Tattoo shops spreading autism awareness.

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Something I just started thinking about. Some tattoo shops in my town are doing this thing where they all do tattoos for an autism charity. Now, are these businesses really doing it because they know anything about the "disorders"? I kind of doubt it. I spend a lot of time in one of these shops. And every time someone "weird" would come by, after they left they would get made fun of. My assumption is that they do these fundraising events so they can get their name out there a little bit more and get themselves a good-guy badge. After spending a lot of time around those people, I would have to arrive at the conclusion that they knew nothing about autism. And that if someone looked normal enough and exhibited autistic behaviors those people would have been made fun of by the employees after they left. Because the employees who claim to be trying to raise autism awareness are not autistic nor do they know much about autism. That's rather irritating to me. What right do people who make fun of others have to be claiming to be advocates of those same people they would make fun of because they didn't know they were labeled autistic? If that makes any sense...yeah. Business. Got to get publicity and what not.

It may seem like I'm endorsing a stereotype by saying this but; in the time that I spent in tattoo shops, it was apparent that the people there were incredibly egocentric. It's one of the reasons I quit. Along with the fact that I was becoming more aware that being in that environment was not for me.

I'm not saying it's bad to give money to a cause. But at least actually give a s**t and be somewhat of an expert in what you think you're spreading awareness about. And make sure that the charity is actually giving that money to the people they claim to be raising it for.

Bottom line of what really bothers me is that I was around the people who are participating in the fundraiser and these same people are total as*holes! People I would never want to be around. People who are prejudice and rude. I don't understand how the forces of the universe can allow such hypocrisy to exist!! !! !! !! !! Well, I can...but it still bothers me very much. Done ranting now.

They're probably just ignorant of the symptoms & traits of higher functioning autistics and their perception of autism is very low functioning people that "need," their charity.

Chances are that if they were conscious of HFA and other conditions that make people "weird", they wouldn't behave that way.

As for tattoo shops... thanks for reminding me that I want to get inked but I'm too cheap to start paying for it. I'd like to get a sleeve done, but I figure it'll set me back $3-4K to have it done and I can't justify spending that kind of money on tattoos... yet. All in due time.

My Anasazi bear tattoo and I have spent many years in politics where we learned that by getting people to work for change, there are the "marchers" and the "contributers." The marchers attend every event, stuff envelopes and sign petitions. They know a lot about their causes. The check writers, well, write checks. They don't really know a lot about their causes, but care very much about helping pay the bills. There are usually a lot more marchers than check writers, and as a result, too many causes never get off the ground.

We don't need to know how to make great music to pay for a concert ticket and, by doing so, help pay the bills for the musicians who do know.

Hug the check writers. They make our causes able to do so much more.

Sometimes the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.

In what way did they make fun of them? Or what did they say for example?

Anyway, its nice of them to organise fundraisers, but I agree they shouldn't make fun of people

Lots of these thingies tend to be run by people that have a sibling or child with an ASD, just FYI and all.

So, calling ignorant might not be accurate.

I thought about that possibility.

A lot of business and entertainers support charities for good publicity. Another reason is to ease a guilty conscious or just to stroke their own ego.

I couldn't agree more...

You would think that artists would be more accepting but unfortunately I think the reality is it's just another cliche.

Unfortunately...

I paint and draw but I never really refer to myself as an artist. Because people who call themselves artists nowadays are merely feeding off of the ignorance of the public. Doing things like tracing pictures they print off of google........it was so disappointing to realize that it doesn't matter how much you put into your work but that more so it depends on how sociable you are and how well you can take advantage of people.

I'm not sure what you mean.

You nailed it, OP. I'm no stranger to the tattoo community. There are many hypocritical twatwaffles, who despite being heavily modified (hence, "weird" in others' eyes), seem to feel compelled to sh*t on their so-called "strange" clientele. One artist I went to would rant on and on about older clients, overweight people and "rocker chicks." It's hard to please these types of people. It's all about how badass one can and how far you can get your name/brand out there. More catty group than high school cheerleaders.