Tattoos Drawing More Attention
By: Lou Wilin - The Courier - Monday August 2, 1999
While some shops have only ready-to-go designs or “flash,” others are willing to meet with a customer to help work up an original design. Aspiring to acceptances from the mainstream art world, tattooists in those shops distance themselves from those that offer only flash.
“I consider myself an artist rather than a tattooist,” Ken Chorba, owner-operator of Concepts by Chorba Tattoo Studio, 3065 S. Main St., said.
“I’ve got nothing but 14 years of original artwork,” Chorba said, pointing to stacks of thick photo albums on a table. Chorba said he lets customers look through scrapbooks of his tattoo work. He sketches out ideas for them on paper, too. Customers may meet with him a couple of times before the tattooing begins.
“I try to push the choice,” Chorba said, “The more you think about something, the better it gets.”
But not all tattoo shops encourage people to think about tattoo designs, he said. They just try to push customers into quick choices to make money fast. Chorba warns that people should be careful in selecting not only a tattoo but the tattooist himself. Conway agrees. “It’s a big step. You want to get to know the person, he said. “It’s going to be with you the rest of your life.”