Cody Deegan

This is a tattoo I have on my leg which was done 22 years ago. It looked completely legible at the time. Now the black mass of hair and the face have become quite obscured. The one redeeming factor with time is that the ink tends to fade a bit in intensity, which means the option for a touch up after a good chunk of time can help remedy an old tattoo.  I may one day get this one reworked with more whites to help create better separations. But ultimately it was a bad design choice. I thought maybe sharing an aged tattoo with lots of black could help this thread.

Those light areas are artistic highlights. The color seems to be in the skin pretty well, I’d be more concerned about getting that line work touched and cleaned up.

That doesn’t look too good.  A simplistic tattoo like that shouldn’t have so many areas of redness. It could be “too deep” but more likely “too much”, meaning too many multiple passes over the same area can really damage the skin and also leave the client more prone to infection, which I would watch out for in those red areas. The patchy lines could mean the artist’s hand speed was too fast, which usually causes the artist to overcompensate by going back over too many times.

My method is simplistic - once I have an idea of the style and complexity of what they’re wanting, I charge anywhere from $20 (American) to $120. Its an incentive for me to want to draw, and it also tells me the client is serious about getting work done.

I run a custom, private, appointment-only shop. I do free consult appointments where the client shows up and we discuss the tattoo they want.  I take notes, sometimes do little sketches, and then ask if they want to proceed with having me draw up a design.  If they do, I collect a design fee from them. I also ask about the size and placement and then try to give a ballpark estimate on time since my shop rate is hourly.

After that I start sketching in the evenings, and when I have something decent I send it over to see what they think.  Usually there is some feedback and I incorporate into the new sketches.  Once I feel the direction is solid, I'll take the design to completion and send it over.  If they haven't set an appointment, they usually do at that point.

Tips are always appreciated, but I have never wanted people to feel pressured into tipping after spending a few hundred dollars. I am in a pretty small town so maybe the protocol is different. I don't do deposits because I find them to be a hassle. Or maybe I'm just a pushover.  But in the end it all comes down to keeping the bills paid, and so far that has been working for me.

Hi, I've been tattooing for over 20 years. I've been developing an iPad Pro app for tattoo practice over the past year and have been looking for ways to promote it. I bought some ad space on this forum and wanted to post in the marketplace section, but I guess it won't allow me to do that until I've done the initiation post and also contributed more posts to the forum. So this is my initiation post, "Hi everybody!" And I will look around the forums and see if there is anything I can contribute. Thanks!