Contracts... Do you think I did the right thing?

ArtAche · #1 08-10-2009, 03:00 PM

I was an apprentice at a tattoo shop here in Georgia for about 5 months. They also made me shop manager about 3 months ago. Talk about a f@#ked up situation. I could take s&!t and give it. Not a very comfortable environment! Well, I was doing great! They had me tattoo myself about a month ago and now I have done around 13 tattoos on my friends. Sunday, August 2nd, the owner asked me to sign a contract. I said it wouldn't be a big deal and that I would. Well, I had a whole week to think about it and discuss it with other tattoo artists and friends. And of course my mother! Anyways, this is what the contract said. I would work for them for 2 years and if I got fired or quit within those 2 years I would have to pay 5 grand! I didn't agree with it and no one else did either so I brought it up to the owner and told him, maybe we could renegotiate. And here I am.... without an apprenticeship and a job cause I told him I wasn't going to sign it. I honestly can't blame them for doing what they did.... but it does sting a lil'. I'm taking this as an opportunity!

Here are a few of the tattoos I've done.

inkmunky · #2 08-10-2009, 07:41 PM

yeah you did do the right thing. I signed a contract where i'm at now, nothing like that just a non compete if i do leave. But nothing about having to pay haha. You're better off, find another shop and move on to something better. f@#k that asshole.

inkmunky · #3 08-10-2009, 07:41 PM

also don't give up on an apprenticeship, keep that going so you have the skills you'll need the rest of your career.

Bufferkiller · #4 08-10-2009, 08:04 PM

Did they really expect you to agree with that? I mean, what is going to keep them from working you right up until the end of the contract and then firing you so that you have to pay them more on top of it?

You definitely did the right thing.

conorblue · #5 08-10-2009, 08:47 PM

I don't know really why a shop would need a contract...either they don't trust you...or you shouldn't trust them. Just my opinion.

travelingtom · #6 08-11-2009, 02:55 PM

sounds to me like they would have s&!t canned ya, then tried to make you pay.

sickradsean · #7 08-11-2009, 03:20 PM

i signed a non compete contract and had a contract during my apprenticeship. but i paid most of the money up front. so it really just protected me from not getting what i was paying for.

f@#k them. and dont give up.

JohnnyTeabags · #8 08-11-2009, 03:47 PM

I signed a contract that basically said I had to get written promission from my mentor before I could leave and work at another shop if it was to come to that within the first two years of my career. It became null and void when they added a TV show on to the things I had to put up with though, and I left to learn from someone who was really gonna teach me todays tattooing methods and no the way things were done in 1975. For f@#k sake, we Used WAVECIDE!

ArtAche · #9 08-12-2009, 09:54 AM

Thanks for the advice guys! Glad to hear that other people thought that was crazy too!

JohnnyTeabags · #10 08-12-2009, 10:17 AM

Christine, Don't I know you? like from tampa or something?