Advice Needed: I’m falling out of love with tattoo artists and the industry, help?

Hi Reddit,

Throwaway for privacy. So for some context, I am young woman and live in a city. There’s plenty of shops in the city. I’ve been tattooing for about 3 yrs, apprenticed for closer to 2 yrs, and moved shops once but came back to the one I started at. Before this I worked the reception position in a tattoo shop for almost 2 years.

I am sure people I know/work with in real life will see this, but I have to get it out. I would like to know if maybe other artists feel the same or am I just being a sad sack of shit.

Am I the only one who has completely fallen out of love with EVERYTHING tattooing?

I can’t stand new flash, I can’t stand new tattoos, I can’t stand new posts, new styles, posting on social media, tattoo reels, conventions, and everyone’s brown nosing tendencies. I don’t mind the clients honestly, sure I can get frustrated when things don’t go right, but they save me from quitting/pulling back 99% of the time. I even cringe when people ask what my job is out in the real world, because saying tattoo artist seems like one of the lamest things to claim right now.

I don’t know if it’s just me but 90% of the tattoo artists I meet in my city or from other cities are either full of their own ego, brown nosing every person above them, or a money hungry person who chases every scummy dollar like they are going broke tomorrow (maybe they are, but to promote scummy business practices?). Not to mention the amount of cheating on one another is insane. I’m sure this comes across very nihilistic but it’s getting to a point where I can’t even talk to another tattoo artist without immediately being bored from the conversation. Don’t even get me started on the gatekeeping people who won’t even look up when you try to introduce yourself. Or watching other shop owners brown nose other shop owners so much it makes me sick. It’s some weird chess game between “big” shop owners and it creeps me out. I don’t know, I feel alone in this industry feeling this way.

This isn’t coming from a place of me being better than anyone, trust me I am not a number one at anything in my industry and that’s ok, but meeting peers or networking has become a loathing experience. Maybe it’s not even just this industry but every industry. Maybe I shouldn’t have met my hero’s so many years ago and maybe I wouldn’t be so disappointed in how I feel now. I loathe this industry down to my bones. Everyone I looked up to 3-5 years ago is just a loser now, and probably always was.

I think I just need to keep my head down and work on my art.

Anyways, thanks if you read all of that. I probably won’t come back to check the response but I appreciate anyone who took the time to read through my post. Hopefully I’m not alone.