Wendi: Alright, so I want to talk a little bit about what people's impressions of you are when they see you're tattoos, either strangers or people that actually know you.

 

Rina: Some people it can be negative. Some people are interested and I have no problems with that if people are interested, and the negative feedback I get from it, it's OK. I know that these people were raised differently or they have different beliefs or ideas and I understand where they're coming from but, no, it's hard when people judge you just by face value but it's not my issue it's theirs so I'm OK with that.

 

Pause 1

 

Wendi: Right. Can you talk a little bit about a negative or really positive experience has been since you've had tattoos from other people. Do you have any situations that you can think of?

 

Rina: In general I've people just give me dirty looks and not like talk to me, or I had one gentleman slap my wrist one time when I was trying to get change back. He was being quite angry with me.

 

Wendi: Really, because of your tattoo?

 

Rina: Because of my tattoo on my wrist. I was holding out my hand and he slapped my wrist and it's upsetting that somebody gets that angry over your own personal decisions but it's their issue not mine.

 

Pause 2

 

Wendi: Yeah, what about in, kind of, in the tattoo parlor, like what kind of stuff do people talk about? Like, is it just like getting your hair cut, speaking to the barber, talking about what's going on in your life or?

 

Rina: Pretty much, see, I'm friends with my tattoo artist so we talk about, like, we know the same people and we sometimes hang out with some of the same people so we talk about that but a lot of the times we talk about people that come in wanting stupid things on their bodies.

 

Wendi: Can you tell me a little about what kind of stupid things people have wanted?

 

Rina: Um, there has been people wanting a symbol of a car brand, like the make of a car tattooed on them, or just people's names or just random. A lot of times it's kanji.

 

Wendi: Really?

 

Rina: Yeah. A lot of...

 

Wendi: Chinese characters?

 

Rina: Chinese characters, and some people find that when they do get those Chinese characters, after the fact, it's not initially what they thought it meant.

 

Wendi: Right, so it's communication.

 

Rina: It's really ill-researched and no reason for it unless that's your native country.

 

Pause 3

 

Wendi: Right, can you tell me a little about what-- if you've ever seen a tattoo that you thought was just so well done.

 

Rina: Yeah.

 

Wendi: What was it and describe it?

 

Rina: It was actually a piece on a man and it started from his hip and it was his whole right side of his body, half of his right side and it was flowers and vines and it went around and up to his shoulder and turned into a half-sleeve and it was absolutely beautiful, colorful and just well done. The lines were clean. It was an amazing tattoo.