social
anxiety, a sense of safety for someone who has been violated in a shop
before, or the space and freedom for an expressive and cathartic
emotional release. Tattoo ritualist Julz Bolinayen Ignacio rarely works
in traditional street shops for this reason, finding the crying and wailing
their clients may need to engage in during the process incompatible
with working alongside other tattooers.
Often alternative spaces are lower-cost to operate, allowing
people who work within them to pass along those savings as lower
rates that their clientele can afford. Very often alternative spaces
provide entry for people who have been shut out of tattooing
by gatekeeper practices. Sometimes those spaces allow for more
connection and intimacy than a public shop, which might feel more
transactional and service-oriented. I myself swore throughout my
career that I would never do “house calls” to tattoo, seeing it as
an entitled way for people to evade my preferred way of working.
As I’ve come to learn more about disability justice I’ve re-evaluated
that position, understanding that house calls are sometimes
potentially the only way for people with limited or no mobility
to be able to access tattooing. This is not to say that tattooers
have to strive to provide everything within their shop environment,
but simply that we acknowledge what value alternative spaces
provide, and where street shops might fall short.
Again, simply because a space is one or the other doesn’t
mean the shop or its workers are doing better or worse than others.
The good news is, most of us likely already have return customers,
which is a sign that we are doing something right! While having regular
clientele and positive word of mouth doesn’t mean we have nothing
to improve upon, it’s a strong starting point. If people keep coming
back, that’s a wonderful indicator that we’re meeting their needs. Take
the time to think about what those might be for them and try to hone
the abilities you already have. It can be challenging and exhausting
to think about what you may be doing wrong, or what you should
be doing better without spiraling into self-blame or feeling a sense
of failure. Acknowledging your strengths and how you can apply
those in new and different ways can lessen that stress, making you
feel empowered in the process rather than helpless.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 28
Toolkit Inventory Your Strengths
We often have a hard time seeing our own positive attributes.
If you can, pair up with a coworker and make a list of the good
qualities you see each other enacting at work and as people in general.
What might you say about someone you work with? Are they patient?
Do they have a special way of putting any type of person at ease?
Do they make you laugh when you’re in a bad mood? Are they
generous, always willing to give constructive feedback on a drawing?
What might they say about you?
Where else can you find positive feedback to build on? Do you
get thank-you notes or e-mails from clients? Glowing Yelp reviews?
Take another look at these and see what you can learn about your
practical skills.
As cheesy as it may seem, try printing out a few of these and
highlighting what meant the most to you to hear. Revisit them if you’re
feeling ineffective and remind yourself that you have many abilities.
P 29 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Power Dynamics
POWER is important to acknowledge in tattooing. We step As tattooers we are in a position
of power, and it can be really easy
into a position of power each day when we walk into the shop ready
to abuse that—unknowingly and
to tattoo. We hold the safety and pain of others in our hands. We benignly in some cases—and I see
are seen as experts and the shop is a space of authority. It’s crucial it as a major part of my job to
to look at what that feels like for a client to walk into. It’s also important always be checking that dynamic.
Virginia Elwood
not to abuse that imbalance of knowledge. As a culture we are
understanding the ways that power can erode our ability to freely [A lack I see in the industry is artists]
consent. Non-tattooing examples of this would be a CEO asking not taking seriously the power
out an employee over which he has firing power, or that any sexual dynamic between tattooer and
client, and using it manipulatively
relationship between inmates and correctional officers in a jail to just sort of get on with things
or prison constitutes sexual assault, as the officer is in a direct position in an unfeeling way.
of authority and control. A tattooing example might be a client being Amelia Rose
asked out by an artist in the middle of an ongoing larger piece and
Through my practice, I’ve learned
feeling that they can’t say no because they don’t want to chance that the act of sharing power with
the artist ruining or not finishing their tattoo, or a shop owner sexually my clients has helped them have
harassing an apprentice who feels they have to withstand the abuse a more positive tattooing experience
to “earn” their chance to learn the craft. overall. The idea of “being in control”
as the tattooer is often typical
with people in and out of the
The existence of a power imbalance is not inherently a negative tattoo industry. I don’t really agree
or harmful fact. They may exist within exchanges that are totally with the idea of this role, and by
employing an open communication
consensual. The important thing is that the relationship or interaction
and collaborative process, I’m
is mutually negotiated and agreed upon and stays within those able to “share the power,” making
parameters. Responsibly occupying a position of professional what usually can be a vulnerable
power can help us assert and maintain necessary boundaries. position for them more comfortable.
Niki Rain
Our clients are also acknowledging that power when they defer
to our professional opinion on design, placement, and other practical
aspects. The challenge is to be able to own the power that our
experience and knowledge provides us without using it to undermine
the power that our clients have to make choices and communicate
honestly throughout the process of getting tattooed.
In tattooing, power imbalances can be created in a number
of ways. In comparison to us as the expert practitioners, clients
may feel ignorant and uninformed, which can disempower them,
relegating them to a position where they defer to us without question.
It is our duty to return power to the client by sharing information,
thus clearing away some of the murkiness that keeps them from
being able to communicate their needs. We must keep in mind
that a client asking questions does not take power away from us
or diminish our knowledge and expertise. In fact, asking questions
or directing a conversation away from oneself can be a nervousness
or trauma mechanism.
A client might ask “what is that?” or “how do you do that?” as
a way to either assuage their nerves by gaining information, or to make
conversation towards the same end. You can respond in a way that
acknowledges what they’re asking for with their query, without putting
yourself in a position to give away the secrets of your technique
or sharing more than you’re comfortable with. For example, a client
watching you mix grey washes might ask “what are those?” Rather
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 30
 than telling them exactly how many drops of ink you use in each cap
or what your formula is, you can explain that each is a different dilution
of ink to create different shades of grey. Rarely if ever do I have clients
press for more details, which confirms to me that it’s more about
transparency and an open exchange creating mutual comfort rather
than a client needing specifics. A client does have the right to know
what’s about to happen to their body, though, and if your impulse
is to shut those questions down, question why that might be and what
effect it has on the person in your chair.
in the difficult position of feeling we must compromise our needs
or values simply to earn a living. Radical queer financial advisor
Hadassah Damien speaks to this in her practice, writing:
The situations that create our work lives train many people
to tamper desire and distance themselves from hoping
to experience true consent: the presence of yes. Instead,
we may labor in situational consent: good enough given
my options.
Hadassah Damien
Bringing #MeToo to Choosing Work: Consent and a Job

I want tattooers to always be
examining the power dynamics
inherent to the process—we have
to *try* to level the power dynamic
throughout the appointment,
it won’t happen on its own.
Keara McGraw
The perception of an artist’s popularity can also contribute
A helpful step in understanding power in tattooing is to bring
to power dynamics. If a client has the preconceived notion that an artist
an awareness to the identities and privileges* we show up with. *Privilege is a special right,
is in-demand, has a longer waiting list or is particularly well-known, advantage, or immunity granted only
Holding a deeper understanding of the power we possess in our daily
they may come in with a more pre-established type of respect for the to a particular person or group.
lives and how we move through the world will inform how we approach
artist and their time and process versus approaching a walk-in tattoo
power dynamics in the tattoo exchange. Holding identities that are
artist more transactionally, perceiving that they are on the client’s time.
privileged by the world at large might put you in a position of power
While an artist with popularity receiving more respect from a client
over a client, for example, if you are cisgendered and your client
may enable them to match and return that respect for the client,
is transgender, or if you are a fluent speaker of your region’s primary
it can also potentially disempower the client, who may think they need
language and your client is not. Some identities and privileges can
to acquiesce to whatever the artist wants because their availability
change over time and will necessitate a re-assessment of what it means
is limited, or that they know better.
to hold them. Identity, privilege and power are complex and layered.
Folding-self reflection on these into your work approach should be an
Consider as well how assistants at shops are treated, by
ongoing process and continuous awareness.
both artists and clients. I have been mistaken for a shop assistant
on numerous occasions, especially early on in my career, and the
difference in how I was treated by clients was striking when contrasted
with how they treated me once they realized I would be tattooing them.
Many of my own identities made me vulnerable to being treated
badly by clients and visiting tattooers who wanted to feel above me
in the tattoo world social hierarchy. I’d have detailed conversations
with clients about their design only to then have them ask “So who’s
going to tattoo me?,” dismissing my knowledge and perspective.
Other clients would simply thrust their credit card or cash at me
in an unspoken demand and assumption that I was there to fulfill
an assistant role. There was an immediate difference in how they would
treat me when I let them know I’d get the assistant to help them.
Power dynamics exist as well between artists and people interested
in learning to tattoo. Aspiring apprentices can be so hungry for an
opportunity to learn, that they go on to accept mistreatment and
exploitation from their supposed “mentors.” This is exacerbated
by the industry’s reputation for hazing and the notion that one has
to “prove” how badly they want to tattoo or demonstrate that they
are willing to “earn” it.

Power dynamics can function in all directions. Artists can be put

in compromising positions by clients. Oba Jackson of Push Tattoo
spoke to this during the 2019 panel discussion “The Experience
of a Black Tattooer” with Ink the Diaspora, recounting an occasion
where he was made to tattoo an image of the confederate flag
as an apprentice. Artists can be made uncomfortable by inappropriate
questions or conversations with clients, sexual propositions,
or other violations in which clients feel able to take advantage
of the professional relationship. Being a service provider can put us

P 31 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 32

Toolkit Identity Self-Assessment Ask yourself*: *Another helpful prompt for self-
reflection on privilege and race can
be the questionnaire derived from
How do I define myself? Peggy McIntosh’s Unpacking the
Social identity wheels can help us think critically about the layers Invisible Knapsack.
How does the world define me because of those things?
that form our identities and sense of self. Some aspects of our identity https://www.racialequitytools.org/
are fixed and a core part of who we are, including age, race, sexuality, resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
Which of my identities are visible to others whether or not
and others. Some aspects are shaped more by external factors
I disclose them?
like education, political alignments, language, and religious beliefs.
Consider how they intersect and are shaped by each other. Reflect
Which of my identities empower me? Which disempower me?
on how privilege normalizes some identities over others, or how the
Can any of them be both?
intersection of multiple identities changes how you experience them.
How do others experience identifiers differently from me?

Which of my identities are most important to me?

Fam
age ily What blind spots do my identities create for me?
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P 33 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 34


I have learned there is nothing wrong
in asking about limits when it comes
to interacting with a person’s body.
Glossy
*Source: Corinne Kai Tattooing +
Consent workshop
Especially as a survivor of sexual
violence, I never want people
to feel like any nature of touch
is “just how the process goes”
and unable to be adapted to their
comfort levels—I will always adapt.
Keara McGraw
Don’t get me wrong, I like tattooing
a certain thing… and I like to push
that certain thing, but I would
not make my client feel that they’re
beneath me if they do not choose
that certain thing.
Jessie Fora
*The Women’s Prison Association
advises tattoo artists to be on the
lookout for warning signs of possible
trafficking. These can include:
- Dominating person telling the
tattoo artist what to do
- Visible signs of physical abuse
- Person who is getting the tattoo
may be meek, silent, not making
eye contact with anyone, looking
drugged/dazed, and/or looking
at the ground. They may also not
be able to identify where they are
or where they are staying
If you suspect a client may be
being trafficked, you can contact
a local trafficking survivor support
organization for more guidance.
Navigating Consent
The human interaction was as crucial as the artistry itself—that trust:
making people feel that you’re going to do them right, to the best
of your ability, as well as essentially function as a conduit for them
to realize themselves—the art part of themselves.
Don Ed Hardy
Modern Primitives
What is informed consent? What is the difference between consent
and assent?
We assume when people step into a shop that there is an implied
consent to being tattooed. In reality, consent should be an ongoing
negotiation to make sure the client is going into being tattooed
knowing what to expect, saying yes to it, and feeling excited and
positive about the experience. Consent happens in the absence
of pressure or coercion*. Good consent practices take into account
the power dynamics present and work to create access points for
needs to be expressed on the side of both client and artist. For the
space to say “yes” to exist, the space to say “no” must also exist.
What does this look like in practice?
Communicating clearly with the client about what they can
expect during the tattoo process. Describe the steps beforehand
and talk through steps as you perform them. Verbalize that they
have the right to ask questions at any point.
Creating space for collaboration and their input on their
tattoo design. Communicate with clients ahead of their appointment
so that the artist and client are on the same page about what the
design will be. Keeping in mind that it’s not always easy to speak
up in the moment, make a point of asking questions that include their
input and underscore that they should be happy with the final design.
Examples: “Tell me what you think of this drawing. Do you like
how the script is positioned next to the flowers? Do you like the sizing
of this? Is there anything you can see that you’d like to add or change?”
When stenciling and sizing, state ahead of time: “Keep in
mind that the size can change to your liking even after it’s stenciled.”
Oftentimes clients assume a stencil can’t be remade or that it’s
a long and complicated process to redo it. Let them know that
it’s no trouble to adjust it.
Be aware of non-verbal cues as well as spoken feedback.
Avoiding eye contact, closed body language, and hesitation can
be signs that a client is unsure but having a hard time saying so.
An artist has the right to say no to tattooing someone who is unable
to give a clear and enthusiastic yes. If the client is accompanied
by someone who is doing the talking for them and pressuring them
to get the piece done, this can be a red flag of coercion*.
P 35 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Affirm the client’s priorities in design and placement (we can
make our own professional suggestions as to technical application,
design, and placement, but ultimately the question should be
“do YOU like this?” versus “I think this is best”). When making
suggestions or explaining design and placement constraints,
explain the technical “why” behind it so the client understands
the possible limitations and doesn’t just hear a generic “no.”
Bear in mind that a client may not always be sure about
getting tattooed. A tattoo is a permanent commitment and change
to one’s appearance, and it’s important to afford that decision the
weight it deserves. If a client has second thoughts, it can be helpful
to give them some time and space alone with the design or stencil
to think about it without the stress of their artist standing next to them.
Positive affirmations (without pressuring them) can be helpful here,
but ultimately the goal is for a client to feel excited about getting their
tattoo and not as if they are talking themselves into it. Giving a client
an “out” can be a good practice to remind them that the final decision
on whether or not to get tattooed is theirs.
Example: “It’s okay if you need time to think about it. Maybe
today’s not the right day. You have your whole life to get tattooed.
You can always come back another time. I take walk-ins every day
or we can make you a new appointment for next week to give you
more time to consider it.”
Be mindful of privacy preferences and physical comfort, as
well as negotiating consent around touch throughout the process.
Offer clients privacy screens if they would like them, even if the area
they are having tattooed isn’t your definition of a “private area”
(everyone’s definition of and level of comfort around this is different).
Offer to have them lay down to be tattooed rather than sit if it is more
comfortable or relaxing (as is practical).
Check in with them about needing to adjust their body or clothing
(ex: “Is it okay if I roll down the waistband of your jeans to apply
the stencil?”) or asking them to make the necessary adjustments
themselves (ex: “Would you mind rolling down the waistband
of your jeans so I can stencil the design?”).
Wearing gloves visually signals a type of professional touch
that could be less emotionally triggering than skin-to-skin touch with
bare hands. On the other hand, if an individual has experienced medical
trauma, gloved touch could bring up negative associations for them.
Wearing gloves is a safety requirement for much of the tattoo process,
but keep in mind alternatives and small adjustments for touch without
gloves: i.e. using the backs of your hands rather than fingertips to put
on stencils or affix bandages, or touching the surface of the bandage
rather than employing unnecessary touch on the surface of their skin.
Verbalize before you begin that the client can ask for a break
at any point they feel they need or would like one. Check in with them
throughout the process—just after starting (“How is this feeling?”),
letting them know if there is a good break point coming up (Ex: “Almost
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 36

I think of tattoo sessions similarly
to how I might drive down an
unfamiliar street. A client may have
experienced traumas that will
show themselves through a series
of behaviours during the session/
consultation, and they may
never show them at all. I have
a responsibility to “drive slowly”
with all clients, at all times, so that
we don’t break an axle off in
a pothole and leave the street
and the car both worse off.
Lizzie Renaud
*Source: PRYSM and University of
Kansas Sexual Assault Prevention
and Education Center
done with the outlining. This is a good mid point if you’d like to stand Collaboration: Tattooers that I have worked with
basically disregard the trauma
and stretch or take a breather”). Offer water or candy/snacks. Offer the client resource information if they’d like it—work
aspect or identity politics of the
together to make sure they are happy with their tattoo’s design, world today and don’t think it applies
Be respectful of the client’s privacy in conversation—don’t size, and placement. Ask “what do you think?” and be genuinely to tattooing. They want to put cool
assume it’s okay to ask what the original tattoo means or how they open to their feedback. pictures on people and that is the
end of it. Clients want to get cool
got it. What might be a typical “conversation starter” for artists pictures and not be sexually
at work might not be appropriate for all clients. Empowerment: harassed and respected while they
Support the client’s needs. Respect their privacy or desire are in the shop. It sounds so simple
Allow the client to share if they feel they’d like to, but don’t to share details behind their tattoo. Thanking them for getting but somehow isn’t for a lot of these
tattoo shops.
ask leading or intrusive questions. Do not ask clients why they were tattooed and acknowledge the significance of their piece. Anonymous
incarcerated, or to share details of their histories. Difficult topics may
arise—see below for practices on active listening (source: WPA). To clarify these steps above, we can contrast them with their
negative alternatives. When weighing what heals against what hurts, we
Positive affirmations throughout the process and afterwards can use inverting hurt to imagine new steps towards potential healing.
are a great way to acknowledge the client’s efforts that day, as well
as to express gratitude for their trust in coming to you.
WHAT HURTS VS. WHAT HEALS
Source: Corinne Kai’s Tattooing + Consent Workbook
“Thank you so much for trusting me to do this for you.” “Great
work today! I know that’s not an easy spot to get tattooed, and you sat Even if I do ask questions about
so still.” “How are you feeling? You seemed very calm and sat well.” HURTS: HEALS: their trauma, I ALWAYS preface
the question with something like
“let me know if this question is too
Reading through these steps, they may seem like common • Retelling trauma story • Validation without asking for “proof”
invasive” or “it’s perfectly fine
sense or a standard part of tattooing’s professionalism and if you don’t want to answer this.”
• Asking for specific details about • Humanizing through compassionate
politeness. When we consider them simply as professional functions communication
Jessie Fora
trauma event
or superficial niceties, we make it easier for them to fall by the wayside
without it seeming like a “big deal.” What they achieve in actuality • Being treated as a number/rushed along • Options for privacy
beyond the superficial nature of customer service is serving people’s
deeper needs in regards to the core aspects of a trauma-informed and • Not humanized in the experience • Communication about clothing removal
client-centered approach: safety, choice, trust, collaboration, and • Communication prior and throughout
• No options for privacy
empowerment.* tattoo process
• No choice in service offered
Safety and Trust: • Opportunity/open to feedback
Earning trust in the time allotted for a tattoo can be a tall order, • No opportunity to give feedback
• Collaborative
as trust is built over time and through demonstrating actions that
• Non-collaborative in approach
build confidence from the client. You can work towards building • Communication about safety
rapport by engaging in the practices below—and following through. • Failure to prioritize safety
Offering choices by themselves doesn’t establish trust; fulfilling • Open language
your promises and showing that you’re listening and attending to • Coercive language
a client’s needs does.
Introduce yourself, describe what people can expect through
the process and be true to those expectations. Establish ways
for the client to take breaks. Utilize verbal communication around
touch, and give the client intentional openings to ask questions
or express concerns. Address the client by their correct name
and gender pronouns.
Choice:
Give the client decision making ability underscores that getting
tattooed is their choice and that they have control throughout the
process. Choices as simple as “Would you like a glass of water?”
“Would you like a privacy screen?” “Would you rather change into
shorts?” remind clients of their own agency.
P 37 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 38
Toolkit Practicing Consent
Role play with a coworker as artist and client, then switch roles.
Practice offering touch, a design, a position. Get comfortable with both
offering and receiving yes and no answers. Negotiate until you get
to a point where both people can agree.
Example: “Here’s the design I drew for you. I’ll go make a stencil.”
“Actually, I asked for the text to be an ornate script instead of a block
lettering. Can we make that change first?” “The text is a small size
and an ornate script will be hard to read, but we can do a simple single
line cursive if you’d like.”
“Let me have you hop up on the bed with your head on the pillow.”
“I recently had back surgery and pillows are uncomfortable for me.
Can I lay flat on the table instead?”
P 39 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
The Game of No
Pair up. Set the guideline that one person will ask the other if they
can touch them in various ways, and that the other person will say
no to each request. Ask silly or “innocent” questions like “Could I hold
your hand?” “Could I untie and re-tie your shoelaces?” “Could I touch
my finger to the tip of your nose?” Switch roles. Notice what comes
up for you in saying “no.” Is it harder than you expect it to be? Do
you find yourself working to convince yourself that the touch might not
be so bad? Does a “no” flow from you freely and easily?
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 40

I have to stay in my lane and trust
[clients] that they can care for
themselves. This means: I will
communicate the best I can and
ask for consent, but I have to trust
my clients to do their part (telling
me their needs).
Charline Bataille
For Clients • Being easily startled by noise or unexpected touch
• Emotional swings
• Flashbacks
• Disassociation
The first step towards being able to advocate for yourself is to
• Nausea or dizziness
understand what your own needs are. This may only come with time
and through the experience of getting tattooed a few times to know
Some of these are normal to the tattoo process—it’s not
what type of experience is best suited for you. Ask yourself questions:
unusual to be nervous beforehand or to experience increased tension
do you know your body to have a complicated relationship to pain?
in response to the tattooing process. After all, you are undergoing what
Are there things artists did in the past that you absolutely want to avoid,
can be a painful or challenging experience. Communicate what you
or want to repeat? Remember that yes, getting tattooed can be painful
are feeling with your tattoo artist. We can often offer coping techniques
and challenging, but you are choosing it because you feel ready.
and are best able to help you move forward when we know what you
You have a sense that you can endure it, even if there is nervousness
need. It’s important to let an artist know if you are experiencing any
layered on top of that certainty.
nausea, dizziness, or lightheadedness, as low blood sugar or nerves
can cause these symptoms. We can take a break and get you a snack
Once you have a sense of what your needs might be, look for
and water until you feel better and are able to continue.
artists well ahead of time based on those needs. Seeking a trauma- [I use] more straightforward
aware tattoo artist that can accommodate your own personal triggers? language if [clients] seem to need
For those who are aware of needs beyond these, therapist Asher
A high-volume walk-in shop might not be the best place to go without more from me. It usually goes
Pandjiris recommends “if you have recently experienced something something like “don’t worry, I got
an appointment set up or having met the artist beforehand. Bear
traumatic or are currently in the process of working through PTSD, bear you, we are gonna get through this
in mind that tattoo artists aren’t case workers or therapists. While nice and easy. I’ve been there.
in mind that it could be particularly intense to get a tattoo. If this might
we can provide clients with a professional and safe environment I know what it actually feels like
be the case for you, consider what kind of support you might need,
and kind supportiveness, we cannot provide personalized, ongoing too.” It helps them not feel alone
before/during/after the tattoo. You are responsible for your emotional in what they are experiencing and
psychological guidance the way mental health practitioners are
care and the tattoo artist is responsible for providing an emotionally being safely held by me and feeling
qualified to do. If we attempt to step into a therapeutic role when the sincere care goes a long way.
safe, welcoming and professional environment for the tattoo process.”
we’re not qualified to do so, we risk causing more harm to the client. Stephanie Tamez
While tattoo artists are typically open and willing to accommodate
We are best equipped to help you within our professional
client needs, we are not mind readers and can’t know or perceive
capacities if you share information with us beforehand. If you know
an individual’s needs and circumstances fully, particularly when we are
that aspects of being tattooed or similar situations can be triggering
meeting a new person for the first time. It’s enormously helpful and
for you, let us know that. Just like you need all the information about
important to volunteer information you’d like your artist to know, even
us, we need all the information about you. You should not feel ashamed
if you’re not sure it’s relevant. The more we know, the more everyone
or judged for sharing. We can’t plan ahead if you don’t tell us. Share
can go into the session feeling prepared and equipped to respond
any strategies that you know are helpful to you. One client I’ve tattooed
to anything that arises.
multiple times will say “I’m going to be silent for a bit when you first
start—once the endorphins kick in I’ll be back.”
Example: “The first few minutes of a tattoo can be challenging
for me. I’ve found that listening to music without interruption helps
me get into the right headspace, so I’d like to do that for the beginning
of our session. Once I can relax it’s easier for me to hold conversation
and be present with others.”
Questions to ask yourself: What has a positive tattoo experience
looked and felt like for me in the past? What did I as the client bring
to that? Did I communicate the things I wanted to communicate
to the artist? If not, why was that? How can I assert myself differently
moving forward to help both myself and my tattoo artist?
Possible trauma responses during tattoo sessions can include:
• Fear or anxiety
• Sweating and/or heart palpitations
P 41 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 42

If I feel as though if there is a life
or death situation I will take the
time to find available resources
for them in the area and pass
that information on to them
suggesting they reach out.
Andrea Jones
Hairstylist
I have had clients who react
to [my] touching them on a certain
part of [their] body that has triggered
a memory of abuse, and I have had
to figure out how to help them ride
through the moment.
Stephanie Tamez
I let them have the space to actually
feel it and I try not to fix them or give
non solicited advice.
Brody Polinski
Crisis Intervention:
In the Moment
Practical Tools for Tough Sessions
Clients regularly face challenges in getting through a tattoo
session. If a client is having a hard time,it makes it that much harder
for the artist to do their job well. It’s in our best interests to help our
clients calm down, relax, and settle into the experience so that we can
finish their tattoo and leave them with a good overall impression.
Simple affirmations like “you’re doing great” can go a long way.
Acknowledging what they’re experiencing and that they’re not alone
in feeling it does as well. Ex: “I know it’s not easy.” “I had a hard time
getting my ribs tattooed too.”
Coaching clients through breathing deeply can be enormously
helpful. Many artists have used these techniques: talking them through
breathing out as a line is pulled, breathing in between lines, or breathing
more deeply during breaks to wipe or dip into the ink caps. Reminding
clients that they can take a longer break or just a two-minute pause
to re-center can be other options as they can get into an “all-or-nothing”
mentality and mistakenly think that asking for a break means they
won’t have it in them to re-start. Sugar boosts go a long way towards
replenishing energy and getting a second wind. Keeping clients in the
loop as to where in the process you are can be reassuring for some
people, for example, “I just have to shade in this one area of the bird’s
wing and then you’re all done.” “We’re in the home stretch.”
If a client has a strong or unexpectedly negative reaction, there
are a number of things we can do in the moment. Naming what’s
happening and taking a pause and a deep breath together to “reset”
can help move past what the client was feeling overwhelmed by.
We should also keep in mind that what to us is an alarming reaction
might feel natural and not disruptive to the client. I have had clients
who knew that crying was a part of the process for them, who
communicated that to me beforehand so that I knew it didn’t mean
they needed to end the session.
“Hey, let’s stop for a second and check in. Why don’t we take
a deep breath together? Breathe in, and breathe out. How are you
feeling? Are you okay to continue?”
This strategy can serve to interrupt whatever might be happening
and gives you an opportunity to redirect. This is useful conversationally
as well if the subject matter is one you’re not comfortable with.
“This conversation is feeling pretty heavy—I’m guessing for both
of us. Why don’t we try taking a couple of deep breaths together,
stretching out, and changing the subject?”
P 43 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
If a client is in crisis, you can stop, have them lie down and take
a more significant break. Talking someone through a crisis can mean
asking them what they need. Would they like to stop for the day? Would
they like to call a support person to come be with them for the rest of
the session or to take them home? Do they need medical intervention?
Affirm the things they are doing to care for themselves (“You did the
right thing in letting me know you needed to stop. It’s great you listened
to your body.”) Safety planning can help practically and emotionally.
Safety planning asks them what they need, and supports them in
logistically arranging and thinking through those needs. If a client
has an anxiety attack and is unable to continue getting tattooed,
safety planning could look like asking them how they plan on getting
home safely, what they want to do to support themselves for the rest
of the day, and reviewing their support systems with them. “Would
you like to sit in the lobby with a glass of water until you feel okay
to go? Can I call you a car to take you home so you don’t have
to be on the subway for an hour in this heightened state? Would it feel
supportive to call someone to be with you? Maybe you can text them
now so that they know when you’ll be home. Would you like to check
in with your therapist tomorrow? Maybe you can set a reminder
on your phone for the morning.”
The tattooing process activates our nervous system in a number
of ways. Nervous systems that are already sensitized due to trauma
or fatigue are more likely to respond to stimuli. Our reactions can move
between hyperarousal and hypoarousal—being heightened, anxious,
and “on” versus being checked out, unresponsive or turned “off.”
Apart from the commonly known crisis reactions of fight and flight,
there are also freeze, submit, and attach*. In a tattoo shop context, *Source: Andrea Glik, Trauma &
this might look like the following from either tattoo artist or client: Resilience for Clinicians & Healers
Fight
Combative, angry, challenging
Flight
Cancelling, not being able to sit still, moving away
Freeze
Not making eye contact, unresponsive, not connecting
Submit
**Cortisol is known as the “stress
“Going with the flow,” no boundaries, not wanting to collaborate
hormone” for its role in regulating
the body’s stress response. Its main
Attach function is to help fuel our “fight or
flight” response, as well as to help
Getting into deep relationships/overly reliant,
regulate sleep, blood sugar, and
“You’re the only one who understands”
blood pressure.
Our sympathetic nervous system releases stress hormones, ***Also known as epinephrine,
adrenaline is a hormone released by
including cortisol** and adrenaline***. Most artists and people
the adrenal gland. It’s deployed in
who have been tattooed are familiar with what this looks and feels like
response to situations that are
during the tattoo process. A client might come in heightened and dangerous, stressful, or exciting.
nervous, but once the tattooing has been going on for a few minutes, Adrenaline helps the body react
quickly to these, enabling the heart
receive the burst of adrenaline and cortisol that helps steady and relax
to beat more quickly and breathing
them into the pain, then experience a deep fatigue or “crash” once the rate to increase.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 44
Because tattooing can hold heavy
symbolic meaning, I try and prioritize
listening as a method of holding
space for that. I want the client
to feel empowered to tell me what
the experience means to them,
never the other way around.
Keara McGraw
Phoenix Ink: Psychodynamic
Motivations for Tattoo Attainment
by Survivors of Trauma
December Renee Maxwell
University of Arkansas 2017
*Mindfulness is the practice of
bringing awareness to the present
moment and state of your mind,
body, and emotions without
judgment.
session is over and the stress hormones have subsided. Another part
of the nervous system that plays a major role in helping people feel safe
is the ventral vagus nerve, also known as the “nerve of connection.”
Part of the parasympathetic system, the ventral vagus nerve is related
to upper facial movements and expressions. This is why practices
of active listening that relate to facial expressions such as nodding,
making eye contact, furrowing the brow in concentration, and others
work to make people feel safe and listened to. This can be extremely
healing to the nervous system.
One client shared with me that she had experienced a series
of traumatic events when she was younger that happened while
she was facing away from the person assaulting her. Later,
while receiving a tattoo on her back, she was unexpectedly triggered
and reminded of her assault. She understood the studio to place
huge value on ‘sitting like a rock’ and struggled to keep her tears back.
Eventually she was unable to stop crying and the artist took notice.
They took a break, and the artist attempted to problem-solve
by putting a mirror in front of her so that she could see what was
happening behind her. The two ended up continuing, and she
forced herself to endure the remainder of the session despite
feeling deeply upset. Since then she has not been able to return
to the shop to finish the tattoo, despite having an overall positive
impression of and relationship with the artist. She fears getting
tattooed again and worries not only that an artist won’t respect her
limits, but that she will pressure herself into pushing past her own
limits out of a sense of obligation and guilt.
The parasympathetic system is also known as the system of “rest
and digest.” It is the system that works to conserve energy, slow the
heart rate, and relax constrictions of the digestive system, and “put the
brakes” on the body’s stress response. This response can be activated
in a number of ways, such as somatic practices like EFT tapping or
“tremoring,” as well as by cognitive coping strategies that engage the
prefrontal cortex. Reading, puzzles, affirmations, and reciting learned
information can all engage the prefrontal cortex and enable us to be
critical without being activated towards an elevated stress response.
In a session with a client, we might put this into practice by asking
them to read something aloud or to tell us how they make their favorite
recipe, or we could ask them to tell us who has done their other tattoos
and when they got them. There are natural ways to fold grounding
engagement into conversation.
Tattooing also holds the potential to be healing for survivors
of trauma due to the process itself, particularly for survivors of sexual
assault. Treatment approaches that use mindfulness* and focus
on environmental and sensory input as a way to manage intense
emotions are shown to be effective in helping with emotional
regulation. Researchers have found that practices like yoga and guided
meditation can reduce PTSD symptoms as they enhance focus and
emotional regulation. Translating the same properties of focus and
bodily awareness into a practice that the client chooses and enjoys—
like tattooing—can potentially have therapeutic effects, particularly
as episodes of controlled stress can sublimate emotional pain and
alleviate anxiety symptoms. Much like therapeutic strenuous exercise,
P 45 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
tattooing also provides pain followed by cathartic release. As the client I work at a hospital tattooing
post-reconstruction patients. That
is required to maintain their emotional center through a physically and
includes breast cancer and
emotionally stimulating (and often challenging) episode, tattooing could sometimes transgender
provide nervous system and emotional regulation benefits alongside reconstruction that have left some
its other empowering aspects. without areolas. I don’t get paid
much there...or sometimes at all. I
truly do it to help these people feel
Holding Space for Clients Sharing better about themselves. There have
been studies showing how important
One of the most astonishing discoveries I made early on about what the tattooing is to someone’s mental
might be called the mystique of the tattoo: a kind of temporary love affair health in these surgical procedures.
between artist and customer. If conditions are precisely right…the customer’s Jessie Fora
defenses fall as soon as the needle starts its work; and he tells the artist things
which (I feel sure) he has never told his wife or his girl-friend or his best buddy.
The tattoo artist becomes for him a psychiatrist, priest, best boyfriend, mother,
father—a kind of ‘blood confessor,’ and for a little while one can almost notice
a lingering incense as the dingy shop becomes a sort of shadowed confessional.
Samuel M. Steward
Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos
The ways in which people talk about pain and traumatic events are
not always as serious and direct as we might expect. In fact, pain and
trauma can often be framed in a joking manner or as clients test the
waters of the recipient’s openness to hearing this information and their
potential to provide reassurance.
Example: “Once this crazy thing happened, haha…isn’t that so
weird? Yeah, I guess that was stressful, I mean it wasn’t THAT serious.”
If I hear in what’s being said that someone is hoping for When I first started doing consults
affirmation, I’ll try to find a way to gently support what feelings are with clients I realized that people
being expressed. This can involve some “listening between the lines,” were looking for me to hold space
for really heavy experiences...
and I never want to overreach, so tend to err on the side of caution. I learned through the process that
If, for example, someone says something like: “Yeah, it’s kind of uncool, I needed to work on getting my
my ex ended up sharing some private explicit photos of me on their boundaries lined up so that I’m not
social media after we broke up, even though I had asked them to delete so porous­—and also so that I can
honor my capacity and my skill set.
them,” a response could be something such as “That’s definitely Jade Marks
uncool, and it sounds like it’s especially hurtful because you specifically Herbalist
asked them not to keep the photos.” Here you’re affirming what they
I’ve learned that offering a
said—it’s “uncool”, mirroring the language they chose and reflecting
“resolution” to the issue they are
back what they said about the violation of their privacy even after speaking about can be rude and
their direct request. Functioning in this type of supportive role rather unwanted. A simple response like
than introducing strong judgment (“Fuck that person!”) or absolutes “I understand” or an acknowledgment
of their strength to even tell a
in naming the behavior (“That’s revenge porn and that’s illegal.”) relays stranger their story speaks volumes.
that you are supportive while upholding a professionalism in the context Sometimes even telling their story
of a sensitive or emotionally charged topic. You can’t tell someone how is a huge step forward for someone.
to feel but you can provide a supportive space for them to feel safe Jessie Fora
sharing if that’s something you feel equipped and willing to do.
People can be hesitant to open up because of stigma, shame,
or fear of repercussions or being misunderstood. I began to understand
more broadly how differently individuals express crisis when I was
training as a volunteer for an LGBTQIA+ crisis hotline. Crisis doesn’t
always look like shouting or crying. It can look like shutting down,
disassociating, running on “autopilot,” minimizing, or focusing on the
tasks at hand and avoiding emotional processing (see above for
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 46

I am endlessly fascinated by
storytelling and the history
of a person and how that
history informs who they are
when they are on my table.
Tea Leigh
My job is to do a good tattoo
on somebody. To me that’s number
one. If we can talk during it and
have a great conversation and
grow from the experience, that
is an awesome bonus.
Zac Scheinbaum
Ultimately I feel responsible for
making the best tattoo I can, and
even if it means not being able
to engage as deeply conversationally,
I hope that my good intentions
for the client’s well-being shows
up in the tattoo as well as how
I engage with them.
Allie Takahashi
examples of fight/flight/freeze/submit/attach). The training emphasized as adding a new layer to a tattoo’s history rather than erasing it, as I work closely with a plastic surgeon
at a hospital where I tattoo women
that calls wouldn’t be simple, and that nearly every person who the original tattoo is still underneath. That concept resonated with her
and men that have faced severe
contacted the crisis line was experiencing an intersection of problems and assuaged her worries about the symbolism of the experience. trauma. The tattooing is an end
or forms of violence that were important to understand holistically. Together we were able to reframe the day’s work to be about affirming to their battle. I have to absolutely
Someone who was experiencing homelessness because of intimate the positive changes in her life and the person she was the day she earn their trust just like every other
one of my clients. The only difference
partner violence might be afraid to seek shelter because of their came in, instead of trying to hide or rewrite her history. is, these people are usually NOT
undocumented status. Someone who is experiencing racist sexual familiar with the tattoo process
harassment in their workplace might be unable to take legal recourse I also found myself unexpectedly contending with the fact that and usually say they would never
because of being a sex worker. It is important to hold space for these most of the women had never received a professional tattoo in a shop see themselves getting tattooed
otherwise. So earning their trust
complexities and to have confidence that “people are experts in their before, which made it all the more important to talk them through what is sometimes super difficult.
own lives” (a philosophy I learned from the NYC Anti-Violence Project). they could expect and the steps of the process as I performed them. Jessie Fora
In practice, this means checking our tendencies towards believing WE Not only that, but as we began the tattoo, Karen made a number of
have a solution that can help THEM, and instead listening to what comparisons to the original experience of getting tattooed, describing I think a lot of the necessary
practices I utilize came from years
makes sense to them as available solutions or constructive steps. a situation where both she and the artist (an old boyfriend) were high, of doing professional makeup before
he had been verbally berating her and purposely digging in to hurt tattooing. There are many other
A regular client of mine with whom I had an established rapport was her, and she ended up with a completely illegible piece that he had medically related criteria than what
telling me about his weekend as we worked. He somewhat casually makeup requires, but it did set me
attempted to re-work no less than six times. Upon understanding
mentioned he had gone to a party and blacked out. As he kept speaking, up with a way to introduce myself,
he elaborated that he believed he had been roofied and had no memory that the process of getting the tattoo had been in and of itself a type introduce my space, keep a clean
of what had happened, but that he had woken up with indications that of assault, I told her firmly that a tattoo artist should never do that environment, form trust by being
gave him cause to believe he may have been sexually assaulted. and that nothing like that would be happening to her that day. It felt confident in my work and start
He kept his tone relatively light and said that he shouldn’t have gone conversations about what the
important in that situation to name specifics like “We’ll stop whenever
out, and that he shouldn’t have been drinking. In response I was able client truly needs and wants.
you feel like you need to—I won’t push you past your limits.” We were Glossy
to say “I’m so sorry that happened to you. It’s not your fault. How are
you feeling now?” After the tattoo was done and he had left I sent able to complete a large tattoo in one sitting with Karen sitting still and
calm, and at the end of the session she told me that getting the tattoo I worked in a shop for 15 years
him a message that I was glad he was safe, and offered the number
where the owner was a very invasive
for a free LGBTQIA+ crisis hotline and therapy resource. covered had been a necessary part of her recovery process. person. He would ask too many
questions and give too many people
I’d like to revisit the importance of the tattoo here. It can’t Though artists, especially older ones, can get defensive when unsolicited advice on life choices
be overstated that we are responsible for a permanent change to asked too many questions about the details of the tattooing procedure, and goals they SHOULD have rather
than minding his business. He would
someone’s appearance. While there is enormous depth to what artists we should keep in mind the possible motivations for clients to ask pull information out of people
can be willing and able to hold for a client emotionally, almost without them in the first place. Our initial reaction might be to shut down, constantly (his employees included).
exception artists say that executing the tattoo is what should take thinking that the client is trying to glean information because they It was uncomfortable. In my opinion
he was exactly the person I was
priority and that they work to find ways to balance the two for the best want to learn how to tattoo or that they are questioning our expertise.
trying NOT to be.
possible outcome. In truth, small talk and chatter can be a verbal reaction of a traumatized Anonymous
(or just plain nervous) person. The tattooing process is an easy
Examples like the ones above are not outside the realm of what and accessible place for them to engage to distract themselves
can come up in a tattoo session. I have heard stories like this and or redirect the topic of conversation away from something they aren’t
much more in my decade plus of working in tattoo shops. Disclosures comfortable discussing. A common trauma and PTSD response
often come up as a result of experiences directly related to tattooing, is hypervigilance, a heightened awareness of one’s surroundings
including stories of racism, sexual harassment, and assault by other and a constant anticipation of danger. Asking questions about
tattooers. tattooing could potentially be a way for a client to ease their fears.
*Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW,
In August of 2019 I was given the opportunity to visit Tulsa, When we feel ourselves getting defensive, we can interrupt
SEP, My Grandmother’s Hands:
Oklahoma, partnering with a local reentry services organization and that reaction by practicing body settling*. Settling your body involves Racialized Trauma and the Pathway
a tattoo shop to cover and rework tattoos on women who had been learning to soothe your nervous system in order to be more calm, to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
recently released from prison. One woman, Karen* (name changed), present, and alert despite the circumstances going on around you. (Central Recovery Press, 2017)
was still on parole and wearing an ankle monitor. She was noticeably There are a number of activities that invite this, including mindful **Body scanning starts by taking
tense and nervous when she came in. I began by sitting down with her breathing, body scanning**, hand massage, and visualization notice of each part of your body,
and doing a check-in, asking what she was feeling that day and how exercises. These exercises aren’t about avoiding stress, but about noticing the sensations and feelings
she was feeling about getting tattooed. She spoke about how anxious learning to manage stress in order to be able to respond to stressful in each area. You may begin at your
feet or at the top of your head,
she was, disclosing almost immediately that the tattoo we would situations from a place of integrity and clarity. working your way up or down.
be covering was one she had gotten just after being raped. She said Focus your attention on each part
through tears that she was afraid of covering it and of letting go of part “The central feature of any trauma response is speed,” writes of your body, noticing things like
of her past. In response, I shared that clients often think of a cover-up Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized any pain or tension, the feeling
of your clothing against it, your
feet touching the ground.
P 47 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 48

All of us have a fundamental
need to be listened to and to be
understood. Listening empathetically
creates a feeling of trust, which
releases the “compassion hormone”
oxytocin, reducing fear and bias
and creating a feeling of safety.
These brain changes promote open
communication, giving us access
to conditioned emotional learning
and enabling us to restructure
distorted thinking and reduce stress.
Kaba & Hassan
Fumbling Towards Repair
Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies. “In order
to work through your trauma, you need to learn to slow down and feel
into your body…The ability to settle or activate your body on demand
is essential for healing trauma.” Practicing slowing down and bringing
awareness to our reactive responses is healing not only for ourselves,
but for those around us who are in need of our grounded presence.
Learning this helps us be available for others in the best way that we
can. It also helps us redirect our defensiveness around any discomfort,
moving through it and enabling us to respond from the best parts of
ourselves, in a way that aligns with our values.
Tips for Active Listening: P.R.A.C.
(Source: Women’s Prison Association)
 
1. Pay Attention
Make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another
person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete
message being sent.  Enjoy the birthday party tonight!”) One of my older coworkers also
• Look at the speaker directly
• Put aside distracting thoughts
• Don’t mentally prepare a response or interrupt
• Avoid being distracted by environmental factors.
For example, side conversations
• “Listen” to the speakers body language
2. Repeat
If you’re finding it particularly difficult to concentrate on what
someone is saying, try repeating their words mentally as they say
them—this will reinforce their message and help you stay focused.
 
3. Acknowledge
Let the other person know you are listening.  can be paralyzing. Therapist Deesha Narichania offers “it’s more
• Nod occasionally
• Smile and use other facial expressions
• Note your posture and make sure it is open and inviting
• Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal
comments like “yes,” “uh huh,” or “right”
4. Clarify
Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can
distort what we hear. As a listener, your role is to understand what
is being said. This may require you to reflect what is being said
and ask questions.
• Reflect what has been said by paraphrasing:
“What I’m hearing is…”
“Sounds like you are saying…”
• Ask questions to clarify certain points
P 49 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
“What do you mean when you say...”
“Is this what you mean?”
Becoming a competent, skilled tattoo artist is as much about
developing a quality rapport with clients as it is about learning In the beginning when I started
the technical ins and outs of the craft. Both of these require years tattooing I didn’t have the capacity
to really listen while I worked.
of practice and repetition. When I first began tattooing,I had terrible Tattooing was too new and frankly,
people skills. I found it difficult to carry on a conversation, let alone damaging to my psyche due to the
help clients relax enough to make the tattoo process go smoothly. way I was trained in the craft and my
What helped me in the very beginning was creating a simple set environment at the time. Now I have
relaxed more and I can work while
of tools for myself to work from. For me, that meant finding three I talk. I enjoy supporting my clients
questions I could ask anyone who sat down in the chair that could and appreciate their stories.
act as universal conversation starters. Though I can’t remember today Anonymous
exactly what they were, they went something like “Are you from New
York?” “What do you have planned for the weekend?” “When was
the last time you got tattooed?” Then I would make a mental note
to reference one of the things they had mentioned as we said goodbye
to show that I had been listening and paying attention (“Thanks again!
passed down advice from his mentor: “Everyone has one thing they
love to talk about. You just have to ask questions until you find it.”
Creating building blocks and ready points of engagement for
yourself serves multiple purposes. It provides a foundation to expand
upon while reducing the amount of mental and emotional energy you
exert with each interaction. If you have familiar, appropriate responses
prepared, you won’t have to endure the process of searching for
a response, second-guessing yourself, and fearing it may not be
the right one.
Today it’s easy for me to talk to people because I was able
to find a simple starting point to practice with and build from.
We can apply the same approach to more challenging conversations
with clients. When people don’t know what to say, they tend to err
on the side of saying nothing. The idea that we have nothing to offer
about how you say something than what you say.” Something as
simple as “I hear you,” for example, can mean the world to someone
if it’s said with eye contact and a calm and grounded presence.
Communication and effective soothing relies upon tone and manner.
Certain types of crisis or hardship can make us feel helpless
when we have the sense that they’re outside our realm of experience.
Supporting a friend through a breakup might feel familiar and
accessible to us if we’ve done it a number of times before. Assisting
a survivor of intimate partner violence might feel impossible to us
if we haven’t done it before. Modes of support and healing can, at their
core, be more universal that we’d think. When you have a friend who
is freaking out, what do you do? Likely, you partake in some form
of listening, asking what they need, and helping in those types of ways.
We can call upon the practices we already have in place to give
us an idea of how to approach new challenges. Validating, listening
and affirming are about finding your own way and your own voice.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 50
 A few possible responses to a client disclosing something heavy
could be:
Active Listening Toolkit
“Thank you for sharing that with me.”
Come up with three questions you can ask clients to start an easy,
“I appreciate your trust.”
light conversation at the beginning of a session.
“It means a lot that you would talk to me about this.”
“I’m so sorry you went through that.”
Find three phrases that feel comfortable and natural to say in
“I hear you.”
response to someone sharing something difficult.
Corinne Kai and Shanée Smith have developed what they call
Practice saying these out loud. Try saying them with yourself,
the ACO (Affirm, Clarify, Offer) Approach to “gracefully decline being
to a friend, to a stranger. Experiment with different tones, inflections,
a support person in moments of crisis”. Their redirection strategy
and body language to see how the same phrase can communicate
involves first providing your client with the affirmation that their needs
differently depending on delivery.
are valid—repeating their need back to them, empathizing with their
current emotional state and need for support, and reminding them
it’s okay to ask for support. You can then clarify why you cannot
be a support person at the moment. This could be a detailed or simple
clarification depending on your relationship to the person seeking
support. Clarification can also be an opportunity to set or reestablish
important boundaries. Finally, you can offer what you do have the
capacity to give, asking for consent before sharing resources or advice.

“It sounds like this tattoo is related to painful past experiences

you’ve had. I appreciate you trusting me to do this piece for you. Being
here must be bringing up a lot and you deserve to process all of those
complicated emotions. I don’t know what your experience is like, and
I don’t feel qualified to offer the best support for what you need.
I can give you the site for a free LGBTQ+ therapist resource if that’s
something you’d like?”

P 51 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 52


One person tells a personal story,
then I perk up because it reminds
me of an experience I’ve had, and
suddenly everyone is swapping
war stories.
Alice Carrier
There’s our own form of “locker
room talk” that can become
infectious and unprofessional.
Tina Lugo
There’s a very performative aspect
to tattooing for me that compels me
to compartmentalize my own self
throughout the one on one process
of tattooing. Sort of like a sense of
holding your breath until the tattoo is
done and the client is gone.
Dan Bones
Confidentiality
Clients entrust us with difficult and personal information daily.
Additionally, we are often dealing with big personalities, unexpected
situations, and real characters. Wild and bizarre things can happen
in tattoo shops! There’s a long tradition of “shop talk” that involves
swapping client stories. Many of us have been asked by clients
“what’s the worst tattoo you’ve ever done?” or grilled for so-called
“nightmare stories”.
I implore that tattooers challenge themselves to think about
differentiating between what is appropriate to share and what
isn’t. We aren’t legally bound to confidentiality in the way that
therapists are,but client information shouldn’t be assumed to be ours
to retell. Especially when working in smaller cities or within particular
communities, we can become a hub for a network of folks who all
know each other. Clients take notice when artists are talking badly
about other customers inside the shop,and artists engaging in such
gossip can manifest in a self-consciousness in which the client
is left wondering what might be said about them after they leave.
It should be common sense to protect personal details about
clients when recounting a situation or experience. Things like
names or other identifying details can be omitted if we need to run
an encounter past our coworkers to get a second opinion. It’s
healthy to need to vent or blow off steam and to get feedback—
doing so is part of any professional field. Information sharing can
be necessary, if not critical, for referral or safety reasons. There are
ways to tell these stories that keep client privacy in mind, and there’s
a difference in conversation between industry peers and storytelling
to a broader audience.
P 53 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Recognizing and Honoring
Our Own Limitations
Deeper down something else was happening…I seemed to undergo
a change in their eyes, a psychic alteration that made of me a more
trusted counselor than any of their acquaintances or relatives…this
freedom in talking, this unhindered revelation and trust was perhaps
the single most astonishing thing noted during all the long years of
tattooing…it was a strange and rewarding experience for me, and
learning about my clients emotionally and intellectually was almost
as good as a roll in the hay. Yet sometimes I was left as jolted as they
seemed to be cleansed and relieved.
Samuel M. Steward
Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos
When it comes to encountering someone else’s trauma, what is
our role? At times, trauma can show up in ways that don’t always make
themselves apparent to us as service providers. Other times, trauma
can arise and surprise both us and the client. This can necessitate
dealing with trauma immediately and in the moment. We are not solely
responsible for someone else’s healing. What we are responsible
for is providing the highest level of care within our capacity. Do clients
get everything they need or want during a tattoo session? Most likely
not. But they do get what they paid for—your time and the tattoo.
We can work towards the best we each have to offer within that
space, which can mean many differing approaches. We can’t provide
professional or ongoing psychological support around things that clients
have experienced. One thing we can do is return the responsibility
for healing to the client and empower them in that journey. We can
remind them through our work with them that they are “agents in the
creation of their well being”* and that coming in to get tattooed is *Source: Corinne Kai’s Tattooing +
them being active in the creation process. Consent workbook
It’s crucial to note here that there is no one right way to approach
emotional care as a tattoo artist. Individual approaches will vary
based on who we are, what identities we bring to the table, what our
investment in and capacity for emotional labor are, and how qualified
we feel to do the work. This can change for each of us from day to day
or hour to hour. We could start our work day feeling prepared and willing
to fully show up for clients’ emotional needs, but feel exhausted by the
afternoon and need to draw boundaries to reflect that. We could also
prefer to keep emotional labor to a minimum in our workplace, but find
that challenged by clients who want more from us.
The challenge in developing a more self-aware approach to our
work is that there is no hard and fast rule that we can universally
apply to each client or session. Instead, we have to learn how to check
in with ourselves, figure out what feels good versus what feels like
a hard “no” or a “maybe,” then be able to connect that feeling with
a boundary and action. We then have to enforce those. Each part
is difficult on its own, and integrating these steps into your personal
and work life can take practice and patience with yourself.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 54
Toolkit Exercise: Check-in Tattooing can mean many things to many people. What boundaries
look like for some people might not be true for everyone. For example,
I feel that I have a lot of skill and
desire to hold space and witness
others. At the same time, I’m not a
if someone explicitly reaches out to me in crisis and asks for a tattoo therapist and I have to be real about
to cope with it in the moment, I personally would not be comfortable what I am/am not trained to do and
Before you begin your work day, take a moment to ask yourself what I can offer. I’ve learned that a lot
substituting tattooing for other forms of crisis intervention, despite
how you feel. What’s on your mind? Are you feeling relaxed? Anxious of the time people just want to be
being someone who has crisis intervention training. I would direct them
about something in particular? Bring your awareness to your body. listened to and witnessed in their pain,
to other resources in the moment and ask to revisit the tattoo when and that listening is a skill I’m always
What are the feelings and sensations you notice? Do you feel tense and
they are in a state of mind that I feel able to hold space for. For some working on deepening.
closed off? A knot in your stomach? Back pain that’s making it hard to Jade Marks
people getting tattooed can be a way to ground and be in their body
think about anything else? Once you have that information, what does Herbalist, 69 Herbs
during difficult moments, and other artists might feel it within their
that tell you about what you can and want to do that day?
capacity to show up knowing where the client is coming from and
trusting that they are aware of the permanent consequences of
tattooing.
I am far from perfect and I certainly
have had days where I’ve felt that
At the end of the day, we are not trained mental health professionals. I said too much…I look for people
Tattooing is not a replacement for therapy, despite the fact that who are responsive to what I’m
we may have clients tell us things they’ve never told anyone before. saying and who understand with
As humans, we bring to the table our own implicit biases and limitations empathy when I share a part of
myself that’s akin to their hurt.
of our experiential knowledge. Some people have gone through things Ciara Havishya
we can’t even conceive of. This doesn’t mean we can’t hold space
for them if we feel capable. We can still work to understand what they I’ve learned not to always share my
are sharing. We must also be aware of respecting others’ boundaries story or “compare” my stories
of trauma with anyone else’s while
and being wary of our own oversharing in having a “captive audience”. they are sharing their trauma with
me. I’ve learned over the years that
Understanding our limitations is important in being able to avoid when people are talking about their
trauma, sometimes it is nice just
opening up something that we can’t hold. Presenting ourselves
to be heard. There comes a point
as available when we actually aren’t can be more harmful than helpful. in a conversation when sharing your
I saw this happening in a few different ways during the initial wave own trauma is ok but there isn’t
of tattooing’s #METOO moment. Well-intentioned people wanted always one. And that’s ok. We have
to be ok with just listening sometimes.
to help. They inserted themselves as mediators between survivors Jesse Fora
and perpetrators in ways they were not qualified for nor being asked
to do. They opened up their inboxes to survivor stories, not anticipating
the high volume of messages they would receive. They created
watchdog social media accounts, then found themselves having
to backpedal for numerous (including legal liability) reasons. When
people leapt to action in these ways, they tended to overlook what
the needs of survivors actually were. By presenting their inboxes
or accounts as a safe place for survivors to seek support, then
declining to address the individual messages, well-meaning individuals
ended up undermining the legitimacy of survivors’ need to have their
stories heard and their feelings affirmed. Survivors who sent their
stories to watchdog accounts expecting some sort of consequence
for their abusers were let down when nothing happened as a result.
This can ultimately have the effect of pulling the rug out from
underneath survivors or retracting potential lifelines.

We must acknowledge that we cannot provide sustained

psychological support around things that have happened in people’s
lives. Knowing and being honest about your capacity is crucial
to be able to negotiate a positive exchange with clients. It’s okay
if your capacity is less and you can’t take on what your client needs—
as long as you are able to be honest and up front.

P 55 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 56


*BIPOC is often used as a shorthand
for Black, Indigenous, and People
of Color. It is originally attributed
to a tweet by a Toronto party space
“for Black, Indigenous & People of
Color” called Grind (Source: NYT).
The acronym has been critiqued,
as many feel it erases the Indigenous
origins of Black identities, makes
these groups seem like a monolith,
and makes it easy for people
to contribute to the erasure of
issues specific to Black and
Indigenous people.
While this shorthand has its
issues, it’s most commonly used
at the time of writing, and there
is as of yet no consensus as
to a better replacement.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/
what-is-bipoc.html
The emotional labor I’m expected to
perform extends beyond my job as
a tattoo artist. It happens with most
people in general that I interact
with. I think it has a lot to do with
my identity as a black woman and
what is expected of me based
on American mostly but also global
history. Black woman as caregiver,
caretaker, listener, non consenting
support system, punching bag
physically mentally and emotionally.
It’s hard to convince people to not
put me in this role while also having
to convince myself out of it because
it’s been intricately woven into my
experience as a human being.
Doreen Garner
We need to be attuned to who is asked to do this work over
others, as well. Tattooing has become increasingly diverse over the
last two decades. In the same way that women entered the field
in larger numbers within the last 10-20 years, Black, Indigenous, and
other People of Color*, LGBTQIA2+ folks are also representing
a larger presence today in 2020. Clients often seek out artists who
align with their own identities or how they feel most comfortable getting
tattooed. Many of my clients come to me because of my involvement
in queer and kink community or because they value having an artist
who is Latinx. This can be for many valid reasons: wanting to keep
their spending power within their own community, wanting an artist
who will understand the cultural context of their tattoo design, word
of mouth referral from someone who they trust, or feeling safer
with a woman or nonbinary person having such close proximity
and contact with their body (often as a result of having experienced
prior violence from cisgendered men). Word of mouth advertising
is an important part of the tattoo business, and it will shape what your
client base can look like.
Additionally, we may feel obligated to do more for a client with
whom we share identities or experiences. It’s natural to want to act,
to want to fix things for our clients and the people we care about.
If we hear from a client that they’ve had negative experiences in shops
in the past, we might feel the need to overcompensate in giving them
a better experience, overextending ourselves in a way that is taxing
rather than trusting that our work process will give them what they
need. Artists whose clients seek them out because of a shared identity
can end up feeling quickly overwhelmed with the higher volume
of these demands—if every client coming through the door for a Latinx
woman artist is other Latinx people that she feels invested in giving
more specific care and attention to, she will quickly be depleted on
a daily basis. It’s valuable for tattoo artists to take a step back and look
at how their clientele is shaped by who feels welcomed in their shop,
and what demands (perceived or real) that makes on them as a result.
Chicago artist Keara McGraw spoke to this, sharing how when
they opened a queer-owned shop with a friend, they immediately
connected with their local queer community in a significant way.
Having experienced feelings of isolation and alienation as a queer
person, Keara initially was excited to bond with each client, valuing the
deep connection they could form over shared LBGTQIA2+ backgrounds.
After more and more of these deep exchanges, they began to feel
exhausted and noticed how often the conversation would end up
in trauma bonding or oversharing. It took time for Keara to be able to
see that they had been able to intentionally shape their shop to attract
and serve the clients they hoped to see, and that their clients were now
a constant in their life. They were able to let go of their own scarcity
fears around lack of queer connection in their life and embrace the
abundance of clients who saw and held space for them, without feeling
the need to try to extract deep intimacy from every client interaction.
There is potential for young artists with a DIY entry and practice
of tattooing to find themselves being more vulnerable to emotionally
P 57 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
overworking themselves. Professional shops and coworking In the past I’ve treated each client
I feel connected to on a personal
environments can provide the benefit of modeling boundaries
level as an enormous responsibility
and a more casual framing for appointments. They also surround to “pull out all the stops” and show
artists with the resource of other professional perspectives and them I’m able to relate. Because
allies. Boundaries in private studios can feel more permeable so many of my clients share identities
and experiences with me, I’m trying
as they are often one-on-one sessions or feel isolated in general, to move from seeing it as a scarce
while shop situations often involve participating and adapting moment that needs extraordinary
to an existing social environment, and clients may be more likely emotional effort to seeing it as the
to “read the room” for a sense of what to expect from their artist. result of operating a business which
I’ve put distinct effort into making
a queer, community-led space.
I have found that clients are more prone to sharing personal Keara McGraw
information or stories if they feel seen by an artist on some level,
often simply because of a shared identity. “Being seen” can be I tattoo a lot of young queer and
trans people. I also tattoo a lot of fat
an ephemeral concept, but ultimately means that an individual feels people…Most (all?) of them have
acknowledged as a whole person, that they are able to give and a complicated relationship with their
receive without judgment, and that they feel heard and valued. When bodies. Most of them have had other
we look at the steps outlined in the section on informed consent, people police or invade their bodies.
Charline Bataille
they may feel simple and obvious. The truth is that these steps
accomplish much more than simple politeness or professionalism. I did put the shop I worked out of
as a trauma informed space directory,
until I realized I didn’t have proper
Even though very few artists explicitly identify or advertise as
boundaries and it invited people to
trauma-aware, many share that the ways they interact and present dump on me in somewhat aggressive
themselves on social media act to signal to folks that they are ways (because I’m a womxn?).
open to conversations around personal experiences and healing. I’m still unsure how to navigate.
I’m still figuring out how to do this.
For many artists, the decision to use trauma-aware or trauma-informed Aminah Slor
labeling would imply that they are somehow more qualified than
they consider themselves to be. Others prefer not to broadly advertise
in that way because they are reluctant to invite more emotional work
than they are able to take on, and don’t want to insinuate to clients
that they are always available for it, or that it is a required part
of the tattooing process. There is value in shifting our perspective
away from a binary of “I don’t want to provide emotional support
at all” versus “I really want to provide emotional support every time”
and finding spaces between the two that work for each of us.
Though tattooing is not directly understood as therapeutic work, I recently had a client I hadn’t seen in
it occupies a position as an alternative zone of vulnerability and a while come back and explain to me
that he missed his last appointment
potential intervention. I see this type of liminal healing space as existing a year prior because he had been
in other areas of self-care such as hairstyling, massage, personal diagnosed with pancreatic cancer…
training, and others. A client of mine who is a nail tech spoke to I really really like this guy, he’s a really
good person, and as he’s telling me
me about being surprised at how quickly people would open up about
all this there’s this flood of emotion,
deeply personal things during their appointments with her, until she for both of us. I’m feeling terror from
realized that it’s not often we sit across from another person and have the cancer, sadness for all he had
our hands held by them for an extended length of time. What she was to endure, a huge amount of gratitude
that he’s alive and cancer-free now.
picking up on was that a simple gesture of connection and support, After the tattoo was done and he left
though situated within a professional service, was effective in the I had to find a corner and cry for
same ways that it would be coming from a close friend or loved one. a good 10 minutes, I think I did one
more small tattoo that day but then
I had to call it.
Tattooing can be an interaction which rapidly builds trust and Andy Perez
intimacy, often for short periods of time. Have you ever had a great
conversation during a tattoo, then sensed a disappointment in the
client when their time was over? Have you had clients try to follow
up their session with requests to continue the relationship socially
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 58
I’m sensitive to the vulnerable position
people are in while I’m tattooing
them and realize that they may share
more than they would normally be
comfortable with.
Virginia Elwood
I think for people to know my
*identities* helps them trust me.
Charline Bataille
I don’t advertise myself with the exact
words of “trauma-aware” but I believe
my detailed web page on the ritual
tattoo process has, up to this point,
expressed effectively enough to folks
that what I do is healing work.
Julz Bolinayen Ignacio
I do {advertise as trauma-aware}.
I have done a lot of work around
trauma with my therapist to make
sure I can have the appropriate
boundaries and to make sure I am
not overstepping with a client or
making them feel uncomfortable.
Tea Leigh
I wouldn’t necessarily advertise
myself as “trauma-aware,” I do
feel a sensitivity to it, but I’m not
a professional and take it from
a slightly more spiritual approach
than others.
Jess Fang
I think treating each consultation
like an interview, and really spending
one-on-one time with each client
is vital. I think this initial meeting
is the best opportunity to get a good
read for a client’s history, aesthetic,
head space, and a sense of what
they hope to achieve with their
tattoo. Conversely, it gives them
a chance to build a common
language with the person touching
and stabbing them later.
Dan Bones
Moving through the world, you have
so many options and outlets to
find exactly the right people who
could possibly fit your needs.
Justin Weatherholtz
[I would ask for clients] to respect
that if I turn down a project, can’t
make their first idea a reality, or have
to split a tattoo into multiple sessions
that I’m trying to honor both of our
needs and it’s in no way a personal
rejection. If it’s hard for a client to
trust me…I’d want them to understand
that it’s ok to find a tattooer who
feels like the right fit and can offer
a better sense of safety and artistic
alignment, no hard feelings.
Allie Takahashi
or romantically? I have, at times, perceived an unspoken sense of surprise
from clients who I had an especially good rapport with during their
tattoo when it comes time to pay full price at the end. If we can
redirect the trust we build and reframe the tattoo appointment as a
finite container to hold whatever happens during that time, we could
potentially avoid some of the psychic residue and not leave our clients
wanting more.
What might this look like? It could involve ending the tattoo in a
concrete way by recognizing some of what was spoken about,
mentioning a resource (that isn’t you!) and saying goodbye.
My personal formula for closing a session typically involves:
Acknowledging: Great speaking with you today. You have a lot other people in our lives in general.
happening at the moment.
Thanking: Thanks for trusting me with this tattoo. It’s great you were
able to make time for this.
Resource: Here’s the number for the hotline I mentioned.
Referring to something positive that makes them feel heard: I hope you
enjoy your ceramics class this weekend.
A finite goodbye: Enjoy the rest of your night!
We can think of a tattoo session as building a container of safety
and professionalism for a client to enter. If we consider our capacity
within that limited period of time, what can that container hold space
for? What might be possible within that space, that we can then let go
of once it’s over? Creating edges and boundaries as well as endings
for these types of interactions can make them feel more manageable.
Not every artist is the right fit for every client. Some of us have
more control over who we do or don’t take on as clients than others
in the trade. Every artist should have the right to decline a client if they
make them feel uncomfortable or taken advantage of. A huge benefit
of the wealth of artists that exist now is that clients have multiple
choices and options in who to go to for a tattoo. That benefit extends
both ways, as it gives us artists other places to direct clients we don’t
feel we’re able to take on.
P 59 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Trauma Stewardship
I’d like to address something I see many artists struggling with I feel impacted by trauma I hear
about from my clients…I [often]
(and that I myself experienced full-force). Fatigue and other symptoms
imagine if that were to happen to
that develop as a result of being affected by the suffering of others
me or someone I love. To the point
has a name: trauma exposure response. This can also be known now where I am experiencing
as provider fatigue or caregiver stress. First noted in the family anxiety for the first time in my life.
Andrea Jones
members of Holocaust survivors and the partners of war veterans,
Hairstylist
it’s now being widely understood as a common occurrence in people
who care for elders, first responders, biologists, veterinarians, social If we don’t take care of ourselves
workers, activists and therapists, among many, many others. in regards to our own traumas, we
will not be present for our clients...
and we will not be present for
Trauma stewardship is an approach developed by Laura van
Dernoot Lipsky with Connie Burk that “calls us to engage oppression Jessie Fora
and trauma…by caring for, tending to, and responsibly guiding
other beings who are struggling” while at the same time resisting
“internaliz[ing] others’ struggles or assum[ing] them as our own.”
In their book, they speak on the ways that organizational structure can
either support or hinder us in the work that we do. In tattooing, artists
often feel unsupported or isolated by the larger culture of tattooing
and an industry mentality that decenters client care. We can go into our
work with every intention of being caring and considerate to our clients,
only to feel constantly thwarted by the individuals and environment
around us. This can show up as trying to find a more sustainable
I still work in [a male-dominated
work-life balance, but feeling pressured to keep up a heavy workload
street shop] and I resist my urge
to match what your coworkers take on, or trying to bring in more
to isolate myself in a private studio
progressive language practices and being ridiculed for being “too PC”. or fleeing to somewhere with like
This often leads to what is called service rationing by political minded individuals because I feel
like a much needed presence
scientist Michael Lipsky. Service rationing looks like constantly working
in my current shop to push back
to reconcile your idea of how you’d ideally like to work with the against a lot of the negative and
limitations of how you’re realistically able to work. outdated culture that exists there.
It is exhausting and I constantly
An effect of service rationing is the continual defining and redefining feel like I compromise my beliefs
of one’s work. If it’s not quite the work you had originally hoped to do, and sanity. I also worry that my
you mentally redefine it in some way that allows you to reconcile the clients are affected by this culture.
growing contradiction. Anonymous
van Dernoot Lipsky
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others
Vikki Reynolds uses the term spiritual pain* to describe the ways *Source: Vikki Reynolds,
that we are negatively affected when our work doesn’t align with our Doing Justice as a Path to
Sustainability in Community Work
values. Spiritual pain occurs when conditions of our work, whether the
workplace culture or limited resources, force us to function in ways that
go against our ethics. “Spiritual pain is exacerbated by the fact that
clients suffer some of the consequences of our inconsistency,” writes
Reynolds of therapeutic practitioners. Though Reynolds employs this to
describe therapy and social work fields, this rings true in relation to
tattooing. Many tattooers experience deep psychic and emotional
consequences of working in places that are hostile to their personal
value systems, and clients can bear the brunt of that as well. Whether
clients are not receiving quality service because of their artist’s burnout
or directly experiencing the effects of toxic shop culture, the impact is
felt by both artist and client.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 60
 I see service rationing being especially applicable to the ways we
work to balance the technical demands of tattooing with the emotional
demands that arise. Some of us lean into the emotional labor based
on what we assess our client’s immediate needs to be, and some
of us shut down in order to focus on the technical work at hand.
While it can be a strain on our quality of work or emotional state,
it’s also a necessary coping mechanism, without which we might not
be able to continue to do our jobs at all.
It’s important to evaluate the ways that trauma exposure is
affecting us as we become increasingly aware of its presence in our
workplace. A study of social workers showed that being exposed
to others’ trauma doubled their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder.
What this means for this type of work and for us as tattoo artists
is we can be at risk for secondary trauma through the difficult topics
clients often speak about. Symptoms and warning signs of secondary
trauma can include:
directly conflict with the privilege we feel in being a part of our trade.
Rather than overwork ourselves out of a sense of codependency with
our professions, it is crucial to admit to ourselves when we need
a break, or to lighten our workload, or to reshape the way we approach
the work itself.
If you were to place yourself on a spectrum of stress as a tattoo
artist, where would you land? Where do you think your coworkers
would place you? Your significant other? Your friends? For years when
friends would express surprise at the fact that I couldn’t make plans
after work because I had to go home and answer e-mails and draw
for tattoos, I told myself they just didn’t “get” the culture of the job.
Only once I was forced by burnout to reconsider how I organized
my time did I realize I had other options, and that I had the power
to adjust how much of my “free” time was dedicated to work.
Little to no stress Moderate stress Extremely stressful

Feeling helpless and hopeless—a sense that one can never do 1 2 3 4 5

enough—hypervigilance—diminished creativity—inability to embrace
Clients are easygoing Daily challenging client
complexity—minimizing—chronic exhaustion and physical ailments
No unreasonable demands from anyone Overwhelming workload
—inability to listen/deliberate avoidance—dissociative moments—
Zero conflict Constantly drowning in admin work
sense of persecution—guilt—fear—anger and cynicism—inability
Creatively fulfilling Interpersonal conflict
to empathize/numbing—addictions—grandiosity (an inflated sense
Manageable workload Depersonalizing work—
of importance related to one’s work)6 you feel like a technician only

Some people benefit hugely from
tattooing as a healing and affirming
experience. Trauma can also make
people aggressive, unstable,
and leave them with a lack of trust.
Tattooing isn’t for everyone;
sometimes you can push through
some of the more difficult trauma-
induced aspects of a client’s
personality to come out the other
end with a result and an experience
that is beneficial to them. There
are many other times that you simply
cannot. It’s very important to train
yourself to see the signs when it’s not
going to work and save yourself and
your client any further trauma that
can result from pursuing something
from which neither of you will benefit.
Andy Perez
Do any of these sound familiar? We can pull from this list and
elaborate on minimizing as it exists within tattooing. Minimizing can
happen when we become desensitized to others’ pain, a process that
I’d argue is part and parcel of learning to tattoo as we are witnessing
pain daily, as well as being the ones causing it. I believe this sets
the stage or establishes a baseline from which we have a diminished
capacity for seeing our clients’ emotional pain. Minimizing can also
happen when we are so burned out or at capacity that we simply can’t
absorb any more information or suffering. It’s easy to understand
in light of this how “old timers” who have been tattooing twenty years
or more are at a point where they struggle to be present and truly
absorb what they are encountering on the job. I am seeing this type
of burnout happen in a much shorter time span for younger tattooers
who absorb more emotionally from their clients due to the ways in
which they work and the obligations they feel to their clientele.
It can be difficult for tattoo artists to acknowledge the impact
trauma has on us. This is because our profession is a creative one.
We often work for ourselves, are able to set our own hours, and
earn sizeable income by doing something artistic. The idea that we
are so fortunate to do this work in the first place, paired with the
romanticization of tattooing as a secret society or elite guild, further
complicates the fact that it may be harming us. Fears of seeming
ungrateful or weak and unable to handle the pressures of the job
Tattooers on social media shared with me a number of causes I am honestly currently learning how
to let go of tattooing and have an
of the burnout they’ve experienced in the course of their careers.
identity beyond that of a tattoo artist.
These include comparing themselves to other tattoo artists, saying I see a therapist to work on my own
yes to more than they have the capacity to handle out of some sense sense of identity and self worth.
of duty, having their identity wrapped up in being a tattooer rather I’m currently at a shop where I make
my own schedule and I only see
than a whole human person who tattoos, and sacrificing their personal one consultation and one client
life for their clients. Several mentioned the secondary burden of being a day, strictly to manage how drained
self-employed and doing the work of running a small business. I am after tattooing. Personally,
tattooing is a massive energy
Other causes included not being around friends and family due
exchange. It is intention based as
to long working hours, or feeling unappreciated for their contributions well as physically and mentally
to the shop where they work. demanding, and seeing three clients
a day was absolutely killing me
and ruining my relationships with
How did people know they were experiencing burnout?
my wife and my friends. The two
Answers included: “When every tattoo starts to sound either boring are directly related.
or exhausting.” “I don’t want to draw the designs I was really excited Dan Bones
about when I booked them.”“I start talking and walking in my sleep.”
People felt less excited about tattooing than they usually did, and
had a “lack of interest in everything.” They found themselves feeling
apathetic, unmotivated, and unable to maintain organizational systems
like scheduling or emailing. Tattooers found their mind wandering
and themselves unable to focus while working. They would operate
on autopilot, unable to take in new information and finding themselves
asking clients the same questions over and over. Others said:

“When a new person asks about how to book with me and my body
6
Credit: Artist Rafa Esparza for bringing this phrase and idea into my consciousness. screams NO”

P 61 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 62

Volunteering at an herbal foot clinic
at a day shelter and learning how
to do frontline medic care in activist
spaces has taught me SO much
about how to approach bodies in
pain and feel confident in my ability
to comfort.
Aminah Slor
I spend a lot of time walking in
nature, gardening and nurturing
plants. Some of my plant practice
ties into tattooing because you
have to be tuned into a nonverbal
lifeform and anticipate and nurture
its needs. That translates well to
intimidated and insecure clients.
Anonymous
I run a grief group for people who
have been impacted by the trauma
of loss. As I’ve started running
this group I have found that it has
completely integrated into my
everyday process. I now have,
without advertising it, a lot of folx
coming to see me to get tattoos
representing someone that has
passed on.
Tea Leigh
I volunteer one day a week at
a wildlife care center. It’s stressful
and hectic but doing work for
animals is fun because the risk is
worth the reward. Some days are
harder than others but the fact that
there is so much at stake and we all
show up to our shifts and don’t argue
or demean our shift mates really
informed my view on cooperative
and positive work environments, and
helped get me out of a toxic work
environment when I finally could
see it wasn’t normal. It’s fascinating
to learn about the wildlife in my
backyard which enriches my daily life
when I can identify birds and plants
in my city. I get to see species up
close I’ve only seen in books which
informs my drawing skills and
ultimately my tattooing as well.
Anonymous
“When drawing feels like a chore or the easiest request feels so hard” Asking ourselves these questions reminds us that when we go
into work we are making a choice and that we have agency. Tattooers
“When I feel drained of all desire to tattoo, draw, or paint” often have more agency than we realize. We can reschedule clients
if something urgent comes up. We can request time off work or travel
Tattooing tends to demand a loyalty and near-exclusivity of time for extended periods of time. How might we adapt this agency and
and attention. Contrary to the pervasive idea that outside interests flexibility into new ways of living that work better for us? *Overwork: working too hard, too
are distractions and take away from what you are able to give to the long, or too much, beyond one’s
capacity or strength.
craft, there is much to be gained by creating a full, well-rounded set In addition to pure and simple overwork*, we can sometimes be
of interests for yourself. Bessel A. van der Kolk, author of Psychological adding onto that the very real effects of secondhand trauma exposure. I consider trauma to be a strong
component in my practice as a tattoo
Trauma, identifies “stress resistant persons” as sharing several traits. There are a number of ways our work can affect us to varying degrees.
artist. The majority of my clients
These include a sense of personal control, pursuit of personally Burnout builds up over time. It is the physical and emotional exhaustion are of color specifically of the African
meaningful tasks, healthy lifestyle choices and social support. While we feel when we are overwhelmed at work. Fortunately, burnout can be Diaspora. Considering the very
stress-resistant people may still be negatively affected by adversity, improved by making changes like adjusting your work habits or taking violent history of enslavement,
torture and dehumanization of Black
they possess a belief in their own ability to resolve problems, time off. Compassion fatigue, also known as the “cost of caring,”
people in America, a lot of my clients
which maintains their overall sense of well-being. Creating a network refers to the erosion over time of our emotional and physical well-being are descendants of those who
of enjoyable tasks, lifestyle choices, and social supports outside the when we are unable to care for ourselves in restorative ways that refuel lived through such horror. Much
shop can serve to lessen the negative impact of work stress. Artists us. The same capacity for empathy that makes us able to be open research has been done regarding
intergenerational trauma and residual
express that they also gain experience that helps both their creative to others also makes us vulnerable to being deeply affected or even
effects experienced centuries later
and practical development in the tattoo sphere: harmed if we overextend ourselves beyond our limits of caretaking. passed on biologically to children,
Compassion fatigue might manifest as being depleted, making us like grandchildren, etc. I’m constantly
In Trauma Stewardship, van Dernoot Lipsky encourages those oversaturated sponges with zero capacity for ANY type of emotional considering this as I am tattooing
my clients, being aware of possible
of us who are engaged in healing work to ask ourselves why we response. We might not be able to stop thinking about work once
triggers, figuring out the best way
are doing it. This question can be important for us to ask ourselves we go home, and have little energy to extend to our social lives, family, to guide each individual through
as tattoo artists about our jobs as a whole, not simply the trauma and loved ones. this violent process, and also how to
aspects, thereby informing us and our approach to our work. preserve myself and work through
my own trauma as a listener
Have our motivations changed from when we first started to tattoo? Vicarious trauma comes from secondary trauma exposure, often recognizing that I am the one
In what ways might we have lost sight of what is important to us from clients and others talking about trauma they have experienced. inflicting pain.
about tattooing? How might our values have shifted from our first few Many of us have experienced our own firsthand trauma both inside Doreen Garner
years as artists to where we find ourselves five, ten, fifteen years in? and out of the shop as well. Vicarious traumatization can damage our
The first time I tattooed someone
worldview, affecting how we perceive the things around us. Working with severe self harm scars it
Van Dernoot Lipsky suggests that alongside taking inventory with survivors of sexual assault and hearing story after story might definitely deeply bothered me.
of value systems around our work, it is equally necessary to envision make us overly paranoid or suspicious of those around us, fearing Then covering these sorts of scars
became something commonplace
a Plan B for ourselves. She describes this as a new vision for how they will cause us harm. This is known as hypervigilance—being
that I saw regularly. No one warned
we might conduct our lives. “Plan B could involve a career change, in a heightened state of perceived threat. We might also feel numb, me about this aspect of tattooing at
a new place to live, a fresh approach to our current work, or a different hopeless, or minimize the experiences of others. There might be all or equipped me with the tools to
life altogether (180).” This serves to remind us that our work is not a sense of disconnectedness between our sense of self and our cope and manage my own reaction
to it. Heck it still makes me sad.
something that is “an imposition, something being done to us,” and feelings, i.e. “I love tattooing—why do I feel so reluctant to show up
I want people to be whole and clients
to affirm the freedom that we do have and that “[our] core self is not for my appointment?” are coming to me to help them with
what [we] do for work.” Our sense of selves can become so entangled that. That’s a lot of responsibility.
with our work lives that we can’t see ourselves as having any other Vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue can seem similar, but Mentors didn’t give any empathy to
the reality of tattooing. They lacked
options. This concept can be incredibly relevant to tattooing, especially vicarious trauma is experiencing trauma from the work that we do, while
the tools to deal with it themselves.
because our work can reinforce the sense that we are in service compassion fatigue occurs when our systems aren’t supporting us, Anonymous
to others, indebted to our craft, our mentors, and clients, or that leading to feeling numb and disconnected. It’s possible to experience
we don’t have any other employable skills. Leaving tattooing behind compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma simultaneously. Both take Once I started to do this trauma
work I realized I had to slow down
or moving it to the back burner in service of another pursuit can be longer than burnout to recover from and require a more therapeutic, my practice and see fewer people.
judged by others as “selling out.” We must ask ourselves if what we’re supportive approach. If you’re adjusting your work logistics and aren’t Doing this type of work has affected
doing is still working for us,and be honest with ourselves in how we seeing results, consider that you might be experiencing CF/VT. my mental and physical health
answer that question. greatly. I see it as a gift as it opened
my eyes to the ways I was ignoring
caring for myself by deeply caring
‘Does it work for me? How does it work for me? Why does it work
for others first. It took me time
for me?’ And once you’ve answered these questions, more will follow.
to learn this lesson, but now I make
Am I doing my work with integrity, given all this? Are my reasons for
sure to give myself the space
doing this ethical?
and energy I need in order to fully
van Dernoot Lipsky
engage with my clients.
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others
Tea Leigh
P 63 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 64
Toolkit Checking our Alignment
Ask yourself before starting your day “Why am I doing what I’m
doing?” Write these down as they come to you. Choose one that
feels especially important and keep it somewhere that you can
check in with your intention when you find yourself losing sight of it.
P 65 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
An Intersectional Theory
of Client Care
Intersectionality:* Briefly, the term “intersectionality” was coined *A precursor to intersectionality,
by Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw Williams to describe identity politics, was created by the
Combahee River Collective, a group
the ways that multiple forms of oppressions overlap and inform each of Black feminist activists formed in
other. The idea here is that a person who is impacted by more than 1974 and named for Harriet Tubman’s
one form of discrimination does not experience them individually 1853 raid on the Combahee River,
or separately from one another, but rather, as interlocking systems South Carolina that freed 750
enslaved people.
that relate to one another.
The Combahee River Collective laid
Our survival as artists depends not only on being present ground for the idea of intersectionality
to create tattoos for walk-in customers, but also to eventually cultivate with their description of oppressions
as “interlocking” and happening
a clientele for ourselves that depends on word of mouth, personal “simultaneously.” They observed that
recommendations, and our advertising. Many (especially older) oppression on the basis of identity is
tattooers have practiced and handed down the notion of “treating all a source of political radicalization for
many. Black feminists argued that
clients the same” in an effort to be neutral, and in their minds, just and “the personal is political”—describing
fair to everyone. This attitude in reality does a disservice to clients, not only so-called “lifestyle issues,”
erasing their individual selves and needs, in particular because artists but the ways that experiences within
are likely to assume that their version of how they’d like to be treated the lives of Black women shaped
their political outlook.
applies to all others and will be shaped by their own implicit bias.
Each client arrives to the shop with their own individual experience
and needs. An approach that meets one client’s needs just fine could
neglect another client’s needs entirely.
Humanizing each client is a necessity. Ask yourself: am I valuing
my client beyond their financial worth to my business? Am I happy to
take money from gay people/nonwhite people/transgender people/etc.
but unwilling to learn and honor their needs as individuals? All clients
deserve to have their personhood and humanity acknowledged and
seen, rather than leaving the shop feeling as if we are simply taking
their money. Treating clients in a purely transactional manner sends
the message that their only value is what financial gain can be extracted
from them. This is especially harmful in the context of a highly personal
service like tattooing. Due to the nature of the exchange (permanence,
physical touch, etc.) what’s provided goes beyond customer service
norms in other job industries, and the experience is far less likely to be
fulfilling to the client if they are being treated like a number. Thanks
in large part to the current civil rights movement and political uprising,
clients are newly demanding the humanization and consideration they
so rightly deserve. The illusion that tattooing is neutral or apolitical
work is being dismantled, and artists are grappling with this new
responsibility. Tattoo artists and shops are under new scrutiny and are
being called to transparency as to their ethics and ways of operating.
This is long-term work, but we all have infinite areas where we can
improve our professional approaches and continue evolving.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 66

*The original Disability Justice
Collective was made up of activists
Patty Berne, Leroy Moore, Mia
Mingus, Sebastian Margaret, and Eli
Claire. Care Work: Dreaming
Disability Justice
Disability Justice
Disability justice is a framework created by queer and trans
activists of color in the Bay Area*. As a second wave of the disability
rights movement, it moves away from a single issue approach and
towards a “multisystemic way of looking at the world (Lazard)”.
Within this framework, disability is defined as an economic, cultural, and/or
social exclusion based on a physical, psychological, sensory, or cognitive
difference. Disability Justice movements understand disability to be unevenly
distributed, primarily affecting black and indigenous communities, queer and
trans communities, and low income communities. Disability is structurally
reinforced by ableism, a system rooted in the supremacy of non-disabled people
and the disenfranchisement of disabled people through the denial of access.
Carolyn Lazard
Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice
Is the shop space wheelchair accessible? Are there stairs/an
elevator/a ramp? Are bathrooms wheelchair accessible and gender
neutral? What are the waiting room seating options like? Do they
accommodate all bodies? Chairs with backs can be most comfortable,
and chairs without arms can accommodate different bodies more
easily. Avoiding lightweight stools prevents folks from worrying about
whether or not the seat will bear their body weight. Can lighting be
adjusted for autistic clients or clients with epilepsy? This information
is important to list on a shop’s website so that people know what the
accessibility of the space is like before they arrive.
For the tattoo process itself, are there different chairs/pillows/
wedges/beds available that can be configured to be most comfortable
for folks’ individual needs? Options that might seem less comfortable
can sometimes end up being better for a client’s physical requirements.
I often end up using the horseshoe-shaped massage table pillows
or even no pillow for clients with back and neck pain or injuries. Having
clients communicate beforehand as to specific needs or challenges
they might be bringing into the tattoo experience is always helpful
in being able to accommodate them. For example, clients who need
to make sure to eat at regular intervals to regulate their blood sugar.
If a client is hearing-impaired and working with an interpreter, listen
to the interpreter but focus on the client.
A shop intake/release form and an online appointment request
form are both great places to add in a section for access needs
or additional information a client would like to share ahead of their
session. This helps artists know if they are able and willing to take
on a client’s needs around their body and health, and to refer them
elsewhere if they are unable to. Tattooers can also ask clients for
the support we may need to feel more comfortable and able to focus
on their tattoo. For example, if a client has epilepsy and knows
tattooing could potentially trigger seizures, an artist could ask them
to bring a support person that has experience with their seizures
to provide an extra sense of safety and preparedness.
P 67 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
I once had a disabled client referred to me by another person with a chronic
illness I had tattooed. The new client emailed, explaining to me their health
concerns and their potential needs in getting tattooed. They had epilepsy, which
meant that they could potentially experience seizures while getting tattooed.
We met in person and spoke about their physical comfort needs during their
upcoming appointment. They were able to give me a list of first aid steps
in case of seizure ahead of time, as well as information about what their seizure
might look like, how it could affect their ability to communicate, and that
911 was not necessary unless they were injured.
While I had some nervousness around being able to correctly and safely address
a seizure if it happened, they offered to bring a support person who was
experienced in caring for them during and after an episode. I was grateful
for this offer as it also allowed me to concentrate better on their tattoo knowing
that another person was there to keep an eye out and help if needed. The client
did have one seizure, which passed quickly, and we were able to safely finish
the tattoo after taking a short break. Sharing so much information ahead of time
helped me to know what I was agreeing to in taking the client on, to be able
to ask for what I needed to feel able to tattoo them, and to also alert the shop staff,
other tattoo artists and their clients that there was a possibility my client might have
a seizure so that no one would be alarmed or take unnecessary steps to intervene.
Remember that clients who are dealing with chronic illness A Disability Justice framework
or disabilities are the ones who are living the experience and have the understands that all bodies are
unique and essential, that all bodies
knowledge as to what their needs and limitations are. They have their have strengths and needs that
own community support, medical advisement, and judgment. When in must be met. We know that we
doubt as to whether or not a tattoo will interfere with a person’s health, are powerful not despite the
complexities of our bodies, but
I typically ask the client to run the potential tattoo by their doctor to get
because of them.
the okay, but also trust their experiential knowledge. Some clients may Patty Berne
not have all the information as to how their medications or treatment Sins Invalid Co-founder and
might interact with tattooing, so professional medical input can Executive Director
be important. However, clients who have been tattooed before and
know what to ask for can also have information that a doctor might
not. People who live with disabilities or chronic illness can deal with
fluctuations in their health, and will not always know ahead of time how
they will feel on the day of their appointment. Consider being in touch
or checking in a day before a scheduled session, bearing in mind that
whether they are up to getting tattooed can change.
Image Descriptions: You may have noticed some people on
Instagram captioning their photos with image descriptions. Image
descriptions are a way to make web content more accessible for
blind and vision impaired people who use screen readers to access
the internet. Image descriptions are most effective when they give
as much detail as possible within a simple sentence. Example:
[Image description: A tattoo of an ornate dagger in black and gold
piercing through a red rose, placed on a leg.]
Going Scent-Free: Chemical sensitivity (also known as being
chemically injured) is more common than people think. Scents can
affect folks with asthma and allergies, people who have been through
chemo, folks that have been exposed to pesticides or industrial
pollution, and more. Chemical sensitivity is a class issue as well
as an access issue, as folks who work manufacturing, agricultural,
and custodial jobs are more likely to be exposed to chemicals and
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 68
to deal with long-term adverse effects. Things like perfume, cigarette
smoke, scented personal care products, and air fresheners can
cause nausea, migraines, or even seizures.
It’s nearly impossible to go scent-free in a tattoo shop due
to bleach, MadaCide/Cavicide and other cleaning agents needed
to maintain a sanitary environment, but some constructive steps,
especially since we come in such close proximity to our clients,
might be:
• Noting on your website alongside other shop accessibility
info that these cleaners are used in the space
• Working towards replacing tattooing and aftercare
products with fragrance-free alternatives (Aquaphor,
unscented Dr. Bronners or Dial soaps)
• Being mindful of burning incense or spraying air fresheners
• Switch to fragrance-free laundry detergent and skip using
fabric softener and dryer sheets (a big one as these are all
heavily fragranced in order to stick to clothing long after
being washed)
• Use fragrance-free deodorants, hair care products, soaps,
lotions, etc.
HIV Ethics
Correcting misconceptions about HIV transmission risks in
tattooing has come a long way since the 80s and 90s. Most people
understand that tattoo shops adhere to strict practices around safety
and hygiene, and that we employ single-use needles, barriers, and
medical-grade sterilization practices to prevent cross-contamination.
The idea behind what is known as “universal precautions” means that
we employ an approach to infection control to treat all human blood
and certain human body fluids as if they were known to be infectious
for HIV, Hepatitis B and other bloodborne pathogens (US Department
of Labor OSHA). In practice, this means that there is no difference
between how we tattoo a client who is HIV+ and one who is HIV-.
This doesn’t mean that discrimination doesn’t still occur. There
have been instances of tattoo artists turning away clients because
of their HIV status. From what I understand in consulting with HIV
ethics experts, this occupies legally murky ground depending on where
the artist is practicing. Illegal or not, this is an unacceptable form
of discrimination, one that is typically “justified” by misinformation and
assumptions about HIV transmission.
The risk of HIV transmission during the process of applying
a tattoo is extremely low. Individuals who are taking meds to manage
HIV often have an undetectable viral load, which means that they
cannot transmit the virus. Tattoo artists also have the options of PEP
(Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) and PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), two
HIV prevention methods. PrEP is an oral medication to prevent HIV,
P 69 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
taken once a day before coming into potential contact with HIV
to reduce the risk of HIV infection. PEP is medication which prevents
people from contracting HIV within 72 hours of being exposed.
(San Francisco AIDS Foundation).
It can also be discriminatory to require clients to disclose their
HIV status on release forms. Some insurance companies and legal
entities require shops to use the release forms they provide to qualify
for coverage and protect against legal liability, which may ask for
disclosure of HIV, Hepatitis, etc. Asking for disclosure perpetuates
stigma and is medically unnecessary to the tattoo process itself
because we employ universal precautions for all clients. In New York
State, being licensed to tattoo also legally requires us to maintain
confidentiality around HIV status, something few artists or clients
seem to be aware of. It can be important for tattooers to know if their
client is living with HIV or Hepatitis in case of a needle prick or other
form of potential exposure. If a client believes they will be turned away
if they do disclose being HIV+, this only encourages clients to be
dishonest in service of getting their tattoo. Creating a stigma-free
and accepting environment is important to foster honesty and trust
so that both artist and client can be as safe as possible.
There are many reasons a client’s immune system could be
compromised. While HIV status may be kept confidential by a client,
it can potentially leave them immunocompromised. Knowing if a client
is immunocompromised is important in that a compromised immune
system may increase their risk of infection, affect the healing process
of a tattoo, and require a tailored aftercare regimen. There are many
reasons a client can be immunocompromised besides being HIV+.
A better way to ask for this information on a release form could be:
“If I have any condition that might affect the healing of this tattoo I will
advise my tattoo artist or I will disclose any blood-borne infections with
my artist. We will not discriminate or share your status.”
LGBTQIA2+ Communities
LGBTQIA2+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender,
intersex, asexual, two-spirit, and the + indicates other expansive
identities beyond those.
Sex and gender are two different qualities. Sex has been
traditionally defined by the World Health Organization as being the
biological and physical characteristics that define “men and women,”
such as genitals and reproductive organs, chromosomes, and
hormones, and secondary characteristics like height, vocal range, body
mass, and others. Gender identity is our external experience of our
internal feelings and expression of gender.4 A person’s gender identity
may not always match the sex they were assigned at birth. Cisgender
means your gender identity correlates to the sex assigned at birth.
Transgender folks’ gender identities are not the same as the one
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 70

*Trevor Project: Asexual,
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
trvr_support_center/asexual/
**Credit: Coyote Park
assigned to them at birth. Transgender is an umbrella term for all
who feel that they are outside the boundaries of biological sex and
culturally determined gender expression, which may include gender
non-conforming, gender fluid, Two-Spirit people, drag performers,
and others (AVP). Intersex is a term used to described bodies that
have reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the boxes
of “female” or “male.” A naturally occuring variation in humans, being
intersex isn’t a medical problem and generally doesn’t require medical
intervention such as hormone therapy or surgery, however, intersex
individuals are often subjected to surgery at birth based on doctors
and family “deciding” what sex they should be, then raising them
as the gender they expect to correspond with that sex (Planned
Parenthood). Asexual* is another general term used to describe people
who have little interest in having sex. This desire can look like many
different things for people on the asexuality or “Ace” spectrum,
however most people who identify as asexual or demisexual
(experience sexual attraction once they form a strong emotional
connection with another person) do desire emotional intimacy
(The Trevor Project*). Two-spirit** is an identity exclusive to Indigenous
people, and refers to a person who has both a masculine and
a feminine spirit. The term was chosen to distinguish between Native
American/First Nations people from non-Native peoples, and speaks
to gender expressions outside of settler colonialist constructs.
Gender identity and sexuality orientation are not the same. Gender
identity is about how you understand and express your own gender.
Sexual orientation is about who you are sexually, romantically, and
emotionally attracted to. Nonbinary means that someone’s gender
identity does not adhere to the gender binary of “man” or “woman”.
Gender and sexuality do not necessarily correlate to one another—you
cannot “guess” someone’s sexual orientation by knowing their gender.
It is important to remember that we cannot ‘figure out’ how someone
identifies just by looking at them. We have been taught to rely on
stereotypes to help us identify if someone is a man or woman, gay,
lesbian, bisexual. Gender identity and sexual orientation are beneath
the surface and are not always visible.
NYC Anti-Violence Project
The LGBTQIA2+ community is far from monolithic, and it would be
a mistake to speak about it as such or to assume that what works for
a cisgendered lesbian client will also work well for a transgender client,
or vice versa. Communication is important here. Ask for clients’ gender
pronouns or offer yours when meeting them so that they feel invited
to share theirs. If you are unsure, you may use the gender-neutral
“they” or “them” or the person’s name to address and speak about
them. Don’t make gendered assumptions about people’s needs or
levels of comfort. There are stereotypical ways that we might generalize
cis men/women that certainly don’t apply to all people (ex: men are
more comfortable taking their shirt off, guessing based on gender
whether someone’s guest is a romantic partner or platonic friend).
Avoid gendering anatomical terms when speaking about the body.
Examples of this could be “a person’s chest” rather than “a woman’s
P 71 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
breasts.” Anatomy does not dictate gender identity. Understand that
This can be essential when working
with trans/non-binary survivors as
the name a person goes by may be different than what is on the ID they being misgendered can trigger
present at the tattoo shop. Use the name they introduce themselves painful memories of sexual assault/
with rather than what is on their government identification. medical trauma/unfavorable police
interaction, etc. It’s best practice,
when working with survivors or any
It should go without saying that homophobic and transphobic vulnerable population, to not
language has no place in a tattoo shop. It’s on us as artists to call out associate body parts with gender.
coworkers or clients we hear using slurs or making harmful jokes. Sarah Orton
Bear in mind that just because a person might self-describe as a term At the shop I work at now I live in
or use it with their friends who share that identity, that doesn’t fear that they will do something
automatically make it okay for us to use the same language. A lesbian homophobic while a client is in my
might use “dyke” to describe herself, but the term has very different chair. They wouldn’t call it
homophobia—but they also won’t
connotations coming from a straight man. The same goes for budge at all on their opinions of
“queer”—many people self-identify using the term today, but it has others and would choose silence
a history of being a slur that was reclaimed by the community. over acknowledgment… I have
Some LGBTQ+ folks still find it offensive and do not use it.
definitely overheard bigotry both
towards me and towards clients at
various shops. Sometimes it comes
Gender, sexual identity, and society’s awareness of the diverse from other clients in the room!
spectrum within them are expanding and evolving rapidly. Sometimes, Anonymous
it can be a challenge to know the appropriate language to use. Best
practices dictate that we come from a place of respect with our clients.
Ask them what they need and check in with them. If you misstep,
acknowledge it and apologize sincerely, then change the behavior
that upset them. Most people will understand if you are coming from
a place of genuine positive intention and respect. Asking is better than
misgendering. If you hear coworkers or others misgendering someone
you know, correct them. It goes a long way in lessening the burden
on the person themselves to have to correct those same people in the
future, and helps to strengthen the expectation of using correct
pronouns in your environment and social circles.
Information about gender and sexuality can be deeply private and
personal, and grilling someone about things they haven’t volunteered
or chosen to share with you can be a form of discrimination and
violence. Make sure to avoid invasive questioning or being a “tourist”
into someone else’s private life.
From the New York City Anti-Violence Project:
Individual Action Steps:
• Assess your own values/beliefs regarding sexual
orientation & gender identity
• Address your internal biases
• Educate yourself—don’t tokenize/objectify clients
• Acknowledge what you don’t know
• Know your personal limits
Interpersonal Action Steps:
• Use inclusive language (such as “partner”)
• Respect self-identification & self-determination
• Avoid assuming sexual orientation
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 72
I have a trans, gender nonconforming,
LGBTQ safe certificate on my station.
I like people to know I will make them
feel safe and create a safe space for
them. Quite often I will do panels at
the college in my town to bring trans
awareness and help kids learn more
about gender and sexuality.
Jay Baby
Colorism is a visual tool of white
supremacy, where people with white
skin are thought of as superior and
every skin tone that doesn’t match is
othered and compared to whiteness,
the “original”.
I think it’s important to break down
the concepts that tattooing is only
meant for folks with white or lighter
skin, and that tattoos on dark skin
folks are inferior. Gender and body
size also play within this white
supremacist structure. Femmes,
trans folks, women, and non-binary
folks that are Indigenous Black
(non-European features), and dark-
skinned aren’t seen as a priority and
aren’t given proper representation
of themselves in the tattooing world.
Cisgender Black women are often
recognized first, especially if they
are feminine and small-figured.
Tattoo shops weren’t made to
welcome a dark skin femme person.
The signs of this are obvious when
there are no Black, dark skinned,
non-cisgender tattooers represented
in the artists who work at the shop,
or when the work being seen on
clients are never on people with
darker skin tones.
Tann Parker
Ink the Diaspora
• Avoid assuming gender identity
• Avoid gender binaries
• Be cautious of stereotypes
• Allow space for clients to build trust with you
• If you make a mistake, do not over-apologize
• Confront discrimination & prejudice (jokes, comments)
Racial Justice
Racial equity in tattoo shops has historically been a major issue,
and continues to be so today. The Movement for Black Lives has set
in motion long overdue conversations and reckonings with tattooing’s
racist history and contemporary practices. Racism is rampant in tattoo
culture both in very visible ways like discriminatory hiring practices and
the use of racist language. It can also manifest in more subtle ways like
the spread of wrong information about tattooing dark skin and lack of
representation of tattoos on darker bodies. Anti-Blackness and colorism
(discrimination based on skin tone) are present at all levels. Clients with
darker skin are often under the impression that they can’t be tattooed
because their skin will scar badly, or that they can’t get color tattoos
as a result of being misinformed by tattoo artists in the past.
Tattooing darker skin is an undervalued ability in the tattoo industry
as a whole. Artists who have a largely white or light-skinned clientele
neglect working to develop the ability to work well on all skin tones.
The same way that artists should know how to work on a variety of skin
textures or parts of the body, they must develop the ability to cater
to an individual’s skin tone rather than apply a one-size-fits-all technical
approach and potentially damage more melanated skin. As tattooing
skills are handed down largely person-to-person, it’s easy for incorrect
information about tattooing Black skin to be accepted as fact or best
practices without considering the origins of the information and the
alternatives. Myths that detailed designs won’t show up on dark skin
or that color isn’t possible on dark skin are perpetuated and believed
by many practitioners. Artists are also responsible for the ways that
they talk to their clients about their skin tone and what will work best for
their tattoo design. Many clients of color have the experience of feeling
condescended to or talked out of what they asked for, and of being
made to feel that their skin tone is inferior or “difficult” to work with.
Beyond a lack of examples of what different tattoo styles look like
on different skin tones, seeing online profiles or shop portfolios and
advertising that only feature work on light skinned or white clients gives
the impression that artists either don’t know how to work on darker skin
or that those individuals are not welcome in the studio. Shows like
Ink Master are rife with artists’ disappointed and negative reactions
to being assigned a darker-skinned “canvas,” claiming that their work
won’t show up or that it is an unfair challenge to tattoo a Black client.
More recently, a well-known judge from Ink Master was outed for
donning blackface on multiple occasions. This speaks not only to
P 73 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
the deeply rooted racism in the tattoo industry, but also to the white Due to the way they’re represented
as clients on national reality TV
supremacist bias present on the television show. How can any
shows, the Black community has
Black contestants on the show expect a fair chance at competing become painfully aware that there
or a positive portrayal when the judge himself holds such reprehensible are many tattooers out there that
views? Ink Master has been a juggernaut of mainstream perception don’t want to tattoo them based
on the color of their skin.
of tattooing. It is in no small part responsible for shaping the general Anderson Luna
public’s views and comprehension of tattooing, and it is clear to what
extent its representation is directed by racial bias.
Decolonization* is an important framework for understanding *Decolonization is defined as the
act of getting rid of colonization,
tattooing’s history and its contemporary practices. Much of what we
or freeing a territory from being
understand as global tattoo history is recorded and told through the dependent on another national
lens of sailors and anthropologists who were traveling from Western power, including returning land
countries. Writing about Indigenous and tribal tattooing historically and sovereignity to its Indigenous
peoples and dismantling settler
categorized the practices as “primitive” and “savage,” an “uncivilized” frameworks in politics and social
counterpoint to “civilized” Western society. The word ”tattoo” itself structures.
originated from the Samoan word tatau, which described the tapping
sounds made by Polynesian hand tattooing techniques. Sailors’ Decolonizing our minds/frameworks/
histories/understandings is about
encounters of Pacific Island and other global tattooing traditions were unlearning what colonizers have
made possible by trade expansion and colonial excursions. At the same taught us about our cultures as
time that tattooing was being newly practiced by British and American inferior, about relearning Indigenous
knowledge that has been
sailors, Christian missionaries were continually working to eradicate the
suppressed and erased, about
practice among Indigenous people, thinking it “barbaric”**. reclaiming lost language, and more.
Decolonization as a politic asks
In the 80s and 90s, the “modern primitives” movement was us to understand how deeply settler
colonialism has impacted and
popularized by body modification practitioners like Fakir Musafar,
shaped every aspect of our lives.
who in large part introduced the West to practices like piercing, For white people to engage with
branding, scarification, earlobe and lip stretching, and hook the concept, they must understand
suspension. Musafar, a self-styled “shaman”*** born Ronald Loomis, how they still benefit from
colonization today and work to
drew heavily from National Geographic’s coverage of Indigenous
remove that influence from the
and tribal body modification practices to create his own blend of spaces they occupy.
practices largely divorced from their original cultural context. In Modern
Primitives he admits “I knew nothing about piercing but I had to have ** https://www.pbs.org/skinstories/
history/
this hole in my body. I had seen a picture in an old National Geographic
of an old South Seas Island man who had just had a child; he was *** Source: Fareed Kaviani,
a father. So as a father he was entitled to have a hole bored in his The Untold Story Behind the “Father
nostril. In the picture, the caption was all I had to go by.” of Contemporary Body Modification”
is One of Racial Exploitation
https://www.the4thwall.net/blog/
National Geographic itself has since then acknowledged the fakirmusafar
legacy of racism that has shaped its coverage throughout the
publication’s history. In a 2018 letter from the editor, Susan Goldberg
asks John Edward Mason, a University of Virginia professor specializing
in the history of photography and the history of Africa, to investigate
the magazine’s archives. What he found was that the magazine
systematically ignored people of color in America, focusing instead
on an “othering” portrayal of “natives” in other countries. “The only
Black people are doing exotic dances…servants or workers. It’s bizarre,
actually, to consider what the editors, writers, and photographers
had to consciously not see,” says Mason. ‘It really creates this
us-and-them dichotomy between the civilized and the uncivilized.”
This racist anthropological coverage of Indigenous body
modification practices laid the foundation not only for people like Fakir
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 74

* Mary Annette Pember,
The Indigenous Collective Using
Tattoos to Rise Above Colonialism
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/
decolonize/2018/03/20/the-
indigenous-collective-using-tattoos-
to-rise-above-colonialism/
I ask that people show respect for
our symbols and designs. There
are many other ways to honor our
culture without appropriating it.
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril
*Source: Regan de Loggins,
Selling Headdresses to Hipsters:
A Discussion on the Cultural
Appropriation of Native
American Regalia
Musafar to build a Western movement far removed from the lived reality
and intent of the creators of the traditions, but for tattooing as a whole
to understand its origins through a white colonialist storytelling lineage.
Musafar’s romanticization of “primitiveness” as a curative salve
for Western identity crisis was motivated by a rebellion against religious
repression, however, his position of privilege and distance allowed
him to cherry-pick practices at will, weaving together stolen traditions
in a way that left out the voices of the people whom the practices
belonged to altogether.
Religious missionaries shaped the perception of tattooing as well.
“Throughout most of Polynesia, particularly in the East, Christianity
all but effaced the ancient, sacred institution of tatau,” writes Fareed
Kaviani in his piece on Fakir Musafar and the history of the Western
perceptions of Indigenous body modification practices. “ The
missionary perspective became hinged on the question of tatau’s
relationship to religion—the stronger its association with the sacred,
the more likely it was to be eradicated and outlawed.”
Indigenous communities, understanding the ways that the history
of their tattooing has been revised and denied to them by colonialist
narratives, have begun to revitalize the traditions and reclaim their
meanings. Inuit scholar and tattooer Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone says,
“When we see that ink on people, we know that we are healing from
the historical trauma that occurred.” Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuk
filmmaker who directed Tuniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos,
a documentary exploring the history of Inuit tattooing, says*, “We were
shamed by the church and government to stop our tradition of tattoo...
It wasn’t our decision to give up our traditions. So much of our culture
was hidden and shamed for so long. It’s been really empowering and
healing to get my tattoos and to see a resurgence of the practice.”
Shops perpetuate racist stereotypes and tropes through flash,
especially “vintage” flash. A common tattoo motif is the “Indian girl
head” or “Indian chief”. These depictions of Native Americans usually
draw on caricature or present a woman with white features and
light skin wearing a rendition of a headdress loosely drawn from
Indigenous customs.
According to Indigenous scholar and artist Regan de Loggins,
American traditional tattooing’s use of Indigenous imagery can
be traced back to the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party’s
participants dressed in brownface, appropriating Native dress and
symbolism as an avatar of revolution due to their existence as the
antithesis of colonialism. The image of Lady Columbia, a personification
of the United States and Thirteen Colonies (named so after Christopher
Columbus), was originally rendered as an Indigenous woman before
being transformed into the blonde woman in stars-and-stripes cap and
dress that we see today. Lady Columbia and other illustrations of the
19th century are precursors to the illustrations of women in American
traditional tattooing that became popularized in the early 20th century*.
The “Indian girl head” came to symbolize a connection to the land
in an attempt to connect to American identity and a sense of freedom
P 75 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
post-Revolution, as colonists began staking claim over the larger
territory. The “Indian chief head” image evolved from an urge to depict
power, relying on the false perception that a headdress (or “warbonnet”
as it is known by some tribes) is equivalent to a crown and represents
a type of monarchic rule. The Native community in the United States
could not legally practice their own tattooing customs until 1972,
leaving American traditional tattooers to reproduce these stereotypes
as the only representation of Indigeneity in tattooing. These images,
largely based on Plains First Nations people, contributed to the
flattening and erasure of Native communities by depicting them as
a monolith devoid of individual tribal customs and traditions. It then
relegated them to a status of perceived extinction by viewing them
in a past tense, rather than acknowledging their contemporary, rich
existence.
Some girl head designs are based on the Romani people and use
an ethnic slur (“g*psy”) to refer to them. The Romani people have
been impacted by a historical and continued persecution, including
involuntary sterilization, forced migration, outlawing of their cultural
practices, and police brutality (*web source for further reading in
resources). Other well-known vintage flash designs feature confederate
flags (a blatant symbol of racism—this is not up for debate) and racist
and sexualized caricatures of Asian and Latinx people. It’s crucial
to recognize the ways we perpetuate harmful racial stereotypes when
we reproduce these images born of racist tropes.
Many individuals still insist on defending racist and offensive tattoo
flash as simply being “traditional” or “historical,” as if this exempts
it from criticism. We must unpack what we mean when we say
“traditional.” Who established this tradition, and who was excluded
from its creation and the enforcement of its lineage? What of our
traditions are a continuation of cultural theft? Plenty of institutions
have racism built into their systems and practices. Their existence
as institutions does not mean that they deserve our unquestioning
devotion. Propagating racist images perpetuates the harm they cause,
as does expecting or requiring artists of color to reproduce images that
are directly oppressive to them. Black artists have shared stories of
being required to tattoo confederate flags during their apprenticeship.
Early on in my career, I experienced a white client who was getting
a tattoo of an “Indian chief” making a joke about the blood from the
tattooing making it appear as if the figure had smallpox.
Pattern based tattoos like mandalas have deep cultural origins
that are erased when they are reproduced and framed solely as
“decorative”. Spiritually significant designs like Haitian veves, textile
patterns, and mehndi among countless others come from specific
lineages, cultures, and families, yet are often dissected and repurposed
by artists selectively using visual elements and reproducing what
they personally find appealing and entitled to use. This extractive and
exploitative approach comes from and replicates colonial violence.
When artists not of a particular culture see its artwork and traditions
out of context, feel able to use it without regard for its meaning and
without considering who the recipient of the tattoo is, we are following
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 76
in the footsteps of Fakir Musafar and others who take credit for
traditions we have stolen from.
The aforementioned facts are not to say that artists cannot create
culturally specific images for clients who request them. As mentioned
in the “Radical Potential of Tattooing” section, a major reason
people get tattooed is to connect with their culture and to share about
who they are. It’s an honor when a client asks us to represent their
culture on their body, and it is our responsibility to bring accuracy and
respect to their design, and to ask questions and learn through that
process. Creating space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People
of Color) clients means listening to them and believing them in their
experience and perspective. It means trusting their knowledge
around their own culture and identity, then bringing that trust to
designing and executing their tattoos.
When it comes to folding culturally specific images or themes
into our tattooing practice, we must ask: what is our investment
in this culture? The practice of using tattooing’s existing wealth
of flash as a pool from which we can all draw at will can be thoughtless
and irresponsible if no consideration is given to the origin of the design,
the context in which it was created, and how different the context in
which it is being recreated might be. Are we crediting or compensating
creators or their communities where possible? An example of this
might be a white American tattoo artist who is interested in practicing
traditional Japanese tattooing. They could choose to work solely from
internet searches, tracing reproductions of generic re-imaginings
of Japanese designs without knowing their meanings, or they could
get tattooed from Japanese masters of the craft and style, travel
to Japan to experience the origin culture firsthand, purchase paintings
from Japanese artists and devote themselves to studying the history
and symbolism of the images they are recreating, thus creating an
investment in the culture that informs their work.
Investment does not equal entitlement though, and proximity
does not equal participation. Ultimately, culturally specific images
and symbols rightfully belong to their culture of origin and those who
identify with it. Tattoo artists should honor this, checking our own
tendencies towards appropriation and educating clients whenever
possible. We must also recognize the limitations of our own identities.
There are tattoos that it is simply not appropriate for us to replicate
or profit from, and there are times that we are just not the right tattooer
for a particular piece. Part of this work is to step back and acknowledge
when our influence is not needed and may be harmful. Cultural
appropriation is a complex and multilayered topic. There are often
no singular right answers or best practices. What is necessary to
tattooing as a whole is to elevate and support the widest variety
of tattoo practices possible, so that self-determination and ownership
is prioritized for artists and clients who have been historically
minoritized in the industry.
If mutual trust and respect is present, most clients will appreciate
a conversation exploring their personal investment in an image and
P 77 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
value an artist who works with them to come up with a tattoo design
that reflects their own identity and experience. Anti-racist work can
be collaborative learning process between both clients and coworkers,
however, it should be an ongoing and conscious effort. As the national
and global protests in response to the police murders of George Floyd,
Breonna Taylor, and many others have shown us, unlearning white
supremacy is no longer optional.
One time, one of my clients came in asking for a large piece on their
calf to honor their Filipinx heritage with an image of a warrior woman.
They brought in beautiful reference images, which I could see included
a number of different clothing styles and adornments on the warrior
figures. I asked them which elements had specific meanings and which
felt important to them to include, so that I wouldn’t be doing the guesswork
of knowing cultural significance or choosing based on what looked
“coolest” to me. By asking them for their knowledge and preferences,
I was able to create a design that felt accurate to their culture.
I once had a longtime client on whom I had done two full sleeves over
the course of a few years, one piece at a time. My client was white
and many of his tattoos related to his British and Scottish heritage­—
family crests and the like. Before one session, he sent over the design
he wanted, which to my eyes resembled a swastika. Knowing him
to be a thoughtful and considerate person, I asked him when he came
in what he liked about the design and what it meant to him, listening
before sharing that I had done some research on it and that not only
did it slightly resemble a swastika, it also potentially had been used
as a symbol by hate groups. He hadn’t realized either of those things
and was clear that he didn’t want anything that could be ambiguously
racist tattooed on him, and together we were able to find a different
design that did not have those associations or meanings.
Sex Work
Tattoos can be significant for sex workers in how they advertise
themselves and what their client interactions look like. I’ve covered
tattoos on dancers that were an obnoxious conversation starter for
clients in the club, or that they were simply tired of fielding questions
about. Re-doing tattoos to look nicer or more quality/expensive can
also contribute to a provider being able to charge higher rates, thus
providing economic empowerment. I promise you, you have both
current and former sex worker clients, whether you know it or not.
Sex workers also risk losing business if they make changes to their
appearance, and often have to be calculating about how personal style
choices might affect their work. Body modifications like tattoos can
potentially diminish their appeal to certain clientele, and making the
decision to be tattooed could be especially personally significant in the
face of possible income loss. Conversely, tattoos can heighten appeal
for some providers, particularly those whose image and marketing
center around an alternative sex appeal, fetish services, or appearing
dominant and powerful.
Sex workers understand the intersection of money, power, and
bodies better than anyone. Listen to and trust their needs around
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 78
The work that sex workers do
ultimately gets relegated to the
realm of the “body,” of sexuality
and physical beauty. But all of
our bodies already exist within the
world of politics, politics that have
rendered our bodies thin, curvy,
dark, fair, desirable, or flawed.
It’s important to know that our sex
and race are written onto our bodies
by deep contours of history and
politics. We can’t talk about our
bodies without talking about how
they’ve been ordered, arranged,
and labeled by structures larger
and older than any of us.
Mona Salim
Stripping While Brown
$PREAD magazine Issue 5.4
*$PREAD: The Best of the Magazine
that Illuminated the Sex Industry and
Started a Media Revolution, edited
by Rachel Aimee, Eliyanna Kaiser, and
Audacia Ray
**https://apnews.com/2eb3876a208
d48929db1c2dae769129f
their bodies and how they want to tattoo them. The way that tattoo
artists structure and run our businesses are extremely similar to how
Kink and BDSM
independent providers in sex industries operate logistically. We share
common ground. Though our work is no longer criminalized and this is
All types of people are into kink and BDSM (bondage, discipline,
an important difference, there is much to be learned by acknowledging
dominance, sadism, submission, and masochism. These interests
and celebrating industry similarities, and to consider how sex workers
can intersect with LGBTQIA+ and sex worker communities. It’s not
deal with a criminalization that is greatly magnified by misogyny, racism
uncommon for individuals or couples to want to use a tattoo as a way
and xenophobia, and homophobia.
to cement their kink relationship dynamic or symbolize their lifestyle.
While some of the images or language people choose might seem
How can you support sex worker clientele? Do not out a client’s
shocking or degrading to the uninitiated, you shouldn’t assume there’s
sex worker status even if they’ve chosen to share it with you. People
an abusive intent behind the tattoo. I’ve done a wide range of kink
who trade sex are at a high risk of violence from clients, police and
tattoos from images like leather gloves that more subtly “flagged”
others. The criminal status of prostitution in the US makes it virtually
lifestyle involvement, to tattoos specific to a dynamic between two
impossible for sex workers to report these crimes to the state without
or more people (“Daddy,” “Owner,” “Property of”, and the like).
making themselves vulnerable to persecution by law enforcement
($PREAD*). In New York, they are subject to persecution under the
Keep in mind that if people are getting kink-related tattoos,
guise of “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” laws, which most
they should still be considerate in their communications, coming in
often target transgender women of color. Officers will sometimes arrest
respectfully and minding your professional boundaries. You shouldn’t
them simply for being in certain neighborhoods, dressing a certain
find yourself being involved in a scene without your consent. A “scene”
way, or carrying condoms**.
is an encounter or scenario between people with a previously agreed
upon power dynamic and may or may not involve sexual activity. Unless
Do not press people who do sex work for details about their jobs
this is communicated to you beforehand and you agree to be present
or ask them to tell you about their “worst client,” “craziest thing they’ve
and take part, it’s not consensual to have to be a witness or participant
done,” or “what do your parents think”. Providers face enormous
in someone else’s scene. For example, if a Dominant brings their
stigma on a daily basis, and questions like these rely on stereotypes
submissive partner in to get a tattoo that says “Daddy’s little slut”
that deny people their own feelings and experiences about their work.
and is speaking explicitly to them during the tattoo session in a way
Don’t assume that a client is a sex worker just because of the designs
that makes you uncomfortable, you have every right to assert
they get tattooed, either. Someone getting a tattoo of Pleaser heels or
boundaries around what you do and don’t want to deal with and let
a red umbrella could have a loved one who is a sex worker or be allied
them know that it’s inappropriate.
with sex worker rights. When your coworkers want to go to the strip
club, buy dances and TIP GENEROUSLY. Understand that the way they Early on in my tattoo career, a woman and man came into the tattoo shop.
earn is similar to how tattoo artists earn—paying the ‘house’, tipping Because I’ve done kink work and
The man wanted to get “Owned” with the woman’s initials and a small
provide a safe, non judgmental
DJs and other staff, keeping only a percentage of the cost of dances heart on his shoulderblade. Because of my involvement in the kink and
space to get kinky work done, some
and drinks. Donate artwork to sex worker right fundraisers—normalizing BDSM community, I recognized that they were likely in a D/S relationship. clients have taken it as an opening
visible support from people not in the sex industry helps to strenghten However, it was obvious they didn’t want to elaborate on it and I didn’t ask, to get graphic or overly detailed.
rather letting them enjoy the moment that they had co-created and that I have to make it clear that those
the movement and emphasizes its connectedness to other labor and I was able to facilitate. are conversations I won’t participate
civil rights issues. Shops can flag support for sex worker rights by in, especially because I’m in a private
displaying flash with symbols of the movement, like red umbrellas. Vote studio, one-on-one with my clients
for local politicians who are pushing decriminalization bills. Push back and it isn’t appropriate.
against whorephobic language and jokes in the shop and among your Tina Lugo
friends. When people hear those around them perpetuating stigma
or speaking negatively about sex work, they will see those spaces as
unwelcoming and unsafe for them.
P 79 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 80

A tattoo is an affirmation: you put it
on yourself with the knowledge that
this body is yours to have and enjoy
while you’re here. You have fun
with it, and nobody else can control
(supposedly) what you do with it.
That’s why tattooing is such a big
thing in prison: it’s an expression
of freedom—one of the only
expressions of freedom there.
They can lock you down, control
everything but: ‘I’ve got my mind,
and I can tattoo my body—alter
it my way as an act of personal will.’
Don Ed Hardy
Modern Primitives
A lot of people, when they hear that
I’m a convict, they hear that I’m an
eight-time felon, they see the tattoos
and they automatically put that
with being a felon. Being tattooed
is automatically being criminal,
and that’s not the case.
Rachel
Shapeshifting: Towards Being Seen
Tulsa Project
People are always like “only
people who have been to prison
have tattoos.” And I can’t really
say anything because I have been
to prison.
Sam
Shapeshifting: Towards Being Seen
Tulsa Project
*Gang identification poster,
Rikers Island
**NPR The Roots of ‘Black and
Gray Realism’ Tattoos with
Freddy Negrete
Formerly Incarcerated/
Justice Impacted
Tattooing becoming mainstream in recent years has relied heavily
on distancing itself from stereotypical associations with criminality.
We have likely all heard the refrain “it used to be you only had tattoos
if you had been to prison.” The last people to benefit from this
mainstreaming are those who do have a history of incarceration or have
been impacted by the criminal justice system. If we and our clients feel
able to enjoy being tattooed by maintaining a respectability based
on not being “criminals,” we effectively further marginalize those who
are unable to escape the stigma of that label. Tattoos that are gang
related, stereotypically associated with prison ink, or that are perceived
by others as poor quality can be a barrier to employment and other
systematic and social engagement.
Police forces often use tattoos as a justification for targeting
individuals, especially Black and brown folks, for profiling. I have
seen firsthand the gang identification visuals displayed in correctional
facilities and the fact that common tattoos like dice or the Virgin
of Guadalupe are considered indicators of gang affiliation*.
One client of mine shared that being asked by strangers what his
tattoos mean is triggering to him as it reminds him of having them
photographed and catalogued during the arrest intake process.
Police departments cast a dangerously wide net when it comes to gang
tattoos, leaving huge swaths of individuals vulnerable to harassment
and arrest. In speaking with a representative of the LAPD’s gang unit
over the phone, I was told that there is no way for civilians to know
which of their tattoos might be labeled “gang-related” by police, and
that they should “google it” if they are concerned about potential
profiling. Tulsa, Oklahoma PD told me that identifying potential gang
tattoos is about the combination of imagery with the race of the wearer.
Leaving the parameters of “criminally affiliated” tattoos purposefully
vague creates space for police and prosecutors to potentially attempt
added gang enhancements to sentencing or bring racketeering charges
in addition to providing justification for harassment and profiling.
Tattooing wants to think of itself as an outlaw counterculture, and
until recent years was in actuality criminalized in many states. Oklahoma
was the last state in the US to legalize tattooing in 2004. The conflict
arises when tattooing, an industry that has worked hard to legitimize
itself, become safer and more sanitary, and be more welcoming
to a larger clientele clings to its outsider status while wanting to
simultaneously avail itself of the benefits of mainstreaming. Fineline
black and grey tattooing, a style that has its roots in the California
prison system**, has become popularized worldwide, while artists
in the free world scoff at and deride artwork mailed to their shops
by tattoo artists in prison looking for creative connection.
It’s impossible not to address the cognitive dissonance that exists
in the tattoo industry: if it considers itself a world for outcasts, why
P 81 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
have there historically been so few marginalized groups represented
among these “outcasts,” and why have the marginalized people who
have existed in the industry had aspects of their identity erased from
the historical record? Take for example tattoo artist Tala Brandeis,
a trans woman, leatherdyke, and biker who is little known in tattoo
history. Tala, active in the leatherdyke community and as a tattoo artist,
owned Tala Tattoos in San Francisco, advertising “kick-ass traditional-
radical tattoos.” As someone who struggled with drug addiction,
spent time in prison, and was a proud Harley-riding biker, Tala would
fit neatly into stereotypical images of the quintessential 90’s tattoo
artist. Her identity as an outspoken trans woman and kinky dyke,
however, complicates the image, and is likely why she is largely
*The Second Coming, Bloodsisters,
unknown in tattoo lineage*.
Tala Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/
We must push back against the respectability politics present talatattoo, http://www.ravishly.
in the tattoo industry and address the stigma of tattoos (most often com/2015/01/05/fight-us-entropy-
requiem-tattoo-artist
wrongfully) being characterized as “criminal.” By stereotyping tattoos
on people impacted by incarceration as relating solely to or being Some people get pictures in prison.
a product of their time in prison, we erase their identity and history I don’t need them, [my kids’ names]
as individuals, and the deep meaning they bring to choosing to be are right there…They can’t take
my tattoos. It’s one thing they can’t
tattooed. Not only this, but we also neglect the ways that correctional
take from you.
facilities heighten the meaning of a person’s tattoos, making their Rachel
connections to family members, loved ones, or personal value systems Shapeshifting: Towards Being Seen
all the more important. Tattooing can be a vehicle to assert an Tulsa Project
authority over one’s body that cannot be taken away by the state.
Tattooing in prison is ‘against
It is a memento that maintains a connective thread to a life outside the rules and regulations of the
prison walls, and supports maintaining a sense of individuality in an institution’, as we used to say
with a chortle… if they catch you,
environment that aims to strip that away. Tattooing inside carceral
what can they do, charge you with
spaces is a unique example of the urgency of the practice as well. defacing government property?
Tattooing is illegal inside jails and prisons, and can carry the punishment You’ve already surrendered your
of added time, solitary confinement/isolation, and reduced privileges freedom. No matter how hard
prison authorities try to regulate
like phone time and visits. To understand that the importance
their charges, give them numbers
of a tattoo and its meaning felt so necessary in that moment that instead of names, and control every
the recipient was willing to risk these speaks to how crucial a role aspect of their lives from the clothes
tattooing can play in self-empowerment and personal agency. they wear to the magazines they
read, prisoners will always find
ways to assert their individuality.
Richard Stratton
Fatphobia/Bodyshaming/
Editor of Prison Life
Fetishizing
Being a professional tattoo artist requires being able to perform
technically within a wide range of practices. This includes the ability
to tattoo all parts of the body, on all types of bodies. While there are
limitations to tattooing over stretch marks and other types of skin
variations, this is no excuse for discriminating against larger bodies.
At times, replicating a design will look different on differing bodies.
A backpiece design will naturally look one way on a broad-shouldered
bodybuilder and another way on someone with a curvy hourglass
figure. An artist should be able to work with a client to adjust a design
to suit their physicality without shaming them or casting negative
aspersions on their body type. The unique shape of each client’s body
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 82
has the potential to enhance a tattoo, the same way that a tattoo can
enhance each person’s body differently.
I’ve had clients bring in reference images of existing tattoos
on bodies that were very different from their own. Communicating
what changes will make the concept look best for them takes
professionalism and tact and should center the desire to give the client
the best tattoo that they can get. Negative self-talk can come up for
clients during the consultation process, and often during stenciling and
tattooing as well. All artists have likely heard disparaging comments like
“This will look better once I drop a few pounds” or “I don’t want this
tattoo to sag as my body ages,” “Maybe this can distract from my
cellulite” and the like. Tattooers can redirect away from this type of
conversation by reminding the client of their agency in the situation:
ex: “you chose a beautiful design that’s going to look great on you.”
Getting tattooed is often a way for people with a history of eating
disorders or body shame to reframe their relationship to their body
as a whole or adjust their perspective of a particular body part.
Many clients express how their new tattoos made them love a part
of themselves they previously felt negatively towards. With this framing
in mind, it’s especially important to be universally kind and supportive
around working with all bodies. There is no way to tell by looking
at the type of body someone has what their body story is or has been.
The responsibility for artists doesn’t end with being good to your client
through their appointment. We must push back when others in the
shop express fatphobic or body-shaming opinions and comments.
Economic Accessibility
Tattoo artists have worked long and hard to gain professional
respectability and to be compensated accordingly. Most artists
set their rates to be reflective of the amount of experience they have
in the industry. Today, depending on regional standards, the cost of
a tattoo can range anywhere from being similarly priced to a high-end
haircut or massage, to thousands of dollars as a minimum rate for
a celebrity artist. Tattooing is a luxury service and is priced accordingly.
It’s important to make sure artists and craftspeople are paid
their due, particularly considering that the majority of tattooers are
self-employed. As independent contractors, we incur enormous costs
in running our business and don’t have benefits provided by employers
and so are often without health insurance, retirement savings, or safety
nets. We are responsible for our own financial support structures.
We should also, however, acknowledge the ways that high rates
price out people who are economically disadvantaged. Is getting
tattooed a basic human right? Not in the same way that medical care,
housing, and food access are. But we should not underestimate the
effect that being tattooed can have on someone’s lived experience
both in its potential to empower and to disempower. With the public
P 83 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
at large having a newfound literacy as to what makes a tattoo “quality”
(which directly correlates with expensive), there is a difference in how
people with visibly expensive and aesthetically pleasing tattoos are
treated in contrast to those with homemade or less well-done work.
There is both classism and racism at play in who is able to wear
crude or homemade tattoos without judgment. Consider the ways
that “tattoo parties,” often taking place in low-income communities,
are stigmatized differently than trendy hotels or bars hosting artists
to tattoo their crowds during events. A white artist with stick-and-poke
tattoos is more likely to be seen as “creative” or “edgy” in contrast
to a young Black man whose homemade tattoos open him up to
racist stereotyping about having done time or having poor taste.
I have encountered experiences of this again and again in teaching
art to young Black and brown men in their late teens and early
twenties. These young people had impeccable taste and a keen sense
of what a “good” tattoo looked like, and were acutely aware that
the pieces artists had done on them for cheap or free were not up
to broader societal standards of quality work. They had experienced
discrimination like police profiling and assumptions that their tattoos
were gang-related. Many expressed shame and embarrassment about
wearing the pieces that they had gotten in the past, and knew that
good work was worth the price. This directly contradicts attitudes
I have seen in shops that accuse clients (especially those of color)
of having little appreciation for quality tattooing or assume their
spending priorities are in the wrong places (“My client told me $60
is too much for a tattoo, but was wearing $200 sneakers”).
These attitudes are derived from discriminatory (and contradictory)
class assumptions and prejudices that work against poor and working
class people—both that they don’t have money and can’t save money,
and that they spend money on things they shouldn’t. Many of us have
heard the adage “you get the tattoo you deserve”. While in context
it can be more nuanced than it seems here, at base it works in service
of the aforementioned assumptions. We are all capable of falling into
the trap of assuming that if you aren’t traditionally wealthy, you
shouldn’t have nice things.
Shops can also be agents of gentrification, opening up in areas
whose existing tattoo community is less high-profile or less recognized
by certain industry circles (often because of racism and classism).
These new shops often drive up the prices of tattooing in the area
with high shop minimums and hourly rates, widening the gap between
what’s standard and what’s accessible for local residents. Employees of
these shops can then use their own inaccessible pricing to discriminate
against clients for not being able to afford getting tattooed at those rates.
There are pro-bono services in several cities that offer free laser
removal services for survivors of sex trafficking and for people who
have been gang-involved. In addressing the deep significance in being
able to remove a tattoo, we must equally acknowledge the power
of being able to cover a tattoo or re-work it to look better, and
of applying a tattoo in the first place. Covering top surgery scars can
mean the difference in a transgender man being able to enjoy the beach
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 84

Especially within a capitalistic
society, tattooing is often seen
as a service where if one is
paying then the service provider
is assumed to be available for
whatever the client demands.
Sally Rose
without shame or fear. Re-working hand tattoos that are a barrier
to employment can mean economic empowerment for someone
already facing the monumental challenges of re-entry after being
incarcerated. Applying a new tattoo over the name of a past abuser
can be transformational for a survivor of domestic violence
reclaiming her body and her life. Are we to flatly deny people this
type of material healing simply because they cannot afford it?
As self-employed artists, we have the power and flexibility to
offer pricing options if we so choose. I have been working towards
a structure that pays me what I need to earn, while offering pro-bono
and sliding scale slots monthly. What works for everyone will be
different and will necessitate parameters so that we don’t feel taken
advantage of. We already offer discounts to friends or to people
getting tattoos that we’re excited to add to our portfolios. I propose
that we rethink our assumptions about what we can and can’t afford
to give, and that we create options that make the transformative
potential of tattooing more widely accessible while assigning more
meaning to the work that we do.
There is a type of coercion that happens when we feel blackmailed
into doing work that we don’t particularly want to. We all have
survival needs that require us to earn income, and often find ourselves
compromising in service of this need. The important thing to affirm to
yourself is that no one is entitled to your services. Customer service
and bargaining norms can give potential clients the idea that you have
to make a deal with them, which is entirely untrue. No one should
capitalize on your economic needs and the insistence that making
something is better than making nothing to pressure you into reducing
your rates below what feels okay to you in the moment. On the other
hand, tattooers can also be guilty of raising their rates far beyond
industry standards, informed by a neoliberal capitalist perspective that
we can charge whatever the market can bear. For some people, this
seems to work—no matter how high tattoo prices go, apparently
someone out there is willing to pay them. On the continuum between
these two options is where empathy-driven and nuance-driven reality lies.
The question here is what the value being exchanged is outside
of the tattoo and the money being paid. A client paying a thousand-
dollar minimum for a small tattoo may feel they are entitled to more
time, attention, emotional caretaking, and design revisions because
of the high rate they are paying. A client who knows they are receiving
a discount may be more willing to be flexible with your scheduling
needs or to get a design of your choosing. They may be a person you
would love to tattoo, though the cost isn’t in their budget for the month.
The value exchange you’re getting when you tattoo for less or for free
could be exposure. It could be doing good in the world. It could be
a more literal value exchange, as in bartering for a service that you
need. Ask yourself if you feel supported in what’s being exchanged.
Is there a financial backbone present for you even if it doesn’t come
from this particular free tattoo?
Think of your work as operating along a map of decision points
rather than within a financial binary of making money/not making
P 85 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
money. We as humans are more than economic money making machines.
We are engaged in communities, and are missing out by not factoring
this into our work practices. If we rethink the places from which we
decide to do our work, and what we get in return from each one, what
might they look like? In my early tattoo career, we’d joke at my shop
about the “elusive trifecta” (see below), which was its own form
of a decision point map. What would your decision points be, and how
would they have to add up to make tattooing feel worthwhile overall?
The Elusive Trifecta:
Cool Client
Pays Cool
Full Price Tattoo
My own decision points might be categorized something like this:
Financial Earning
Emotional Meaning-making/
Investment Liberation/Values
If we agree that the emotional sphere is in play in our work, what
does this mean for how we charge for our services? For example, think
of tattooing your mom for free. You’re losing money doing free work,
and your emotional investment could be either depleting or fulfilling,
but meaning-making is likely off the charts here in repaying the favor
of giving you life. Meaning-making is about your values and what, for
you, is a good combination of pleasurable and purposeful. Some artists
make time to cover mastectomy scars for survivors of breast cancer
for free, valuing being able to be a part of someone’s healing journey.
Some artists offer monthly free tattoo appointments to people in social
work fields, bringing them the feeling of being able to repay people
who are doing good in the world. On the other hand, someone may
charge only full price equally to each client and make quite a bit more
income, but hate all the clients they deal with and feel creatively
understimulated. The dial approach gives you room to be more
forgiving with yourself and a broader understanding of the realities
of your economic and moral needs.
Think about a type of person you want to be working with and how
you can bring more of those in. Keep in mind that you can give people
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 86
a chance to self-select how they want to pay or what category they fall
into, rather than assuming everyone will want a discount or community
rate. Those of use who don’t come from a lot of money especially tend
to underestimate who can (or wants to) pay full rate. Hiring you for your
services is a form of material support many people love to be able
to take part in, particularly if they deeply admire your art or the role you
play in their community.
The first step is to tell people your full rate and see what happens,
and then to know what options are realistic for both you and them
if it’s too high. Conversations about money can be fraught and
awkward! Transparency up front is better than making problematic
assumptions about a client’s financial situation. As an appointment-
only artist who emails with clients prior to booking, I make sure to send
an informational email that includes pricing information about my
standard rate as well as other pricing options and ask them to specify
if they are interested in those. For walk-in artists who work with clients
on the spot, a casual “what’s your budget?” or “what are you looking
to spend?” when talking about their idea can be a low-pressure way
to talk about cost.
How you run your business will have to do with how you are
socially and financially positioned and what your values are. There
is no single right answer here. An intersectional equity focus is not
just about how much money you have or need, but how much money
you can decide around. This can change and be situational. Your
personal sustainability minimum will be unique to you and include your
own realities of doing business and your cost of living. The aim should
be to create a sustainable practice that takes into account the feeling
of enjoying being with clients and the satisfaction of your work being
valued, while also factoring in the structural inequalities that make
tattooing economically inaccessible to the people who could benefit
from it most greatly.
P 87 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Transformative Justice:
Modeling Community
Accountability in a Shop
Tattooing is a wide and varied community with no unifying political
belief systems or practices. Regardless of an artist’s personally held
opinions regarding the criminal justice system and prison industrial
complex, artists should hold space for the complexity of individual
situations. An artist should not pressure a survivor to report or involve
law enforcement, acknowledging that for many communities and
individuals, police presence is unsafe and can perpetuate violence.
In radical communities, this approach is called respecting a diversity
of tactics*; essentially the philosophy that simultaneous multi-pronged *First attributed to a speech by
approaches are needed to make progress in the struggle towards Malcolm X, in which he espoused
liberation. Originally conceived of to unite the armed resistance
solidarity between both nonviolent
and armed resistance movements.
liberation movements and the nonviolent protests of the Civil Rights This philosophy has been practiced
movement in solidarity, here it can be applied to mean working through by a wide variety of groups, including
a community accountability process while also honoring a survivor’s the suffragettes, the Civil Rights
movement, the Seattle World Trade
need for more direct means of action, or for police involvement. Organization shutdown of 1999,
prison abolitionists, and ANTIFA.
In response to recent years’ outpouring of stories of abuse and (Wikipedia: diversity of tactics)
assault by tattooers, some artists have responded by encouraging
survivors to go to police as the only true solution or “justice.” In some
instances, artists look to a lack of police reporting as invalidating
the truth of an experience. We must, as an industry, understand the
many reasons reporting assault is not an option for all survivors. Arrest
and conviction rates for sexual assault charges are notoriously low,
disappointing victims who see the criminal justice system as an avenue
for closure. The process of medical exams, filing police reports, and
a trial can be humiliating and re-traumatizing. Often the survivor has
a complicated relationship to the abuser and may rely on them for
housing, employment, or other resources. Sex workers are at enormous
risk for sexual violence due to the criminalization of their profession.
As a result, reporting assault opens them up to prosecution for the
work they do. Police themselves also commit violence against
vulnerable individuals.
Criticism of the relationship tattooing has to police has a place
in this conversation. Law enforcement can make up a significant
amount of a shop or artists’ clientele, and it is not my intent to criticize
the ways that artists take on clients. However, tattooing has a long
history of outsider or outlaw counterculture status that many of us pride
ourselves on. I find myself frustrated at times that artists who otherwise
are theoretically critical of the police as an institution (ACAB tattoo
anyone?) and prefer tattooing to be a self-regulating industry will then
lean on law enforcement in order to “pass the buck” on having to deal
with sexual assault rather than explore community accountability
alternatives[KS1]. Once we understand the failures of policing and the
criminal justice system, particularly for survivors of sexual assault, we
must consider other options—ones within our own power.
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 88
*A term coined by Generation Five
through their work to end child
sexual abuse.
**Transformative Justice (TJ) is a
political framework and approach
for responding to violence, harm
and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks
to respond to violence without
creating more violence and/or
engaging in harm reduction to lessen
the violence. TJ can be thought of
as a way of “making things right,”
getting in “right relation,” or creating
justice together. Transformative
justice responses and interventions
1) do not rely on the state
(e.g. police, prisons, the criminal
legal system, I.C.E., foster care
system (though some TJ responses
do rely on or incorporate social
services like counseling),
2) do not reinforce or perpetuate
violence such as oppressive norms
or vigilantism; and most importantly,
3) actively cultivate the things we
know prevent violence such as
healing, accountability, resilience,
and safety for all involved.
transformharm.org
***Credit here goes to the people
of the 1971 Attica Prison Uprising
and the 1973 Walpole Prison Uprising,
as well as to Angela Davis and
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who co-
founded abolitionist organization
Critical Resistance.
****Prison Industrial Complex
abolition is a political vision with the
goal of eliminating imprisonment,
policing, and surveillance and
creating lasting alternatives to
punishment and imprisonment.
From where we are now, sometimes
we can’t really imagine what abolition
is going to look like. Abolition isn’t
just about getting rid of buildings full
of cages. It’s also about undoing the
society we live in because the PIC
both feeds on and maintains
oppression and inequalities through
punishment, violence, and controls
millions of people. Because the PIC
is not an isolated system, abolition
is a broad strategy. An abolitionist
vision means that we must build
models today that can represent how
we want to live in the future. It means
developing practical strategies for
taking small steps that move us
toward making our dreams real and
that lead us all to believe that things
really could be different. It means
living this vision in our daily lives.
criticalresistance.org
Tattooing has a long and accomplished history of taking care
of its own. We start crowdfunding pages, host fundraisers, donate
paintings, supplies, and our time and energy. We understand the ways
that the medical industry can fail us (especially as many of us are
uninsured) and rally to pay each other’s medical bills. We are capable
of demonstrating community care in ways that I rarely, if ever, see in
other job fields. I firmly believe that we can broaden the care that we
have for each other to include other needs and to preempt harm rather
than react to it after the fact.
Considering alternatives to policing is one way to do this. I see this
issue from a transformative justice* and** prison abolitionist***
perspective****, which means that I believe punitive state measures
to address violence, harm, and “crime” would be obsolete in a world
where individuals and communities had their basic needs met, had
skills and tools for nonviolent conflict resolution, and were supported
in alternative forms of community accountability rather than subjected
to surveillance, punishment and a cycle of oppression by the carceral
system. Interventions to address harm are within our grasp as
individuals and as communities. Interpersonal violence happens in the
context of community—often among people we live with, love, work
with, or learn from. It stands to reason that the “answer to violence also
lies in these same places, with these same people (CI Toolkit)”. The
people in our communities who are affected by violence have both the
most to lose from violence and the most to gain from ending It (CI).
We have the knowledge and the skills to know and address the things
that the state, police, social services, and court system fail to see.
Community accountability hinges on our relationships—a strength
we in the tattoo community largely already possess.
Transformative Justice seeks to provide people who experience violence with
immediate safety and long-term healing and reparations while holding people
who commit violence accountable within and by their communities. This
accountability includes stopping immediate abuse, making a commitment
to not engage in future abuse, and offering reparations for past abuse.
Such accountability requires community responsibility and access to on-going
support and transformative healing for people who sexually abuse.
Generation Five
Toward Transformative Justice
An abolitionist approach…would require us to imagine a constellation
of alternative strategies and institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing
the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society.
In other words, we would not be looking for prisonlike substitutes for the
prison, such as house arrest safeguarded by electronic surveillance bracelets.
Rather, positing decarceration as our overarching strategy, we would try
to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment—demilitarization
of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that
provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based
on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.
Angela Y. Davis
Are Prisons Obsolete?
In recent years, thanks in large part to the #METOO movement
that has outed sexual harassment and abuse across all industries,
P 89 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
a number of tattoo artists have been named as perpetuating violence
I understand cultural change is
painful, long and nuanced. Right now
and using their profession as a means to do it. Some of the behaviors
the most painful part of that to me is
range from soliciting nude photos from clients under the guise “going along to get along.” At my
of needing them to design or place a tattoo, pressuring clients to pay heart I hope I am fairly radical, open
minded, peaceful and loving. I feel
for tattoos with sexual favors, inappropriate touching of clients during like I constantly have to conceal that
sessions, harassing texts or emails to clients, and rape. person or lie and smile when
someone says something stupid. It is
Some of these artists enjoyed widespread fame and the support really alienating...I carry anxiety from
when I say something that I know
of respected peers within the community. It begs the question: why isn’t true to myself for weeks. It
wasn’t anyone made aware of the extent of this type of behavior? bothers me more than when my
Were people told what was happening, and if so, why the inaction? coworkers say something totally
Were there warning signals or other, less obvious infractions committed overtly fucked up. I’m not the culture
police, and I have to exist in my shop
by these individuals that could have been addressed before their day to day. I am ashamed that I don’t
behavior escalated? If, as a shop owner, someone who works or has speak up more.
worked for you has been outed as an abuser and you were unaware of Anonymous
the behavior, it’s important to ask yourself why. This is not to displace
blame for an individual’s behavior onto others, but to begin to consider
our ability in community intervention and how to cultivate those skills.
Building trust and responsiveness within shops and other tattoo social
groups is not an easy or quick undertaking. There is an enormous
culture of secrecy and shame that we are working against when we
try to address sexual assault and harassment.
Though it may seem common sense, defining sexual harassment
and thinking about how it exists within our particular industry is a helpful
starting point. Sexual harassment is non-consensual and includes
comments, jokes, physical touch, and advances of a sexual nature.
In tattoo shops, lines around what constitutes harassment often feel
blurred due to the casual environment and off-color language and
humor that can be commonplace. People who get into tattooing as
a profession tend to chafe against workplace rules like dress codes,
set hours, and other norms we see as repressive “office job” culture.
It’s entirely possible to enjoy a fun workplace where we can express
ourselves freely, however, its boundaries must be co-created while
keeping the needs and limitations of coworkers and clients in mind.
By coming to a collectively agreed-upon definition of sexual harassment
that suits the culture of your shop and its clients, you can form a place
from which to address it when it comes up and is recognized.
This section will not address legally mandated training and
reporting protocols, as those vary depending on region. Keep in mind
that for many shops this is not optional—workplace sexual harassment
trainings can be required by law. Once you have established a baseline
agreement of acceptable and unacceptable behavior within your shop,
you can make it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated (while
bearing in mind that your standards will not be everyone’s standards,
and being willing to meet others’ needs). Consider what consequences
individuals who violate these agreements will be held to: will they
be given a warning? Be required to undergo additional harassment
training? Apologize and make restitution to the person harmed by
their behavior? Fired? Blacklisted from being tattooed at the shop
ever again?
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 90

*A point person is someone
designated to take on a leadership
or representative role in regards
to a particular issue, topic, or
problem-solving.
Imagine and establish ways to intervene in behavior as you see
it happening. Bystander intervention trainings can be helpful for
this. Once people are equipped to intervene, you can establish the
expectation that it will be done if a situation calls for it. It can be useful
to name point-people* at the shop who are willing and able to be
responsible for responding to incidents of harm. Clarify what these
people can take on, and what they can’t. These individuals should
seek out necessary resources on addressing violence (see resources
and toolkits in the sources section). Consider ways that others in the
shop can support these point-people when needed and how those
responsibilities can be divided. It’s highly recommended to have people
work in pairs rather than to expect one person to take on this work.
Keep in mind the power dynamics and hierarchy of responsibility when
delegating these roles—for example, a shop assistant who is already
managing multiple tasks throughout the day might not be the best
person to keep an eye on the goings-on, a shop owner might be
perceived as having more authority when having to ask someone
to leave, etc.
The demographics of your shop will inevitably shape power
dynamics in ways that might be imperceptible to its workers as insiders.
If you’re working to define sexual harassment in your shop, but you
and your coworkers are all straight, cisgender men, you’re likely to miss
out on the differing perspective of women and queer and transgender
people, all of whom experience harassment and violence differently.
If you want to make your business welcoming and supportive of all
types of clients, you must develop a consciousness and practice
around what it takes to develop a mutual trust between the environment
and its clients. This, in large part, requires listening to perspectives
outside your own. Women, nonbinary, queer and trans people can often
act as “canary in the coal mine” and be some of the first individuals
to be subjected to harmful treatment or to notice patterns of red flags.
Listen to and believe their experiences. Accountability and trust
can work in tandem and inform each other. If it’s being consistently
demonstrated that your shop takes harm prevention seriously and
centers the people most affected, people are more likely to trust that
they will be listened to if they give feedback or disclose an incident.
When responding to incidents reported by an individual, find
out what is needed by that person to feel that their concerns and safety
have been addressed. This can be varied and complex depending
on factors like the experience of the person involved, their proximity
or relationship to the shop, and what the originating action was.
Is the harm currently happening or ongoing? How can you help to make
the survivor safer in the moment? The first priority should be stopping
the immediate violence. Consider what the harm is and was, and
what the potential related healing can be. Different types of harm will
call for different interventions. It’s important not to treat all types
of behavior the same way or to collapse all incidents under the umbrella
of “harm”—if something is abuse or assault, name it as such. Specificity
can help bring clarity and be necessary to make survivors feel heard
and taken seriously. Center the person or people who were harmed
in this consideration.
P 91 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Be truthful with yourself about what outcomes and change you are
hoping for. Is your impulse towards making the incident “go away”?
Do you hope for the person who caused harm to recognize their
mistakes and learn and do better, or just to feel bad about what they
did*? Are the solutions you’re looking toward addressing the underlying *Source: Kaba & Hassan
culture and causes of harm? These questions arise often in regards Fumbling Towards Repair
to social media reactions to reports of harmful behavior. If we consider
public social media responses that directly address these incidents
as a form of community intervention, what are the responses hoping
to achieve? Are they genuinely working to shift culture within the tattoo
world, or are they a way to virtue signal and distance oneself from the
harm without taking tangible responsibility? By isolating individuals
who perpetuate violence as outliers, we deny the ways that violence
functions within communities and the ways we can all take part in
its prevention.
Make violence intervention an
What if you yourself or your shop are called out? There are
everyday skill—rather than something
differences between being “called out” and being “called in”. A call-in that waits and waits until it’s too late.
is typically more private and personal, and involves a person or group Creative Interventions Toolkit
bringing concerns about harmful behavior directly to the person
or people perpetuating it. Call-ins come from a place of compassion,
and investment in another person. Calling someone in trusts that
you believe they are capable of learning and doing better. Often
call-ins precede call-outs. Calling out is a more public pointing out
of oppressive behavior. It lets the person know what they’ve done,
and alerts others to it as well. Calling out can be a tactic towards
community safety and transparency, sharing information about
potentially dangerous individuals. Call-outs can sometimes be a last
resort, and a consequence of someone refusing to respond to prior
attempts at calling in. Power dynamics are heavily at play in how these
are approached as well. Calling-in can sometimes be impossible due
to the power a perpetuator has over the people they’ve harmed. The
work of calling-in can be draining and exhausting for people who are
already experiencing violence. Call-outs can often be the only way
to get a harmful person to pay attention and to be responsible for their
behavior. Not everyone reacts well to being called in or out, and people
can sometimes escalate their behavior in response.
The first instinct is often to react from a place of defensiveness.
Being called in or out can activate fear, shame, anger in people,
resulting in deflecting and denial. This can look like discrediting
the accuser (“they’re crazy”), insisting on your innocence or
unimpeachable character (“I’m not the kind of person who would
do something like that”), or avoiding or ignoring the issue altogether.
It’s crucial to get honest. If you know you did harm to someone,
if you have an idea it’s possible you harmed someone, if you have
the suspicion that your behavior wasn’t quite right in a situation,
acknowledge it**. Being honest about this opens us up to the process **Source: Taking the First Step:
of dealing with harm in a meaningful and constructive way. Suggestions to People Called
Out For Abusive Behavior
You can account for your experience and your experience and your https://transformharm.org/taking-
the-first-step-suggestions-to-
experience alone. Don’t ever assume that you can know how the
person calling you out as an abuser experienced the situation(s). people-called-out-for-abusive-
People walk down the same streets everyday and have very different behavior/
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 92
 experiences. This is a simple fact of life. It is, also, a very different
experience to have the winds of privilege blowing against your back
than to have the winds of oppression blowing in your face as you
walk down those same streets. You cannot know how someone else
felt at a certain moment, and so you should never presume that you
have the right to judge the validity of their feelings. If they have
expressed how they feel, then what you need to do, first and
foremost, is to listen.
Wispy Cockles
Taking the First Step: Suggestions To People Called out For Abusive Behavior
From there, you can begin to listen in a way that respects the
survivor’s autonomy. Respect their needs and desires. You as the
person who caused harm do not have the right to demand that they
engage with you in the way that you want. You cannot force resolution
on your own terms. Working towards reparation can be a long
and challenging process, and it’s likely that mistakes will be made.
Practicing patience and taking time to reflect on your actions
is a necessary part of the process. Do not blame the victim/survivor.
Deflecting from your own behavior by focusing on another person’s
behavior or character is a way to avoid responsibility for your
own actions.
So much in the criminal punishment system and in mainstream
anti-violence activism creates a “perpetrator vs. survivor” duality.
This binary is essential to the criminal punishment system and is
dependent on the idea of survivors as “innocent” and “perfect.”
However, this emphasis on the “innocence” of survivors places
us on a pedestal, erases our humanity and complexity, and pressures
us to be compliant.
Fumbling Towards Repair
You will likely have friends and allies that want to come to your
defense. While this may be well-intentioned on their part, attempting
to drown out a survivor and their allies with positive testaments to your
character (“They’re so dedicated to their craft,””They’ve contributed
so much to tattooing,””They’ve been such a wonderful mentor to me”)
only serves to silence criticism and insulate you from the feedback and
challenges you need to hear. We can hold space for the complexities
of individuals and for the multiplicity of ourselves as humans—we
can be dedicated to our craft and still cause harm. One does not make
the other impossible. Assert to your friends that if they genuinely care
about you, they will support you in learning from this process and
atoning for your harmful behavior. Likewise, if you have a friend who
is being called out, commit to holding them accountable in the ways
that you as someone close to them can offer. Trust and relationships
are at the core of reparative work, and as someone who possesses
these, you can help in ways that other people may not be able to.
Make an effort to give survivors and facilitators what it is they
are asking for. It demonstrates good faith and that you are listening
and committed to the process to agree to their requests, whether that
be not to attend certain events for a period of time, not to guest at
a certain shop, or to do reading they are asking you to do. Doing this
works towards establishing that you are someone who can be trusted.
P 93 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
This trust works in both directions: you are trusting the process and
that you are sincerely being given the chance to do better, and you are
showing that you can be trusted to respect what is asked of you.
“Accountability is a continuous, active, and voluntary process
of being responsible to yourself and those around you for your
choices and the consequences of our actions,” write Kaba & Hassan
in Fumbling Towards Repair. “Unlike punishment, it is something
that we do rather than something that is done to us (78).” We must
remember that we cannot make people be accountable or hold them
accountable. Rather, one can only take accountability for themselves.
Being accountable is doing the work of transformation. Transforming
old beliefs and patterns is deep work, and difficult if not impossible
to do alone. Accountability happens in relationships with others,
and is bound up in our role in friendships, romantic partnerships, and
greater community. Accountability also does not rely on forgiveness
to be possible. Repair and reparations can be made without requiring
a survivor to forgive.
True accountability depends on seeing the humanity of the abused
that has been harmed and the humanity of the person who has done
the harming–in other words, it depends on empathy. This empathy often
needs to be matched with enough pressure to insist on accountability.
Generation Five
Toward Transformative Justice
*Empathy describes the ability to
Whichever side of an accountability process you find yourself understand the feelings of another,
stepping into their shoes and
on, empathy* is a critical resource. Not only does empathy “guide sharing their emotions from within
us in the accurate understanding of situations and relationships (Kaba their perspective. Empathy is also
& Hassan),” it is also necessary in being able to negotiate conflict described as “feeling with” someone.
resolution. Facilitating a process requires a large capacity for empathy,
There is often nothing we can do
as well as for listening through emotional reactions like pain and to “make up” for the original harm.
anger from all sides. Fear and anger can drive us towards a desire Interventions can bring about
for revenge. We as a society have an understanding that punishment positive change but cannot make
the original harm disappear.
equals justice, and that closure can only be found through retribution. Creative Interventions Toolkit
Community justice alternatives require to unpack this thinking and
to ask ourselves how we can move towards repair without creating
more suffering. How can we atone for violence without requiring more True accountability is not only
apologizing, understanding the
violence as a penalty? If we want to keep people who do harm as part impacts your actions have caused
of our community, how do we support them in repair and healing? on yourself and others, making
amends or reparations to the harmed
I cannot explain to you here just how to “do” an accountability parties; but most importantly, true
accountability is changing your
process for yourself. Communities each have their own dynamics behavior so that the harm, violence,
and their own needs, and will have their own solutions as a result. abuse does not happen again.
What I hope to offer are guidelines for thinking about accountability Mia Mingus
in the context of tattooing as a profession and as a community. At the
end of this book are resources for further reading, including a number
of workbooks and curriculums developed by people who have been
doing this work for a long time. I encourage readers to learn from
their examples, and to bring their own individual needs and strengths
to co-creating their own vision of these processes.
Not every situation will necessarily need a formal community
accountability process. You can assess situations individually,
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 94
A success model involves
adrenaline, dramatic victories,
and prioritizing momentum over
process. But movement work
is full of disappointments, hiccups,
and small wins. The task is not
so much to achieve breathtaking
victories, but rather to make our
organizing so nourishing and resilient
that we can weather mistakes,
build off of failures, and appreciate
the revolutionary potential of even
the subtlest gains.
Kaba & Hassan
Fumbling Towards Repair
Abolition seeks to repair the damage
done to a person or people. Abolition
holds space for the person or people
who have perpetrated violence,
harm, and damage. Abolition makes
the impossible possible.
Patrisse Cullors
Abolition and Reparations: Histories
of Resistance, Transformative Justice,
and Accountability
alongside the person who was harmed, to decide if this is the case
and if so, to come up with some alternative actions for resolution.
Plans for resolution should take into account the power dynamics
at play. Plan for backlash following the process. Plan to divide
facilitation work in a way that is sustainable for everyone involved.
Plan for self-care and mutual support. Plan to celebrate if appropriate!
Oftentimes, if the survivor desires it, there can be a sense of closure
and acknowledgment that comes from honoring the process joyfully.
What can accountability look like as a shop? Is there a way
for employees, guests, and clients to give open and honest feedback
without fear of repercussions? How can your shop begin to signal
its ethic and commitment to growth in a genuine way? We must
begin to loosen our grasp on the binary notion of “good people”
and “bad people” and acknowledge that each of us as individuals
has the capacity to cause harm, but also to heal. Individuals who
have caused harm are also capable of acts of kindness, of generosity
and compassion. How can we ask others and ourselves to be
responsible for our actions, but also to express the fullest potential
of our ability towards repair? When we commit ourselves to this path,
we open ourselves up to greater challenges. The fact that we are
willing to take these challenges on is a sign of growth in and of itself.
I had a woman client who confided in me that she had been
tattooed at another local shop by a woman artist there. After
her appointment, the shop assistant had found her on social
media, sending her sexually explicit messages and making her
uncomfortable. She communicated the incident to the woman
who had tattooed her, who addressed it with the shop owner.
The shop responded by immediately firing the assistant. My client
was surprised and gratified by being believed and taken seriously,
and her trust in continuing to be tattooed there was cemented
by how they responded to the situation.
P 95 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Fear Toolkit
The topic of accountability often brings up a fear response within
us. Opening ourselves up to criticism, negative feedback, or the reality
that we have harmed someone can be a terrifying prospect. We might
be afraid of saying the wrong thing, or of losing someone close to
us if we are honest. We may even be afraid to be vulnerable in positive
ways—to express love or a heartfelt truth.
What are you afraid of when you think back through your
relationships with clients and coworkers? Ex: I worry my conversations
with my clients are too explicit and make my coworkers uncomfortable.
I’m afraid my client was upset by my use of derogatory language.
I instantly knew I shouldn’t have said what I did. I fear my client will
bring up a topic of conversation that will be triggering to me and
I won’t respond well.
As a group, write these fears anonymously on pieces of paper
and put them in a hat*. Take turns drawing a fear and reading it aloud. *Adapted from Corinne Kai’s “Fear
Do you find that many of the fears resonate with you? How do you in a Hat” exercise in their consent
in tattooing workshop.
find yourself responding mentally to others’ fears? Do you judge them
negatively or do you understand and empathize? Under certain circumstances, failing,
losing, forgetting, unmaking, undoing,
If you are doing the exercise alone, write your fears down and unbecoming, not knowing may
in fact offer more creative, more
have a dialogue with yourself around them. If someone close to
cooperative, more surprising ways
you expressed this fear, what would you say to them? of being in the world.
Jack Halberstram
Thinking, organizing, and acting
beyond the success/failure binary
whenever possible is instructive.
Messiness in a process is the norm
rather than a failure. Get comfortable
with this.
Kaba & Hassan
Fumbling Towards Repair
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 96

There are situations I have been
in, over years of working in an
unregulated, male-dominated
industry, that have left me with
permanent emotional scars.
Joey Nicholson
Communities can collectively react
to trauma in ways that are very similar
to the ways in which individuals
respond. They can become hyper-
vigilant, fearful…Trauma can be
built into cultural norms and passed
from generation to generation.
Communities are often profoundly
shaped by their trauma histories.
SAMHSA
In some cases, combat roles
became master statuses for veterans
who could not tolerate military
discipline but linked their self-image
to the small-group camaraderie
and risk-taking of military service.
Conventional activities offered
no acceptable alternatives and these
men were threatened with a loss of
identity, companionship, and security
as military involvement ceased.[TW4]
James F. Quinn
Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws,
and Pagans: The Evolution
of Organized Crime Among
the Big Four 1% Motorcycle Clubs
Intergenerational Trauma
and the Tattoo Industry
as Family Unit
It’s important to note that “individual trauma happens in the
context of a community” (SAMHSA). A strong and supportive
community response to an individual’s trauma can mitigate or
lessen the overall impact of that person’s experience. Conversely,
a community that denies or exacerbates the harm an individual has
experienced can derail healing and potentially re-traumatize them.
Communities also may experience trauma collectively: when subjected
to an event that threatens the community as whole, the resulting
effects can be passed on generationally in a “pattern often referred
to as historical, community, or intergenerational trauma[TW1].”
Military veterans are widely understood to be one of the first
populations to be diagnosed with what we know as PTSD today[TW2].
Following the first World War, the widespread mental breakdowns
as a result of soliders’ experiences at war were initially attributed to
physical trauma and termed “shell shock.” Though the name persisted
for some time, military psychiatrists were eventually forced to reckon
with the fact that psychological trauma and not exposure to physical
trauma was responsible for the symptoms. By the end of World War II,
American psychiatrists were committed to identifying, preventing,
and enabling recovery from soliders’ mental breakdowns. Despite
these efforts during wartime, veterans were largely abandoned once
they returned home. It wasn’t until after the Vietnam War that broad
investigations into the longer-term psychological effects of combat
began to take place. Soldiers returning from Vietnam began to speak
out about war crimes and against the war as a whole, many of them
joining the anti-war movement and working to advocate for themselves
and their fellow veteran’s dire psychological needs.
Many of these Vietnam vets, feeling abandoned by their
government and the VA, struggled with re-acclimating to society
post-war and instead became societal drop-outs. Many, having
already been trained to ride motorcycles during their duty overseas[TW3],
formed biker clubs as a way to re-create the camaraderie and risk-
taking of military service. Outlaw motorcycle clubs became a way
for these men to form their own subculture and brotherhood outside
of the monotony and routine of American daily life. Deeply steeped
in nonconformity, loyalty, and self-preservation, biker clubs brought
these values to their involvement in tattoo culture. As clients, shop
owners, and tattoo artists themselves, bikers had a heavy presence
in tattooing throughout the 80s and 90s, one that is still felt today.
If we consider the ways that military populations have been a part
of American tattooing throughout the 20th century, particularly with
sailors and marines making up a large part of tattooing’s clientele,
it seems impossible for military culture, its eventual entry into biker
culture, and the long-term effects of post-war trauma not to impact
the psyche of tattooing as an industry.
P 97 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Tattoo artists who have served in the military have shared that they
both witnessed and experienced hazing firsthand during their service.
To then go on to endure and perpetuate hazing in tattooing would
be a natural progression once an individual has acclimated to a culture
of abuse as a teaching and bonding method. While tattooing can
provide a familiar structure and social environment that feels supportive
to veterans, it can also become fertile ground to reenact the harmful
treatment they have experienced elsewhere. Additionally, tattooing
is often notorious for the partying and substance use that the profession
and lifestyle enable. This can normalize the use of drugs or alcohol as
a coping method or form of self-medication for mental health struggles.
Based on the collective storytelling of tattoo history and If you had feelings or showed
researching tattooing’s relationship to military trauma, I believe the emotion, you were weak and couldn’t
be trusted. Which would eventually
tattoo industry to be impacted by community trauma. It’s not difficult lead to all kinds of feelings like
to see how military hazing and biker prospecting traditions became depression and shame.
folded into apprenticeship hazing, and how it goes on to set the Aaron Hodges
stage for general shop culture. Even secondhand information can work
One thing I want to bring light
to strengthen these cultural norms. Trading stories is a huge part to is that many male mentors
of socializing in shops, and there is a practice of competitiveness that encouraged drinking or drug use
brings out stories that are each more extreme than the last. Learning to get through the tattoo process.
and working in an industry that often minimizes negative experiences Party shop mentality. Tattooing
was encouraged as a fun escape
by comparing them to other, “worse” experiences is harmful in its from unacknowledged trauma.
own way (i.e. “You shouldn’t complain about being shot with a BB gun Anonymous
at the shop, my old boss used to pull a real gun on his employees”).
The storytelling serves two purposes: both the minimization and
dismissal of very legitimate concerns, and the implied threat that one
would have it worse in a different industry scenario (and so should
be grateful for the lesser mistreatment they receive) or may still find
themselves subjected to such violence. The culture of one-upmanship
and performative masculinity lionizes figures and events that
embody the extremes of tattooing. “Back-in-the-day” stories of
competing shops committing arson or vandalism against each other
are commonplace, as are stories of brutal hazing and abuse during
the apprenticeship process.
I have heard this perpetuated within the newer generation by
young artists beginning their learning process within the last three years
or less. One woman told me that her mentors had dosed her with
acid without her knowledge, then made her tattoo her client while high.
Another young woman was told by her coworker about being made
to drink a dirty rinse cup during his apprenticeship hazing. Whether
or not these stories are entirely true is besides the point. They reinforce
and normalize a culture of violence and degradation, making comfort
or complacency with the culture a requirement of participation even
for those coming into it today.
Trauma re-enactment is one of the strongest and most enduring reactions
that occurs in the wake of trauma. Once we are traumatized, it is almost
certain that we will continue to repeat or re-enact parts of the experience
in some way. We will be drawn over and over again into situations that
are reminiscent of the original trauma.
Levine
Waking the Tiger
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 98
 As the neuroscientist Jean Decety at the University of Chicago
has shown, desensitization to our own or other people’s pain
tends to lead to an overall blunting of emotional sensitivity.
Van der Kolk
The Body Keeps the Score
Apprenticeship experiences are rife with experiences of humiliation,
being shouted at, and being made to perform demeaning tasks to
“prove” one’s loyalty to the craft. Mentors may feel entitled to inflict
severe trials on their apprentices because they experienced the same
type of treatment in their own learning process. One former tattoo artist
expressed that because their mentor would shout at and berate them
when they did something wrong, they had no idea how to constructively
criticize their own protégé. As a result, they would revert to the shouting
that had been modeled for them. If we consider the myriad of personal
histories that people often arrive to tattooing with—which can include
childhood abuse, addiction, military service, and incarceration—the
dynamic of tattooing as a “family” is fertile ground to reenact and
perpetuate harmful behaviors.
If we are to understand how tattooing has evolved over time,
where we are today, and how tattooing is to grow into the future,
I believe we must conceive of the tattoo industry as a familial
unit rather than attempt to understand its dynamics in the context
of simply a job and workplace. Tattooing has no central organizational
structure. Its practitioners have a vast array of relationships and
interactions with legal and governmental structures ranging from none
at all to adhering to strict state regulations. There is no singular union,
professional association, or set of workplace standards that tattoo
artists as a whole adhere to. Even within an individual shop there
is little to no formal structure to set workplace expectations in the first
place, let alone to negotiate accountability when issues arise. There
is no employee handbook or human resources department, no official
reporting avenue for harassment. Though many freelancers lack
these systems, the difference is that tattooing possesses a tight-knit
social fabric in their place. It tends to ask workers to rely on their own
interpersonal resolution skills to problem solve—without giving them
the tools to do so.
Many people enter tattooing as a community and profession from
a young age, some as young as their teens. Tattooing is a notoriously
insular practice, having developed mechanisms of self-preservation
over the years to maintain craft traditions and social norms. Often
young people encounter tattooing as a formative learning environment
at significant stages of their personal development—their late teens and
early 20s. If their environment is socializing them to accept the outlaw,
“Wild West” version of tattooing its practitioners often mythologize,
they are not unlikely to internalize the lessons that violence gets
you what you want, that tattooing is not governed by typical rules
of societal engagement, and that bad things can happen to you
if you are lacking in power. They could also potentially internalize guilt
about witnessing violence and feeling they should be able to stop
it. Paired with the workplace codependence discussed in the section
on trauma stewardship, this can create an echo chamber in which
those in the industry feel that it’s them against the world, creating
P 99 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
a self-perpetuating cycle of perceived societal rejection and vigilance You don’t have to be blindly loyal
to tattooing because it’s what
leveled against those who “don’t get us.”
you do [for work]. There’s things
that are intrinsically wrong with
Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual it. Just because someone did it
and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense before you doesn’t mean they
of self, of worth, of humanity, depends on a feeling of connection were right in what they did.
to others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest Nick Colella
protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote
to traumatic experience.
Herman
Trauma and Recovery
This is not a dynamic exclusive to tattooing. Many job fields
have unique properties that set them apart from others, and craft
professions and creative fields especially so. Tech startups and other
neoliberal capitalist business endeavors exploit employee loyalty,
emphasizing “family values” as a way to emotionally coerce employees
into relinquishing hard-won workplace labor standards. The idea
of a job as your family, your team, or your culture has been used
again and again across industries to extract more labor from workers
and undermine their needs as individuals. This can be expecting
them to answer customer service emails until one in the morning,
or to sacrifice sleep and personal time for the job.
While tattooing is ungoverned by most corporate structuring,
it is by no means exempt from this type of work culture dynamic. Rather
than being necessarily handed down from the top ranks as in corporate
culture, enforcing workplace loyalty is often done by peer-to-peer
policing. Shops can pressure artists by making them feel like they aren’t
a “real tattooer” if they won’t take one last walk-in after closing hours.
Peers can be competitive with one another whether they’re aware
of it or not. We may intend or perceive it as “encouragement,” thinking
we are driving ourselves and others to improve our skills and artistry,
but if we are steamrolling the needs and concerns that arise in the
workplace, we can deny ourselves a healthy work-life balance.
If that is the case, we are no better than an office 9-to-5 that expects
employees to be available for emails at midnight on Saturdays.
Aside from potential trauma in the apprenticeship process,
tattooing as a workplace can be unexpectedly difficult to exist within.
While witnessing things like physical altercations, people fainting,
or client seizures is often written off as “part of the job,” we should
not discount the lingering effects of witnessing and having to intervene
in these instances. One Midwestern tattoo artist with over 20 years
of industry experience described the hostile environment in his early
tattooing days, saying how “insane all the time” it was. Concerns over
being stiffed for payment or robbed were constant, and he spoke
to the only emotional exchange between artist and client being the
“look on [his] face of ‘don’t fuck with me’”. Minimizing the depth
of interactions with clients became a survival mechanism, since opening
up would make him and his coworkers vulnerable to violence or theft.
If we are bringing our own trauma histories to our jobs and
social lives, it can be even harder to push back against harmful
behaviors we see in shops. If our past experiences—whether military
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 100
hazing, childhood neglect, or abusive relationships—have taught
us to internalize any pain or emotional discomfort, we might react
by repressing our feelings and “just dealing.” We might feel that
it’s our own fault, and that we have agreed to poor treatment simply
by our presence in a shop, an apprenticeship-mentor relationship,
or appointment with a client. We might not even notice violence simply
because it has become a norm in our lives. Volatile environments
might feel safe to us if we have become accustomed to them.
It might not be until we experience something strikingly different
or an outside perspective that these dynamics come into high relief.
I see this being true of older artists who have been in the industry
a long time. Younger tattooers who have not had to acclimate to this
culture are illuminating an entirely new way of doing things that
even women, queer, trans and BIPOC tattooers of older generations
didn’t believe was possible due to the limitations they internalized.
I believe tattooing as a profession is being called to this awareness
currently, thanks in large part to shifting cultural norms in society
as a whole. There are conversations about accountability, human rights,
gender equality, healthcare access, and much more taking place,
and the time has come when tattooing finds itself required to grow.
Many clients are seeking out tattoos more consciously for
personal empowerment and are in need of a collaborative,
client-centered process. If our client interactions have been shaped
by defensiveness and a need for self-preservation, this may feel like
an impossible demand and activate conflict for us. It can be a long
process of re-patterning our reactions and becoming comfortable with
a different work culture, particularly if codes of masculinity have taught
us to repress emotions and needs. One of the most striking things
I noticed in my survey research was that very few white men with more
than ten years of industry experience would even respond to my email
outreach. When I’d run into them in person, though, they’d apologize
profusely for not getting back to me and speak in deeply personal ways
about what the questions on trauma had brought up for them. They’d
share with me in person about their relationship with their father, their
journey in therapy, their fears around vulnerability. This says to me that
everyone in our industry is affected by this, and that straight, cis white
men often have less practice and support around discussing trauma.
We can hold space for all the challenges and trauma our
peers have endured while still requiring and facilitating accountability.
The process of healing takes collective empathy and an ability
to unflinchingly look at the systems and behaviors at play. If our entry
into tattooing was shaped by fear, it takes time to become comfortable
with the idea that we do not have to be afraid. If our entry into
tattooing involved having to set aside our sense of self to feel allowed,
it takes time to nurture and allow that sense of self to emerge and
eventually, to blossom.
It is also possible for us to search for alternative paths based
on what we’ve been taught. Having something negative demonstrated
to us can strengthen our resolve to do the opposite, as it does
for survivors of childhood abuse who resolve never to let their
own children experience such harm themselves.[TW7] We can often
P 101 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
go to enormous lengths to extend protections to others that we were
unable to experience for ourselves. This is one way of breaking the
pattern of intergenerational trauma. We see this in tattooers whose
terrifying mentors ingrained in them without question that they
would never treat their own apprentices that way. It’s thanks to those
who are able to bring their consciousness to what an alternative
path might look like that we can work to interrupt industry trauma.
SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
[TW1]
Trauma and Justice Strategic Initiative: SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma
and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach
Judith Herman, MD. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence
[TW2]
From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/18/how-the-
[TW3]
bandidos-became-americas-most-feared-biker-gang/
https://blackboard.angelo.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/LFA/CSS/Course%20
[TW4]
Material/BOR3304/readings/OMG%20Article%20INFORMAWORLD.pdf
Judith Herman, MD. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence
[TW7]
From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, p 114
Trauma, Stress and Chronic
Physical Ailments
Secondary trauma or vicarious trauma can deeply impact our emotions
and by extension, our bodies. The mirror neurons that help us feel
empathy by relating to the emotions of others at times also lead
us to experiencing vicarious trauma[TW1] as a result. Providers and
caregivers of all kinds can experience fatigue, anxiety, tightness and
tension as short-term responses. When our emotions show up in our
bodies as psychosomatic symptoms, we can experience chronic back
pain, neck pain, migraines, and other long-term effects. There is a direct
correlation that has been shown between prolonged stress hormone
exposure and chronic digestive problems[TW2]. It’s not only job-related
trauma, but simply dealing with a high-stress work environment
for extended periods of time that can manifest in physical pathologies.
When we are overburdened by stress without the capacity to release
or recover from it, the body bears the brunt of that stress’s effects.
The nervous system compensates for being in a state of self-perpetuating
arousal by setting off a chain of adaptations that eventually bind and
organize the energy into “symptoms.” These adaptations function as
a safety valve to the nervous system.
Peter Levine,
Walking the Tiger, p. 148
Our coping styles can also make us more vulnerable to the
physical effects of stress by making chronic stress conditions more
likely. If we have a diminished ability for emotional communication due
to our own childhood developments or socialization, we are at a higher
risk of repeatedly finding ourselves in situations where we are unable
to say no and have our needs ignored. Over the years, these stressful
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 102
situations can compound and potentially harm our immune system.[TW3]
In response to both single traumatic events and ongoing trauma
exposure, Peter Levine describes traumatic symptoms as developing
in phases. The first and core symptoms to develop are: [TW4]
Hyperarousal, constriction, dissociation (including denial),
feelings of helplessness
Accompanied or shortly followed by symptoms such as:
Hypervigilance (being “on guard”), intrusive imagery/
flashbacks, abrupt mood swings, reduced ability to deal with
stress, difficulty sleeping, hyperactivity
Bear in mind that not all these symptoms develop, and don’t
necessarily develop in a linear manner. Trauma symptoms may show
up differently for each individual, however, this is a general framework
that we can begin to recognize ourselves in. The next stage of
development can include:
Panic attacks, anxiety, avoidance behavior, attraction to
dangerous situations, frequent crying, amnesia and forgetfulness,
inability to love, nurture, or bond with other individuals, fear of
dying, going crazy, or having a shortened life
The final and most long-developing group of symptoms are
often preceded by the above. Any of these might occur at any stage,
or not occur at all. These are not comprehensive or complete lists
of all possibilities.
Muted or diminished emotional responses, shyness, inability
to make commitments, chronic fatigue or very low energy,
immune system problems and endocrine problems, thyroid
dysfunction, psychosomatic illnesses such as headaches, neck
and back problems, asthma, digestive, spastic colon, and severe
premenstrual syndrome, depression, feelings of detachment,
alienation, and isolation, diminished interest in life
There is increasingly a greater and greater understanding of the
mind-body and mind-gut connection and the ways that our emotions
manifest physically. While tattooing is physically challenging and
causes strain to our eyes, wrists, backs, and other body parts, it is
worth addressing what aspects of our bodily ailments might be due
to or compounded by emotional causes. Trauma causes emotional
pain, which produces tension. Tension then manifests as inflammation,
which can lead to physical pain.[TW5] When we feel pain, we can bring
our attention to it and take it in as a form of data. Because pain
is a sensation that is difficult for us to ignore, the body often employs
it as a way to circumvent the methods we’ve developed to ignore its
messages[TW6] . As Gabor Maté writes, “Pain is a powerful secondary
mode of perception to alert us when our primary modes have shut down.”
How many overworked tattoo artists have taken a break only when our
bodies simply won’t allow us to continue?
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Somatic experiencing, a therapeutic method developed by
Levine, addresses and works to heal the effects of unreleased trauma
on the body by engaging the felt sense[TW7] and directing our attention
to our internal body sensations. Somatic experiencing offers a series
of exercises that takes information from our felt sense and addresses
them directly as a way to indirectly heal the main or underlying trauma,
restoring the nervous system’s ability to self-regulate. In The Body
Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk describes the ways that yoga,
writing, art, music, dance, and EMDR therapy can heal the mind and
nervous system and by extension, begin to heal the body.
Andrea Glik
[TW1]
Gabor Maté, MD
[TW2]
[TW3]
Gabor Maté, MD, When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection
Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger pg. 147-149
[TW4]
Andrea Glik, Somatic Coping for Stress online workshop.
[TW5]
Gabor Maté, MD
[TW6]
Term coined by Eugene Gendlin
[TW7]
Recovery and Coping
Strategies for Tattoo Artists
Tattooing, particularly tattooing that involves heavy emotional labor,
is draining and exhausting. On some days we may see multiple clients
back-to-back, or tattoo nonstop all day doing walk-ins. Cumulatively,
this is a huge amount of mental energy to be expending in addition
to the physical strain the tattoo process itself puts on our bodies.
When we neglect our own basic needs, we shortchange our clients
by making it impossible to show up to our jobs in our best form. I need to regularly step away from
Tattooing as a culture tends to romanticize overwork, championing tattooing to replenish and recharge;
emotionally, spiritually, and mental
those with high output. Tattooers as a whole are a passionate group
health-wise.
who are dedicated to the art and craft of their practice. However, Keegan Dakkar
notions of “never sleep” or “never say no to work” ultimately
undermine our basic needs as humans. I think my clients in general feel
I’m being very open, but I definitely
am not giving them my whole self.
Burnout can be framed as a personal failure rather than place the Anonymous
blame where it more often belongs, on a culture that does not allow
us to work in the ways that are sustainable and fulfilling for us. Self-care
is prescribed as an antidote for burnout, when what’s often needed
is a major overhaul of what work’s expectations of us are. Despite this,
there are steps we can take and practices we can implement to help
our resistance to stress and to fortify our ability to honor our personal [I was convinced] I had to invest
work/life balance. my whole self or none at all. I am
a better service provider when
I do not feel a co-dependence
When I feel depleted—not having slept enough, working too many on tattooing, and my outside work
hours, not having made time for the gym or to cook for myself—I notice gives me that freedom of identity.
a major decline in my ability to perform socially for my clients, or even Lizzie Renaud
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 104
 When I am blocked or not tending
to my inner work, it is immediately
reflected back to me in my
tattoo work, whether it shows
up as creative stagnation, slow
bookings, or client dynamics
that are out of alignment. When
I am not in my power or denying
my intuition, my tattooing suffers.
Allie Takahashi
The burn out from holding so many
clients’ emotions through the years
of work is draining and I do find
I need more time of my own to not
feel responsible. I think that feeling
of great responsibility constantly
is taxing to the psyche. Working
less days and fewer clients has
helped with being able to recharge,
ensuring the people I do see have
a better version of myself.
Stephanie Tamez
If I’m doing light hearted joke
tattoos on happy people I can do
a million, but if I can sense people
are uncomfortable or the tattoo
is emotionally charged, I can really
only do a couple before getting tired.
Amelia Rose
Much of my burnout is brought on
by the emotional labor of tattooing.
It’s not necessary to put forth such
immense, over-the-top emotional
effort for every single tattoo. It’s not
sustainable, and definitely doesn’t
make my tattooing better. When
I’m putting forth that much emotional
labor, I’m fucking exhausted by the
end of the day. All I can think about
is “How can I make it through this
appointment?” It’s also the result
of imposter syndrome for being
self-taught, so new to the industry,
yet I have such a large following
and demand for my work. I’m like,
“Okay I have to give 500% all day
every day to “pay my dues” and
prove I deserve to be here.” So
just also burnout from pressure and
unnecessary guilt I put on myself.
Keara McGraw
for my coworkers. If you’re noticing yourself feeling annoyed by minor
demands on your attention or derailed by even small problem-solving
being asked of you, this could be a sign that some of your own needs
aren’t being met. When I’m especially burned out, even being asked
“how was your day?” can make me feel overwhelmed.
Artists have shared a wide variety of coping strategies they
use to recover from work and stress how crucial these practices
are towards ensuring they can keep doing their work well.
Inside the shop:
• Morning routines that make you feel prepared for the day.
Eating enough, having drawing and prep work done, giving to inhabit multiples to fully feed and support our whole selves.
yourself enough time to get there before your clients do so
you don’t feel rushed or stressed.
• Taking stock of who your clients are for that day so that you can
feel prepared for those that might need more of your attention—
for example, a first-time client might require more effort initially
to make them feel at ease than someone who is a regular of
yours with an established rapport.
• Give yourself enough time to eat and reset between clients
(how many of us have powered through the day for the sake of
time and not eaten till after we finished working?). It’s much too
easy to get “in the zone” and become so focused on the task
at hand that we ignore basic body signals like hunger and thirst.
• Be honest with yourself about what types of tattooing are
most draining for you and manage your schedule and
workload accordingly.
• Take time off when needed. Scheduling vacations, staycations
in town to unwind, folding extra days off into your schedule here
and there to catch up on “life work,” errands, and quality rest.
• Pay attention to your body and what it’s asking for. Tattooing
can cause back pain, wrist pain, eye strain, etc. Practice noticing
these things and responding accordingly before you’re majorly
affected and unable to work.
Outside the shop:
• Reading
• Acupuncture, yoga, taking walks
• Therapy
• AA or NA meetings, meditation groups
• Getting enough sleep
• Spiritual practices, cleansing or salt baths after
an energetically draining day
• Balancing social and alone time
• Spending time in nature
• Painting and drawing for fun—creative work
not related to the job
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I try to stick to my daily vipassana
Creating our Microculture meditation practice. I find that
awareness of the body and its
sensations helps me in responding
to situations as opposed to reacting
to them. Being connected to the
It’s likely that most of the people reading this either already body has helped.
have, or are active in developing, their own microculture. Simply put, Anderson Luna
a microculture is a community, but this term (used by van Dernoot
I only hold one tattoo ceremony
Lipsky) is intentional in reminding us that this chosen group can
per day because the combination
supply us with a different set of values and rewards than the dominant of the spiritual and emotional labor
culture. Tattooing is a subculture, but the tattoo community can is a lot. A tattoo design might be
contain a multitude of microcultures. Each individual tattooer can have small, but if the client is working
through something, I am spending
a number of them that we belong and contribute to. Van dernoot Lipsky more time supporting them in moving
speaks about the microculture as singular, but I see us as needing through that energy. I am doing a lot
of energy/bodywork while tattooing.
Julz Bolinayen Ignacio
The shop where you work could be your microculture if everyone Emotional labor GREATLY reduces
there is on the same page about what values are important in the the amount of work I am able
space and in the relationships that exist within it. A group of artists to do in some situations.
that you get together with for a paint night could be another, as could Lizzie Renaud
your coven, your AA meeting, your volunteer group, or your martial Sometimes the emotional labor
arts training class. A microculture not only supports us socially, is mutually nourishing, as I enjoy
but can make us less vulnerable to burnout by sustaining our sense caring for and supporting my
of connectedness. However we choose to construct it, our microculture clients, but when it’s out of balance
or I fail to honor my boundaries,
should provide us with ongoing encouragement in addition to keeping my focus is compromised and
us accountable. For some, this might look like a weekly dinner party my physical energy is diminished.
where you can talk with other tattooers, both older and younger than Allie Takahashi
you are, and connect across generations of craft. This could look
like a weekly queer and trans boxing class that you go to to exercise
and socialize.
I believe it to be irresponsible to expect community members
to learn and grow in isolation. “Isolation is an underpinning of
oppression,” says Van dernoot Lipsky. Intentional microcultures can
provide us with a safe space to grow and to engage in a process
of uncovering what unique skills we possess, and where we can continue
to learn. Social support can also offer us validation and restitution
when we do face difficult challenges or events. Our microculture should
bring to our lives a variety of perspectives and ways of thinking that
can enrich our perspective on a day-to-day basis. Having this support
not only encourages progress, but also builds our own resiliency in how
we react and respond to challenges that arise in our work and lives.
Resilience is the ability to holistically (mind, body, spirit and relationship)
respond to and renew ourselves during and after trauma. It is the ability
to shift ourselves from automatic survival responses—some of which
may be useful, some of which may have undesired consequences—
to a more calm, connected and cohesive place.
Generation Five
Toward Transformative Justice
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 106
Toolkit Exercise: Using Your
Workstation as a Space of
Grounding—“Spring Cleaning”
Take a look at your workstation on a day that you don’t have
to do any tattooing. Think about what your space provides beyond
your practical work needs. Is there artwork that you love looking
at on the wall? Your own flash that gives clients a sense of what
you like to draw? Your station could have plants, religious figurines,
or photos of loved ones that make the space feel homey and
grounding. What else could your station bring to the table?
Clear out anything old that feels stale or unnecessary—expired
inks, bandages you don’t actually use, stickers you’ll never stick
on anything. Give your area a refresh with an eye towards making
it feel the best for you to spend your days in.
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Setting Boundaries
Becoming aware of our boundaries is a slow and ongoing learning
process. A useful tool for knowing whether there’s a boundary we
need to assert is tuning into our felt senses*. A client calling the shop *Felt sense is an internal bodily
to ask why you haven’t responded to their email yet could make you feel awareness that arises from
a combination of intuitiveness,
frustrated and annoyed, which could manifest as a pressure welling up emotion, awareness, and
in your chest. Sometimes we feel our emotions before we conceptualize embodiment.
them as anger, fear, happiness, or other feelings. Other times we’ll
know what it is we’re thinking without being aware of how it shows up
in our body. Somatic therapist Michele Kong says that feeling annoyed
is a signal that there is a boundary that needs to be enforced.
Healthy boundaries will serve our needs while also allowing I make an active choice that comes
flexibility in how we adapt to others. There are a number of types from the somatic experience of
understanding my boundaries finally
of boundaries that exist. These include:
and trusting myself slowly. I truly now
put myself first in tattooing, it has
• Physical to feel good—or, it’s transactional
• Intellectual and I’m not down anymore.
Brody Polinski
• Emotional
• Sexual Over time I’ve come to acknowledge
• Material that I need to maintain boundaries,
• Time even if it’s just being aware
of the often taxing toll of heavy
and benign conversation.
These can coexist with each other. A client who only wants Keegan Dakkar
to talk to you about the news and grill you on your political opinions,
causing you to run late and into your next appointment, could be
crossing your intellectual and time boundaries. A client who makes
sexually suggestive comments to you as you’re tattooing them could
be violating your physical, sexual, and emotional boundaries.
Fortunately, we have the power to adjust and reassert our boundaries
at any time. An additional benefit of boundaries is that they can help
the client in turn—clarity feels better than confusion, and minimizes
stumbling around or testing boundaries to get a sense of how
to interact. If you set concrete expectations, other people won’t need
to experiment or “push” to see what your dynamic will be.
Often, we can’t know all our boundaries ahead of time, and will
only become aware of a boundary once it’s crossed. Something can
happen that might make us feel uneasy or uncomfortable. Anger and
annoyance are both feelings to take note of. If we take those feelings
as a sign that a boundary is being crossed, we can bring our attention
to the need we have in the moment. Even if we aren’t able to attend
to that need in that initial moment, we can file that knowledge away
for the future. It’s okay not to know your needs until they arise.
Other emotions can teach us about boundaries as well. Author
Gabor Maté of When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease
Connection asks his patients to take notice of when they are feeling
guilty as a way to positively note that they are centering their own
needs. In his writing, Maté describes the connections he has perceived
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 108
I want to support people but I can’t
be everyone’s friend—especially
when they want to possess instead
of respect me.
Anonymous
I have had clients specifically let
me know that they anticipate having
an emotional experience during
their session, ex: “This tattoo is
going to bring up some heavy
emotions for me, I will probably
cry during our session, let me know
if you’re comfortable with that”.
To me, these situations are ideal
(and feel the most sustainable),
because it feels like my client is also
respecting my boundaries/emotional
capacity and offering me the choice
to decline if I am not able to hold
space for them in the specific way
that they’re asking.
Jay Crosby
in his own practice and research between repressing emotional needs
long-term and developing stress-induced illness. “For many people,”
he says, “guilt is a signal that they have chosen to do something
for themselves (257).” When it comes to enforcing boundaries, feelings
of guiltiness often arise. We may feel guilty for rescheduling a client
if we overbooked ourselves, not wanting to make them wait longer
and blaming ourselves for scheduling too many appointments to begin
with. We might feel guilty if we can’t hold conversation with a client
and focus on their tattoo at the same time, feeling that we aren’t giving
the client the social experience they want. If we can become attuned
to guilt that we feel as a sign that we are prioritizing our own needs,
we can let that sense guide us into following through with what will
serve us best.
Do you know what it feels like to say “yes” fully and
enthusiastically? What about saying “no” from a place of certainty
and strength? While we likely say “yes” and “no” many times
throughout our day without thinking about it, take time to explore
the potential of both. By knowing what a genuine and excited YES
feels like, and by exploring what we bring to a powerful NO, we
can gain a greater sense of what our daily yes and no practices
are doing for us across that spectrum.
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What would we ask for from
clients?
I guess I would say, be patient with me. Things take time and give me
the space to process what I’m doing on you and for you…also this
tattoo can’t fulfill your every need. It can be a stepping stone toward it.
Stephanie Tamez
I would like to see clients have more awareness of themselves while
getting tattooed—their volume, their politics, the way their energy
affects everyone in the room.
Virginia Elwood
I really appreciate clients who ask consent before bringing up
trauma in detail, or who ask consent after bringing up trauma
to see if it’s ok to continue the conversation.
Ciara Havishya
I pick my conversation topics carefully with my clients, and there
are certain things I would not bring up in a room of people whose
background I don’t know. I would ask my clients to maintain
a similar level of social awareness.
Dan Bones
Keep things professional! Not to say we can’t connect and be
friendly, but at the end of the day I’m providing a service. I’ve had
a client go from screaming “OUCH! I’m going to KILL YOU!” to
“Oh my god, I’m in love with you”, neither of which feel appropriate
or allow me to put full concentration toward tattooing.
Keara McGraw
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 110
Toolkit Translating Needs into
Boundary Actions
Take a minute or two to sit in a quiet place away from other
people. Beginning at the top of your head, scan your body and take
note of tension, pain, calm, itchiness, or anything else that you notice
at any part of yourself. List one physical sensation you noticed as you
performed your body scan. Identify a need that you can connect with
the felt sense. Think of a way to assert that, even just to yourself.
Example: I slept poorly and my back pain is flaring up = I need
to be able to stand up and stretch at least once an hour = “Before
we start, just a heads up I’d like to stretch for a moment here and
there when we get to good stopping points in your piece. That will
give you a chance to take a break if you need one too.”
P 111 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Artist Statement
Therapist Asher Pandjiris suggests creating our own “artist
statement” to clarify and establish what we are capable of providing,
and what we are not. This could serve as an addition to your intro email
with a client, be something you display in your station, or could be
a handout you give alongside your consent form. If you share your artist
statement with clients, it can be a good place to explain your financial
structuring as well. It could be something you write for yourself only
as a way to establish your own boundaries and abilities, and that you
can revisit to remind yourself of the role you wish to perform and what
your hard limits are.
Example:
Credit: Asher Pandjiris
As a tattoo artist, I am responsible for: _________________________
(safety, skillfulness….. fill in the blanks with what feels resonant for you,
the basic scope of your practice (what you CAN and CAN’T do) and
the environment that you hope to foster in your sessions with clients.)
My job:
• Provide a safe, accepting and welcoming environment for your
experience. I work with disabled, fat, queer, trans, non-binary,
sex workers, cis folks, tattoo newbies, POC. I want you to feel
comfortable being yourself in this process.
• Collaborate with you and communicate about your hopes for
the tattoo
• Execute that plan professionally and safely
• Be available for questions that might come up during the
process such as “is this feeling normal?”
“Is it ok that this hurts?” “How fast will this heal?”
I am not:
• A trained therapist or mental health crisis counselor
• A medical practitioner
• An entertainer
• An open book
• A close friend
Tattoos are sometimes physically or emotionally painful.
For some people, this is part of what is appealing about getting
a tattoo. There is often pleasure in pain. For some people, the pain
is something to put up with in order to achieve a desired result.
It can be healing and empowering to experience control in choosing
pain and expecting it, knowing that it is in service of marking your
body with something meaningful.
Given that pain is inevitable, it is important to prepare yourself for
this experience. If you have recently experienced something traumatic
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 112
or are currently in the process of working through PTSD, bear in mind
that it could be particularly intense to get a tattoo. If this might be the
case for you, consider what kind of support you might need, before/
during/after the tattoo. You are responsible for your emotional care,
and the tattoo artist is responsible for providing an emotionally safe,
welcoming and professional environment for the tattoo process.
Some ways to prepare for this might include: bringing a trusted
friend with you who has a calming/grounding presence for you,
emotionally preparing yourself beforehand by taking a moment to talk
to yourself/journal/set an intention around the power you have in this
experience, reminding yourself that, despite the possible discomfort
or sense of vulnerability you might experience in the tattoo session,
it is an experience you are giving to yourself, an active choice, with
a powerful end result.
Even if you have been tattooed before, it can be helpful to know
that experiences of pain vary depending on many factors including
where you are with your mood, your health and your levels of fatigue
or hydration.
Scripts for Redirecting and Re-Establishing Boundaries
Credit: Asher Pandjiris
Therapist Asher Pandjiris created a number of prompts and dialogue
examples for situations that might arise in tattooing. It can be helpful
to check in with your internal dialogue before formulating the approach
to your response. These scripts are meant to be prompts—think
of how you might phrase your answers to come naturally to you and
to resonate easily with your client.
Scenario: A client comes in for a consultation (or emails) and
immediately spills way too much personal info in a way that puts
up red flags for you.
Internal: What are my fears? Am I worried that this person
is going to want too much from me? Talk too much during the session?
Does this person seem like someone who is unstable to the point
that it won’t be able to be redirected into more general conversation
during the process? Does it seem like they are coming to me for more
than a tattoo? Can I say no (financially, shop policy, etc.)? Do I need
to say no to protect myself or my energies? Can I talk to them a bit
more and show them my artist statement that includes WHAT TO
EXPECT/WHAT I DO and see how they respond? What do I need that
will help me feel MORE in control here?
External: “It sounds like this tattoo is coming at an intense time
for you. The process of getting tattooed IS ALSO intense, but can
be very empowering. My job is to do the design and execute the tattoo
to the best of my ability. Let’s go over what you might expect during
this process and what my role is. If that all looks good to you, we can
proceed, bearing in mind that this work requires a lot of focus on my
part. We can certainly chat during the process, but at times I may need
to concentrate on the tattooing.”
P 113 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Scenario: A client keeps asking you personal questions. No
matter how much you try to redirect the conversation back to them,
they turn it around on you.
Internal: What is the most I am willing to share with this person?
(It might be different with different people, or on days when you have
more or less to give emotionally) I need to remember that I am
here to provide a service, not to perform the role of a trusted friend
or therapist. If they don’t want to talk about themselves, we don’t
have to talk. I am not an entertainer. I can be kind and sensitive
and also have serious boundaries about what I want to share
(for example, I am always willing to talk about my pets, my thoughts
on living in ___________ city, my favorite kind of weather).
External: “There are certain topics that I don’t feel comfortable
sharing with tattoo clients. I’m honored that you are interested
in learning more about who I am and we can definitely keep talking
but I’m also working and trying to focus, and want to make sure
I am doing the best job I can. I’m interested in hearing more about
you and what brought you here today….. (if they accept this invitation
AFTER stating your boundaries, cool. If not, you might need to continue
with more assertiveness). It’s also ok with me to work in silence if
you don’t feel like you have a lot to talk about today.”
Scenario: You felt comfortable chatting with your client at first,
but start to feel overwhelmed and distracted as the appointment
goes on and would prefer to work in silence.
Internal: I wonder what is happening for me in this overwhelming
feeling? Whenever I feel _____ sensation in my body or mind it is usually
an indicator that I have reached a limit, that I am either triggered
or overwhelmed (this could be because you have a lot on YOUR
mind in your own life or you are activated by what someone is saying).
I am NOT here to entertain or perform. I am here to tattoo.
External: “It has been really nice chatting with you so far.
Sometimes I get to a point where I need to pull back and focus
on the work. I want this to turn out really great, so if it’s ok with you,
I will need to finish up this piece in silence.”
Scenario: Your client says something you find offensive.
Internal: I am here to provide a service, but I also need to feel
comfortable and safe. What are my limits? It is good to think about
what personal topics and beliefs are absolutely off the table for you.
For example, if you have a history of a particular experience of trauma
it might be best to decide not to discuss these topics with clients.
Alternately, what topics/beliefs are you willing to engage with folks
about? Are these topics that feel less fraught for you?
There may be times when you feel really connected with clients
and feel comfortable enough to share parts of your own experience.
But overall it is best to PLAN NOT TO and divert the conversation
when it comes up. Generally speaking you are likely excellent at reading
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 114
people. But! People do surprise us. So that you are not entirely caught
off guard, make sure you inventory the topics/belief systems that
activate you and those that energize you.
External: “I fundamentally disagree with that perspective and
I bet if we got to talking about it any further, there might be conflict.
So I think we should change the topic. Or, if you want, we can continue
quietly. I am comfortable with that and we can listen to music.”
Or
“I really don’t agree with that, but I am curious where you are
coming from. Here’s what I think________________ and why it makes
me feel _______ when you express that opinion.”
Scenario: Your client discloses something traumatic.
Internal: Again, inventory your inner life. Is what this person
is revealing, something that touches on your own trauma history?
How are you feeling internally? Activated? Shut down? Heart racing?
Ask: “Is this something I WANT to engage in?” Do you want this
person to tell you more, or do you want to validate and try to move
on? Either choice is valid, given that you are not a therapist or being
paid to do the emotional labor of trauma support.
External: “That sounds so rough. I appreciate you entrusting me
with that story. Are you getting support around that?”
If you want to engage a bit more:
“I’ve found that certain challenging experiences in my life have led
me to get support in the following ways. One of the ways is getting a
tattoo, another has been therapy, __________, _________ and__________.
What has been working for you?”
If you want to shut it down because it is too activating:
“It is so hard to hear that story. And I am so sorry that happened,
truly. I hope you are getting the support you need, and if you aren’t,
I hope you prioritize seeking it out. I empathize AND I also want
to really focus on this tattoo. I want to make sure you love it and that
this is a good experience for you, so I am going to shift my attention
there for now.”
Scenario: Your client is talking loudly and aggressively,
disturbing the artists and clients around them and taking up
all the air in the room.
Internal: Is this person triggering me? How do I respond
to aggressiveness in others? Is there a way I can try to express
my need for quiet and containment without engaging in an equally
loud and aggressive way? Are my fellow artists also equally
committed to maintaining easeful calm in the shop?
P 115 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
External: “In order to get this tattoo right, the way you want it,
I need to have a calm environment so I can focus and so the other
artists can focus on their work. Can you speak a bit softer?”
(demonstrate the tone by embodying it)
Scenario: A client, at the end of their appointment, asks you
to continue the conversation outside of the shop in a way that you
don’t want to engage (a date, over for dinner, to church, to their
community organizing meeting)
Internal: Are you at all interested and available for this?
Occasionally there are those clients that we connect with or are
attracted to. In those cases, IF it seems like it would feel GOOD
FOR YOU to say “yes,” then go for it, but be very clear about
HOW you want to be contacted and for what.
Alternately, if you DO NOT want to engage, then you absolutely
don’t have to. How do you know if you don’t want to? Check in with
your body signals. Do you feel aversion? Do you feel an internal
NO? Do you feel yourself shutting down or feeling avoidant? What
complicates things is the nature of the exchange. You are providing
a service and you are therefore “stuck” with this person for the
duration of the exchange.
But! You can be very clear, as per your artist statement, that you
are committed to producing quality work and attending to the person
during the time they are paying you. Remember this. Remember what
your role is. You are not being paid to please customers. You are being
paid to make art and be considerate and ethical. You are not obligated
for anything beyond the appointment.
External: If you feel good about the person and just don’t want to
engage: “I’m honored to be asked. I’ve really enjoyed our time together
here, but I am not available for socializing outside of work with clients.”
If you feel NOT great about the client and you don’t want to
engage: “I have a strict personal policy about not socializing with
clients outside of work. I hope you enjoy the tattoo.”
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 116
In Conclusion: Shaping the
Future of Tattooing
The hierarchy of experience in tattooing—while useful in keeping
us motivated to learn and grow—often has the negative result of
minimizing our ability and responsibility wherever we may find ourselves
in our career. Tattoo artists at five years of experience, for example,
tend to view themselves as still “new” or “young.” While any of us has
time and learning ahead of us, we each, regardless of experience,
possess the ability to be accountable to the existing industry while
simultaneously contributing to its growth. In reflecting on my decade
milestone of tattooing in shops, I began to see myself more clearly
along the spectrum of industry experience and gave myself permission
to think of myself as a fledgling elder of sorts. Rather than eternally
devote ourselves to our perceived predecessors, we must accept
our role as relative to infinite others in all directions. There will always
be someone more experienced than ourselves, and someone less.
At what point do we don the mantle of teachers? Of role models?
These roles exist fluidly in our community, both in formal and informal
ways (casual advice, picking each others’ brains, apprenticeship
agreements), and we can weave in and out of them on any given day.
If we accept that we each have the power to shift tattoo
culture, what will we do with that responsibility?
Working against fears of scarcity or irrelevance, we must believe
that there is space at the table for all of us. As we get older, younger
people will step into our shoes, birthing new generations of the tattoo
industry. Fear-based reactions would have us shun new artists, finding
excuses to dismiss their work or to argue that they don’t “deserve”
to practice tattooing. Rather than widening the schism between older
and newer generations, we can instead look for common ground
and opportunities to teach and learn from each other. Older generations
of artists often have a wealth of technical knowledge they’ve gained
over the years. Rather than lament the lack of technical discipline
in younger artists, imagine ways to hand down information. There
are many types of mentorship and teaching relationships that can
exist beyond the apprenticeship model. Younger tattooers, on
the other hand, can bring to the industry an electric new energy,
an invaluable anarchic creativity and sense of “no rules” when
it comes to tattoo technique. How else can an industry evolve and
innovate other than to challenge all the existing notions of what
is and is not possible? Building upon what came before but being
unafraid to break with tradition is how huge shifts in culture and leaps
in artistic development occur.
We can begin by taking inventory of what resources we have
to offer each other. Think of the encouragement that fueled your fire
when you were new to tattooing. The smallest feedback or constructive
criticism permeated your consciousness in ways that you might be less
affected by as you progress in your career. What does praise mean to
P 117 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
you when it comes from a peer? From someone outside the industry?
From someone older, whose work you deeply admire? Gaining
knowledge isn’t a “top-down” endeavor, nor does it have to be hierarchical.
Learning doesn’t happen only when it’s taught by someone older or
more experienced. When we confer the ability to teach only on people
and institutions seemingly more legitimate than ourselves, we hand over
our power. Unraveling ideas about being “experts” or being “the best”
creates space for knowledge to freely travel outside of credentials,
degrees, museums, and official titles. We all do self-directed learning,
as well as sharing information collectively and organically.
Think about what resources we have to offer as we step into our
power to guide. If we lean into our role as potential teachers as well
as simultaneous students, we can see the multitude of tangible mutual
aid growth that is possible. Offering words of positive affirmation/
encouragement usually mean the world to people! It may seem simple,
but make a practice of articulating it when you admire something
someone did. When I was new to tattooing, this not only fueled my
desire to keep growing, but provided me with a sense of accountability
to the person. It made me want to continue to do well in their eyes.
For example, you can invite artists for guest spots, extending to them
the shop’s cultural capital and audience. Think of the legitimacy you’ve
worked hard to build and who you’d like to hand that torch to. You
can offer younger tattooers to come watch you work, you can teach
classes or seminars, or do live demonstrations online. You can offer
portfolio critiques, or, you can host paint nights for people to get
together, see each other’s techniques in action, and ask questions.
Buy people’s art! Pick up prints, t-shirts, zines from them. Get
tattooed by younger artists and apprentices. Think about how to work
against the selection bias that’s inherent to our insular social circles.
Offer early bird convention invites, free booths or discounted rates
to tattooers you’d like to get involved in your events. Is your shop
staffed only by men? Invite women and nonbinary artists whose work
you like to come guest at your shop. They might not think to ask,
and you’ll be sharing your client base with them and them with you,
likely introducing the shop and the artist to new groups of people.
Consider harm reduction* in the approach to tattoo spaces
*Harm reduction is a set of practical
and shops. Safer tattooing education is crucial in educating the general
strategies and ideas aimed at
population on how to be responsible clients. Harm reduction is an reducing negative consequences
approach towards promoting health and preventing disease that associated with drug use. Harm
asks us to “meet people where they’re at[TW2] ” rather than making Reduction is also a movement
for social justice built on a belief
assumptions or judgments about how they should operate in regards in, and respect for, the rights of
to their own health and lifestyle. This approach accepts that some people who use drugs.
people may not be able or ready to stop risky behaviors and instead
works to empower them in being safer, while respecting their autonomy. Harm reduction incorporates
a spectrum of strategies from
How can you help people know what to look for in a safe and sanitary safer use, to managed use to
tattoo setting? Rather than shame people for being tattooed in houses abstinence to meet drug users
and insisting they just go to a shop instead, can you accept that “where they’re at,” addressing
there might be real barriers to them doing that, then educate them conditions of use along with
the use itself.
as to what equipment and cross-contamination protocols they should harmreduction.org
be asking for when they get tattooed?
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 118
 To this end, we also need to expand notions of what “real”
tattooing is. Particularly in the Western world, we can be guilty of
dismissing tattooing that doesn’t happen in shops or official private
studios, or tattoos that don’t fit within our stylistic preferences.
By ignoring the fact that people regularly receive tattooing in places
like garages, bedrooms, kitchens, prisons, ritual spaces, in nature,
venues, and much more for many varied reasons, we deny those people
their agency towards making the safest and best choices for them
when it comes to how to get tattooed. Tattoo styles and art forms have
exploded wildly in all directions, and while visually we might not
understand why someone would like a particular look or execution,
it’s not up to us to tell another person what their personal preference
should be, or that only a particular type of look is legitimate. Tattooing
can suit all people’s tastes and needs. Some people might want their
body of tattoos to look visually cohesive, high-quality, and expensive,
to signal their personal taste and level of commitment to the practice.
Some people prefer to collect tattoos impulsively and with less regard
for style and more weight placed on the act of getting tattooed
marking a time in their life. Some people want to be covered entirely
in sentences of text and writing that are meaningful. Some people
might treat their tattoos as an exercise in composition, wanting to lay
abstract forms, lines, and shapes wherever feels right to them. If ink
is being permanently applied to skin, it’s a real tattoo.
We can question what benefit superlatives bring to our community.
Anyone who has been on a “Top 10” list or received press in a tattoo
magazine is likely to tell you that while it brought some great clients
their way, it also brought an influx of people who were uninterested
in their preferred style or in what they liked to tattoo, and were simply
interested in wanting a generic “best.” Doing internet searches for
“the best” artist in your region is a hit-or-miss endeavor. Who’s assigning
the title and according to whose standards? Often these lists are
clickbait by writers outside of the industry. We should also be cautious
of hypervisibility and the pedestals that industry reputation and large
followings can put us on. When we become mythologized as artists,
we can begin to possess a certain immunity to criticism that unfairly
tips the scales in our favor when it comes to power dynamics. Social
media creates huge distances between public perception of our selves
as human individuals. The way people interact with you online might
be very different from how you’d like clients to engage with you during
a tattoo appointment. We can work on reinvesting in our immediate
community through word of mouth, or by forging connections based
on actual firsthand experience and interpersonal relationships.
I spoke earlier in the text about the trust lost between clientele
and the shop institution. What might healing that relationship take, and
what would it create? For clients who have avoided being tattooed by
men because they’ve experienced harm from male tattooers in the past,
getting work done by a male artist who makes them feel respected,
listened to, and empowered in the process could be incredibly fulfilling.
It could open that client up to a whole world of getting tattooed by
artists they might have otherwise avoided. Making sure that artistic
tattooing aligns with quality service would mean that all types of people
P 119 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
could access the vast world of beautiful tattooing styles and practices,
without having to factor in safety or fear.
If we took time to imagine our dream tattoo community, what
would it look like? Imagination is an important tool in social justice
work. As demonstrated in the current resurgence of speculative and
science fiction amongst radical communities, “whenever we try to
envision a world without war, without violence, without prisons, without
capitalism, we are engaging in speculative fiction (Imarisha, Octavia’s
I have always seen a large part
Brood).” Through visionary imagining, we are able to conceive of
of the beauty of tattooing in its
possibilities far beyond what we know and think possible. collaborative essence, whereas
now, many newer tattooers are just
Once the imagination is unshackled, liberation is limitless. seeking, (to use television parlance)
Walidah Imarisha “human canvases” to showcase
their prowess. It’s kind of gross.
Octavia’s Brood
There seems to be a very clinically
Since I began writing this book, the world has erupted in the transactional approach that negates
largest civil rights movements we have seen in our lifetime in response a lot of the beauty and humanity
taking over…I think it robs not
to the Covid-19 crisis and police murders of George Floyd, Breonna only the client, but the tattooer
Taylor, and many others. We are living under a global pandemic that has of a lot. There’s a huge opportunity
brought tattooing to a months-long halt and exposed the inequalities for growth and learning (about
in our healthcare system, housing systems, and economy as a whole. yourself and the world at large)
in the interactions that arise in the
The racist, transphobic and police murders of Black people have process of tattooing.
galvanized protests in all fifty United States and across the world in Andy Perez
solidarity against police brutality and systemic racism. “Abolish police”
as a rallying cry has taken root across populations of people for whom
it might have previously been an absurd fantasy. We are being called
to a radical re-envisioning of what we’ve accepted as functional and
to an emphatic rejection of unjust offerings by the state.
A friend of mine once said that anarchists can seem foolish when
people ask us what comes after dismantling capitalism, what comes
after abolishing prisons. We have ideas and we have visions, but we are
working in large part from the understanding that whatever we can
create will be better than this. Most of us have not lived in a world
free of prisons. We don’t know what a world without capitalism or
without police would look like in 2020 or 2080 or beyond. But we work
from the conviction that if we center justice, if we center love and
community care rather than capital and property, we can make
something better. If a system was created, it can be dismantled as well.
It’s not hard to call for abolishing police and to believe in something
better when police are tear gassing peaceful protestors and driving
their cruisers into crowds of people knowing the whole world is
watching them. We have come to a collective understanding and
contract: we can demand better.
No industry is exempt from this demand. We demand better from
tattooing. We are being called to the work of radical envisioning for
change. For the first time in a long time, it feels like anything is possible.
Tattoo artists in particular who were previously invested in staying
out of politics are now committing to do better. We can seize on this
momentum to truly shift our work in the direction it must move in. To
work towards a more just world, we must first imagine what that world
could look like. This can become a type of reverse engineering, weaving
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 120
together a utopia, then unpacking it to give ourselves actionable steps
for the present. This serves the purpose of decentralizing our current
Resource Self-Assessment Toolkit
reality as the starting point, and offers us possibilities beyond simply and Future Visioning
what is “better,”or a logical next step from where we are now. We can
ask for more. We can require radical change. At the end of this section
you’ll find an exercise in this type of imagining, either alone, or with
other artists and clients. You could also repeat the exercise and see Write down three things you can do to share resources within your I tattoo a lot of people who share
how your answers change depending on who you are engaged with. tattoo community. Is there a new apprentice whose potential you’re background and experiences with
me, and I’ve found it extremely
excited about? Can you pick up a print from them? Is there an older healing to talk about those things.
Looking towards the future also requires taking inventory of artist who you see as an industry icon that doesn’t get the recognition These conversations have definitely
the past. Some of what we’ve cultivated serves us well, and can keep they should? Can you offer to help them with their workload in some affected my views and beliefs and
evolving with us as we grow. In the same way that we cannot mire way? Maybe they need help updating their social media or organizing I’m very thankful for them!
Sema Graham
ourselves in overly romanticizing the past and resisting change, we their archive of drawings.
must be critical of the notion that the newest version of something Simply to get paid to do what I love
is always its best version. In the same way that we don’t always know Let go of how things currently are in your tattoo community and is an everyday gift that then makes
our boundaries until they’re crossed, we might not know that our old practice, and of what you perceive around you. Let yourself daydream it very easy to hold so much space
for the person paying me for that.
way of doing something isn’t working until we try something different. about what your perfect tattoo world would look like. How many Lauren O’Connor
We might also try something new and learn that our old way of doing tattoos would you do a day? Would tattooing have a union? Would you
it was working just fine. work with other people? Would safe tattooing be legalized in prisons? I think to willingly put yourself in
Would your shop have support meetings to check in with each other? such a physically vulnerable setting
as tattooing is for most strips
My dream wish list for a future tattooing utopia includes: What kind of people would walk through the door? away a lot of the normal barriers
that people put up. You see their
• Overdose prevention and Naloxone/Narcan training for all shops Try doing this exercise alone and then again with friends or personalities with a lot more
truthfulness and clarity than you
• Consent workshops and training for shops coworkers. See how your group’s needs and imagination change
might in another situation…It’s
• LGBTQIA+ literacy training your collective answers and ideas about what’s possible. always good to challenge your own
• Harm reduction and safe tattoo information sharing expectations and preconceptions
• Needle/sharps dropoff of what a person is going to be like
simply because of one attribute
• Sliding scale or pay-what-you-can time slots or options available of their being and be reminded
of the complexity and individuality
In looking at my list, I see a number of starting points where of each one of us.
I could begin to implement new practices or policies in my practice Andy Perez
alone. Change feels less intimidating with this approach.

P 121 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 122
 After reading this text, it all might sound unbearably heavy,
complex, and like a lot of work to unpack and work through. It can be.
But as I mentioned at the beginning, the vast majority of us—if not
every single one of us—are already doing it. We need not call it trauma-
informed work. You don’t have to name it as justice-centered. There’s
no call towards labeling yourself anything you aren’t interested in. If we
bring our consciousness to the fact that we are working within arenas
that can hold a lot of trauma and, in turn, work to support ourselves
and each other through it, we can lessen the weight of it and increase
its positive returns. The work is not without enormous rewards.
The positive effects of these efforts can include:
• Making our work feel more meaningful and fulfilling
• Attracting clients who are more understanding of what
we do and who see our needs as individuals
• Better artist/client dynamics
• A more vibrant and complete tattoo community
• Making amends for the shortcomings of earlier generations
of tattoo artists
• More respect for our craft
• Learning from our clients
We will make mistakes. The process won’t be an easy or simple
one. The more we bring our consciousness and our efforts towards
folding this healing into our life and practice, the easier it will be.
We dream of tattoo exchanges that are precious and ungovernable
by forces that seek to exploit us. New strategies will arise only once
we grasp the totality of our current work and its demands on us.
All of us yearn to move fluidly through our creative service, weaving
together the unseen elements of our practice that create magic
felt by all. The more we connect with one another and expand our
awareness of collective needs, the more we can build infrastructures
and mutual aid systems to lessen the burden for all of us. Moments
of connection beyond words will happen. We will learn to gracefully
rise in response to challenges and to extend that grace to one another.
The more capacity for care and for our lives as whole selves we have,
the more we can collectively create the tattoo future we want to inhabit.
That future feels within reach for the first time I have known. I see
others all over the world dreaming of that same revolutionary tattoo
future. When we connect, that magic is without borders, beyond shops,
and accessible to us all.

The payoff makes all of this work
absolutely worthwhile. Being able
to adorn a living canvas with
a permanent piece of artwork, while
getting a glimpse into another
human’s life, is a tremendous
privilege. We are incredibly lucky
to be able do this, and I couldn’t
trade it for anything else in the world.
Niki Rain
I’ve seen clients come into the
waiting area at [the tattoo shop]
with a lot of nervous or quiet
contemplative energy and walk
out after getting a tattoo with a
different and confident attitude,
which is really incredible to witness
over a day span.
Jinhee Kwak
Admittedly, the topic of shifting to a trauma and justice-informed
approach to tattooing is a lot to take in and think about. Beyond
trauma awareness, I am asking people to adopt an expansive view
of tattooing and its place in the world as a whole. Trauma awareness
means little if we aren’t taking into consideration the conditions that
birthed trauma to begin with. By understanding transformative justice
and how to repair and replace the systems under which trauma and
violence occur, we can create spaces and practices that do more than
just respond to pain. We can commit to giving our clients an experience
that is as free as possible from the original causes of their trauma.
My clients have trusted me with so much, and that trust is an honor
beyond words. Truth be told, feeling a sense of responsibility to my
clients and something outside of myself has kept me in tattooing
when dealing with industry politics and stigma made me want to quit
tattooing entirely. Tattooing feels best to me when I can feel in service
to other people, to whatever extent I feel able. Being able to make
a living by creating a beautiful, permanent piece of art for someone
and giving them the best, most just experience of it is a true privilege.

Artists have shared with me that even without consciously trying,

clients have had transformative breakthroughs on their table that felt
triumphant and energizing for both people. What artist hasn’t had
at least one client cry from happiness or relief when they saw their
finished tattoo in the mirror? Then there are those sessions where
everything goes smoothly from the first moment—the client walks in,
communication is seamless and everything goes exactly as it should,
the days where you fall into an easy collaborative rhythm and doing
the job is as easy as breathing and you and your client understand
each other, even without words.

P 123 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 124
Acknowledgements Bolinayen Ignacio, Amelia Rose, Keegan Dakkar, Andy Perez, Makoto,
Raychelle Duazo, Beau Brady, Zac Scheinbaum, Stuart Robson, Stick
and Choke, Keara McGraw, Angela Maria, Lizzie Renaud, Tina Lugo,
Conceiving of this book would not have been possible without JinHee Kwak, Dan Bones, Oba Jackson, Alice Carrier, Allie Takahashi,
Saved Tattoo. Stephanie Tamez and Virginia Elwood gave me a home Aminah Slor, Ashley Love, Charline Bataille, Christina Gemora, Ciara
not only to develop my style of tattooing into what it is today, but Havishya, Glossy, Jaylind Hamilton, Joey Nicholson, Olivia Britz-Wheat,
to be able to grow and investigate what tattooing meant to me Phylo, Sally Rose, Tea Leigh, Tiff Lee, Debbi Snax, and many more.
in a supportive collective environment. My other coworkers Michelle Thanks especially to the Monday night queer tattoo futures group,
Tarantelli, Anderson Luna, Sophie C’est La Vie, Ian Healy, Framacho, who has given me infinite life, support, hope, and enjoyment.
Doreen Garner and Jess Fang have for years inspired me creatively
and been partners in figuring out what conflict resolution looks like Finally, thank you more than I can express to all my clients, many
when unity and investment in one another are part of our daily reality. of whom have been with me through my entire journey and who never
All thanks to Justin Weatherholtz for his unconditional love, support, cease to move me with their support and kindness. Thank you for
and for being a beacon of what optimism and passion for tattooing making tattooing the best job I could have asked for and for being the
looks like twenty years in. Three Kings Tattoo for giving a dirty punk kid glue that holds it all together. The magic couldn’t happen without you.
a professional start and a place to learn how to work with all different
kinds of people, all different kinds of tattoos, and for putting me
through the paces that made me the tattooer I am today. Infinite
thanks to June Amelia Rose for being an incredible anarchist editor
and the only person I could have asked to help with this work. Thank
you Nevena Dzamonja for research help and always being there
to stop the spiral. Ty Alex June Amancio Flor Smith for teaching me
about the mutuality of nurturing bodies and for being next to me
during the revolution.

Thank you to the radical communities and spaces that raised me

and the Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and LGBTQIA2+ organizers
who paved the way and created blueprints for frameworks like disability
justice, antiviolence work, harm reduction, abolition, and transformative
justice through which I can continue to learn. Thank you to the Women’s
Prison Association, Rehabilitation Through the Arts, Black and Pink, PEN
America, Support New York, NYC Anti-Violence Project, Resonance
Tulsa, Atomic Culture, Personal Ink, Support Oregon Tattooing, Ink the
Diaspora, Still Not Asking For It, Sarah Orton of the California State
Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Jen Brockman of the University
of Kansas Center For Sexual Assault Prevention and Education, the
Legal Aid Society’s Exploitation Intervention Network, and the other
organizations that have enabled me to expand the work I’m doing.

Thank you to the people committed to social justice work who

generously shared their time and expertise with me: Carolyn Lazard,
Scout Silverstein, Yin Q, Lolan Sevilla, Asher Pandjiris, Michele Kong,
Hadassah Damien, Michael Hager, Andrea Glik, Colin Hagendorf (also
a million thanks for introducing me to the pomodoro method!), Corinne
Kai, Andrea Jones, Jade Marks of 69 Herbs, Jennifer Patterson, Deesha
Narichania, Regan De Loggins, and countless others.

Thanks to all the tattoo artists, too many to name here, who have
filled out surveys, answered my questions on Instagram, participated
in virtual discussion groups, reached out via email, and been open
enough to share deeply about their personal experiences. These
include, but are not limited to, Sema Graham, Katie Sellergren, Mars
Hobrecker, Noel’le Longhaul, Brody Polinski, Nick Collella, Brian
Thurow, BJ Betts, Arielle Coupe, Niki Rain, Lauren O’Connor, Julz

P 125 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 126
 Appendix
Client “Bill of Rights”
Credit: K Lenore Siner

Ultimately, whether you prefer to maintain hard boundaries

for yourself around the exchange of personal information,
or intentionally lean into the social work or healing aspects
of tattooing, there are certain rights a client can expect
that I believe should be non-negotiable. These include:

The right to a clean and comfortable environment that follows

best practices for health and safety.

The right to equal treatment and service regardless of race,

gender, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability or health status. 

The right to respectful communication, including the right to be

addressed by your preferred name and correct pronouns and the right
to be in an environment free of hate speech or verbal harassment.

The right to an artist technically and stylistically suited to your

tattoo request, or a reference to someone who is.

The right to ask clarifying questions about the tattoo process

and technical decisions that go into a design or placement limitation,
and to have them answered with patience and respect.

The right to be asked for approval as to your final design, and

regarding changes your artist may consider during your tattoo session.

The right to be asked for consent about physical contact

and touch needed to perform your tattoo, including the
adjustment or removal of clothing.

The right to request and be provided with provisions toward

your personal privacy and comfort to the best ability of the artist
and shop.

The right to have your accessibility needs met to the extent

that the shop and artist are able to provide them, or a referral
to a shop or artist who can best meet those needs.

The right to confidentiality around personal and private

information, including the right to be asked for consent before
photos of you are taken or posted.

The right to self-advocacy: to speak up and be heard if anything

during your session or in regards to your overall shop experience
does not feel right.

P 127 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 128
Sources and Further Reading
Trauma-Informed Tattooing:
Informed Consent and Trauma-
Aware Tattooing: Practical
Guidelines For Artists brochure
PDF download link: http://www.
disciplinepress.com/#/trauma-
aware-tattooing
Tamara Santibañez
Trauma-Informed Tattooing,
Online workshop
http://www.disciplinepress.com/shop/
trauma-informed-tattooing
Tamara Santibañez
Compassion Fatigue, Boundaries,
and Burnout: Strategies for Artists
Online workshop
http://www.disciplinepress.com/shop/
compassion-fatigue-boundaries- amp-
burnout
Jen Brockman and Rob Hill
Trauma-Informed Body Modification
Trauma-Informed Care: Parallel
Skill Development by the Wisconsin
Department of Health Services,
Division of Mental Health and
Substance Abuse Services
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/
publications/p02641.pdf
Trauma:
Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.
Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program
for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body
(Sounds True, Inc. 2005)
Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
with Connie Burk
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday
Guide to Caring for Self While
Caring for Others
(Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009)
Bessel van der Kolk, MD
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind,
and Body in the Healing of Trauma
(Penguin Books, 2015)
Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized
Trauma and the Pathway to Mending
our Hearts and Bodies
(Central Recovery Press, 2017)
Vikki Reynolds
Justice-Doing at the Intersections
of Power
(Dulwich Centre Publications, 2019)
From Trauma-Informed to Healing-
Centered: Relational Approaches
for Building Resilience and Advancing
Social Justice webinar by NYC
Institute for the Development of
Human Arts
http://www.idha-nyc.org
Corinne Kai
Informed Consent and Trauma-
Aware Tattooing workshop
https://www.corinnekai.com/
Andrea Glick
Trauma & Resilience for Clinicians &
Healers online workshop
https://www.andreaglik.com/product-
page/trauma-resilience-for-clinicians
Can Trauma Be Inherited Between
Generations?
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/
archive/2018/10/trauma-inherited-
generations/573055/
Gabor Maté, M.D.
When the Body Says No: Exploring
the Stress-Disease Connection
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003)
Karen W. Saakvitne &
Laurie Anne Pearlman
Transforming the Pain: A Workbook
on Vicarious Traumatization
(W. W. Norton & Company, 1996)
Advocacy Department Sexual
Assault Center
Responding to Survivors of
Sexual Assault presentation
Shawn Ginwright Ph.D.
The Future of Healing: Shifting
From Trauma Informed Care
to Healing Centered Engagement
https://medium.com/@ginwright/
the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-
trauma-informed-care-to-healing-
centered-engagement-634f557ce69c
Generative Somatics
https://generativesomatics.org/
P 129
Tattooing:
Samuel M. Steward, PhD
Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A Social
History of the Tattoo with Gangs, Sailors,
and Street-Corner Punks, 1950-1965
(Harrington Park Press, 1990)
Tamara Santibañez
4 Myths About Tattooing on Dark
Skin That are Completely Untrue
https://www.bustle.com/p/4-myths-
about- tattooing-on-dark-skin-that-are-
completely-untrue-19188832
NPR Morning Edition: “The Roots of
‘Black and Gray Realism’ Tattoos”
with Freddy Negrete
Douglas Kent Hall
Prison Tattoos
(St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997)
Fareed Kaviani
The Untold Story Behind the ‘Father
of Contemporary Body Modification’
is One of Racial Exploitation
https://www.the4thwall.net/blog/
fakirmusafar
V. Vale
Modern Primitives: An Investigation of
Contemporary Adornment and Ritual
(RE/Search, 1989)
Jessica Reidy
The Harmful History of “Gypsy”
https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/
gypsy-slur-netlflix
Disability Justice:
Carolyn Lazard
Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise
and a Practice
(Recess/Common Field, 2019)
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
(Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018)
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Fragrance Free Femme of Colour Genius
http://brownstargirl.org/fragrance-free-
femme-of-colour-genius/
SANTIBAÑEZ 2020
Basil
3 Steps to Organizing a Fragrance
Free Event
http://www.billierain.com/2011/05/
01/3-steps-to-organizing-a-fragrance-
free-event/
Racial Justice:
Layla F. Saad
Me and White Supremacy
(Source and Quercus, 2020)
Layla’s social media @laylafsaad
offers access to her Me and White
Supremacy via PDF.
Artists: Anderson Luna, Doreen Garner,
Oba Jackson, Jay Hamilton
The Experience of a Black Tattooer:
Ink the Diaspora Panel discussion and
flash event, 2019
Patrisse Cullors
Abolition and Reparations: Histories
of Resistance, Transformative Justice,
and Accountability
Harvard Law Review 2019
LBGTQIA+:
Edited by Pat Califia & Robin Sweeney
The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader
(Alyson Publications, 1996)
Working With LGBTQ and HIV-Affected
Communities
NYC Anti-Violence Project
Transformative Justice and
Community Accountability:
NYC Safer Spaces Coalition
saferspacesnyc.wordpress.com
Bystander Intervention Training
https://www.ihollaback.org/bystander-
resources/
Mental Health First Aid Training
https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/
take-a-course/find-a-course/
Aaron Rose
What To Do Instead of Calling the Police
https://www.aaronxrose.com/blog/
alternatives-to-police
Angela Y. Davis
Are Prisons Obsolete?
(Seven Stories, 2003)
COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK
Generation Five Sex Work:
Toward Transformative Justice:
A Liberatory Approach to Child Sexual Lorelai Lee
Abuse and other forms of Intimate Cash/Consent: The War on Sex Work
and Community Violence, A Call https://nplusonemag.com/issue-35/
to Action for the Left and the Sexual essays/cashconsent/
and Domestic Violence Sectors
Self Care:
INCITE! Women of Color
Against Violence Brittany Ducham, Spellbound Herbals
www.incite-national.org Emotional Alchemy: Transmuting
Feeling into Political Action Zine
Support New York Accountability
Process Curriculum
https://supportny.org/transformative-
justice/curriculum/
Mariame Kaba & Shira Hassan
Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook
for Community Accountability Facilitators
(Project NIA and Just Practice, 2019)
Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical
Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence
http://www.creative-interventions.org/
tools/toolkit/
Ejeris Dixon and Vision Change Win
Creating a Transformative Justice
Informed Sexual Harassment Protocol
www.visionchangewin.com
Wispy Cockles
Taking the First Step: Suggestions to
People Called Out for Abusive Behavior
https://transformharm.org/taking-the-
first-step-suggestions-to-people-called-
out-for-abusive-behavior/
adrienne maree brown
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change,
Changing Worlds
(AK Press, 2017)
Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi
Piepzna-Samarasinha
Beyond Survival: Strategies and
Stories from the Transformative
Justice Movement
(AK Press, 2020)
Mia Mingus
The Four Parts of Accountability: How
To Give A Genuine Apology Part
https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com
P 130
Credits and Collaborators About the Author
Editor: Tamara Santibañez (they/them) is a queer mixed-race Latinx
June Amelia Rose tattoo artist with 10+ years of professional experience based
in Brooklyn, New York. They are a visual artist and writer as well
Research: as the founder of independent publishing imprint Discipline Press,
Nevena Dzamonja and editor of the 2018 anthology Sexiness: Rituals, Revisions,
and Reconstructions (Sang Bleu/Discipline Press). They have over
Book Design: fifteen years of community organizing and activist experience, from
Cherish Chang volunteering at feminist bookstore Bluestockings and collectively
running a sober DIY live-work venue to organizing overdose
Consulting: prevention workshops for sex worker and queer nightlife communities
Lolan Sevilla, New York City Anti-Violence Project and training with the New York City Anti-Violence Project’s crisis
hotline cohort, becoming a NYS certified rape crisis counselor.
Michael Hager, MPH, MA They have taught as a visual arts instructor at Rikers Island and with
Hager Health LLC and AIDS Education and Training Center Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Bedford Hills Correctional,
Program (HIV ethics consulting) and worked with the Women’s Prison Association to develop a guide
for tattoo artists working with survivors of abuse. Most recently,
Deesha Narichania, Therapist and Consultant they have worked with Resonance Tulsa to provide free coverup
services for women exiting the prison system, recording their oral
Regan De Loggins, Indigenous Scholar, Curator and Activist narratives around being tattooed. They bring their experience in
community organizing to their creative and tattooing work, visualizing
Tann Parker, Ink the Diaspora tattooing as a transformative practice, a space for healing, and as
a vehicle for resistance to mechanisms of oppression.
Carolyn Lazard, Disability Justice Activist and Artist

Corinne Kai, Sex and Consent Educator

Sarah Orton, CA State Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Hadassah Damien, Financial Advisor

Asher Pandjiris, Therapist and Podcaster, Living in This Queer Body

Jen Brockmann, Director, Center for Sexual Violence Prevention,

University of Kansas

Sema Graham, Tattoo Artist

Scout Silverstein, TFFED, HIV Ethics, Disability Justice

P 131 SANTIBAÑEZ 2020 COULD THIS BE MAGIC? TATTOOING AS LIBERATION WORK P 132