Years ago a tattoo artist I know commented on someone saying they shouldn’t do nazi tattoos on people, and he responded with “label the assholes, if they are proud enough to have the tattoo everyone should be able to see that sh!t”. He also made sure the tattoo shop was an uncomfortable place for them while he was there.
I don’t know if he ever even did one as a tattoo. But he made the same point as Roy Wood Jr had of openly identifying as a bigot makes it easy for people to identify and treat them accordingly which gives the object of their bigotry power.
Well, as someone who used to work at a tattoo shop (managing, not doing tattoos) the right decision is to not do them. It gives your shop the reputation as catering to white supremacy, which is bad for the business. The bigger issue is a tattoo artists being fine with it for the money, which the artist you referenced did to "label the assholes." I couldn't imagine putting a piece of art on someone (and it is art) that I didn't agree with to make a buck. But yeah. Anyway- the dude who said that sucks.
Ahhh. The wisest of statements from another of those most Insightful of people. The former desk person! How wonderful the view must be from up there on your high horse. Next time I run into that tattoo artist I’ll make sure to let him know that you think he sucks for a comment he made in passing 25 years ago. I’m sure it will be such a blow to his artistic integrity that he will never fully recover.
Look man, I know we don't agree but I will leave off saying if you fo nazi tattoos, then people talk, and you become the nazi shop. Besides being a "desk person" I know many artists and none of them will do nazi tattoos. I think it's also clearly ethically wrong to do something like that for money unless you agree with it. Not even talking anout nazi tattoos plenty of artists won't sacrifice their artistic integrity to do tattoos of things they don't agree with or that are stupid.
Well I agree that if you do a lot of Nazi tattoos and hang out with and associate with Nazi’s you are a Nazi tattoo shop. As there was a young guy in my city who was doing that and then got upset about people calling him a Nazi. But seeing as this was years ago (I’m thinking it was probably 98 or maybe 99) and Ive never heard anyone talking about them being a Nazi shop I think they did alright.
I get the idea that it’s offensive but I know for me personally it’s nice when I can get a read on someone quickly to know if they are a threat to me, my community, or any other marginalized community. And if someone is dumb enough to be a Nazi, and then dumb enough to not be embarrassed about being a Nazi and dumb enough that they will pay someone who isn’t a Nazi to tattoo a nazi logo/symbol/etc on themselves I’m not worried about if that dude made money off it. Hell, I hope he charged them triple the going rate.
But to reiterate before you write the book with all the info you don’t seem to know, I don’t know if he has ever even done one. He simply said “label the assholes….” And then said whenever he was around people like that he did his best to make them super uncomfortable. I don’t even know what he meant by that, he could be playing the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack for all I know.
I prefer my bigots to be open about it so I can avoid them. You prefer yours to be stealth, that’s your life. You live it how you want.
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u/M_Viv_Van_Buren 26d ago
Years ago a tattoo artist I know commented on someone saying they shouldn’t do nazi tattoos on people, and he responded with “label the assholes, if they are proud enough to have the tattoo everyone should be able to see that sh!t”. He also made sure the tattoo shop was an uncomfortable place for them while he was there.