Piercing/tattoo equipment for Christmas?

[Cordyceps]

My daughter (who will be 16 a week before Christmas) loves drawing and is what her peer group today calls "goth" (quite different than the goths of my youth - a lot sexier, for one, and a lot less interested in music for two - but that's neither here nor there 😹). She is OBSESSED with piercings and tattoos. She has a couple of different ear piercings and a small nose piercing but no tattoos and will not be getting my permission to get any more piercings or any tattoos until she's 18 and I don't get a say anymore.

For Christmas and her birthday, she is desperate for a (real) tattoo gun and piercing needles/jewelry, along with a set of fake silicon skin and silicon ears/lips/noses/etc. to practice on. She is convinced that she wants a career as a tattoo and piercing artist and her argument is that if she wanted to be a chef or a painter or a seamstress I would have no problem buying her cooking equipment/painting tools/sewing machine etc. (absolutely true) and that this isn't any different.

I am confident she wouldn't actually use any of these things on herself or her friends (she is strangely quite conservative and rule-following in spite of her aesthetic interests). But what I can't say to her is that I am absolutely horrified by the idea of her covering herself with the same tattoos that so many people have all over their arms, chests, and even necks, hands, and faces- which is exactly the aesthetic she loves and what she would be doing in five minutes if I let her. I've also looked into it and "tattoo artist" isn't the lucrative career she thinks it is, unless you are extremely artistically talented alongside great business acumen. I love her more than my life but she is neither of these things.

I absolutely DON'T want to encourage this and I just pray that it will be unfashionable by the time she is 18, or that she'll grow out of it, or both- but will I just make her want it more if I refuse to let her have the "practice" equipment?

In fact having just googled it might not be the best book - it's the one my DP recommends to wannabe apprentices and is very full on:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Primitives_(book)

So now I feel a bit bad for throwing it out in my enthusiasm to be helpful -

I remember this ad from a few years ago going viral - you couldn’t apply for the role without filling in the QR code so very carefully the computer would read it - see if she could do that?

www.springwise.com/ad-calling-skilled-tattoo-artists-requires-accurately-shade-qr-code/

YANBU to not buy her the equipment. It sounds a bit gimmicky and like she’d be trying to run before she could walk.

YWBU to try to ‘shake it out of her’ because it’s not something you approve of, but it sounds like you already know that and you’re being a lovely parent trying to support her hobby while also gently helping her to be realistic about it.

I was going to suggest the same as others. Books, art supplies, maybe even those temporary tattoo kits where you can draw your own designs. She can learn more about the actual artistic side of tattoo artistry before she gets carried away experimenting with needles!

Don't really like how you're praying on her downfall just because it's not a career path you would personally choose. That said if she is serious then she needs to learn how to draw traditionally as well as digitally. Either buy her a sketch book with supplies or an iPad with an apple pencil so she can practise on Procreate.

Fuck sake, no you can't give her that stuff!!

Absolute insanity. Of course a teenager will try to tattoo themselves or a mate. At least if she does an apprenticeship, she'll be under supervision when she does it! 😂

Totally agree with encouraging her art work and getting her speaking to tattoo artists. The quality of her art will dictate the kind of work she can do. A good friend of mine has his own studio, and he studied at Falmouth College of Art, does lots of life drawings in his down time, works at it everyday despite being in the trade for over 20yrs. His work is incredible.

Scratchers are the shite ones who leave you with scarred skin and grotty quality tattoos.

Not quite a tattoo gun, but what about this kit:
inkbox.com/freehand-tattoo-marker?selected=27
It has a tattoo 'pen' that you can use to create freehand temporary 'tattoos' plus tracing pen and papers etc.

I can't stand the whole tattoo and piercing culture. The amount of people that utterly ruin themselves with this nonsense astounds me.
What I do know though is a good tattooist easily commands £60/hour and upso you can definitely make a reasonable living if talented enough.

She'll need to be competent at a variety of styles and techniques, the basis of which can be learned using pens, pencils, pastel pencils, paints, on a variety of surfaces.

She'll also need to be good at interpreting peoples ideas, some folk will be very easy to work with having solid ideas that 'work' already, and some folk will be an UTTER nightmare.

As a start up tattooist she'd not be able to pick and choose her clients much, nor would she have people come to her purely for her own style so the above is pretty non-negotiable!

So I'd get her a variety of art materials, sign her up to some courses, I love Aaron Blaises Creature Art Teacher site, TONS of courses, membership for a year gives you access to all there is currently plus any new ones brought out in that years membership.

Whilst Aaron is known as an animator (disney), his courses cover a variety of styles (fine art, cartoon, animation, watercolour, pen and ink, oils, charcoal), media, techniques, digital, traditional, movement, anatomy and fantasy character creation - a year of doing all the courses on the site would give her a VERY thorough foundation for whatever she might want to do later on.

I am sure there are other people producing similar content its just that Aarons is the one I use. He has free live sessions on Fridays on youtube and facebook which cover a different topic each week.

Also if she's sensible enough not to tattoo herself or mates....why does she need the gear then ?

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

Also if she's sensible enough not to tattoo herself or mates....why does she need the gear then ?

To practice on the silicon face features and the silicon skin mats? As mentioned in my second paragraph? You can google "piercing practice set" or "tattoo practice skin" and similar to see what I meant if that helps.

So sorry, I skim read. It does help ,thank you

It's not the same but would she be interested in an airspray tattoo kit? I used to do them with stencils as part of a job but body artists can produce amazing artwork. She can explore her artistic side as much as she likes, they look fairly real and last for about a week with daily showers, or you can just wipe them off with surgical spirit.

Maybe buy her the equipment to design tattoos Pencil and paper then.

OP do NOT buy a just turned 16yr old tattoo equipment. It's illegal for under 18s to have a tattoo, it she bows to peer pressure and tattoos her mates once they find out she has the equipment you could get in serious trouble for supplying it.

@RubaiyatOfAnyone

You haven’t mentioned her artistic ability. Is she brilliant? I believe that good tattooists are great artists first, and proficiency using the equipment is a very very far second. No one is a “great piercer” that makes ££££, it’s just a minor part of other jobs usually.

She needs to spend her time drawing for her portfolio, or she won’t have anything that makes studios take her on or clients come to her. Does she understand that?

I would beg to differ. Myself amongst many other piercers make a very good living.

Piercers vary in skill level and some of us are definitely making ££££ without it being a side job. There's a lot more to it than just stabbing someone in the ear!

Book wise in regards to piercing you could purchase The Piercing Bible (it will have mention of genital piercings)

Also running the gauntlet, or the tattooed millionaire.

I'd encourage her to concentrate on one field, you can be a great piercer or great tattoo artist, very rarely outstanding at both.

It's a lifestyle and takes over your life and to be good you have to be dedicated!

If tattooing she needs to work on her artwork.
Piercings, some books on anatomy would be good, or maybe a jewellery making course?

'Oh, I would only practise on them' becomes 'Oh, the noise when my 14 and 15 year old friends came round? I was just showing them how the equipment works' and then there's eventually within six months at least one enraged parent calling because she's having Scratcher Parties after school and the school DSL wants you to know that a number of girls who have acquired additional ear or nose piercings have said your DD did it for them.

Even though the law says not before 18, a significant number of artists, including some very well respected ones, will say that they started up and did their first tattoos 'on themselves' aged 16. And piercing is even more risky IMO, as it's going deeper into areas that often have very close blood supplies. I've got tattoos and piercings, so I'm not against them on principle - it is just that teenagers should not have access to such equipment until they are old enough to be trained to use it safely.