I am a tattoo artist. I became one when I realized that I enjoyed drawing tattoos for my friends. I bought my own machines and began practicing the art on my friends on account of the honor to reflect the gratitude of the flattery I feel when someone appreciates my art so much as to have it with them, and alive with them.
Its rewarding to relate to peoples concepts of art with that understanding. I find it difficult to ask prices for memorial pieces with sentiment as long as the concept is tasteful and articulate since I believe that the art of tattoo is a sacred experience that requires a series of gestures to prepare one for any particular motif of transformation towards self awareness. Even bad, ridiculous, poorly etched ones or tasteless and crass images have their consequence to the one who bears the tattoo, and to the artist who gave the tattoo, illustrating the idea of how "the end justify the means".

Then there are the ones who want tattoos and piercings without a single iota of the concept that is the sensation of undergoing the creative process that is body augmentation. The process is no longer ritual, it is an experiment once the receiver of this process is ignorant to the conditions in which a tattoo or piercing can progress into a healthy extension of the perceived self.

Being a tattoo artist is definitely hard work, you have to meticulously arrange and align various parts of a tattoo machine to conduct a steady current of electricity through certain components and then fine tune the device to express a proper functioning needle, depending on the type of needle used for the job. The multitudes of fine tuning and the precautionary measures to keep all components sanitary is painstaking, yet if you can find the reason and purpose in tedious and meticulous work then there is much reward.
Although there are people who ask for ridiculous tattoos that just make me feel my ambition and talent is being squandered... At least I get paid.

I still feel that comics and conceptual art truly captivate what I aspire to be most in regards to being an artist. I really want to make video games and movies, but... Tattoos pay my bills. I think thats why I love DA though, because I see people keeping that dream alive... only a few people can really captivate and enamor others with their dreams well enough to make them into interactive, animated world full of adventure and meaning... its just phenomenal to me to use art to make dreams come to life.