I overheard a 40-something tattooist tell a client about moving house recently, and that his library contains ~3,000 books or so. That’s huge.
Were I to meet him at a party and the typically lame topic, “what do you do?” came up and he answered, “I’m a tattooist,” I’m not sure I wouldn’t be bored. Tattoos are so last year these days.
If instead, however, the question were, “what really interests you” or “what do you collect,” and he answered, “books, especially art and philosophy and design books,” he would soar in my estimation – I would be intrigued!
Memo to self: don’t judge a tattooist by his skin ink.