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I know it's hard to not think like this especially if you are new to getting tattooed or prone to getting star-struck (me), but you shouldn't! Tattooers are just people with a specialized skill set. We owe our lives to the clients and have no valid reason to think that we are better than you. Don't get tattooed by people who think that you owe them something, can't stress that enough. You will find that the more you get tattooed, the experience is just as important as the art. Get tattooed by people who not only do awesome work, but who are friendly and humble people that you will want to spend however many hours in close proximity with. If you aren't comfortable in your tattooer's presence, you probably shouldn't get tattooed by that person. Hope that helps :)

I don't think it's awkward to ask that at all. Definitely good to just straight up ask the hourly and the amount of time expected, which imo is a bit more graceful than asking for a $ amount. If someone can't answer that for you, they are probably extremely stuck up or shady. The "if you have to ask then you can't afford me" attitude is bullshit, tattooers need to understand that tattoos are a luxury and there are lots of other expenses in life that take priority to getting tattooed. Also how are you supposed to build a returning clientele if your clients leave feeling like their business wasn't handled with full transparency?

Further to what @cltattooing said: It's incredibly important to discuss price beforehand. Many people have a specific budget and cannot afford more at that time, maybe ever. We are professionals, offering a professional service. Payment is one aspect of that service. Part of the consultation for any tattoo, be it a backpiece or a small walk-in design, is to discuss the price. Then you can decide if you will get the tattoo today, or at a later date. If you are not told a price for your tattoo, you should ask. (at my shop we make sure that every client knows the maximum amount they will be expected to pay for their tattoo session, before they book an appointment or agree to get tattooed - sometimes it works out to be less) Yes, we're also in London. Not mentioning the cost of goods and services is certainly not a cultural thing here.

I was asked to give a budget for my recent chest tattoo (my most expensive to date), and it didn't bother me at all. The way I figure it, if I trust this person to permanently mark my body, I should choose someone I trust enough to be fair with pricing.

just extended my half sleeve with a snake from Johan Svahn i attached some pics skull by rg dragon by danh vu

4th session. 9hrs.

Dan Sinnes

Jack Rudy on Tattoos' Stigma and Why It's Good They Hurt | OC Weekly

LM Knight's the fricken man. Would love to get tattooed by that guy. - - - Updated - - - Posted this one in another thread, but here's mine by Jay Watkins: [/img] And some other's he's done: https://instagram.com/p/z4CDJrDIIF/?taken-by=jay_blkmgc https://instagram.com/p/zi_V1njINt/?taken-by=jay_blkmgc https://instagram.com/p/zTYmptjILw/?taken-by=jay_blkmgc

My code of practice is to inquire with the shop staff what a certain artist's rate is when booking a consult, then decide if I can live with that (so far, I've been lucky and able to manage it). Then, during the consult if all is full-steam ahead, we discuss the length of the session. Result: Rate x number of hours for the appointment session = ballpark figure cost. I always figure in an extra hour's worth of money, plus funds for tipping. With that all figured out, I'll then decide when I can afford to get the tattoo and book from there. This means, for me, that I get tattooed much less frequently than I'd like, but I have gotten all the tattoos I want, the size I wanted, and all that jazz, up until this point.

I would venture to say this query doesn't fall into what we consider the "DON'T TALK ABOUT MONEY" rule we have here, but falls more into an etiquette category. I love seeing thoughtful conversation round these parts. The advice already given has been sound (including from two tattooers I really really dig). It's ok to ask the hardline questions of "How much should I bring?" because otherwise, you just don't know.

Got this done by Steve Byrne at Rock of Ages the other night.

More badassery for you. Starting to see the finish line on this one. By Dave C., PSC Tattoo.

Don't post very often, but with @Graeme showing progress on his badass backpiece and the overload of cool stuff here to look at the past week, thought I's show what I've been up to the past year or so. Progress on the front side of me. Working on finishing it out and tying it all together with the back. It will be a shirt soon! October 2012 - April 2015 (chest/stomach). Got Angus Young put on me by Mr. Bob Tyrrell at the Full Moon Convention in Nashville on May 8th. I'm still blown away that this is on me. It's also the easiest tattoo to heal I've ever had. P.S. It is really hard to get a good pic of this one.

So Greg had to reschedule my appointment for this Wednesday, and that gave me time to book with @cltattooing while she's in Portland. I shifted my hotel stay over to the 29th-31st: YAY BUT, then I get a message today from Greg's assistant that he had a cancellation, so now he can get me in on the 27th. Now, I have to ask myself if I want to take a mini-vacation to Portland and get two tattoos, driving down the morning after we hike Mt. Walker, or just tell Greg I can't make it and do the sane thing instead. I never use hashtags...but in this case I think one is probably warranted. #tattooproblems

Just got this beauty from Josh Peters at High Tides in Saint John, New Brunswick. So stoked! Im a little paranoid about the healing atm, like I am with every tattoo I get, but We'll see when its healed haha

... why do I feel that it's the most awkward subject to approach when talking tattoos? Surely I can't be the only one? I'm by no means suggesting that tattoos should be cheap, and I'm certainly aware that you pay for what you get. Totally. I'm willing to pay fair-coin for good work. I will never haggle with prices. If I couldn't afford, I'd wait and save until I could. It's just that the topic of how much a tattoo is going to end up costing seems 'taboo'. For my first ever tattoo, a walk in with a specific design, I was quoted one price. After the design was printed on that fancy carbon paper stuff, his colleague told him the price should in fact be X amount. After reviewing the stencil again, my artist then added MORE onto the cost. Doubling my very first quote. Already set up, and it being my first time, I went with it feeling held to ransom. For my other smaller tattoo's, after consultation on design, size, placement I apologetically raised the awkward question of "umm, so how much do you think that will be?" and was met with a vague "well it could be this, could be that. depends on how long... hmm, but then it could well be this". I understand that variables have to be taken into account, but why are we not met with "my hourly rate is XXX, I think it'll probably take around X amount of hours...", so I can get a decent idea of the end cost? When consulting for my bigger piece, I never broached the subject of price seeing as my first few encounters were telling me this is not a topic you bring up. I was going to be tattooed by a well known artist in a well known shop, and in all honesty I felt a tiny bit embarrassed about bringing it up knowing it would be far more expensive than my previous - Almost feeling like I could be met with "well if you have to ask, you can't afford me". I put down a £200 deposit and just guessed the excess amount to bring with me on the day - working off the higher hourly rates I'd seen in comments online for London. Luckily I brought enough, but the final cost was whispered into the ear of the receptionist who then told me the final amount to pay. So forgive me if i've got the etiquette all wrong here. I'm not a frequent flyer. Perhaps it's a bumbling British thing. "sorry how much do y... oh right yes, sorry. vulgar topic... yes... of course yes... i'll just pay all the money... yes, naturally. Silly me." But I'd be really interested to hear some advice on this.

Like many have hinted at: Tattooing is a service done by a professional. There are not many other "services" you would have done without getting a price or estimate up front. I can't, personally, think of any other instance where I didn't know the price of something before the service was rendered. That's me though and I've never been bashful about talking $$$ with anyone.... That being said, I've had the whole gamut of experiences dealing with tattoo artists. Early on, I went to a "famous" artist that was very strict about her (high) hourly rate, then would take 6 smoke/joint breaks during the session and add at least an hour on to the total time. When I started travelling to get tattooed, almost everyone that I had work done by let me stay with them, and/or cut me a HUGE break when it came to paying them. I was always willing to pay full price but was usually told "you spent money to travel just to get tattooed by me, so...."). Let's just say i bought a lot of drinks for everyone in those days. I've also had a lot of local artists that were doing several sessions/pieces on me, say about prices "we'll see when the session is finished" then when done- look down, mumble mumble and sheepishly give me a price that always seemed too low. I tried to tip well to compensate as I knew I'd be seeing them again and again. I've also asked for a price on a larger, one shot piece with the retort "how much do you have to spend?" by the artist. Trying to not sound cheap, I answered with my max budget. I was told, that would cover the first session and the second session would probably be as much....I said I would "let the artist know" a promptly walked away and never came back. I thought that $300 + an hour was a bit too much... especially for someone whose last name wasn't spelled H A R D Y.

That's a very good point. - - - Updated - - - I suddenly feel like an idiot.

Agreed @six times seven I think the tattoo artist was trying to tell you that the smaller and thinner the work, the more quickly unreadable it becomes, and thus the longevity of the tattoo is lost - so she was trying to readjust your expectations re: your tattoo. That's my take on it at least. Most of the successful lettering and linework tattoos I've seen are not teensy tiny like your desired size, but much larger. See: Thomas Hooper, Roxx, Nazareno Tubaro, and any of the other fabulous line, dotwork, and neo-tribal tattooers out there. Robert Ryan does a lot of occult imagery, check him out to see what kinds of lines he's making. Jondix does lovely fine black and grey work, as does Rich Cahill (he does ridiculously small single needle "micro" tattoos, I would not get one because in a few years' time I'd think those micro tattoos to be blurry blobs), and many, many, many others. Just because YOU want your tattoo to be executed a certain way, doesn't mean it is feasible to do as a successful tattoo... At this point, I suggest running a search on the forum for a list of recommended tattooers in Germany.

UGH! Re-read post...Hangs head low, mumbles fucking drunk stoners should not be posting. Quietly backs out the door.

youd be suprised how quickly small lettering becomes small unreadable scribbles. i speak from experience.

i feel the same way, but I realized I have to just be upfront about it now, because worrying if i took out enough cash at the atm beforehand is just unnecessary stress before a tattoo appointment, fucking with my head game. I also only get tattooed by artists who are open to talking about every aspect of the tattoo process, including money. I ask them what range to expect for a first session, so I can bring the right amount of cash, (and then some) and they don't seem to mind. I wouldn't ever bug them about giving me a specific price for a session or a piece beforehand though. I have also been asked for my budget, which again I give them a nice range of what I am comfortable spending at the time, and we go from there. I do agree that I have been snubbed a few times before about the money thing when I was a bit newer to getting tattooed, artists almost giving me an attitude about asking their hourly rate blah blah, and it sucks. I am sure it comes from the masses trying to haggle prices with them, but I'm not cheap, I have the moolah, just wanna know how much I should carry in my pocket on my way to your shop dammit.... You are trying to come prepared, mentally, physically, and financially, and not being able to do so really gets you down. Thanks for asking these questions. Stay open and casual about the conversations you have with the artists, make it clear you would just like to be prepared and pay them accordingly, and it really shouldn't be awkward. (even though it always is...haha)

Agreed. @marley mission, you're sure to get a killer tattoo! I love her stuff.

I have had varied experiences myself, similar to @Tornado6. I've had sketches emailed and essentially free consults online, others who won't use email at all except to say "give the shop a call," and once I had a consult, a rough quote and an appointment a month ahead, but a couple of days later got a call to say he had a cancellation that afternoon and if I could get my butt over there for the time slot he'd cut my price by 20%, no matter how long it took! It wound up being a great tattoo at a very reasonable price, so I overtipped, so he'd know I appreciated his work. This is really no different than any other aspect of getting a tattoo, when you break it down. If you walk in and the place seems iffy, the vibe is off, they misunderstand you or you misunderstand them, you have trouble "connecting," etc., you need to find another shop/artist. If you walk in and you are made to feel awkward about the cost then that might not be the shop for you. When it is right, all of the pieces seem to just fall into place, including how to work out the money issue. I know of an artist who is of the "if you need to ask, you can't afford me," type. Some artists are just that - purely artists - and consider every tattoo a commissioned piece that has their name on it, and won't do the tattoo if they don't want it in their portfolio, or on the wall of their personal gallery. If they don't like the design themselves they won't do it. Other tattoo artists are willing to do whatever you, the customer, want done. They have a talent and they make a living doing it, and that's all there is to it. There are all types of tattoo artists and you need to find the one that you're comfortable with in every aspect, including how they charge for their work. Most of us have a specific tattoo budget, so it is absolutely critical that you are not blindsided when it comes time to pay, and you shouldn't apologize for that.

Well when i was about 10 they started with Z on television. Watched it untill boo saga. now im gone watch it all. Im at episode 11 of dragonball. Finally i see how dirty master roshi is :D.

yep clean is right - first time on the lower arm - i have been hesistant to go there - but 17 pieces in - uh - its time :) @SeeSea when are you getting that thigh piece again?

@marley mission - Becca - love her stuff. Can't wait to see that one. So clean.

"I have XXXX to spend on this, can it be done fully and correctly for it? If not, could you give me a percentage of it that could be completed for that?" - should be acceptable. Actually, my favorite artist has an hourly rate, doesn't charge extra for design, and emails me her rough sketches. Maybe she is just super-nice, but this kind of customer service just won her best tattoo artist in our city. It is a business. If they treat customers poorly (and price-jacking is as bad as customer price-shopping) they had better be GREAT. And even at that, there are many great tattoo artists around you.

Thanks man ? Also, dude had surgery and can't help it.

session 2 on the back with Sheila Marcello on 6/3 @ Electric in Asbury Park and now 8/23 with Becca Genne-Bacon @ End is Near in Brooklyn going onto the lower arm for the first time with a rose and horseshoe combo

My name is Mickey Frost and this is one of my last works.

None of these are on me, but L.M. Knight deserves to be in any thread about frogs. https://instagram.com/p/YymwV0SRtK/ https://instagram.com/p/ZHGdSRyRmb/ https://instagram.com/p/m0m3WCSRs8/ https://instagram.com/p/VElw17SRrk/ https://instagram.com/p/jH5EomyRuh/ https://instagram.com/p/lGLojtSRsn/ https://instagram.com/p/rKm5F-SRlD/

Probably reaching under my bike to grab the tube of Loctite I had dropped and contacting the hot muffler with part of the tattoo is not good for it? Still healing but not looking too damaged. Suiren, I slept in a tee shirt the first night and it stuck, so I just wore it into the shower and soaked it loose. No harm to shirt or ink.

Just landed a "normal" position at my work! I've never had a stable job in my life (except for a 5 week career as a co-chef last year). For the past three years I've had the type of contract where I'd work anywhere from 0 - 150% of full time, depending on how much staff is needed and how much they would call me. After summer I'll finally have a fixed schedule for 67%, about 100 hours a month. So very, very nice to be able to plan my life the way I want it (around my working hours) instead of being at their mercy and let sudden phone calls reschedule whatever else is at hand. I had a meeting with my boss about two hours ago and now it's begining to sink in how this will change my day to day life. (Bonus: most probably I'll be able to switch up to a full time position and a better schedule too, in october)

@exume So envious! Due to changes in my work situation it seems like I will HAVE to go to the states in august and get some tattoos. Fuck yeah

Are you hoping for something photo realistic or something more avant-garde? If more avant-garde, I'd go with Razvan - he might be able do to something photo realistic for you without the avant-garde marks. There is a great thread on black and grey tattoos somewhere on the forum, and their aging. I highly recommend checking it out for artist references and ideas, thoughts, considerations, opinions, etc... http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/2654-aging-realism-what-lasts.html Marisa Kakoulas of needlesandsins.com covers a lot of artist from all over the globe, you might want to check her site out for additional ideas. Another big thing for picking the right artist is that you must go to the shop where the tattoo artist works, and look at their portfolio, feel the vibe of the shop and the staff working there. DO NOT ask for a quote for how much the tattoo would cost whilst visiting. When looking at the tattoo artist's portfolio... do they have nice photos? Are the photos of fresh tattoos, or healed tattoos? Is the portfolio itself decent (as an artist, a poorly photographed portfolio and sloppily put together portfolio sends red flags up for me), does the shop have a good vibe to you? If all is okay for you, then book a consult with your artist. You are not obligated to book a session or place a deposit with a consult (well, some uber busy artists do have consult booking fees that go towards the cost of the tattoo) - with the consult you'll see if you are a good match or not. A big indicator for me has always been: look at everyone's work, then make a shortlist of whose work you keep returning to look at more and more, then go visit those shops and a few others that didn't make the shortlist. After that, you can go with the tattoo artist's work that feels the most right for you. I spent a lot of time learning what a good tattoo was (placement, linework, shading, etc) just by looking at a lot of tattoos - good, bad, in between - and it made a difference in helping me figure out what kind of tattoo I wanted. I changed subject matter ideas so many times, then I decided to focus on finding a tattoo artist who made my heart pitter-patter, then I worked on sussing out subject matter. It was better for me, but may not be that way for you or others here. I feel like this response was a big long ramble, sorry about that.

Dear Dream Tattooer, why you no respond to my emails. We exchanged a couple and now nothing. I need to know if I'm getting an appointment with him or not... Deets will be revealed IF HE EVER ANSWERS AGAIN. (It's only been a couple days, but I'm antsy)

Sneaked this cheeky filler in today with Nicholas from Blue Arms, Oslo. Nice little warm up for the back piece session tomorrow!

Grez just told me that June will be the last sitting for my arm. Three weeks! I'm so excited to wrap it up.

So I added this hand and flower while the brilliant and hilarious Nikki Balls was guesting in Toronto at the Pearl. Next to a butterfly lady head by Glennie Whittal

Desert island. Ship wreck. Lifeboat. Frozen pizza. XBox controller. Box of tissues. - - - Updated - - - Wifey just suggested an astronaut on a spacewalk. I suppose any explorer/adventurer motif could work too.

I was born in '81, which was a weird time for geeks in general. Like, I was too young to do the 80's punk thing, but Pokemon was after my time. I played a lot of video games. A lot. Basically from the moment I was big enough to work the controllers for my dad's Atari 2600. I still have my original NES, even. Incredibly, it still works. I guess that part hasn't changed much, since I still play an ungodly amount of video games. Not sure what else we had going on in elementary school. Micro machines? Voltron? Oh -- haha. MUDs. AOL used to let you play Gemstone III through it. And there was that BBS game before AOL was even a thing, L.O.R.D.? Oh my god, I am old. I played around with writing little 'choose your own adventure' stories in QBasic. Played all kinds of text adventures (think Zork) -- my dad was into those, too. He also turned me on to science fiction; he gave me his copies of Clarke's 'Rama' series and pushed me to read Greg Bear. He was always into out-there fiction...I saw Eraserhead with him, and Tetsuo: Iron Man with him not much later than that, and this probably explains a lot about me. I guess grunge was a thing when I was in middle school. That's right around the time I discovered comics, which was a brief love affair, irreparably stained by the fact that the local comic book store owner pushed me to only buy series from Image. :/ We played a few card games. Magic, some Star Trek game, I forget what else. My brother was into pogs. Dead serious. Pretty sure my magic cards (which are all Ice Age) are in a shoebox around here somewhere. I was a band nerd too. Played flute for about 11 years, did symphonic, marching, pep, and jazz bands, and went to All State and Solo & Ensemble every year. After I went away to New England for high school, I had to drop that, but it gave me more time to do theater things. That's when I finally got into punk music -- I guess that was more the NOFX/Misfits/etc. punk era than old-school stuff. I eventually got into RPGs through Shadowrun, though I only ever got to play it online, in what is the nerdiest text-based environment you can imagine. (Really.) I wish someone had gotten me into 40kz! There was nothing tabletop-ish, mini or otherwise, near me where I grew up. I have good gaming buddies who regale me with stories about 40k lore and their crazy Necromunda games. They paint figures. I'm always totally fascinated by it. Sadly, my few experiences with 40k nerds who aren't 'them' left something to be desired. Like tact.

Always wanted to stand out, rebel, or buck the system. As a youngster I tried to be a hippie in the 70's but my older cousin had to explain that the movement was "over." I was sorely disappointed. Teen years I discovered the punk scene (80s) and found my groove. There was a lot of dysfunction, sadness, misery, anger, substance abuse, etc. in that scene, which I didn't really have myself, but the music and lifestyle transformed me. So, so exciting and a wonderful outlet for frustration. Now, my kids see the old pics and there are documentaries and discussion about some of the bands and the culture in general, and my kids think it is SOOOO cool that I was a part of that (East Coast, DC scene) but I have to remind them of what brought most people into that life, and that was feeling alienated by their parents, school, the world, and that we lost a lot of friends to substance abuse, suicide and careless accidents due to the extreme marginal lifestyle. I consider myself lucky. (RIP D. Brockie)

What a geek I was in the 60s. Not that great on grades - except Algebra, Geometry, Trig, Physics. Physics major in college but hated it, dropped out after one year and joined the Navy for eight years. Got out and started a career in particle accelerators. None of this drove my desire for ink. Still don't know what it was. I just wanted it!

As I mentioned in my intro thread, I've always been fascinated by tattooing, even going so far as to experiment on myself when I was a child. Pokemon was huge in my childhood (and still is, if we're being completely honest). I also got into anime and video games pretty hardcore, which has thankfully dimmed down into a casual interest. But my biggest passion as a child, and indeed now, is wildlife, and exotic pets. I started working with snakes when I was four, and now I have ten snakes, four lizards, two frogs, eighteen spiders, and a centipede, which is a subject for a different thread. There is a huge overlap between the tattoo/piercing community and the reptile/amphibian/invert community. Many, if not most, people in the reptile community have multiple tattoos and piercings, and I distinctly remember a reptile show being held the same weekend as a tattoo show, and most of the people at the reptile show were running back and forth between locations. I think both shows got a lot of extra business like this! Having said that, I grew up around lots of people with tattoos, and my parents never made anything of it. Most of them were super nice, and were more than happy to indulge my interests. I suppose this has contributed a lot to my interest and positive view of tattooed people and the community.

@IzzyBizzy either keep it covered or use a barrier cream! something with zinc oxide or titanium oxide. badger balm makes a couple of good ones. just make sure it has those ingredients in it and it will be better than the neutrogena i think. but the best thing you can do for a tattoo that is that fresh is to keep it covered.

Well first post so why not submit my tat. Done by Rocky Lasure at High Noon Tattoo. Still healing a bit.

agreed - bird on a fry is so dope