It is a common assumption that people with tattoos are either hippies, jobless or criminals.
Back when I didn't have any tattoos yet, I didn't consider tattooing as an art form, I just thought people are just copy pasting someone else's design (for example google images).
I didn't realize that one day I'd like to be a tattooist, specifically a custom tattooist. It just happened. Friends and people who care had led me to that page in which the only productive choice that seemingly fit me is to be a tattoo artist. As I entered the scene, I already knew that there'd be battles of discrimination and false judgment.
But one thing for sure: I wont let them see my work as something disgusting. I believe I dedicated as much effort as needed into creating every piece as clean and refined and aesthetically pleasing as possible.
I am proud to say : "You don't usually see these kind of aesthetic tattoos in prison."
My regular clients are more than just hippies and freeloaders (heck, they pay every thousand peso to get their pieces done).
They are fulltime moms, teachers, health practitioners, engineers, architects, business owners, frontliners, law enforcers, flight attendants, OFWs, chefs, musicians,
artists of different disciplines etc.; they are both the young and the old, the shy and the proud, the discreet and the loud, the lonely and the dreamer, the broken and the loved.