Finger, hand, palm tattoos, why am I having such a difficult time getting anyone to do them?
I started to answer this question last week, thinking it would be an easy, low-stakes reply, but quickly spiraled into a 2015 internet rabbit hole trying to reference something that was *~Major Tattoo Internet Drama~* when I was still pretty new to the field. More on that in a minute, but to begin with, there are two factors most likely at play here:
1. First and more straightforwardly, hands, fingers, and palms can be difficult areas to tattoo and heal well.
This primarily has to do with the fact that they’re such high-use parts of our bodies. We’re using our hands constantly, and the skin on knuckles and palms is different than a lot of other skin, particularly in callused areas. Many people have policies around touch-ups (preemptively scheduling them at the initial session since hands are likely to need them, capping free touch-ups at one session, etc.) and doing the tattoos in the first place (some just won’t, like you’ve encountered). I will happily do finger, hand, and palm tattoos, but generally won’t tattoo the side or “heel” of the hand since I haven’t dialed in an approach that I feel confident will heal solidly in that particular zone. Some people are incredible at specifically that, and I’d rather refer someone there. The internet has also given people an oftentimes unrealistic expectation about how finger tattoos can heal and age. We see so many beautiful fresh images of micro-portraits and the like when they’re newly done, but it’s important for clients to know how much things can fade and spread as the years go by— especially on the hands. Some artists will say no to particular designs in that area for this reason as well.
[Image: healed decorative hand tattoo by Tann Parker of Ink the Diaspora. @okthentann
2. High visibility tattoos like hands, neck, and face are huge commitments, and not all tattoo artists are willing to do them.
In the incredibly chaotic tattoo culture of our year 2022, I wonder if the term “job stopper” is relevant anymore, or if young tattoo clients are even hearing it used. When I was starting to get tattoos, pieces in high-vis zones were called job stoppers because they’d do exactly that- keep you from employment most places. This is still true in a lot of areas of employment (Starbucks will allow you to have visible tattoos, but not on your neck or face) whether through explicit policy or unspoken industry norms (such as nursing, where patient judgment can play a role in how tattoos are received).
Despite this, face and hand tattoos are more common and popular than ever, to the point that tradition around not getting them until you were heavily tattooed otherwise seems to have been largely forgotten. This tradition that I’m describing is, as far as I know, particular to more Western and American Traditional tattoo norms. Indigenous people have tattooed their faces, necks, and hands for far longer, and it’s important to note that European colonizers banned the tradition in the 1900s. Indigenous people reclaiming face tattoos are doing so in resistance to the violence, trauma, and erasure of colonization. There’s so much more to say on this topic, but for now I’ll encourage people to consider how colonialism shaped the taboos we take for granted, and to be critical about who is and is not allowed to challenge those taboos safely.
[Image: hand and finger tattoos by Julay @sacred.spirit.ink]
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In considering this question I’m reminded of this op-ed that was published in 2015 when I had been tattooing for about five years. When it came out, I remember it inspired a lot of defensiveness among tattooers, a number of response articles, and quite literally thousands of internet comments. The sparknotes version is this: a woman walked into a prominent, reputable shop asking for a small neck tattoo of her daughter’s name. The woman, near 40 and self-employed, was turned down by this shop and artist as she wasn’t already heavily tattooed. While she was able to go to another shop and have the tattoo done, she felt that the man who declined to tattoo her was doing so because of her gender (and to add insult to injury, he told her the tattoo would be “tacky”). The artist wrote a response that’s since been taken down, but you can read the Huffington Post reply from the shop owner about neck tattoos and their policies.
Should you read the articles and comment section? There’s things to be learned there for sure, and I think they’re revealing about tattoo norms then and now, and what’s changed in the last seven years. I’m not going to tell you how to feel about them, because you’re grown and sexy and can come to your own conclusions. But one takeaway from Lori Leven’s article is this:
Tattooers do not take their profession lightly and we ask that our clients do the same. Remember! It is a permanent change to your appearance that will alter both your life and experiences.
[Image: hand tattoo by Ciara Havishya @la__tigresse__ ]
I remember seeing and noticing shifts around shop policies in real time. Finger tattoos were becoming hugely popular when I was working at a walk-in shop, and the approach evolved from declining outright, to having a serious talk with the client about the potential consequences of having a tattoo they couldn’t cover, to just doing the tattoo as requested. When I shifted to being appointment-only and my clientele began to be primarily people of color and queer and trans people, I realized pretty quickly it felt like shit and was out of line with my values to tell them what they could and couldn’t do with their bodies. Every artist is allowed to have their boundaries and level of comfort around doing a particular tattoo on a particular person in a particular context, but there’s a difference between handing down a policy (and applying it in biased ways) and having a one-to-one conversation that treats the client as an individual with agency.
[Image: knuckle tattoos by Debbi Snax @snaxink]
My advice to you would be to do some research on artists whose work you like, ask around to friends about who they’ve had good experiences, especially if they’ve gotten hand and finger tattoos. Be critical of both the technical execution and the human interaction- an artist shouldn’t make you feel less than or foolish when asking, even if their answer is ultimately no. You should be able to find someone to do your tattoos and who won’t make you feel like you have to “earn” it through some set of unwritten rules. Good luck!
beautiful post. it's really helpful to read these insights. i appreciate all the attention you pay to the tensions. thank you.