Tattoo Parlor: Venice Beach, CA

This scene was way too enticing to pass up!  Exhausted, tired and frustrated from a day from what had been an unsuccessful photographic shoot.  After talking my way in and getting permission from the young man in the chair and the tattoo artist, I set up my camera and waited.  Eventually they either forgot I was there or got bored and ignored me.  They young man, getting his first tattoo was straining not to show his discomfort while getting inked.  His eyes would roam across the walls looking at the artwork with seeming intense interest.  My impression was that he was taking very little of what he was looking at.  Every now and then a bead of sweat (it was not hot) would show on his forehead and work its way downward.  His girlfriend was sitting on a stool nearby looking bored.  Later his friends dropped in to see how the tattoo was progressing and after joking to him about my presence and what I was up to. Eventually I became invisible to them too and was able to return to taking images.