Day 8: Want Some Ink?

Do the people on Tattoo Nightmares and similar tattoo shows get their tattoos gratis?

Motivation: My husband and I have recently started watching the show Tattoo Nightmares on Spike TV.  If you've never seen it, it's where someone will come in and have their old tattoos covered up.  They usually have a crazy story about how they came to have these atrocious tattoos.  So we are assuming they get them paid for by the tv show itself, which got us wondering if shows like L.A. Ink would be paying for the customers' tattoos as well.

Answer:

Since I was already getting the link from Spike's website, I figured that I would look on that page for my answer.  I couldn't find it and got tired of clicking and scrolling, so I thought maybe if I went to wikipedia for the show itself, maybe some clever wiki person might have found the answer.  Get this:  it wasn't there!  No wikipedia post for Tattoo Nightmares.  Back to the google drawing board.  My search was "do the people on tattoo nightmares get their tattoos for free."  Not a very good search, I know, but I'm sure someone had to have asked the same questions. 

Okay, so after quite a bit of time searching and searching and searching, I found this about Ink Master, which is also a show on SpikeTV.  "We checked with the producer and she confirms that "tattoos will be FREE for the people who are chosen as canvases."

Rumination: I'm gonna make an assumption on this one because without calling the producers of the show, I can't know for sure, but I will try tweeting them or asking on Facebook for an answer and if they ever respond, I will update this post.  So my assumption is that if Ink Master gives tattoos gratis to those that are filmed for the show, I'm sure Tattoo Nightmares does as well.  And I would think it would be the same for L.A. Ink, because instead of paying for people to appear, the networks can easily offer a free tattoo for being filmed.  And as most of you with tattoos know, good tattoos are EXPENSIVE... and good tattoos with renowned artists are WAY EXPENSIVE.  So it is actually a really fair trade for some Joe Nobody off the street.