The Future is NOW!

Welcome to our world. The future is at hand.

What is the future of tattooing? Techniques are at an all time artistic high and are jumping leaps and bounds every day. There is a patent out there right now for a computerized tattoo "robot" that has been tested and used. The electronic beast has been allowed to mark the skin. Soon we tattoo artists will be replaced by the robots. Make your mark NOW so you can sell your style "program" to be translated into 1's and 0's by the electronic brain. Soon we can go to the mall, throw our arm in side a machine and dial up a Paul Booth, 2003 style piece or a Guy Aitchison 1996 piece or a Tony D' Anessa, 1959 piece. I'll be damned if there's a Rev. Wells program in there. I'll start making my money stealing those infernal beasts and selling them as scrap. It is coming. Be prepared. Did we ever think, sitting around a smokey tattoo shop back in the day that we'd be where we are now? Does anybody remember those old places? There are still a few around. Left over and still kicking ass from the days of walk in, pick it off the wall, hop in the chair and go. Some of the younger guys do it out of love for the old styles and the boldness and simplicity of the art, some of the old guys are still there doing it because it's just what they do and they do it fucking well.

With all the attention on tattooing, thanks to multiple reality TV shows and a glut of products and publications being delivered for mass consumption to a larger and larger audience, tattooing has become big business. Mario Barth was just on the cover of "inc." magazine. No, not "INK"... "Inc.". Tattoo shops and studios are, for the most part, still a small business affair, owned by their artists and operated as they always have been but more and more we're seeing non-artist owned shops popping up in tourist areas, malls and casinos. Computer kiosks have replaced tattered old folders and binders and racks of flash. Tattooing's not just for the rugged individual types anymore. Sure, Doctors and lawyers and yes, even Soccer Mom's have always gotten tattooed but not in the numbers they do today. Susie Stockbroker can now bring her 18 year old glee club daughter and her 19 year old fashion forward, faux-hawked son to the local tattoo salon for a tattoo like the one they saw last night on TV or the computer. They bring their designs on "thumb drives" and cell phones and those little personal assistant do-dads that look like a baby computer. They "text" their friends a digital photo of the design after it has been stenciled onto their bodies to get an immediate opinion from their pals and instead of starting small, most folks go big the first time nowadays. Mom wants a backpiece. Asian flavored, bonsai tree from hip to opposite shoulder, Sonny Boy gets his sleeves started. He draws his inspiration from his all time favorite emo band's newest CD. Actually it's their only CD and he doesn't own a physical copy of it but he loves it and he's got the video on his cell phone to prove it and sweet young Glee Club Gertrude gets stars all over her feet and her hip bones and her ribs and, hey, why not, let's throw one, just a little one, right next to her left eye. They are wearing T-shirts emblazoned with classic tattoo imagery of bygone eras, encrusted with sparkles and bling, but distressed for that "lived in" look. How much did that torn up t-shirt cost? Enough to feed a family of four for a week or more. Mom's purse cost twice that much and Daughter's belt did too. It's made out of vinyl so it's vegan. And they say we're in a recession...

The tattoo artist takes a break to make a deal with some large corporation to design "skins" for some sort of digital device they're trying to market to kids like Sonny and Gertrude and it's all tied in to some new energy drink/malt liquor hybrid that'll just knock your socks off. It already tastes like puke so you'll be used to it when it comes back out your nose at thirteen o'clock in the morning. The shop blares music through a sound system the size of a loaf of Wonder Bread powered by a machine smaller than a pack of smokes that's crammed full of 3,000 CD's worth of music that no one payed for. Who could pay for music when their tattoo inspired sneakers cost as much as a used car?

There is nothing wrong with progress. I love progress. I am sitting in my private, appointment only studio right now with my MacBook Pro cracked open typing this piece while music pours out of my studio's Mac G5 tower's Harmon Kardon speakers that look like spaceships or futuristic dildos more than they look like speakers. Of course, I'm old school... I'm listening to Hank Williams, and KISS and Danzig and The Monkees. My cell phone sits here next to me. I don't wear a wrist watch anymore because the cell's got the time thing covered. I'm an entrepreneur now with a tattoo studio, t-shirt company, publishing company and record label and I don't have time to breathe so I use pre-mixed inks and pre-made needles and I use a scanner and mouse and digital camera to design my tattoos just as often as I use a pencil and paper. I use online social networking sites like Myspace to meet clients and do preliminary consultations instead of the strip clubs and blues bars my mentor used. I met my apprentice on Myspace but he cleans my toilet just like I did during my initiation into the tattoo world. Hopefully, some things will never change. Welcome to the future. Hey, where are the fucking hover cars!?

Rev. Dr. Chad Wells
http://www.wellstattoo.com