links to let them know how you feel...
- Contact the Discovery network through viewer relations and tell them you are against this show.
- Sign a petition at www.ipetitions.com .
- Join the Boycott Tattoo School community on facbook.com
It is the position of the National Tattoo Association, Inc. that, “Tattoo School”, the latest television show about tattooing on The Learning Channel, is a detriment to the profession of tattooing and likely a danger to the general public. This show portrays tattooing as easy to learn and discusses very little about safety or disease prevention. The idea that a tattooer can learn, in two weeks, everything necessary to properly execute a tattoo in a competent and safe manner is absurd.
It is recommended that a minimum of 2 years be spent in an apprenticeship studying the art of tattooing from a professional, licensed, and reputable tattoo artist. It is also important that anyone interested in becoming a tattoo artist be trained in first-aid and CPR, and receives proper training in blood borne pathogens.
The following companies purchased advertising time from TLC and had advertisements that aired during Tattoo School. Let these companies now how you feel about supporting a Show like "Tattoo School".
1. Blackberry
2. Chevrolet
3. Carrabba’s Restaurant
4. Geico Insurance
5. Toyota
6. Orville Redenbachers
7. State Farm Insurance
8. Hefty garbage Bags
9. Sargento Cheese
10. 1-800-CONTACTS
11. Century 21 Real Estate
12. Mederma Stretch Mark Therapy
13. Gerber Baby Food
14. T-Mobile Cellular
15. Blue Buffalo Pet Food Co.
The following letter is from Peggy Sucher, Owner of Tattoo Hawaii and long time member of the National Tattoo Association.
For nearly 30 years my husband and I have been proudly associated with the tattoo world. We have been blessed with good fortune and wonderful friends who share a common passion. Tattooing has been rapidly evolving...some for the good and unfortunately lately much for the not so good. We have seen it turned into pop culture and the wave after wave of opportunists who have hopped aboard the tattoo wagon train saddens those of us who hold it dear.
The latest addition, The Tattoo School, a show on The Learning Channel/Discovery Channel, has sparked a fire that has circled the world. Lately it’s become a constant battle to re-educate the public from what they have ‘learned’ with the other tattoo reality shows….no you can NOT do a sleeve in an hour and no we won’t share with you what needle configuration we are going to use and NO it is not proper technique to eat, drink or cross contaminate in a work area. With this latest program, we very well may be inundated with more TV bred misinformation that this craft is so easy you can learn all the aspects in just two weeks. As one tattooer posted on FaceBook, ‘I didn’t even learn to clean a toilet right in two weeks’.
As tattooers we understand the danger of non-professional or uneducated tattooing…we have watched the wave of HBV/HCV rise to epidemic levels. We’ve seen MRSA, staph, strep and a myriad of other problems become part of our everyday vocabulary. As professionals we strive to educate ourselves and our clients on the proper techniques and proper choices of body art.
For those who have committed our lives to tattooing this is a knife in the heart. Since the public tends to believe what is seen on TV as gospel, how do we take proper action. What should that action be? TV channels are fed by their sponsors and supporters. With the Internet it is easy to find the CEO and Board of Directors for the Discovery Channel http://corporate.discovery.com. A concise letter from each of us stating our positions as professionals, and the damage the possible misinformation of their programming does, not only to our profession, but to the safety and health of the public. If they truly ARE the LEARNING channel should they not be geared to education and not titillation?
They have a moral and ethical obligation to the public to provide accurate information and not simply feed upon the tattoo circus atmosphere they’ve generated. The same with the sponsors of these programs…the money behind it all. It is time to take a stand, a firm stand. To draw the line in the sand and say ‘No More’. It is not a time to sit back and hope ‘someone’ takes care of it. The old adage ‘someone should, anybody could, no one did…’ comes to mind.
Be a part of the solution. Speak up. Speak up with professionalism and passion for the sake of this craft we hold so dear and love with every part of our being.
Peggy Sucher
