The story behind the Drake forehead tattoo
“You get the tattoo you deserve.” Kevin Campbell, Will Rise Tattoo
The Drake tattoo raises important questions about the rights and wrongs of tattooing, and the tattoo artist – Kevin Campbell – who created the now infamous ‘Drake tattoo’ highlights some of the key issues about consent and informed decisions.
In his interview with Vice magazine he states that people get the tattoos that they deserve. Here’s a snippet from the interview:
Wow. Do you feel sort of bad about it after the fact? My whole deal with people wanting completely outrageous and potentially life ruining tattoos is this: I’ll ask them 3 times if they really think that it’s a good idea, I tell them what the potential consequences of getting a tattoo on their face might be, and after that, the bad decision is on them. I believe that people get the tattoos that they deserve.
Visibly high?
I am not sure I agree with Kevin, and the girl with the Drake tattoo was clearly high when she came into his studio, as Kevin states in his interview with Vice that she was visibly coming down by the end of her experience. (She had also shaved her head and eyebrows in preparation…)
However I do think the quote about getting the tattoo that you deserve is interesting…and I do believe in freedom of expression. I also believe that is important for a tattoo artist to have a big amount of input into the tattoos they create for their customers. At the end of the day, tattoos are art and there is a reason why not everyone can sit behind the needle. When I get tattooed I want the expert advice of an artist and I want something that is going to look as amazing as it can possibly be.
I also hope that no one would ever tattoo me if I was clearly drunk, or my judgement was in any way impaired.
What do you think? Do people really get the tattoos they deserve? And is anyone in contact with the girl with the Drake tattoo? Does she regret it or is she loving life with a forehead tattoo? And I guess we should ask how Drake feels about this, too…
Photos taken from Vice. Full interview here.
I agree with some of it and not others. I do think maybe people get the tattoo they deserve, however I don’t think it’s right for anyone to tattoo someone they know is inebriated! I know they will have signed consent forms so then it’s no longer the tattoo artist’s problem, but it’s just common sense, you could ruin someone’s life with a huge face tattoo because they were drunk when they asked for it.
I just wonder how high she was…and what she thinks about it now…tattoo artists should never tattoo people who are under the influence…
I agree with the thought of the artist shouldn’t go on with a tattoo if the customer is under the influence of any substance. I think that there are limits to everything. It’s like tattoo artists who refuse to do anything Nazi related.
Certain artists will have certain morals or beliefs they stick to, in order to have a certain work ethic. Others will simply by-pass all of that, maybe thinking limits to their work are useless and just going with anything.
However tattoos are a strong form of art and should have some no-nos, and this should have been one of those cases.
I agree…I don’t think that girl should have ever been tattooed.