Headlines (literally)

No one’s really in the right here. It’s a shame the internet has to subscribe to such stupidity. But at least it gives me something interesting to write about. It took me awhile to understand this beef. Actually no… It’s still taking me awhile. So the blogospheres are buzzing that Drake has another beef. When the hype should be around Take Care, the recently released studio-album from the hip-hop artist, the “Headlines” rapper has only found headlines exchanging shots with legendary lyricist Common over his recently-released album. Now he’s got Common firing off on a remix of a Rick Ross song he was originally on like it’s the whole thing with Ice Cube all over again. That’s one beef. Here’s the other.

Last week an image of a young woman in Los Angeles surfaced across the internets. The image showed the woman with shaved eyebrows and the word “DRAKE” tattooed in all caps across her forehead. The worst tattoo of all time, you say? Far from it, but it’s still got people buzzing not so much about the crazy woman but the artist that actually agreed to pull a stunt like that. Drake addressed the issue stating that he wants to meet the woman and talk to her. “I want to meet her and understand what happened,” said a flabbergasted Drake. “That’s cool, though. I feel you a 100 percent. That, to me, is like absolutely incredible.” I’m guessing he’ll probably bring her up on stage and sing “Find Your Love.” But his attitude toward the artist is completely different. (insert autotune here) Like Drizzy-stuffin-a-napkin-in-his-shirt-cause-he’s-moooobbiiiiin-liiiiiiiike-thaaaaaat. Sending shots out to the artist, Kevin Campbell, that he’s got a prooooobleeeeeem liiiiiike thaaaaaaat and that he’s gonna make someone around catch a bodyyyyyyy liiiiiike thaaaaaaaaaaat. (stop autotune.)

That’s the only time you’ll ever see me rock the autotune. Ever. Enjoy it while it lasted. Here’s what Drake actually said, ““The guy who tatted is a (expletive) –shole though, I will tell you that. I don’t (expletive) with that guy.(expletive) you to that tat artist by the way. And you should lose your job and should never do tattoos again and I don’t(expletive) with you. And if I ever see you, I’ma (expletive) you up.””

In response the tattoo artist defended his decision, albeit with some regret toward his actions. She was really psyched about it. She had the (expletive) font all picked out on her iPhone ready to go and was pretty adamant about putting it on her forehead. She didn’t say a word about what it meant to her,” Campbell recalled. “…She acted as if she had planned it out for a while; though I’m not really sure how much extended coherent thought could actually go into getting such a stupid tattoo on your forehead.” But in the end it was still his needle doing the handiwork. Unsatisfied with the lack of an apology, Drake kept true to his word and visited Campbell’s tattoo shop. Drake stayed in the car while his main big security dude that rappers with established careers need came through and “sorted out” everything. Afterwhich Kevin Campbell told Vice, “I guess I feel bad that this dumbass got the name of the softest (expletive) in hip-hop tattooed on her forehead. But what makes that any less valid of a tattoo to her? I lost a little sleep over it that first night, wondering if I wanted to be known as the (expletive) who tattooed “DRAKE” on some crackhead’s forehead. None of the face tattoos I had done prior to this got any publicity, so I was a little surprised that this one took off like it did. I’m still kinda debating whether or not I should send you guys the whole set of pictures, I don’t really want to paint the shop in a bad light, but it is what it is. In the end, she paid me to do this to her, which really means she did this to herself.”

She did do this to herself. And Drake isn’t entirely in the right for applauding the woman’s madness, but this is a tattoo blog and while any publicity is good publicity in many cases, this can’t possibly help Mr. Campbell’s artistic reputation. Tattoo artists want to be remembered for awesomeness, works of art that shine on the skin and wave with pride before the world. Mr. Campbell had an opportunity to sit the girl down and talk in depth about alternatives or ways to make the tattoo a little more presentable at least. Yes it’s one thing when someone sits down with the artist and presents an unseeingly concept in a hideous font, but it’s your shop, your needles, and your tattoo equipment doing the job. If you’re going to get remembered and have your art mentioned, would you really want it over that?

A bad tattoo is a bad tattoo. Whether you’re doing a job or not, it’s your shop and it’s your art. Treat it with pride. Anyone can just stab a word in ugly-blocky text in ink across one’s forehead. But you’re a professional artist every piece is representation of your craft and the hard work you put into it to get there. Moves like this, with no effort or respect for the customer to try to do something artistic is just careless. And in the eyes of many in the tattoo industry something like this can bring you down from a master …to a scratcher. (insert autotune here) But that’s just something they know. They know… They know… They know…