So I was in a really weird situation at work this evening, and I’m wondering if I could’ve handled it differently.
I had a younger couple come in to get a tattoo (I’m a tattoo artist).
The lady wanted a tattoo done, and she explained to me that she recently had an abortion but regretted it deeply and wanted to get a tattoo of the baby she would’ve had.
Her and her husband both were there together, and asked me if I would look at them and figure out what the baby would’ve looked like, and draw it up as a design for them. She wanted the tattoo right in the centre of her stomach as an ‘apology’ to it she said.
Something about this made me quite uncomfortable, so I asked her if she thought this was the best thing to do. She begun to get upset, so i did the practice sketch anyway.
As I was doing it, they were telling me how they were so excited and thankful and how they were going to post it on their social media to spread awareness on the abortion issue and the parent’s affected mental health or something.
As a fairly new tattoo artist, I didn’t really want to be tagged on social media and have my name joined to something as controversial as this, because you know, people can think certain things about this issue and form judgments and stuff, which could affect me and my job negatively.
I asked them if they could not mention my name or business online, and they got quite hostile, and started saying things like “oh what? You think it’ll bring shame to you will it”
I tried to explain that it wasn’t about me personally but they didn’t listen. I felt kind of bad and worried I was being insensitive so I gave them the sketch I had done and told them they could come in again if they change their mind. (It was so uncomfortable so I hope they don’t though!) The lady just said something about writing a bad google review and they stormed out.
Did I do the wrong thing? What would you have done to handle this situation differently?
I had a younger couple come in to get a tattoo (I’m a tattoo artist).
The lady wanted a tattoo done, and she explained to me that she recently had an abortion but regretted it deeply and wanted to get a tattoo of the baby she would’ve had.
Her and her husband both were there together, and asked me if I would look at them and figure out what the baby would’ve looked like, and draw it up as a design for them. She wanted the tattoo right in the centre of her stomach as an ‘apology’ to it she said.
Something about this made me quite uncomfortable, so I asked her if she thought this was the best thing to do. She begun to get upset, so i did the practice sketch anyway.
As I was doing it, they were telling me how they were so excited and thankful and how they were going to post it on their social media to spread awareness on the abortion issue and the parent’s affected mental health or something.
As a fairly new tattoo artist, I didn’t really want to be tagged on social media and have my name joined to something as controversial as this, because you know, people can think certain things about this issue and form judgments and stuff, which could affect me and my job negatively.
I asked them if they could not mention my name or business online, and they got quite hostile, and started saying things like “oh what? You think it’ll bring shame to you will it”
I tried to explain that it wasn’t about me personally but they didn’t listen. I felt kind of bad and worried I was being insensitive so I gave them the sketch I had done and told them they could come in again if they change their mind. (It was so uncomfortable so I hope they don’t though!) The lady just said something about writing a bad google review and they stormed out.
Did I do the wrong thing? What would you have done to handle this situation differently?
