Selling Tattoos

My interaction skills have improved hugely over the years, plenty of situations gave me practice talking to people. Selling, convincing, introducing, things that don’t come naturally to me. A defining moment in my outgoingness was the year I ran a henna stand with two lifeguard friends. We were just teenagers, but we spent every shift at the pool drawing tattoos in sharpie. I don’t remember who suggested henna, but we spontaneously decided to run our own stand at the annual farmers’ fair. We even made our own ink and wrapped our own tubes: organic, non-GMO, essential oil infused, the whole deal.

It was a year’s worth of prep work and when the fair came around, we were excited to try out our professional artist ability; nobody had run a stand like ours in Amish Lancaster before, so it was a surprisingly successful venture. My favorite part was standing out in the street, walking up to strangers and talking to them. Anyone was approachable, but especially people with kids. It was exciting striking up a conversation with someone and seeing where I could take it. I barely talked about henna, just asked them what their favorite part of the fair was, what they liked to do, bragging about my two friends and how they were teenagers but had so much initiative. I’d ask if they wanted to see what we did, and if they had tattoos I’d compliment them or ask if they were in the market for another. If they didn’t, I would ask if they’d like the experience without the commitment. It was such a fun experience, but even better than the hundreds of tattoos I gave, I found I had a love for finding people to talk to. I would go stand in the road and if there was music I would dance or sing until someone laughed. I cannot dance. I think it was helpful putting people at ease by being at ease myself first, no intimidation or formality, just goofy marketing.