It's funny how creative fields are similar. The shop I worked at in the early 2000s (just before I opened my own), was owned by a person who didn't actually tattoo. He was a business man who's main concern was the bottom line. He had friends from Vietnam that tattooed when they were stateside that taught him about the business while he was overseas. In his mind, the style that he wanted coming out of his shop was American Traditional. Old School. Sailor Jerry kind of stuff....with thick, solid outlines, pepper shading, lots of negative space and primary colors. (Which is exactly how I do NOT tattoo). He was wound up tight on the fact that fine line work didn't hold up over time and everything that comes out if his shop he wanted to last forever. To the point where he didn't want any of his artists using anything smaller than a tight 5 as a liner. Well, that wasn't going to fly with me because I was primarily a fine line artist.....so....I did a few pieces "illegally" out of my house after hours.....a couple of them ended up published in some tattoo magazines within a couple of weeks of each other with HIS SHOP NAME as to where I worked. A couple of days later, he approached me and said that he needed someone to handle some of that "new fangled" fine line crap.
Nothing more, nothing less.....but that was my permission to tattoo a piece however I saw fit. But, I bet if his shop name wasn't published world wide, I would have been just like everyone else....subject to his bias on what a "real" tattoo was.
