I was kinda debating on where to put this and IMHO seems like the best place.
Anyway my situation is this, my SO got a tattoo a couple of months ago, the guy there said you should tip because it’s a service. I’ve never heard this before. I’ve talked to other people with tats and no one I know tipped the artist. I’m going to get a new on tonight, I didn’t tip after my first one, should I tip after this one? (that’s the GQ)
Who else do I tip now adays though? I see tip jars everywhere, from the bagel shop to even a few fast food joints!?!? Am I supposed to tip the mailcarrier, the cashier at the store? These are services. Or how about the people who sell me a burial plot?
So who do you tip and how much? and we can skip the waiters/bartenders etc since at least in the States you tip and we all know that.
Most of those people are already being paid to perform their services. If the service is exceptional, I will tip accordingly. For people who expect a tip, but only do enough to get the job done, well, they can forget it.
I once gave a 20 dollar tip to a taxi driver, simply because I was in a bad mood when I entered his cab, but his attitude completely turned me around.
But tipping everybody? I do not think so.
I tip when I am being served by someone who makes the effort to provide good and attentive service and does not require me to wait on myself. If I am being waited on by a person who is pleasant and attentive I’ll leave a tip that reflects it, usually a minimum of 20%. If they aren’t, their tip suffers accordingly.
Having worked in a restaurant, I will always leave a minimum of 10% at a full-service establishment even if the service is lousy. That’s simply because I know that the owners are cheap bastards and the tip is an expected component of their wages. If the place serves alcohol, I’ll leave a minimum 15% because I know the waitstaff has to tip out to the bar and I don’t want them to lose money. The only exception to this rule is if the staff is nasty. Then they get nothing and like it.
What irks me are the tip jars at fast-food type places. I have to stand in line, carry my own stuff, bus my own table and I’m expected to throw in extra money for the privilege? Well then, I’ll tip myself by not putting money in the jar.
A notable exception: Casinos. Dealers and cocktail waitresses always recieve a tip before I leave the table. If I’m down to my last two chips, that’s where they go. It’s not their fault I had a bad night. If I’m up, however, we’ll all share the wealth.
According to a friend who used to be a mail carrier, many people tip them but only once a year, during the holiday season. This can be money or a small gift. I have never done this personally, but it might harken back to the old days when people went out to greet their carrier at the gate, eg, service was more personalized. As a side note, he was a carrier in St. Pete Beach*, Florida, which is rife with old timers. In these days of Anthrax laden mail it might be a good time to consider reviving this custom.
I also recall seeing references in Hi & Lois comic strip to tipping the trash collectors at Christmas time. Something else I have never done.
*Bad local Florida joke: The oldest people in the world live in St. Petersburg. Their parents live in Clearwater.
I rarely tip. Call me a cheap bastard or whatever, but I’m pretty sure everyone is making more money than me. So, I NEED the money more. I make 200 bucks every 2 weeks. When I go out to dinner, I only can afford my meal. Thats it. I can’t just be giving out money to people who cook my food and bring it to me everytime I eat. Especially when the waitress fails to give me utensils to eat my food and I try hard to flag her down for the next five minutes but she’s busy chatting with the other waitresses in the back.
The times I do tip are the times when I felt the person has gone out of their way to do their job well. Filling my coffee more than once is a plus especially if I’m in a restaurant for at least 45 minutes.
Well, unless you want the second tattoo on your other shoulder blade to read, “lousy cheapskate bastard,” I would at the very least recommend finding another artist. Maybe in a different town.
Actually, having that tattooed on my back sounds kinda fun. Great conversation piece for those pool parties. “No, it’s a dragon. Honest! That’s what I paid to have tattooed!”
Tatoo artists I tip. It’s a lot like getting a haircut. I always tip the barber, don’t you?
As far as bagel counters and fast food, NO TIP FOR YOU! You are getting paid to get me a bagel or sandwich or whatever. I was a waiter for a long time and am not being stingy or anything but I did a lot more work then cutting a bagel and only made $2.13 per hour + tip.
Also, with a lot of tattoo parlors, the artist is the owner and sole employee, no? A tip is intended to reward an employee, not the owner. Although, I guess, you could call the tip an incentive to do a good job on future work.
Oh, and asking for a tip is lame as hell. If he needed to ask, then presumably most people don’t tip him. Why? Because society has determined that you don’t tip tattoo artists, apparently.
Ummm. I don’t mean to be nasty or anything, but if you can’t afford to tip, then you shouldn’t be going out. I would be willing to bet that that is why you get lousy service. I know that when someone comes in and I know they aren’t going to tip, I give them the bare minimum of service. I spend more time kissing up to the customers who will tip me.
By the way, I make less money then you do, and I ALWAYS tip.
I hate tipping. I do it in certain situations, cos it’s expected. But I hate it.
The ‘rules’ are so illogical and prone to shifting. If you tip a taxi driver, then why not a bus driver? If you tip a hairdresser then why not a shoe salesman? Are they not all providing a service? Suddenly every shop you’re in has a tip bucket. Should I put something in it? How much should I put in it? How the hell should I know, what do I know about the market rate for pizza counter staff!?
It seems to me that tipping is too often used as an excuse by employers to avoid paying a decent wage. “Sure, the hourly rate is miserable, but you get to keep tips!” Suddenly it becomes my responsibility to pay their employees and get laden with a guilt trip if I don’t.
I can see the argument about rewarding for good service, but I’d much rather pay a little bit more on the price and know that the person serving me is getting a reasonable wage without having to depend on whatever change I feel I can spare. If the price is too much or the service is rubbish I don’t come back.
Tips are demeaning to the employee and make me feel uncomfortable.
My rule of thumb: if you have to touch my body, then you get a tip. I may not be gross and disgusting, but other customers may be, so I have empathy for anyone who touches people for a living. Doctors, dentists, etc. are exempt from this rule, since they all sold out to HMOs, make gajillions, and get “tipped” by my insurance company.
Restaurants and pizza delivery guys = minimum 20% unless it’s a buffet, in which case I might leave 10% if you brought me a drink or something. I tip the pizza guy BIG – so the next pizza arrives hot! When I go into a restaurant to order carry-out, I do not tip, since I delivered the food to myself and have to bus my own table and serve my own drinks.
Massage therapists, hairdressers, the facial lady, manicures, pedicures = all those get 10-20% depending on how happy I am with whatever they did. Or I just round up to the nearest whole dollar I have. Example: last massage was $45. I gave him $50.
Following the touching rule, then I’d say you should tip the tattoo artist, expecially if the tatt is in an intimate area of the bod.
Pizza delivery drivers do receive tips in addition to (relatively) normal compensation. However, it can be a dangerous job and they often must provide their own transport (which may be tax deductible?). I tip them reasonably but not huge, maybe 10-20% based on factors such as the weather and if I had to wait excessively (which may or may not be their fault).
Carry-out in a normal restaurant is usually done by a waiter or bartender, neither of whom makes minimum wage in the USA. And often they must do this in addition to serving others. I tip around 10% on this, roughly, a little more if it’s a large, complicated order which they must assemble in some manner. Some people tip for carryout, others don’t.
I carry newspapers, and I have to tell you I sure hope that a lot of my customers tip! I did read somewhere that it is “proper” to top carriers $10, but I’ll be surprised if I get that much out of most folk.
I’m not complaining, mind you–I am glad for the work and it suits my needs right now. But sometimes, at 4:30, when I am trudging up someone’s driveway in the dark with their dog barking at me from the yard, putting their paper BESIDE their door because they will complain about “missed delivery” if it lands on their STEP, I remember that I am doing this, every day, for $3.95/ month.
THEN, I figure a tip is in order. I’m giving them until Christmas, then I’ll re-evaluate how near the door I am willing to throw the darn thing.
I love the concept of tipping in resturants. It insures that I will get good service, or I will have a means of getting evan if I don’t. If they just charged more for the meals and eliminated tipping, then I would have to pay the same amount for bas service that I do for good.
I have a lot of freinds who are tattoo artists. If they do a good job, tip them. They don’t really expect it, but they appreciate it, and when you get your next one they will remember it. Happy artists mean you get more for your money next time.
Well I got my tat last night and tried to tip him. He told me he doesn’t take tips any more. Ugh. this is getting even more difficult. That and I just learned that you don’t tip as much for carry out, which I did for the first time the other night.
You just did carry-out for the first time? Or did you tip for the first time? For carry-out, you can tip as much or as little as you want, there isn’t really an excepted norm for it. Once someone left $20 dollars for us becuase he had a really large complicated order, but we have had people with equally big orders leave nothing at all. The only thing the extra twenty dollars did was ensure extra care in packing and a little extra sauce. Plus it made us smile.
If my newspaper was actually delivered to my doorstep – or within 10 feet of it, I would probably tip the guy, if he’d slow down his car to about 30mph so I could toss some change in. This would also necessitate me getting up at 4:00 a.m. to try to catch him on the way by. I pay for the subscription through direct billing, so he doesn’t even come by to collect. In fact, my newspaper delivery person could be a woman, since I’ve never actually witnessed the paper being delivered.
My rant here is the Newspaper Launcher used to shoot the paper exactly underneath my car so that I can’t reach it. I have to: a) back my car out of the driveway enough until I can see the paper to pick it up, or b) grab my rake and fish it out from under the car. Further, the delivery person has outstanding aim: he/she/it has taken out a couple bamboo trellises, smashed some delicate new plants, etc. Also, there’s no way to prevent my neighbors from stealing the tv listings out of my paper… Solve all that, and I’ll start tipping the paper people. Also, if they will quit delivering on the days I don’t pay for, that would be nice too. “We’re giving you free papers in case you decide to extend your subscription from weekends only to daily delivery.” I tell them they are wasting paper, time and money, since I read the paper online during the week. This company barely deserves for me to pay the bill, let alone get tips.
