a question I thought I'd never ask - most $ you'd spend on a tattoo?

[bluebullets]

Now, hear me out before you rip me apart lol. I've always been the one to say "There is absolutely no price on a lifetime investment, find your artist, and pay the cost"

With that said, theres this AMAZING artist in China that my artist actually recommended to me for biomech (a style you don't see very frequently.) He'll be travelling to my area, but he charges $600US/hr ($800 for me as a canadian) which would cost me about $16k. 

I told the guy my story of why I want the tattoo, and he agreed to a 30% discount, which would make it about 12k. 

 

Now, I still stand by that there's no price on a lifetime investment - 12K is less than half a 5-year investment in a car. With that said though, I am saving for a house and stuff like that, and considering that most extremely talented artists cost ~200 an hour, some justification is required. 

I'm hesitant to name him, because I don't want to broadcast his prices or the fact he offered a discount.. Do you think posting an unnamed sample would be ethical? Otherwise... Thoughts?

[Oiocha]

Its all about whether its worth it for you or not.  I think if you're questioning it this much you might want to take a good hard look at whether you can get it later and convenient or not this may not be the time.

[Hogrider]

29 minutes ago, bluebullets said:

Do you think posting an unnamed sample would be ethical?

No. I think you should leave the artist out of this.

Tattoos are a commodity like any other. You want one from this person, you pay; just like if you want a Mercedes S Class, you pay more than for a Toyota. We can't always afford the things we want when we want them.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Hogrider

[bluebullets]

14 minutes ago, Hogrider said:

No. I think you should leave the artist out of this.

Tattoos are a commodity like any other. You want one from this person, you pay; just like if you want a Mercedes S Class, you pay more than for a Toyota. We can't always afford the things we want when we want them.

Yeah, I agree. 

From my (albeit limited) experience though, Mercedes S goes for ~200-250 an hour. The question of whether the Bugatti is worth triple, I dunno. Its also not a great analogy, because cars have quantifiable qualities. Art does too, but its harder to deduce, . Especially for me, who is far from an expert. 

Also, I think it has diminishing returns (a moped vs a Mercedes is a huge difference like a scratcher vs an incredible artist, but comparing an incredible artist to a masterful one is probably different than comparing a mercedes to a bughatti)

With that said, I've never seen ANY better work in this style than he does, so I think I could probably be wrong about the diminishing returns.. So, it seems now that I need to do more research rather than questioning price, eh? 😉

Edited April 23, 2019 by bluebullets

[SStu]

There's also the question = Can someone else do work which is just as nice for less? There are some really talented biomech folks out there who don't charge that - so is this artist's work that much better to justify it in your eye?

[Hogrider]

20 hours ago, bluebullets said:

With that said, I've never seen ANY better work in this style than he does, so I think I could probably be wrong about the diminishing returns.. So, it seems now that I need to do more research rather than questioning price, eh? 😉

What are you going to research? Either you want to pay the money or you don't. Better to pay more than you want than less than you should. It sounds like you want to use this artist, you just need to talk yourself into it.

Go for it; I've never gone first class and wished I hadn't, but every single time I cheap out I'm sorry. One thing I won't cheap out on is my tattoos. I learned that from other people's mistakes.

[bongsau]

$800 CDN / hour ?!? ... that is outrageous. you could fly to Switzerland, Belgium, Arizona, New York or Japan...have a holiday and fly home with a really incredible tattoo from an OG tattoo legend for much less than it's gonna cost ya to go sit in your local shop and get tattooed by a Chinese 'grandmaster' for $600USD/hr. You could even get a crappy celebrity tattoo from Bang Bang for half that amount.

there are so many local and accessible high calibre cats around that high quality tattoos and top tier artists are accessible and affordable.

if you want to pay for the brand / name ... well, go for it, it's your money.

i'd rather buy a nice looking, reliable Toyota that's gonna last until eternity myself...

[Aussie Attitude]

My eyes are watering. For a price that high my standards would be through the roof. 

@bongsauYou're right about those bloody Toyota's, mine is 12 years old, not one problem 😂 😝