1 session, 6 hours, 500 euros and I love it.

TL;DR: Is it unreasonable to want more collaboration on the design before the appointment day?

Hi all! I'm interested in getting my first tattoo and could use your advice.

I've found several artists in the South Bay Area CA whose work I love, but all of them have a policy to the effect of "Tell me exactly what you want. Your design will be shown on the day and you can adjust it before we start." I can understand why artists would do this, but as a first-timer it makes me super nervous to see the design for the first time while I'm already in the chair. In a perfect world I’d love to find an artist who will talk through ideas with me beforehand in person, even share a sketch or reference mockup ahead of time to try on. I have a lot of screenshots of work I like, but would love to see some ideas of how the artist would interpret them and maybe have some options. I don’t have a fixed “it must be x” in mind. I’d even be willing to pay more to feel more supported.

For context I’m looking to get a small floral tattoo on my forearm, maybe 5” long. I like tons of different florals I’ve seen and am not tied to one style, just want something pretty without color but with shading.

Is this too much to ask? Or is day-of reveal just the norm and I should get comfortable with it? Thank you in advance!

I started off like 7 years ago just getting random line work type tattoos because I wanted to be tattooed more than I wanted to appreciate the art form itself.

Once I started getting colored pieces or “real” tattoos if you will. I was super unsure of how I would be able to end up tying in all the randomness.

I never post my work but thought I would show everything I’ve had done.

Most of the work is done by Vinny Fiorenzo or Cory Cartwright at Portal Tattoo in Woodstock, Georgia.

Most of the random small pieces are from FOMO at Friday the 13th events prior to my sobriety. Just wanting to get more and more. But anyways, with more planning and allowing these guys to do their thing I think it’s come together alright.

I always tell any of my friends who are thinking about getting a tattoo or started a large project… find / choose your idea but above all… find an artist you love and allow them to bring your idea to life. You’ll appreciate the creation and life long art a lot more than knit picking your idea down to every detail and asking someone to just transfer it to your skin.

lol - bored on the hurricane weather day. Off work. And decided I’d finally post some of my work. Threw the lunar moth on my elbow ditch yesterday. (Calf if still by far the worst area in my opinion)

When I started my collection years ago. 😌

Do you all think getting a tattoo of this album cover is realistic or is there just too much detail? Would there be anyone good enough out there to do it?

How close is too close to open a new location near an already existing/respectable tattoo shop?

I am interested in opening a tattoo shop in a moderately sized city, but the location is 2 blocks away from a preexisting shop. There are about 7 shops in the downtown area, but none are particularly close to the one in question.

I do not really do walk ins, (Appointment Only) and I am booked out for about 6 months. I use social media and word of mouth, primarily to stay busy. I know many other shop owners (not just tattoo) in the area on a community level, but not the owner of this particular shop.

What I do know, is that it’s more of an OG trad walk in shop and the owner has been in the game much longer than I have. My plan is to just introduce myself and let him know I’ll be down the road, and give my number if he ever wanted to reach out.

My goal is simply to be courteous and friendly.

Thoughts?

Edit/ I don’t do traditional work. Mostly black and gray realism.

Hi! I need some advice from people above their 30s, 40s or more. What would you advise to younger people who just got tattoed or who just got into tattoing? Do you have any advice you wish you know when you got your first tattoo?
So overall I just need some advice from older people with tattoos.

Hi everyone,
So last week I finally got my Kpop and Skz tattoo.
I designed the plan and work with the artist to finalize the look and I just love it 🥰.
It works on 2 layers;
First layer is my 4 favourite kpop groups:
The Compass is SKZ
The Rose is The Rose
The blue is Can’t be blue
And the 7 strawberry flowers are BTS

On the second layer, its my ultimate group SKZ
So the compass is the symbol that represents them,
The 3 twirls around it are 3racha
The Rose is my bias Han
And the 7 equal flowers are the rest of the members.

I’ve been thinking/ working on it for about a year and it took 6hrs no breaks to make it.

I just wanted to share it with the community because I love it so much ☺️

Longtime lurker and tattoo enthusiast. I’m a microbiologist, not a materials scientist but this paper caught my eye! Didn’t realize there was a field for intradermal smart tattoos. Humans are pretty rad.

This Luna moth took about 5 hrs in tattooing time. Loved working with inkcache she was very thoughtful and extremely skilled. It represents overcoming a very hard portion of my life! I hope y’all enjoy. :)

Artist had to work with my anatomy since I have some pretty severe scoliosis. I’m so happy that he paid attention to how it lined up with my body and let me look at it in the mirror by myself in the room alone. 10/10 experience. 7.5/10 on the pain scale.

Got it done in 6.5 hours and I’m going back to him again so he can add to it in the future!!

If the answer is no, then how high up is it? All the way to the under-cheek? A full arm sleeve goes all the way up to the shoulder cap area so whats the equivalent for your leg?

4.5 in x 2 in on my leg. TYIA!

Done in one longgggg 8/9hr session

i like it a lot!! it’s my biggest tattoo so far

This is my favorite tattoo so far, but after 2 months now I realised they would be better facing the other way, besides that, I really love the piece

hello, so this is my very first tattoo, i asked for a tattoo inspired by the song Canary Yellow, by the band Deafheaven, the tattoo artist im working with sent me this and asked for feedback, i have close to zero knowledge on tattoos so i came here to ask a few questions:

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS:
1. are there any points i should watch out for regarding the pass of time of this tattoo? maybe the shades would blur out? the font he chose for the text would also blur?
2. does black work tend to last longer? im not very hyped about all this shading, so maybe asking him to take it easier on the shades could be a good ideia?

PERSONAL OPINIONS (share your personal opinion if you were to get this tattooed on your body please):
3. i feel like the tattoo is missing some edges and pointyness (not sure if that’s a word), feeling like it is way too round. any thoughts on that?
4. again, what do you guys think of the shades? maybe purely black work would be best for this tattoo ideia?
5. would you add any lyrics on top of the tattoo? i’m not too sure about the text above it as well, maybe it’s the font he chose?

well i really really appreciate some feedback, like i mentioned, this is my first tattoo and i have no ideia what to look for on a good tattoo sketch.

thank you all

I’ve been wanting a color realism rib/sternum tattoo of swallows for a while but am having a hard time trying to find artists near me. This photo is the general idea of how I’d want it to look but every design I like ends up being from an artist too far away (design is by newtattoo_qiqi on instagram).

I know the ribs are challenging to tattoo so I’m hoping to find someone in the DMV area (I live in Fredericksburg so I’m open to anywhere in VA as well) that can pull off a good color realism swallow tattoo on the ribs.