Well, first of all, if a tattooer can't "draw to save his/her life", they're not exactly an "artist", are they? Neither should they be doing tattoos that require an artistic skill set, right? If they can't draw, they can't interpret another artist's work to make it a good tattoo. Start using the term "tattooer" unless and until you KNOW that an individual is also an "artist". MOST tattooers don't draw well, but try anyway. They'll do great "mechanical tattooing" quite often, but the artwork aspect is missing. While mechanics are perfectly legitimate as tattooers, they shouldn't be trying to do things that require an artistic eye/education/sensibility. Primarily, this is the cause of more shitty tattoo work than any other single factor, in my experience.

BUT, there are MANY MANY tattooers out there who are also competent illustrators, artists in their own right, and if you're tattooer can't draw what you want, GET A DIFFERENT TATTOOER!!!! There's NO excuse for having someone who can't draw change how you look nekkid. There's great artists out there. Give them your business. They're typically not any more expensive than the "mechanic" types.

If someone HAS a competent artist as their tattooer, they don't need anyone else "creating tattoos", and if they don't have an artist, they need a different tattooer. Kinda makes the whole "Custom Tattoo Flash Artist" a niche job, making certain that tattooers with no artistic ability are attempting tattoos that they won't be skilled enough to create properly, doncha think?

As a tattooer, I guess I'm having trouble with the whole idea that someone "not a tattooer" is "more qualified" to create "tattoo-medium friendly" artwork than someone working with the tools every day. EVERY DAY people bring in tattoo "designs" that their "friend drew" which will NEVER look good as a tattoo, and once in a while someone brings in a design that their "artist friend" drew, but that does NOT translate well tot he tattoo/skin medium. So, I guess I feel that either you can't draw, at which time you have no business attempting artistically challenging tattoos, or you can, at which time you don't need someone else "creating a custom tattoo design" for you, and either you DO tattoo for a living, at which time you have no need to "create custom artwork for incompetent tattooers", or you DON'T tattoo, at which time you don't know enough about the medium to create tattoos that a solely "mechanical" tattooer can apply well.

Patronize tattooers who are illustrators themselves. I work in a "street shop", with the walls covered in a thousand sheets of flash. I doubt there's been more than one or two "flash" tattoos done in the studio in the last two months, with four tattooers working, primarily because every tattoo we do is "custom", that is to say, drawn specifically for each customer. The last street shop I worked in was located about 5 blocks from a "party school" college campus. Flash tattoos were the order of the day, but each and every one of us was capable of creating just about every tattoo we ever did, flash or original. There's enough awesome tattoo "artists" out there that "custom flash tattoos" need be done, except for the little "we all want this one, stick it here" pieces that the average 19 y/o college girl gets with her three girlfriends on a Friday night, and they can usually find what they want on the wall of a street shop, which their "mechanically competent tattooer" is quite capable of doing properly.

Just my two cents.