What Does It Take?

I'll begin this post by stating for everyone who will read it that what I have to say here has no conclusion. I suppose that it's more of a 'brain dump' of something that I had on my mind for a little while today.

As I was looking at some of the photography and graphics work that I have done over the past year and was comparing it to the work of some budding 'artists' (it will soon become clear why that word is in quotes) that I made the acquaintances of in Savannah, GA over the summer... and my question is, what really makes someone an artist?

Wikipedia defines an artist as, "...a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art". And while the term 'artist' traditionally refers to the field of the visual arts, I am also curious about the other fields that are more broadly considered arts as well. Among these could be the culinary arts or performance artists. At what point does a person have the grounds to say that they have surpassed the point of being a dilletante and have reached the point of being an artist?

And it being an 'artist' a permanent state of being once you've reached it? Or is it something more like a phase that you can drift in and out of? For instance, during the school year the majority of my photography is portraiture and concert photography that I do for a profit but whenever school is not in session I have the time to create my own ideas and stage them just to my liking. Is it only in that time when I should consider it art? Or is it all a form of art because I do consider my for profit work to have my own unique spin on it?

That's all I have for now... I could consider the subject for much longer and pose many more questions, but I'll leave it at that.

Ink.

Perhaps it's a generational thing, but something that I don't understand is certain people's aversion to tattoos. Years ago tattoos were seen as a sign of rebellion or of a person that was in a 'rough crowd', and some people still seem to believe this. Today tattoos are much more commonplace and main stream. Now, I'm not saying that tattoos are things that everybody should get. They're something that some people are just not interested in, but that does not mean that they should show a bias against people with them. There is an especially big bias against the tattooed members of our society when it comes to the work force. I have a very good friend that has found it to be very difficult getting a new job because of his tattoos, and I think that this discrimination is absurd. There are a host of laws that prevent discrimination by employers, including ones regarding physical appearance, yet managers still discriminate against people who happen to have tattoos. I find this completely ridiculous. There are lots of people, including my friend, that would prove to be very good dedicated workers if given the opportunity.
There is a whole art form dedicated to tattoos, and who is any employer to deny a person a job based on their decision to display art on their bodies? I think that it is beautiful if someone is confident enough in themselves to want to display something that is important to them in ink on their bodies forever. I understand that people sometimes end up getting a tattoo and regretting it later in life, but I think that in that circumstance they should have spent more time considering their decision before it was made. I plan on getting sever tattoos in my lifetime, and I have been planning my first one for about two years now. I formed an idea, drew several sketches of it, then took time to think about it more, and repeated that process several times. I want the tattoo because it is something that I drew so it is a personal creation of mine, and it is symbolic to me. I know that I may have to work a little extra hard to get where I want in life because I've chosen to ink my body, but I'm prepared to do that and I dare any unaccepting employer to say that I won't be able to prove them wrong.