Hi, I just wanted to share a little tattoo story and get your input.
So this weekend my cousins’ husband asked about a full back piece. We’d been talking about it off and on for a few months. He finally gets serious and calls. I tell him to come by and that I was printing up the ideas (I) wanted to go with… He just said he wanted a religous themed piece and gave me mostly freedom to do what I wanted (as his ideas were the average praying hands, jesus face, etc.
He already had a mid/small cross right in the middle of his back, and only a few inches high/wide… Along with “God Knows” (one word on each side) right below the shoulder blades. So it lkooks pretty shitty at the moment.
Anyway, my idea for the piece was this: Life & times of Jesus (using birth, life, death, resurrection cycle)
So I was gonna redo the cross and expand it cutting the back in 4. And then do a realistic style Nativity scene (birth) in the upper left, Baptism by John (life) upper right, Michaelangelo’s Pieta (death) lower left, and Caravaggio’s doubting Thomas (resurrection) lower right.
I thought it was an awesome idea. But he ended up prefering my secondary idea… Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam/The Last Supper.
So either idea, im excited to replicate some master work!!! BUT… He had some suggestions. I planned to do the Creation across the shoulders and the Supper on the lower part of his back. It made sense as the Creation is a sky scene… He insisted on the opposite, Creation on bottom, Supper on top. THEN!!! He asked me to CHANGE the Creation scene. He thought Adam looked too “gay”. I explained that the image is a Masterpiece and that I wasnt willing to change it to make it more masculine. ALSO, this guy has plenty of money so its not an issue… but when we got on that subject, I offered by-the-hour price, or as a whole. He wanted a full price so I told him about $600 bucks (and thats the family discount). He started being less available to take phone calls after that…
So here’s my Question, after giving a personal time/out-of-shop deal which is a nice discount I think, especially for the subject matter and layout… Should I even do the tattoo? It was kinda offending that he gave me the freedom, then kinda didnt, AND asked for changes to famous work… Just makes me feel like he doesnt/cant appreciate or respect great work, so I kinda wanna NOT do it now…
Hi
First of all I would look into the guy’s commitment to have the backpiece done. I base this on the fact you have offered to do this for $600 – he is not ripping your arm off?
The average cost of a backpiece in the UK is around $3000 to $4000+.
The changes to a famous piece(s) of work is rather irrelevant to an extent in that it is personal taste – I have seen both of these masterpieces and whilst stunning if I wanted a tattoo of it I would def change the style to suit my own taste.
I feel in Caravaggio’s doubting Thomas that Yeshua (Jesus) is way too pale and white. He was middle eastern and so i would darken him up for a tattoo. (Again just personal taste).
I understand what you are saying about the style layout – it is never nice to say yep do it your way – you start and they come back with a list of demands a mile long.
My advice is leave a tel msg and just say politely that you are happy to work with him as long as the design rules are dealt with up front and once you start drawing you cannot keep making major changes so he has to be sure what he wants.
Then say that you are already doing a major discount but because of the size and time involved you cannot be expected to do a freebie as it is a very elaborate and big tattoo not a quick 1 hour job.
If they don’t get back to you then they have no reason to bitch to the rest of the family that you wouldn’t help out.
If you want my personal experience – Never mix business with family or pleasure. 😉
Take Care
Matthew
Its always a pain working with family , i am always expected to bring alone my pro camera to family events .
talk about buss man’s holiday .
I personally although not christian liked the sounds of the second tattoo more than the 1st .
And think it would make a cool tattoo, if he thinks 600 is pricy he is a fool.
what’s your portfolio like ? i think i would still go ahead with the tattoo because its the sort of piece that will strengthen it . plus i think a slight change wouldnt do that much harm .
Thanks both.
So here’s what happened, after posting the topic, I called. He was “at the store” like for 3 hours… I called a final time to say I’d be unavailable as I was heading to work with another client that WAS ready to get worked on and to call me if/when they were ready. Before hanging up, my cousin mentions “Oh, you know he wants you do do his arms 1st right?”
WTF??? Ok. lol
Hasnt called since. I ended up working on a nice big Filigree/Roses/name design on someones side. Im waiting an email with a pic of that now.
Hopefully, I’ll get to do it afterall cuz I really been wanting to do both the Creation and Supper for a while.
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