SUFFERING IN SLOW SEASON
I think there’s a topic that as tattoo artists, we very rarely ever open up about it and we just accept it for what it is and that is, slow season.
When your studio doesn’t operate as a walk in studio and you specialise in a certain style, this can often lead to slow days, weeks and months which in turn, to outsiders at least, this can be seen as an opportunity to excel in your craft by finding other areas to improve which doesn’t just mean tattooing but maybe finding ways to improve your social media, practicing your drawing, taking masterclasses/mentoring to improve your work…
This all seems so simple to suggest to someone and maybe we should take it in our stride, however, when all you want to do is create artwork which you can look back on day by day, not having someone in can really be a tough hit on your mental health as a self employed tattoo artist.
Of course financially, we tend to spend every month trying to find ways to make money but in reality, our ‘job’ isn’t the same as a normal 9-5, we would love to be fully booked every single day, creating work that we can look back on and be proud of but in 2026, especially in a post pandemic world, we realise now that people don’t have as much money to spend on luxuries like tattooing which is what it is, it after all, is a form of beauty treatment as such.
I think sometimes as artists, we don’t open up enough in the way that we should, people see a social media page full of our work and assume that our jobs seem relatively easy, but we all have our own work stress’ and believe it or not, having someone not in the chair, gets us down - when we get enquiries for our work that get ignored - that gets us down, when we are challenged as to why our rate is our rate - that gets us down because why should we feel like we need to make our work cheaper when we believe what we offer is quality?
In truth, certainly with myself, I am always willing to work within someones budget, but that means that certain things need to be tweaked, whether its the size of a piece that you want or whether its as complicated as you first wanted - these are certain criteria that always needs to be discussed as I would love to tattoo everyone who comes in with myself and money shouldn’t be a barrier to that - that’s just something that needs to be discussed and easily can be when there is an open avenue of conversation between Artist and client.
I suffer in slow season, like many artists and in truth, it does get to me when I’m not able to do my job but only because I love my job so much and as we all know, slow season isn’t forever, its just for now, things always inevitably pick up, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and embrace it all. This post may seem one of moaning and frustration but what it actually is, is an opening up of an artists mindset whilst going through a period of slow season, another peak behind the scenes of what its like for us which you may not see on a daily basis.