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Technology, Tattooing, and How the Fancy Computers are Changing Your Life.

We all lived the Internet hype a few years back, heard about how the Internet was going to change the way business is run and nothing would be the same again. Ebay made the boatloads of cash and investors made zillions. Everybody was yahooing about being a web master and cashing in on investors who all wanted a piece of the action. While most folks spent their IPO cashola not looking far ahead enough to see the bomb, us “real” geeks were plodding along just fine, slowly but surely building upon our successes. Without the millions of dollars to distract us, (and oh my how that kinda’ money could distract us), we have been figuring out how artists can make some cash from the Internet. I had been programming video games for a few years when I found myself jumping into web site programming in barter for tattoos. My previous ventures on the web left me thinking “Words and pictures, so @#$%ing what? Where’s the action?”. But alas, words and pictures are exactly what selling tattoos is all about, and while I thought it may be boring compared to video games, we launched one of the first tattoo web sites in 1995. Much to my surprise, folks actually took the effort to check out the words and pictures we posted. Lots of folks did, and they told us about it when they went to the studio already knowing which artist they wanted work from after driving for a few hours. Without knowing it, we created an online front room, and have been working hard since to make it the best we can. Since then, I’ve kept one foot in the professional freelance programming world working on cutting edge software for big corporate nasties, and one foot smack dab in the middle of this freakshow called the tattoo industry. The same software that helps sell cars and clothes can be used to sell tattoos. Our websites are getting thousands of visitors every day, sometimes more than 10 thousand! (*Quick Geek Hint, never count your traffic in "hits", always count how many "visitors" and how many "pages viewed". "Hits" are a *very* inaccurate way to report traffic, and the numbers are often deceiving.) Without knowing it, I had stumbled into one of the businesses most affected by the rapid advancement of technology. In hindsight, it is obvious the Internet would be vital in connecting tattoo artists with enthusiasts, I mean, people have never had so many portfolios at their fingertips before. Folks don’t have to drive anywhere to look at your pictures anymore, they just hop online, go to yahoo, and type in "Tattoo Pictures" and find hundreds and hundreds of tattoo artists’ work available to them. When they find an artist they like its easy to zap them an email and wammo, an appointment has been made! Other technological advancements have helped push this industry forward. Tattoo Flash can be printed out per order, digital cameras can take photos of your finished work before your customer leaves the studio, get a printout of what your back tattoo will look like before you start the work, postcards and business cards can have all the colors you want for $150, T-Shirts can be made out of digital images, touchscreen kiosks and interactive CD-Roms can bedazzle your potential customers (and their friends), and the list goes on. A few years ago we got ahold of a “3D” camera and took some photos of my half leg sleeve. We were looking at the whole tattoo in 3D on the computer!!! I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how tattoo artists find customers, how customers find tattoo artists, how to keep them coming back, and how to help them refer their friends. Being a geek, I am especially interested in how technology can help this process. Keeping on the cutting edge of this collision of art and business is fantastic, and I’ve been really lucky to work with some amazing talent in amazing times. So, as you may have noticed, this column is titled “Ask the Geek”. If you have any questions/comments about computers, cameras, scanners, tattoos, and how they can all work together please email me at and I may or may not be able to help ‘ya out, but I can give it a shot anyways!