5 main reasons a tattoo artist suffers
Ignorance.
You believe your talent matters more than hard work.
Your "genius" – you wake up, and the muse is already sitting next to you, waving – hey, let's create. You wait for inspiration like rain in the desert, and if it’s not there – you sit around, whine, blame everything and everyone.
Your ignorance lies in not seeing that tattooing doesn’t exist without craft. The best tattoos in this world weren’t made in mythical moments of insight, but through monotonous, daily, exhausting work – yeah, believe it or not… even on Monday morning, even with a bad back, a headache – they are planned, they have boundaries, and often a deadline. A tattoo artist doesn’t wait for some "inspiration" – they tattoo for years, until their spine gives out.
The cause of your suffering is the naive belief that "you’re way too fucking cool for boring work."
Result – 55 beautiful sketches and 0 finished tattoos.
Realize you’re not a genius, but rather a craftsman – and that’s okay.
Egoism.
My tattoos are me.
You identify every single piece with your personality. So any criticism of the tattoo = criticism of the depths of your soul. A bad review from some tattoo blogger, a breakdown by some legend, mother, or king of tattoos, the owner of some shit-page from the bottom of the internet – nothing less than an existential threat, a real attack on your existence.
You’re completely unable to admit a bad tattoo, because "it was the skin, or the phase of the moon, it came from the heart, you just don’t get it." You don’t acknowledge other artists’ influence on your unique little style, because "you’re one of a kind." You drag your swollen, itchy ego to endless tattoo conventions, trying to earn approval and respect – you drag it like a heavy cross, and you suffer, literally from every random or deliberate "I don’t like it," "this is shit," in the comments or discussions.