Everybody is a f***in' artist and knows more than I do

Lot of that going around these days and I am watching it as I sit here and listen to a shipmate. He’s trying to get his motorcycle fixed.

He has a Harley he has had since he was a corporal serving alongside me and Colonel Roosevelt. It just got pretty much destroyed in a Wallyworld parking lot while he was inside buying something.

The bike is now in the shop and he wants the thing repaired so it is just like it was before some low life ran over it and turned it into a pile of busted up motorcycle. Of course, the guy that is been hired to rebuild it is just like every other artist out there. He wants to rebuild the motorcycle HIS way and fails to understand that the owner simply wants it the way it was before the accident. He doesn’t want the motor rebuilt to give him 143 more horses nor does he want the front fork pushed out another four feet. He wants the original saddle bags.

To put a point on it my shipmate’s bike started life as an old police bike that he rebuilt the engine for many moons ago and has stayed that way because it has been meticulously maintained. He simply wants to keep it that way. He has had the bike that way since Day One and likes it that way.

I don’t know why he likes the old police bike that way. Maybe it’s the way it rides, maybe it’s the way it looks. It might even be that he’s simply gotten used to it and is being cranky. It doesn’t really matter. He wants it pretty much stock. It really IS that simple.

Of course in this day and age, trying to get someone to put something back together in a more or less stock configuration is getting harder and harder every day. It seems everyone out there is an artist and knows more than you do and knows what is good for you.

Of course, quite often the repairman may know what is good for the customer, but he doesn’t know what is good for his pocket. A lot of these guys start off saying, “Look at what I did!” as they show off something the customer specified that he didn’t want to begin with.

They often end up hearing “That’s not what I am paying for. Take it off.”

Of course when this happens the customer is treated to a look of both hurt and feigned innocence on the part of the repairman. Feelings will be hurt, people will be upset and no real good comes out of it.

Actually there is a simple cure for all of this and it really doesn’t take much. All it takes is for Mister Know it All Artist to come off of his high horse and simply give the customer what he wants or not take the job in the first place.

I met a highly skilled tattoo artist one time and asked him a question about an Old School Sailor Jerry design I had an academic interest in even though I am not planning on getting inked.

He told me he didn’t do that kind of work and told me that if I was really interested he could fix me up with a guy that did Old School designs. I have to admit I respected his attitude. He was an artist and wanted to stay in his field. I can respect that.

Of course I would imagine that in the tattoo business there has to be a lot more communication. If one puts the wrong fender on a motorcycle if can just be removed. Tattooing is a different matter. A tattoo is pretty much forever. I wonder how many tattoo artists have gotten their noses busted for doing what they wanted to do instead of what the customer wanted.

Probably a few but I digress.

In the motorcycle/automotive world it seems to be getting harder and harder to find people that understand the simple concept of simply following directions. For that matter it seems to be true in a lot of fields of endeavor.

Hope my friend makes out on his bike but I would bet that there is going to be heartburn along the line. "
To the artist that is probably going to be going through the artistic shock, "What part of the word 'stock' don't you understand?

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY