Views on these tattooists please

[growltiger]

I've spent a lot of time noseying around the forum trying to educate myself, and have completely reconsidered everything that I thought was a 'good' tattoo. Now, I'm interested in getting a 'great' tattoo :-)

At the moment I'm thinking that I want one really beautiful tattoo across my shoulders and one totally bad-ass tattoo on my thigh. I'm looking for artists in the UK, south-west or London ideally. Please can you tell me what you think of these people, in terms of both technical skill and whether you like what they do:

Rebecca Vincent: Instagram

I particularly like her roses: Instagram

Tracy D

In particular, her lady heads like this one based on a Rossetti painting: Tracy

Claudia de Sabe: Instagram

Lauren Gow: Instagram

Any other suggestions welcomed. I've found a few more people who are highly regarded, but I find their style a bit 'cutesy' (Amy Savage, Dawnii Fantana, Tiny Miss Becca, for example). Thanks in advance :)

[tatB]

my vote is for Claudia de Sabe

[growltiger]

  harry878 said:

my vote is for Claudia de Sabe

Please can I ask why? Because she is the best of the list, or because the others aren't good, or...? I'd probably go to two different people so it would be interesting to know your reasoning.

[49531]

  harry878 said:

my vote is for Claudia de Sabe

seconded. i have been tattooed by her, awesome lady and artist. got her own signature look for both her lady heads and japanese work. she delivers both the beautiful and the bad ass (as you requested) plus the work she has been posting recently just blows me away. i need to get tattooed by her again...

[tatB]

I voted for Claudia with out viewing the other options. She is that good that I am comfortable just blindly voting for her. But my opinion is based soles on viewing her work on instagram. I think there are at least 1 or 2 LST members with work from her that can offer more insight into how great she is.

[Joe Shit]

Claudia,Lauren,& Tracy,do beautiful work..A few more artist to check out.What are you thinking of getting done.

Instagram

Instagram

[HaydenRose]

Claudia is very high on my dream tattoo list :) Her work is mind blowing. Not familiar with the other artists, but for London you can't go wrong with Frith Street.

[Diehardonvhs]

Claudia is absolutely fantastic - Just going by my personal preference I would choose her every single time out of those options. Her work is everything I would look for in a good tattoo, and I will absolutely be getting tattooed by her at some point!

[growltiger]

Wow! Feeling the Claudia love :D Okay, you've convinced me, I'm going to consider her my 'dream' artist. I'm not sure people like me get tattooed by people like her though. I imagine there's some sort of invisible force field that would bounce boring middle of the road people like myself back into the street on their arses if they tried to enter the shop :p

@Joe Shit Thank you for those suggestions - beautiful stuff! I've come across Cassandra Frances before I think. I've added them both to my stalking list.

I'm not entirely sure what I want yet. I'm like a kid in a toy shop - too much to choose from! I suppose I'm thinking that the beautiful should be along the lines of flowers/birds etc, but maybe with a fairy tale theme. I've been scouring book plates and art from fairy tales for inspiration. The bad-ass: dragon? Octopus sinking a ship? Tiger? I suppose a lot will depend on the artist I choose, and what best suits their style. I would like roses with a bee as well, in a sort of botanical style. I think that is why I listed the one artist with a very different style to all of the others. I'm not sure where that would go though!

[Pugilist]

  growltiger said:

Wow! Feeling the Claudia love :D Okay, you've convinced me, I'm going to consider her my 'dream' artist. I'm not sure people like me get tattooed by people like her though. I imagine there's some sort of invisible force field that would bounce boring middle of the road people like myself back into the street on their arses if they tried to enter the shop :p

I know you're joking, but seriously, never ever let yourself think this. I am the world's most uncool square and I would never think twice about contacting a "big name" artist for a piece of work if that's what I wanted/had the means to do (Claudia being one of the people I hope to get work from some day!). You do not have to be a "certain kind of person" to qualify to get tattooed by someone that good. You just have to decide to go for it, and get in touch.

[growltiger]

@Pugilist: You're right. I'm being all English and self-deprecating. It's a bad habit.

[beez]

Can I +1 on the Claudia love? Her stuff is soooo good!! And I love badass women in general (I love badass men too, but I'm a chick, so....) and getting tattooed by a badass woman has been an awesome experience for me.

+1 badassery.

[DJDeepFried]

Claudia's stuff is beautiful but I think @Valerie Vargas has to be part of this conversation too. Definitely seek out the artist of your dreams. You may have to wait or be persistent but you'll be happier in the long run than if you compromised or settled. And we are talking about fairly local artists for you here.

[Tesseracts]

I'm glad this thread is here because I'm thinking of visiting England this summer and I want to know what tattoo artists there are good. I like Claudia's work but I want to get a traditional style flower like this, should I just assume she can do that even though I haven't seen anything like it on her instagram?

[growltiger]

Valerie! I know. That back piece that won the February competition was incredible. I'm going to take Pugilist's advice about my "we're not worthy" attitude to heart and add her to the list. One of them must say yes, right?

What do you folk do when you get "the itch"? You know, you just really fancy a little something. I've seen some of you mention popping into shops and things, how does that fit with waiting lists etc? Sorry for poorly worded question!

Edit: I just remembered there is a whole thread on spontaneous tattoos. I'll go read it, I bet the answer is in there. Sorry, I'm shattered. Poorly baby and all. Send me off to mumsnet :p

[exume]

As far as "the itch" goes, popping into a shop is a great way to deal with it, if the tattooer you have in mind has a waiting list you might still be able to get a quick consult in and get yourself on that list, or maybe they had a cancellation and have time to get you in that day; I know at least one poster on LST got an awesome walk in from Valerie.

[growltiger]

I'd heard that stalking her on twitter was a good way to get time with her!

I'm slightly too far from London to do walk ins. It's easily a day trip (1.5h on the train) but not just on the off chance. My town doesn't have anywhere great (that I've found anyway).

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

[Gregor]

Claudia is my favourite too, however my wife has got massive love for Dawnii Fantana's work . What about Jo Harrison ?

Instagram

[RoryQ]

Worth looking at Claudia's studio-mate Xam for that kind of tattooing also...

[HaydenRose]

  RoryQ said:

Worth looking at Claudia's studio-mate Xam for that kind of tattooing also...

Oh shit! They work out of the same studio? My mind has been blown! I need to relocate to London ASAP haha

[Fala]

Totally @Pugilist! I still can't believe I have work from the artists I do (and upcoming.) It's pretty amazing. All you have to do is call! :)

  Pugilist said:

I know you're joking, but seriously, never ever let yourself think this. I am the world's most uncool square and I would never think twice about contacting a "big name" artist for a piece of work if that's what I wanted/had the means to do (Claudia being one of the people I hope to get work from some day!). You do not have to be a "certain kind of person" to qualify to get tattooed by someone that good. You just have to decide to go for it, and get in touch.

[TrixieFaux]

  Pugilist said:

I am the world's most uncool square...

I beg to differ.

[Lance]

  HaydenRose said:

Oh shit! They work out of the same studio? My mind has been blown! I need to relocate to London ASAP haha

...then maybe we shouldn't mention that Jondix works out of Seven Doors Tattoo as well. Oh wait, oops. ;-)

[scubaron]

  Lance said:

...then maybe we shouldn't mention that Jondix works out of Seven Doors Tattoo as well. Oh wait, oops. ;-)

Man, I don't know what it is, but there is something about Jondix work that separates him. I know there are others that do that style very well, but for me, Jondix is it.

[exume]

Going to Seven Doors is like using cheat codes