While Carlos is back in Denmark we talked about what it is the difference in attitude towards tattooing in Denmark and Latvia.
Carlos started his tattooists career in Denmark and last year traveled a bit and now settled down in Latvia. Denmark have really rich history related to tattooing including all the traditional sailor tattoos and having one of the oldest tattoo shops in Europe if not on planet. While in good old Latvia it is more post soviet vibe where modern tattooing is around for 20-25 years and before that it was associated with criminal world or military at best.
In styles of tattooing there are not many differences – in the age of information all cool people have been following latest trends. Main difference is in knowledge about tattooing and designing of tattoo from the customer. Many people think that they should come up with design themselves and often they are surprised when tattoo artist offers to design piece ( here we are talking about first time customers mostly ). In Denmark and many other places people come in with idea and rest is up to tattooist. Unless it is same old – I want this and nothing else situation.
Other subject we covered was what it is like to work in a business orientated shop owned by a business person vs the shop where owner is tattooist himself and is around the shop for most of the time. The business orientated shops can be different as well like some are custom shops with good artists and others are mad money making machine where creative side doesn’t matter. Shops that are tattooist owned and owner is following shops life they usually tend to have more artistic and creative vibe and for tattooists there will be always more mutual respect and there always will be more artists willing to work there.