Can AI Be Your Studio Sidekick?

I want to be your friend.

I like technology.  I like being familiar with innovative ways we can simplify our processes or make certain regular annoyances but trivial tasks to be automated away.  I think the tattooing industry is in desperate need of modernization (based on my own observations; I don’t believe this is everyone’s experience!).  I started my first web development job in 1999 and left the industry to pursue my tattoo apprenticeship full-time in October 2017.  I was able to experience and investigate a lot of really interesting developments in the tech sector over that nearly two-decade run, and where I can, I do try to bring over efficiencies from my former life into my new one (I will never stop trying to get my tattoo artist friends to see the value in a well designed client management process employing CRM software and message automation).

One thing I did see a lot of in my time working professionally in tech was the concept of ‘solutionism’ (coined by the exceptional Evgeny Morozov): this notion of a solution in need of a problem.  Tech companies put tools, networks, apps, etc. out there and hope that we agree those solutions will fix what ails us - even if we don’t know that we’re ailing.  Sometimes, they’re right: social media channels like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram have been huge game-changers in terms of increasing artist visibility and reach (and less exhausting than actually venturing out to places where strange people are and introducing yourself as a tattoo artist welcoming new clients!).

Many of these solutionist pitches end up in the absurdist category (no, we don’t need an internet juice press or a personal transportation device that makes us look moronic), but others persist and end up changing the way we interact with our world (As an avid music listener, I was initially intrigued by the notion of streaming services like Spotify.  Over time however, I am so sad to see the loss of not just music stores, but music-appreciation by the greater culture as -seemingly- a reaction to having monthly, cheap access to music via these services.  It feels impossible to work professionally as anything other than a stadium-filling popular artist these days. I could literally carry on all day about this particular topic, but I’m a terrible writer, so take a good look at Chokepoint Capitalism, a great book by Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin about this Very Depressing Subject).

It’s this latter category I really feel tattoo artists are facing when it comes to the question of AI engagement.  What does it actually provide in terms of time-saving?  Why do we need it?  How would our lives or the lives of our clients be improved by using it?  I still haven’t discovered any answers to these key questions.  My resistance to AI grows when I see how much this technology is being shoehorned into applications I’ve already got a pretty good relationship with - only to result in the degradation of those services (my long ‘always-open’ Google search tab gets more and more useless every day).  Who is benefiting from the addition of AI into those things I need to do my job outside of those who are selling me AI services?  

People are magical, pattern-making, reason-building creatures: we are great at defining a problem that can be solved by or a use case for just about any tool tossed in our lap.  But just because we can identify a way something can be used, doesn’t mean we have to use it.  And right now, employment of AI technologies feels like a complicit acceptance of All The Bad Stuff That I Haven’t Even Talked About which is part of the AI machine.  Exhaustive amounts of theft from creators great and small.  Ridiculous amounts of resource consumption.  Destruction of reliable process and data.  And for what?  To save a few minutes writing a client email or help get an idea started for a tough-to-figure-out custom piece?

These tasks do not feel like problems to be solved.  In fact, idea conception: from ideas to sketches to polished design — is one of my personal Most Favorite Things about any work I do.  I felt that way when I built web applications and I feel it now when preparing work for my clients.

For me at least, I will need to see a lot more intrinsic value to be gained from employing AI tooling in any of my work or my shop’s processes (and a lot less resource destruction - both power and water, and the destruction of ownership of artists’ existing bodies of work) before I voluntarily submit to its use.  I am grateful to currently be in an industry which tends to lionize tradition and “the hard way of doing things” versus one which feels compelled to adopt every technological development tossed over the fence. For now, AI adoption still feels like something to consider as opposed to something we need to do as artists to remain competitive.

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Postscript: the following is a summary of my commentary above produced by https://www.summarizer.org/.  Is it accurate?  Mostly.  But it also strips all the nuance and tone from it, reducing an essay of observations into a series of bland bullet points, creating a chasm between humanity and our “content”.  It also totally omitted the citations which were the best illustrations of the concepts I was trying to present.  Finally, this is boring and I didn’t enjoy reading it.  I Like Spending Time On Things People Have Created.  I have never felt that joy in consuming AI-generated content.

Title: Thoughts on Technology and AI in the Tattoo Industry 

Introduction: 

The author shares their positive view of technology, particularly in making tasks easier and improving processes. They believe the tattoo industry needs modernization, drawing from their past experience in web development to enhance client interactions in tattooing. 

Key Points: 

• The author began their career in web development in 1999 and transitioned to tattooing full-time in 2017. 

• They aim to introduce efficiencies, such as CRM and message automation, into tattooing practices. 

• There is a concept called 'solutionism,' where tech companies create solutions without knowing if there’s a real problem. 

• Some technologies, like social media, have positively impacted artist visibility, while others seem unnecessary or absurd. 

• The author questions the real benefits of AI in tattooing: What time-saving does it offer? How would it improve experiences for artists and clients? 

• They express skepticism about AI's role, noting that it might degrade existing tools rather than enhance them. 

• AI use could also signify acceptance of negative impacts on creators and their works. 

• The author finds joy in the creative process of developing ideas and sketches and needs to see clear advantages of AI before adopting it. 

Conclusion: 

The author remains cautious about embracing AI technologies in their work until they can clearly see the benefits over the traditional methods that they value.

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I am neither a technology expert nor one in tattooing.  These are my wildly uninformed opinions!  https://heatherreynoldsart.com / mail@heatherreynoldsart.com