Personal Ethnography Paper

When I was first told about the field research paper I was unsure what I was going to do. At the time, when I was assigned this project my roommate and I had been talking about getting tattoos. She and I had been visiting different tattoo parlors trying to figure out where to go. This is what help me to decide to observe tattoos. I was not sure what I was getting myself into when I decided I would focus my ethnography on tattoos. I had a basic understanding of what tattoos were, but I did not know much else. I was scared that even though the artists had given me permission to come and observe, the client would not be comfortable. If the clients were not comfortable, the staff would not allow me to be there. In the end, everyone, artists, and …show more content…
The first type of relationship I noticed was client to client. This relationship was only surface level, at best. There are few words exchanged and the conversation never extended much past, “how are you?” And, “what are you getting tattooed?” These conversations were hardest to keep going for many reasons: One of them is that the clients were generally complete strangers. Another reason is they also wanted to respect each other’s privacy. Getting a tattoo is a fairly intimate process because there is a person you barely know, touching you and putting a needle in your skin. As one can imagine it can be hard to strike up a conversation in these circumstances with a …show more content…
On the day of the tattoo, the artist’s biggest concern is the comfort of the client. The artist wants to make sure that the client is still happy with the piece. Then they want to make sure that the client is comfortable with the placement of the piece and that they are ready to have a permanent alteration. The artist will do a simple outline of the tattoo on the client’s body to make sure the angle and the centering are what the client wants. Finally, throughout the tattooing the artist will continually check the client is okay with how he/she is sitting, that they don’t need to use the bathroom, etc. This is to ensure that the client stays relaxed and the process is as painless as possible. On one of my last few days observing, I had conducted and interview with a woman who had a few tattoos already. When asking her how her experience went this time as compared to other times, she had nothing but remarkable things to say: “My experience at No Coast, was great. The artist I was very friendly and really listened to what I had to say. I never felt as if they had taken offense to what I asked for, and they never made me feel as if I was unwelcome. If I ever get another tattoo, I will come back