What is Our Industry Without Integrity?
Our industry is growing. Every year, more artists enter the scene from all over the world, from tattoo schools and academies to private studios. But even with the rising oversaturation of the market, our industry still has that small feel.
We’re a community.
People come into our industry for so many different reasons. There’s the people who love art, self expression, the ability to connect with clients, the eventual flexibility our lifestyle affords.
In a small industry like ours, your name is everything. Your word is your bond. Without credibility, you have nothing.
Doing what’s right is just as important as the art you create. Without it, your art is empty. Tattoos lose their meaning.
People in the tattoo scene are smart; they’ll see the type of person you are. They’ll either bring you up with them on their rise to success or you’ll get left behind.
The Making of a Tattoo Artist: Sacrifice, Support, and Success in the Industry
It takes a really specific type of person to make it in our industry. It takes a lot of creativity, a lot of passion—but more than anything, it takes a lot of grit.
It takes someone with a level head on their shoulders, someone focused who recognizes the values and integrity it takes to uphold our culture, our community.
If you don’t have that mindset, there’s no place for you in our growing industry.
And then there’s the toll it takes on your body—your eyes, your back, your wrist—there’s the time it takes away from your family at home. It’s not easy. There’s the blood, sweat, and ink you have to pour into it.
Especially for new artists, it’s a huge sacrifice. It takes a lot of endurance, mentally and physically.
I’ve mentored artists who had to leave their young children in the hands of others, day after day, for a year or more straight to take it all in, to lay the foundation needed to really make a name for yourself in this industry.
You really have to lean on your fellow artists to make it through. You spend a lot of time away from your family at home, all with the purpose of giving them a better life. But, at the same time, you gain another family in the studio. An extra set of brothers, sisters, cousins, people to look up to—people who look out for you.
That’s why, when the wrong people make their way into our industry—people with bad intentions—take that family for granted, it’s all the more painful.
Because it’s not just artists and creatives who end up beside you in the studio—even if they’re the majority.
Our industry can breed a lot of envy and jealousy, too.
A lot of people become tattoo artists for the wrong reasons. They had a rough background, something I can relate to myself. I truly believe that everyone who is willing is capable of change.
But instead of looking at it as an opportunity, as a second chance at life, there are people who let the ghosts of their past catch up to them. Too often, they end up backstabbing, taking from, and manipulating the same people who supported them, who put their neck on the line to help them succeed in their careers.
Never stealing is the number one rule in our industry.
We’re supposed to be able to rely on each other. There’s no coming back from that. If you want to bite the hand that feeds you, you’re going to get burned.
A Family Divided
I’ve seen it with my own flesh and blood. Family can turn against you without a second thought, forgetting all too quickly where they came from and who put them on.
There’s a lot of selfishness. Greed.
It shouldn’t surprise me when it happens to me at the shop—but it still does. And I don’t think it will ever stop feeling like a fresh wound, like every betrayal is happening for the first time. I’ll never get used to it.
It takes a lot to make it in the tattoo scene, to build that rapport with clients and peers, make those connections, create a name for yourself. If it was easy, everyone would do it—there’s a price to success.
But, a lot of times, people don’t want to put in the work. They want a short cut. They see what you have and want the same; they don’t care who gets hurt in the process.
When people steal from me, from Skin Design, they’re not always coming after my money—not directly. They want our database of information that we worked hard for many years to get. They want to use it to jumpstart their own careers, to capitalize off of our success. But they didn’t earn it.
Our company works hard to build that clientele list and have what we have. Our clients place a lot of trust in us. That trust means everything.
The Price of Trust
I’ve caught my own apprentice stealing from me before. When his client called the shop, we found out he was trying to get his deposit back—his artist told him to meet up in a hotel room so he could pocket the whole profit himself.
He didn’t care that SDT was who gave him that opportunity, gave him the edge he needed in our competitive industry to stand out in the first place. Didn’t care that I taught him everything he needed to know as an artist—the same skills I pass down to my own daughters.
When I confronted him, he didn’t even have the decency to own up to it. When he denied it, we reached out to his clients with unfinished work, only for them to tell us he’d finished it for them outside of the studio.
We’ve had so many experiences like this.
We’ve had plenty of artists and apprentices that leave after quitting or getting fired and take other artists on their way out—getting close to them, brainwashing them, and spewing lies about our company to turn them against us.
Just this past week, we had another theft in the company, another ex-artist trying to steal from our client list. It only reaffirmed to us how important it is to safeguard it. That’s not something SDT takes lightly.
Clients come first. Always. Our priority is to protect them.
That’s why we started our out-of-studio team to handle artists’ bookings and consultations. Since they’re not run by people in the shop, there’s no favoritism, no prioritizing bookings to friends and family. It boils down to the client’s needs and goals. At the same time, it frees up artists to do what they do best: Create art and connect with clients.
When we started that team, it was innovative to the industry. Other shops have been inspired by it, created their own. I love that. It’s so rewarding when SDT is part of a positive change within the community.
But stealing? We can’t tolerate that. Not as a company, and definitely not as an industry.
At the beginning of this year, some SDT staff members quit to start their own booking company—stealing our blueprint and connections, booking with other Skin Design artists that left us, and even stealing our database to qualify themselves to work with Klarna and Affirm for financing. Yet another process we started in the industry.
You might be able to take from us, but you’ll never be able to rebuild your reputation. Karma catches up to everyone eventually.
Overcoming Betrayal
We already have so many security measures set in place. We’ve done everything in our power to protect our business and the clients we serve; we just had to tighten the reins on who from the inside could go out of their way to breach it.
Until it happens to you, you don’t think you have to suspect your own team, your own SDT family.
Having to go through this with the people you trusted is brutal. You put everything into them. You bring them on board, help them buy a car, fix their credit—everything they never had and never knew how to do.
In a way, it feels like I’m a father not just to my three girls, but to so many of the Skin Design team. It’s my role as a life path 33 to guide the people around me and use my blessings to uplift them.
If you’re anything like me, you know that sometimes, the people around you will exploit that generosity, that trust, to get whatever they can from you. They’ll mistake your kindness for weakness.
But, that’s life. You have to adjust and overcome.
Our industry is competitive, but I know that the more we support each other, the more opportunities we’ll all have as individuals. If everyone looked out for the health of the industry instead of just ourselves, we’d all be made better for it.
The Power of Perseverance: A Community United
When this recent theft happened, my initial reaction was anger. It hurts, when the people close to you deceive you, steal from you. They hold the power to hurt you more than any stranger could.
It’s so important, for me especially, to remember not to lash out. We can’t control the actions of other people, but we can control how we react to them.
The people in my circle, people from all across the industry, showed me and the SDT family such an outpour of support. So much love and respect. So many people are rooting for us.
I know that my words hold a lot of weight in this industry, and I know that there’s a lot of responsibility with that.
But the amount of people who took the time to reach out to me last week, to show how much they care, was so humbling. It reminded me that, for every snake hiding in the grass of our industry, there’s ten times as many people you can count on. There’s so many people who have our back.
I’ll never let experiences like this harden my heart, stop me seeing the best in people, from building on the success of others in our industry. You never know how people are going to turn out. But that’s not my call to make. That’s between them and God. God moves people to where they need to be. I’m just here to help.
The moment I stop believing in people is the same moment I stop growing as a man. The moment we’re crippled as a company.
This is my purpose in life—guiding others, the SDT legacy, and leaving the tattoo community stronger. More sustainable for generations to come.
I’ve been here before. I know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, everytime. It gets brighter with every hardship.
Learning from the Challenges
People say that it’s lonely at the top. It doesn’t have to be. I want to take every person who worked alongside me all the way up.
When I go through this, I share it with the people around me not because I’m feeling sorry for myself. I don’t want sympathy. It’s because I want people to see that they can overcome the challenges in their lives, too.
Just like in my book, I know that by sharing my most vulnerable, most painful moments, and how I always rise above them, I can inspire hope in others.
I embrace the stages in my life—good and bad. The stress, the sadness, the joy, everything in between. That’s life. It makes me appreciate the good times so much more. It’s a process.
In my mind, I already know where we’re going. I know we’ve got this. Every situation like this makes us more resilient. Nothing can break us. It’s why I almost crave the hard times.
Without them, there’s no balance.
Today, tomorrow, and everyday after that—
Let’s goooooo!
