Let’s talk about Tattoos

In Germany, there is currently a debate going on about if Tattoos are considered art and therefore the people making the tattoos are artists. That might sound a bit strange to you, but it’s actually a legal issue since if you are recognized as an artist in Germany you get certain insurance benefits. So it’s not only about the art itself but also about the people behind it. Since I am not designing tattoos myself, but I love having them and I will get some more this summer, I really want to speak about it here on my blog. And I want to start by telling you about parts my own tattoo journey. You notice that I will use the word “tattoo artist” a lot, which kinda seems to defeat the purpose here, but in English, that’s the only word I know and in Germany they are only called “Tätowierer”. Maybe that will change soon 😉

I actually got my first tattoo when I was only 16 together with my mother. In Germany, you are technically only allowed to get a tattoo when you are 18 years old, but when you have the consent of your parents and find an artist who is willing to tattoo you, you can legally do it sooner. For my first tattoo, I choose something small, because I was very afraid of the pain and I kinda wanted to test out what it was liked to get tattoed. It was a good idea, but I sadly did not have the best experience in general, because my artist back then was not very understanding… he was like: “If you cry about pain, you should not get a tattoo.”. He was really not the best example of what a tattoo artist should be, but we will come back to that 😉 My first tattoo took about 10min, but it felt way longer, but I felt so good after it.

Why get a tattoo with 16 you might ask yourself? I always was very fond of how they looked at other people, but it also was a psychological thing for me. I was bullied a lot in school and there was nothing I could really do about it. The short version of it was, that I felt like I lost control over my life, and getting a tattoo, making a lifelong decision like that, felt like I was taking back that control. So getting a tattoo is not always about aesthetics, it can also help people cope with troubles in their life, deal with trauma or grow their self-esteem. There is a popular meme about tattoo artists being lowkey therapists and I guess it’s not totally wrong. Sitting up to 8 hours next to a person talking can really connect people 😉

But that is only part of what they do, with their art. But what is art? That’s quite hard to define. “Art is a highly diverse range of human activities engaged in creating visual, auditory, or performed artifacts— artworks—that express the author’s imaginative or technical skill, and are intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.” (lumenlearning) is one of the quotes you can find on the topic and they all sound poetic like this one. Art can be everything, is a statement as helpful as the last one. But in all of that, there is a piece of truth. Technically everyone can be an artist from a child with a crayon drawing on the walls, up to a person creating a doodle at school. But in this case, it’s about earning money with it, so it’s about creating visual, auditory, or performed artifacts that express the author’s imaginative or technical skill, to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power by the client.

The Artists’ social fund which would grant the insurance benefits has a slightly easier to understand the definition of what to do, to get in. The requirement is “the exercise of a permanent, self-employed artistic activity on a commercial basis” and to be someone “who creates, practices or teaches music, performing or visual arts”. Now you would think, the problem here is not the art part itself, since tattoo artists do create visual art, right? Well in Germany they are seen as Artisans because tattooing itself “does not become artistic in that in individual cases not working according to existing patterns or stencils, but the motif itself is designed; because this is also typical for handicrafts.”. Basically, that means that the people who decide on who gets into the fund and who does not, think that tattoo artists only do the craft of tattooing, bringing a design onto a person’s skin. And maybe in the past, in some cases that was true since some tattoo people work with the designs from others, sometimes even without asking them. But the vast majority and what I personally think are the better tattoo artists, only tattoo their own designs.

Actually, I have a friend who, let’s say falls in love with designs easily and when she sees something, she really wants to have EXACTLY that design. But when searching for an artist who would tattoo her that, she has some problems since most artists will tell her, that they will try to recreate the design in their style or not tattoo her at all. Not because they are arrogant or just don’t want to work with her, but because it would not feel right for them. And if that’s not artistic, then tell me what is. A good tattoo artist should not only be good at their craft (technical skill), but also at helping the client get his design on paper(imaginative skill), work on it until it’s ready(to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power), and also give emotional support, for the process of tattooing but also in general. What I would have wanted to say to my artist who did my very first tattoo: If you don’t like to work with people, that have emotions, don’t become a tattoo artist. In Art, it’s never about you, but it’s always about them.

My tattoo journey is far from being over and I knew the answer to the initial question all along, of course tattoos are art and their creators are artists who should defently be taking in by the Artist’ social fund as soon as possible! Not only for support but also for apprechiation of they are and what they do. If you’d like you can let me know in the comments what you think about it, in a fair manner of course 🙂 And if you would like to know more about the topic or my tattoos in general, let me know!

Greetings and good wishes
The Mad Hattress