Synesthesia

From what I gathered, it looks like he divides his time between Philly and Detroit now. He wasn't in the shop when I was there, otherwise I might have asked him.

He literally just moved to True Hand Society (still in Philly, but he explained to me he had more freedom with his schedule here) and it was his first tattoo at the new shop. He was so excited to do one of his favorite subjects as his first one. In his words: "It's all downhill from here." I can't recommend him or the new shop enough. It was an awesome end to our trip. Matt Lambdin is at that shop now too, and my non-tattooed boyfriend was oohing and ahhing over his portfolio...so we might be back.

I haven't posted in a while, but I got this done by Topper in Philly earlier today. So happy with it. This is my first highly visible tattoo on my forearm, too.

I don't think personality really matters much, honestly. A lot of artists don't even really like to talk much while they're working so you'll barely notice. It's always a nice bonus if they're good people, but their artistry comes first imo. You CAN say no at any time if you're not liking the direction an artist is going. But I've never had that problem. Maybe I'm easily impressed but I've loved every design an artist has drawn up for me. Personally, if they ever did show me something that wasn't what I wanted, I'd probably ask them to do a revision and try to steer them in the right direction. If they still aren't getting it the second time, I'd pay them for their drawing time and move on to another artist. But yeah I've never had that issue. I kind of think you're overthinking it a little. Find an artist whose work you love, give them lots of good reference pictures of what you're thinking, relax and let them do their thing without being micromanaged, and just see what they come up with. Every custom tattoo I've had done wasn't exactly how I pictured it in my head, but most times I liked what the artist came up with even better or I was willing to give it a shot because I had faith it would work out. If you like the majority of their work, I see no reason why they would suddenly fail to create a drawing you like for your tattoo.

Most reputable artists can tell right away if you're price shopping and they won't take too kindly to it. It's a little offensive to treat a handcrafted piece of art you'll have for the rest of your life like you're trying to score a great deal on a new TV. A lot of shops are even prickly about the concept of Friday the 13th sales or the like. I don't even ask how much for a piece until I've already decided on an artist and confirmed he wants to do it, and I only ask then so I make sure I bring enough cash. Pick your artist first and the money is secondary. Maybe schedule an appointment far out in advance if it exceeds your budget, but most artists will be willing to work with you and your budget if you're cool about it and have a good idea. It's not frowned upon to scope out various shops for their artistry though. In addition to things like Instagram and Facebook, it can be helpful to go into a shop and ask to see a physical portfolio, sketches of things they'd like to tattoo, maybe watch them work (from a respectful distance), or ask questions. Just say something along the lines of you're trying to see if they're a good fit for what you want, don't drag things like price into it or you're going to turn off a lot of good tattooers.

I wouldn't really care honestly. Most copies are inferior, so I'd probably have the better tattoo. I lean more towards flash rather than custom pieces these days anyway, so probably a lot of people have "copies" of what I have. I'd probably be more upset if I was the artist. They have more claim to the original art than the client anyway.

Some artists might do consecutive days on a newbie if you were traveling across the world for them or something. But if this guy is just a few hours away or less, it's going to be much easier on your body to just make the trip a few times than to subject yourself to unnecessary trauma. As for 60 hours being a lot...it really depends. Every artist works at a different pace. And it depends on your design. Something with a lot of details might be more time consuming than something less detailed. He might be considering you're a newbie: maybe he could do it in 6 hours on a veteran to tattoos that sits really well, and he could do it in 12 for a newbie that wiggles around a lot and needs a lot of breaks. He could be factoring touch up time into that too. Your tattoo could be effectively done by, say, session #8 but then need some more work after that to tighten it up and that could bump you up to session #9 or #10. I wouldn't worry about it so much. When this is all said and done, you're going to have a good tattoo for the rest of your life and little details like how long it took or whether he went from top to bottom aren't even going to matter.

The only thing you could possibly do is have them go over the lines again and thicken them to try to hide some mistakes. But then you lose all the delicateness of the swirls and risk making the font too hard to read. Leave it alone, all tattoos have mistakes if you look close enough and it looks great from a distance.

I don't have a backpiece but I have several smaller (and some not much smaller than a backpiece) designs, so here's my opinion on each question: 1) Totally normal. This is usually referred to as a deposit. You're charged usually somewhere between $50-$100 (too lazy to convert to pounds for you) to compensate an artist for drawing time and to help ensure you'll actually come to the appointment and not chicken out since the deposit is non-refundable. 2) Really average price. 3) It's impossible to tell how many sessions a large tattoo is going to need. It depends on how long you can sit, how fast he can work, how your skin takes the ink, how it heals after each session, etc. I have a large piece on my thigh that I was originally told should be 3 sessions, but it ended up being 4 because some of the graywash healed too light and I needed another session for shading. Don't ask for a quote on sessions, that's a really dickish thing to do. You can always tell an artist you need more time between sessions if budget is an issue. A good rule of thumb is to save up and bring a lot more money than you think you might need. 4) Most artists wouldn't dream of doing this. They want the finished product out there walking around and drawing in new customers (you are basically a living billboard for their services) and to grow as an artist and hone their skills more. If you feel like this guy is skeevy, you can always just not go back to him and find someone else to finish the tattoo. Try to get a feel for the average speed of tattooing and how much progress is made in a certain amount of time. 5) Whatever you want within reason. Don't be obnoxious and talk on your phone or blare music. Most artists are okay with phone usage as long as you don't flail all over the place or be loud with it, most artists are fine with music as long as you have headphones, some people read books or eat snacks or chat with the artist...I usually am entertained enough by people watching and silently judging some of the douchier customers. Pain can be entertaining too. Just ask your artist if he doesn't mind if you do a certain activity first. Fun fact: I mentioned to a tattooer once that I was scheduled with Chad Koeplinger for my next tattoo and he warned me not to bring gum because Chad hates when people chew gum while getting tattooed. 6) Generally around 20%. Some people tip that much every session, some people save it for the end. I prefer to do it as we go so I'm not carrying around an extra few hundred in cash. Tip more or less depending on quality of service, as is the usual. 7) Everyone has different aftercare routines they like and works best for them. You'll figure out your own. Generally I recommend dry healing or mostly dry healing: you refrain as much as possible from ointments and lotion and let your skin take care of itself. It's way easier imo than worrying about what type of lotion to put on, how often, how much, etc. But try different things and see what you like. Generally protect it from the sun, don't scratch it (it will get itchy), and don't pick the scabs. 8) 18 days is fine. You might still have some light peeling by that point, but the tattoo isn't going anywhere at that point. I wouldn't worry much about losing ink during the healing process (your shirt rubbing off scabs) since you'll probably need touchups towards the end of the tattoo anyway. 9) I haven't really heard that but everyone does stuff differently and I guess it depends on your design. I don't think it really makes much difference. I don't think it's necessary to get a smaller tattoo from someone first before committing to a bigger design. You might as well just go for what you want. If you can't trust your artist fully, maybe he's not right for you. And I wouldn't recommend doing consecutive days for your first tattoo if you don't absolutely have to. It's a lot of stress to put yourself under. You're going to be nervous, experiencing a new type of pain (one that you might not necessarily have the tolerance for that you think you will), and experiencing it for hours on end. I get feverish after about 4 hours of tattooing and went into mild shock after a 7+ hour session. I wouldn't suggest it until you know how your body will tolerate tattooing.

Okay, I'm really late to this party but: Well yeah, most legendary tattooers are grizzled old men that are a little politically incorrect. You sound surprised by the way he speaks. Not sure if you're trying to make a criticism or just a statement...? Personally, as a woman, I find this whole idea of masculine spaces (like an old tattoo shop) to be a sort of mystical thing. I like going into old timey barber shops with my boyfriend and seeing how different it is from the unisex salons I go to. I think masculine spaces should be respected and appreciated, there aren't many places where a guy can be a guy anymore without judgment. If you don't like how these guys carry themselves or operate their shop, there's more than enough other shops to choose from. /rant And rightly so for him to be judgmental. Just because he did it doesn't mean it's a good idea. It just means he's old enough to know better and wishes someone would have told him not to do it when he was a kid.

A couple sessions of laser and the world is your oyster. As is, you could probably get away with some designs that are heavy in black or with lots of patterns to draw your eye away. It's really hard to give any suggestions when you have no style in mind, though, like @Tornado7 said.

I vote to continue with the graveyard scene around and down your arm. More tombstones, skulls, zombies, evil shit...would be really cool.

I think your artist made a smart composition choice: the rose looks good on your shoulder and the dove looks good where it is, but that would mean the time on the clock was being covered by the rose (and I assume you requested a specific time, most people do). It's a good tattoo, don't mess with it.

That's fucking awesome!

The artist said my blood actually inspired him to add to the design. As he was shading and I was bleeding, he got the idea to add some pink around the mouth of the skull and the skeletal horse he's riding on, like there was still some tissue left on the bodies.

@suburbanxcore White Rose is pretty new, the guys at the shop said they just opened about 4 months ago. They specialize in traditional and there's SO MUCH good flash on the walls, I had a hard time deciding. http://instagram.com/whiterosetattooparlour Wes didn't do the panther, that was done by Chad Koeplinger when he came through DC a couple years ago. Took him about an hour and a half to do. This is a better picture I took of it when it was freshly healed.

Probably my favorite right now is Steve Byrne, I'm always amazed at his creativity, crazy colors, and super bold lines. I have nothing by him...yet. And I guess I can post this here too. I got this Cap Coleman dragon design last night by Wes Garvick in York, PA. I've wanted a dragon for a while now and Cap does some of my favorites.

No, this is not a British thread, I want to see your in progress, bleeding shots of your tattoos! Maybe it's just me but I love getting pictures of this because I bleed a crazy amount when I get tattooed. Like "oh god, please wipe me again, I'm dripping on the floor" kind of bleeding. I found this kind of old picture of a tattoo I finished about a year ago and that's what inspired the thread. I also took this one last night. That yellow smear is some ink that rubbed off on my forearm, so you can see the blood ran all the way down to my elbow.

I think you mentioned before about possibly doing the cat's face in color, and I would suggest against that. You have so much black and gray in there already that putting color over top that would look muddy. The only thing you could really do that would make sense is to just have it darkened or outlined in some spots to add more contast, and even then, you're still going to have color up against black and gray. I personally love the juxtaposition of realism against a more illustrative style and think it brings out the best qualities of both tattoo styles. I think this was a great fix and improves the cat a lot. Get more tattoos and stop worrying about this one!

Got my somewhat spontaneous dragon tattoo today. Wes Garvick did it and I'm so stoked on it. His shop is literally the only one in town I'd ever go to, if you ever find yourself in York, PA. And what's that you guys always say about everyone needs a panther and dragon? Now I have both and they're friends.

I've got to say I agree with the posts about tattoos making you feel better about yourself. I've been interested in tattoos ever since I knew what they were, and always saw myself as a tattooed person. When I finally got my first one, I had a moment of "this is what I'm supposed to be doing," if that makes any sense. There's also been an attitude of "women should be pretty, this skull isn't feminine enough for me to get it" I had to get over. And man is it liberating. I feel like I can do anything with my body now and no one has any say over it. Tattoos have also renewed my interest in art and given me the confidence to proceed in some sort of art related field. Right now I work in a copy center, basically the manual labor side of graphic design. Someday I'd like to be a graphic designer, or a tattooer, or hell, just about anything related to art. I was really into it as a kid and lost my interest some time around middle/high school because I was worried I wasn't good enough. Now I just have fun doodling stuff that looks like tattoos or whatever and it's made me realize how fun art is...even if I'm not the greatest.

So some updates on my upcoming tattoos: I walked into the local shop I've been wanting to check out tonight and tried to get a walk in, but unfortunately the guy I wanted to get tattooed by had to be somewhere tonight and didn't have time. But the good news is I have an appointment for tomorrow and I picked this awesome Cap Coleman dragon design. The guy doing the tattoo is Wes Garvick, who is on the short list of local artists I really want something by. Love his no nonsense, heavy black style. His Instagram is all black and gray for some reason, but you can find some color examples on the shop website: https://www.instagram.com/whiterosetattooparlour/?hl=en I also did end up booking with Topper in April. He's going to be doing a really vintage and classy lady liberty design for me.

It's a little late to be debating whether or not this is the right guy for you, isn't it? You've already consulted with him and have him doing a sketch. I sure hope you at least give him some money for drawing time if you decide not to do it. This guy is a completely average street shop level artist. You won't come out of there with anything mindblowingly good but probably not anything awful either. It's up to you if that's good enough for you.

I reached out to Topper at Philadelphia Eddie's about a potential appointment in April, fingers crossed. And I might check out a local shop in the near future and pick some flash off the wall as soon as I'm not either sick or working.

It's been about a year for me I guess. Facebook reminded me not long ago. I might scope out a local shop for flash soon, I'm dying for something, it (almost) doesn't even matter what!