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From Ink Master to Tattoo Nightmares, a lot of the popular series are a bit misleading.

No matter how hard you’ve tried, it’s virtually impossible to avoid having seen any of the tattoo reality TV shows over the last handful of years. Thankfully, they seem to be dying out a bit these days, but there’s still a constant stream of Ink Master commercials and previews of upcoming shows all over the cable networks.

While it’s generally viewed as a positive that shows like LA Ink and Tattoo Nightmares helped to bring tattooing into the mainstream, a lot of artists have very mixed feelings about the shows as a whole. As with any other form of “reality” TV, not everything is as it seems on the various tattoo programs. 

Here are just a handful of the lessons we’ve learned from the folks who have actually spent months (or years) filming TV shows in tattoo shops.

 

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Everything is Always About Ratings

Believe it or not, the corporate bigwigs behind most TV stations are more concerned with their bottom line than accurately representing the people who are on their shows. Since TV stations’ income is largely based on ratings and ratings are largely based on drama and entertainment, that often means adding in drama wherever they can. Whether it means keeping an awful tattooer around in a competition show or sparking a fake feud between a couple tattooers at a shop, producers will absolutely sacrifice the integrity of tattooing to get a few more people to watch.

  

 

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Tattoo Artists’ Lives Aren’t Nearly as Exciting as Shows Make Them Look

While many shows will have you believe that tattooing is all about partying and bumping elbows with rock stars, that’s not the case for the vast majority of artists. Most tattooers spend the bulk of their day drawing, painting or tattooing and have very common hobbies (like watching Netflix) in their off time. Even if it seems like a super cool job, it’s still a job that artists take very seriously, and a tattooer who’s always stumbling into the shop drunk or hungover isn’t going to last very long in the industry.

 

 

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Having a Production Crew There Can Really Throw Off Timing

TV shows make tattooing look so quick and easy, when really they can make the art form the exact opposite. For the most part, tattooers generally get to know themselves well enough that they know how to mentally and physically prepare themselves for a tattoo. Some prefer to draw the design well in advance while others sketch it up the day of. Some start tattooing at noon while others prefer the night shift. When there’s a TV crew in your shop, you’re all running on their schedule. If you’re motivated to do a tattoo you have lined up for 2 p.m., you may still end up waiting (along with your client) for several hours before you actually get to do it. After all, there needs to be a cameraman, lighting crew, and everything else there to capture it all for the program. Even once the crew becomes friends with the artists (which generally happens over the course of a season), the timing and extended days can make some tattooers dread going into the shop during filming.

  

 

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Artists Don’t Always Get Much Say in What They Do

Almost regardless of the show, there are certain times that producers will force a tattooer’s hand in either what they tattoo, who they tattoo, or where/how they tattoo it. Not every Ink Master competition is quite as open as it seems, and not every client that comes into some of the shop-based shows is really an honest client just looking for a tattoo. To make for better television, networks have been known to go find “interesting” people for show artists to tattoo and occasionally sway them into getting a tattoo that even the people watching at home know they’ll likely regret within a week.

 

 

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TV Show Tattoos Don’t Always Heal Well (& the Network Will Never Show You)

It turns out that the hours spent having your new ink spotlighted, wiped, and photographed can actually lead to some less than perfectly healed tattoos. Factor in some of the questionable work that goes on during certain shows and the fact that many tattoos (like cover-ups) won’t heal exactly as they were done, and you end up with a lot of shoddy tattoos in the months and years after people got them on air. At least they were free (in some cases), right?

  

 

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Some Shows Are More Scripted Than Others

Although it’s not nearly as devastating as learning that much of Pimp My Ride was a sham, it turns out that the witty banter between tattooers and their clients (or other tattooers) is written for them in many shows. Hell, some shows even give clients a fake story to run with as background for a tattoo.

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