Quote by Verbal
I love tarantulas (I don't have a pet one)! Like a decade ago, my wife and I were hiking in Picket Wire Canyon (dinosaurs tracks!) during tarantula migration season, where the males are wandering around looking to get laid. We saw over 20 of them. Scary, but so beautiful. I grew unafraid enough over the afternoon to get really close to several of them, though I never picked one up. The colors are amazing.
Unfortunately I've never seen one in the wild. In general though they are mostly quite docile and very few are so aggressive as to attack humans. As a general rule those tarantulas from South and Central America are the least aggressive of the species, docile and easy to handle. African and Asian ones can be quite aggressive. We have an Orange Baboon tarantula and we have to use special gloves to handle it when we clean out its terrarium. Its bite is not dangerous but it will require a visit to A&E to get intravenous antibiotic treatment and it will leave your hand numb for many hours!
As for handling
Hold gently but firmly between the Cephalothorax and abdomen. It will not be able to bite. If you have reared a tarantula from being a spiderling to a young adult and handled it regularly you will find them to be very tame.
You might find the following of interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBNWBkBdkzU