It’s not at all unusual or strange for people to walk into Lighthouse Tattoo, stick a cell phone in our face and ask us ‘how much for this?’. It often helps things move along really quickly and efficiently. People know what they want and can show us without being vague because of internet technology.

However.

Also due to internet technology people are being exposed to pretty advanced forms of body modification without taking the steps to educate themselves on the unintended consequences of pursuing such extreme artforms. It makes for a slippery slope of inexperienced tattoo and piercing collectors skipping very important educational and experiential steps and finding themselves in the realm of extreme body mod with no one to help them avoid some major pitfalls.

No one except us, that is.

Lighthouse Tattoo has strict policies against performing tattoos or piercings on individuals who either do not understand or do not care that they could be unduly harming themselves through the process. Prohibited practices include: Hand, neck, and face tattoos on people who haven’t weathered the crucible of experience with regard to tattoo and public perception (people who are convicted felons and the independently wealthy are excluded from this group, as making a dicey tattoo choice is less likely to negatively affect them); Smiley piercings or any other piercing deemed unsafe by the Association of Professional Piercers; sexually suggestive piercings on minors (no genital or nipple piercing under 18; no tongue piercing under 16); finger tattoos are included in this, especially delicate or intricate work on fingers or pieces that are too small to hold up well over time. We also won’t do any ‘hate’ tattoos or gang affiliation tattoos, including confederate battle flags or racial pride tattoos of any kind.

We don’t do these things for good reason and you would be well served to listen to us, we’re professionals, after all.

If, in your infinite wisdom, you should decide not to listen to our more than 50 years of combined, award-winning tattoo experience, well, please don’t come into our shop. We won’t get along at all.

We ask two questions of ourselves before tattooing anyone: does this person know what they’re asking us for? and will it cause them undue harm? The first question is because some people approaching with ideas without fully understanding the symbolism being used, something that can result in a very unintended message being displayed, a real nightmare scenario. The second question is more nuanced. The idea being that getting your first tattoo will almost certainly create some sort of negative reactive somewhere in your life by some ignorant asshole or another. Most of us know that however, and we have all agreed not to let those people have power over our lives. The trouble comes when people take this too far, or too far too quickly and set themselves up for a level of difficulty that we at Lighthouse Tattoo don’t feel comfortable participating in.

Like the 19 year old girl who want her first tattoo to be a lotus flower ON HER FACE. No joke.

Or every burgeoning Soundcloud rapper who thinks they have to have face tattoos to ‘hit it big’.

Or anyone, no matter the age, who doesn’t understand that you can cause yourself a lot of harm by claiming so much ‘ownership’ over yourself that you completely disregard social mores and end up almost entirely unemployable.

Uh-uh, not gon’ do it.

We’re not judging you, we just understand that some people definitely will. We also understand that without a certain amount of experience navigating life with a significant amount of tattoo coverage you can’t possibly understand what it’s like. Talk about cultural appropriation!

Tattoos are awesome. We love them too. While they can hurt, they shouldn’t harm. We feel that tattoo regret is the single largest problem facing this lifestyle today and we don’t want to contribute to the problem. If you can’t understand this or don’t care how we feel, please go somewhere else.

If you understand what’s being said in this post and can appreciate that we won’t tattoo something on you unless it’s appropriate and won’t cause you harm, we welcome you into our growing family. Here’s to seeing you soon!