Smooth Seas Never Made for a Skilled Sailor

Tattooing along the Oregon Coastal Highway 101: What to expect, how to behave and why fishermen have the highest professional death rate.

The Captain's Quarters of the NOAA Ship Rainier, Newport Oregon

Are you a tattoo artist? Do you enjoy traveling for guest spots? Do you get excited when a client asks for nautical designs, like ships, mermaids and sea monsters? Here are some things you should know about coastal towns and what to expect from small tourist based populations.

Most common mistake: When you visit, work or live in a small town, you can't get away with being an asshole. There is no such thing as anonymity. Everyone is accountable for their actions, both good and bad.

Just like in larger cities, coastal towns have a lot of foot traffic particularly in the heat of summer. Many travelers are pushed out of the cities by the harsh triple digit weather and the occasional fires that pollute the air for days at a time. This is when coastal towns get hit the hardest. Any little coastal town with a population of less than 10,000 is going to be largely customer service industry locals. Then you take a tiny coastal town, like Newport Oregon, an hour or two from any nearest airport, and you have an even more condensed favoritism of locals.

This may seem trivial at first glance, but after having lived and worked in such a town, it has become extremely apparent to me that traveling artists make the mistake of targeting the tourists and underestimating the local population. These small towns are like tight knit villages. Being that vacation rentals and customer service are the higher industry for these types of places, locals are often overlooked, taken for granted and forced to deal with the rude, "I'm on vacation so I can act like an asshole" behavior that many folks naturally fall into when they are playing in someone else's zip code. I have seem it time and time again. This is why everyone should be forced to wait tables at some point in their life. It teaches humility and kindness which are good qualities no matter what kind of human being you can hope to become.

Budget like a Squirrel Protects their Nuts

One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make is falling in love with a beautiful piece of real estate and creating too high of an overhead. Aim smart and move your way up after a few years to a spot you know with certainty you can sure you can survive. The locals often wait a year or two before they even start work with you because they want to know you'll stick around. The first shop I opened was right on Highway 101. This made me highly visible, like a billboard. I remained there the first two years in the heart of old town, paying my dues and doing clean work before I upgraded to a beautiful vintage shop overlooking the ocean.

Set aside a quarter if not a third of your summer income JUST for winter. Your slow seasons are going to be the same as most other cities, Christmas through Spring break. That's a solid few months of just getting by, so don't piss away your summer income. That being said though, summers are packed and you'll be tattooing nonstop. If you're like me, you'll be balls deep in workaholic mode before you realize that your opportunity to get out and enjoy the sunshine as already passed. Take a day off each week to get out and enjoy nature! Isn't that why we dream of moving to the coast anyways?

Coastal Clientele

Lets also consider the spectrum of the industries. Coming to work the busy season is obviously going to be competitive, but if you decide you want to live on the coast and survive winter, you will earn your place among the locals with time and loyalty. Everyone wants to live on the ocean. It is a collective dream that tourists preach every year as they pass through.

But for those who mean it, who pack up their whole lives and risk investing in their dream, 50% professionally will not survive the first winter. Of those left, 50% won't survive their second winter. This goes for any field, not just tattooists, but it can be done though! If you do it right. This is where I want to help you.

Any coastal town that has a port will have professional fishermen. Fishing is one of the predominant industries of any coast. Depending on what sea you are at will determine the dangers of such a profession. Once you pass California and you get up into Oregon, Washington and Alaska, and you're still a fisherman or a surfer, you are officially a badass! Not only is the death rate the highest in these parts of the North Pacific Ocean, but the amount of physical labor and sacrifice is unlike any other. Loggers have a high death rate as well, but only second to fishing.

Just like the larger cities, bartenders are arguably your best networkers. This is possibly even more true in small towns. Typically, you'll have a handful of bars that stay open past dusk. For those who do not have children or a strictly sober lifestyle, these folks are among the highest visible clientele that not only know the local tribe, but regularly offer suggestions to the tourists on where to eat, sleep and what to do for entertainment. Consider them your coworkers. You will find the money trail works both ways.

You won't see these fishermen as much as the rest of the locals who serve and cook your food because fishing is seasonal and depending on what they are hunting, they will be out at sea for weeks if not months on end. But you will know when a fisherman walks into the tattoo shop because of their tough skin, salty appearance and their extensive paycheck they earned being out at sea for so long. These guys sit like champs and get the more authentic nautical pieces, much like sailors do! So treat them special because in our world, they are. We wouldn't survive winter without one another.

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