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 Needles and Sins posted about the DRAKE tattoo last week and I've been chewing over this for a few days and following some of the dialog online. The artist did an interview with Vice Magazine that's taken a lot of heat. He mentioned "she was on a good one" which he later clarified did not mean she was messed up; it's just an expression he likes (?).
I liked the response from Drake himself; such a well spoken young man. With any luck it will dissuade the next psychopath who thinks this is a good idea. He didn't even want to look at the picture of the tattoo, obviously freaked out by it. WetPaint reports, "the rapper didn't mince words when discussing the tattoo "artist," Kevin Campbell, who did the inking: "The guy who tatted that is a f***ing a**hole, though, I will tell you that," he said. "I don't f**k with that guy. F**k you to that tat artist by the way, 'cause you an a**hole, for real. And you should lose your job and should never do tattoos again and I don't f**k with you. And if I ever see you, I'm a f**k you up."
Kevin wrote a response to Marisa that I've included at the end of this post. Kevin says the only lesson he learned is to keep his mouth shut. I think there is a larger lesson here. Kevin could have avoided all of this attention by using just the least tiny bit of good judgement. This stuff is going to be showing up more and more often for us in the post media tattoo era we are in. The taboos aren't as strong as they used to be and it's up to the artists to draw the line. I know it's hard to let a couple bucks walk out the door especially when you know there's some asshole somewhere that will take the money but is it worth it to be that asshole? There are certain other situations I think of in relation to this story. Doctor Conrad Murray got paid a lot of money to go agaist his better judgement. I hope the doctor that stuck 8 babies inside the Octomom is out of business. If there are no laws against that abberation there should be. With enough of these types of stories in the news who knows what sort of laws will pop up for us; which is probably not a bad thing.
Tattoo artists are professionals and while tattoos don't carry the weight they used to what with lasers and their downright respectability it's still a significant decision in someones life. There are not many lines these days people won't cross but I think the forehead is a good one to adhere to, unless they have no other room left of course.
One last thing. It was mentioned that this girl is the heir to the Downy fortune. What an interesting twist. More food for thought.
Happy New Years all!
Read more to get Kevin's response to Marisa.
Marisa: The tattooists who did the Drake tattoo contacted me and he has an interesting response: "...I'd like to explain a few things, if you have the time to listen. I've turned away plenty of people who are visibly inebriated/drunk who used to frequent the last shop I worked at. I was even yelled at by my old boss for not making him money...His theory was that if they didn't get it right then and there, I was losing him money, and thus not performing my job. The young lady with the now famous "Drake" tattoo was perfectly coherent and lucid. She helped me find the font on the shop computer, was not stumbling about, and was quite polite in fact. My big mistake was talking to a reporter. I was originally contacted by Vice in order to get in touch with young lady in question. That is of course against shop policy. I was casually asked a few questions, which I (stupidly) answered via e-mail, and was talking loosely, as if with a friend, as I quite obviously should never have done. I use the phrase "on a good one" probably about twice a day, with no reference to drug use whatsoever (ie "yo, my mom's been on a good one, she cleaned the whole house and even folded my clothes!). Referring to somebody as a "crackhead", where I grew up, usually doesn't actually mean that the person is a crack cocaine abuser. Most real crackheads probably wouldn't have the money to spend on a tattoo, because they spent it all on a rock. I won't tattoo somebody who is zonked out of their mind on drugs, not just because they're decision making abilities are questionable, mainly because it is nearly impossible to tattoo someone who is so fucked up that they can hardly write their own name. This young lady filled out a consent form, sat perfectly still as I applied the stencil, politely asked me to blow it up 20% on the copy machine and move it higher up so that it took up her entire forehead. Not really the actions of someone who just took a fat pull of a glass dick, or was in fact on a good one and had been up for 2 weeks twisting a meth pipe. The only lesson I learned here is to keep my fucking mouth shut when talking to the media, because it is obviously really easy to insert a bunch of questions into a private e-mail conversation to make it look like an interview and throw it up on a blog for the whole world to see. I feel badly that the nice young lady had to hear me speak so poorly of her, which was wrong and I apologize. If you have read this far, thank you for hearing me out. Sorry to have upset you, and to have put anybody in this profession in a bad light."
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