Memorable moments captured forever in tattoos
A love of certain musicians or bands seems to drive many impulsive tattoo requests. FY Ink owner Lee Baxter says many clients want to ink musical artists’ autographs.
While some tattoo parlours have their own code of ethics, Baxter’s isn’t as strict.
He calls himself “more of a businessman” who believes that a parlour “should offer from A to Z tattooing” while focusing on hygiene and quality work.
But he takes a harder line with younger clients who have lofty ideas, especially those under the required age of 18, even if they’re with their consenting parents. Baxter once turned away a 17- year- old girl who went in with her mother asking for lyrics from a Nine Inch Nails song to be tattooed from her wrist to her armpit.
“If someone comes in and they say ‘ Go Jays go’ and they want to put it on their forehead, well I’m probably going to tell them it’s a real bad idea and we don’t really want to have anything to do with it,” says Baxter.
But if they’re persistent about it, he won’t refuse.
“I’d rather make sure that person gets it done somewhere that’s really safe and clean and I know we’re notable for that, so why not?” he says.
McLaine thinks the trend is partly a result of tattoos becoming so ubiquitous, resulting in a mentality of “everybody has a tattoo, so why shouldn’t I get one?” he says.
“The second part, a disturbing trend is this undercurrent of ... ‘ Well, why shouldn’t I get a tattoo, because I can always get it removed.’ While that’s true, ( removal is) a time- consuming, painful, expensive process.”
The cost of full tattoo removal at McLaine’s clinic depends on the size of the work. McLaine says at the low end, it’s about $ 1,700 — removal takes about four to eight treatments.
Of course, Bevins, who met with the Jays, isn’t concerned with that right now.
“I started showing Bautista the tattoo and ( the other Jays) all just kind of kept calling each other over until pretty much the whole team was surrounding me.”