My name is Mike, friends call me Mac from back in the day. I am tattoo free, always decided I would wait til I truly know something I want. Well, I have finally decided on a few different things I want, and I think I want all of them. I know it won't happen over night, but I came to this forum for answers to questions/advice. I am from WV and in my 30s and have been through hell and back in my life, which I am sure everyone has probably been through their own personal hell. But I just want to say hello, and hopefully you experienced tattoo receivers and artists can help me on my path to getting some art done.
Well the guidelines told me to post my question here, so I will just go ahead and ask. I have some ideas of a couple things i want done. One is a portrait of my dog of all dogs, the love of my life, my kid. There are quite a few tattoo artists around here, and I see their work, and its not bad, but for a portrait, something I want done special, versus the other ones that I still want done perfectly, but not as perfect as the portrait of my best friend ever. Should I look into going out of state for this? Take a road trip somewhere for a renowned tattoo artist that does things like this? And if so, I live in WV. Where on the east coast would be somewhere to look into something like that? And it would be a calf tattoo, so in a large ballpark range, how much would something like that cost?
2nd question, the other ones, I was thinking of some small nature scene, kind of a hilltop, a tree, and a rose, with a couple words. Once again, in WV, i just get nervous because I am unsure how truly great people are at their profession around here actually are, and its basically the same question again, but should I just go around and hunt for tattoo artists that can do things like that around here? Look at portfolios? And if I come up with an idea for them to run with, does that usually cost a decent chunk of change for the concept art? The portrait I mentioned above I will have a photo. But the 2nd one I am talking about now is more conceptual. How much would I be looking to spend, once again, ballpark range, for them to draw it up to see if I like it? And if I don't quite like it, do I have to pay them again to draw a new one or change it up a little? I am completely unaware how the world of inking works and any explanation to any of this would be extremely grateful. Especially the part about whether I should go out of state for tattoos I want extremely detailed, how much more expensive they would be, and some of the more renowned ones I should look to on the east coast.
Thanks again for all your help.
Mac.
