@MusiCA99 125904 wrote:

I know what you’re saying…but all you can do as a tattoo newbie is look into places, ask people for recommendations and check out previous work. I paid $160 Canadian.

Welcome to the forum.

You are right about it being difficult when you are a newbie to tattoos. When you look thru someones portfolio you aren’t quite sure what you should be looking for. A friend with only one or two tattoos might recommend someone they have gone to, who really isn’t very good, but they don’t know that. They are perfectly happy with their so-so (or sometimes really bad) tattoo and don’t know that it is not all that good.

One thing it might help to know is what average shop rates are in your area. If someone is way lower than that it would not be a good sign. Average shop rate here is about $150 an hour or more and the local artist I use charges quite a bit more – which I very happily pay because she really is that good. Although just a higher price will not necessarily mean a better artist either, price is only one indication.

All you can do is educate yourself – look thru magazines, portfolios, artist facebook and instagram pictures. Learn about different styles and how to tell if a tattoo is really good. Use forums like this one. Use the internet, the artist I go to I initially found by searching for reviews on the best colour artists in my area. If you see someone with a really fantastic tattoo, ask them who the artist is. Then do a little research on that artist. (Strangers have stopped me more than once and I have to say that it is quite flattering, even if I am only the canvas.) Go to any tattoo conventions in your area – to look thru a ton of portfolios in an afternoon. After a while you will be able to notice clean lines and good shading.

Or you can skip all that and use the list that PeterPoose has in his signature. Can’t go wrong with ANY of them.

Just get any unevenness or crooked lines in your tattoo fixed up, and next time find someone better. (Because you KNOW that there will be a next one.)

I can’t tell much with that tiny pic, but even with that pic it looks like some of the lines are wonky.

@MusiCA99 125911 wrote:

.I live in Canada.

Just curious, in your opinion, aside from the shaky lines what else makes it look like it wasnt done well?

The whole thing. It could have been so much better. It looks very uneven, shaky as shit and it’s hard to tell from the small pic but it looks blown out.

Canada is a big country with lots of tattooist can we maybe get a little more precise?

this one looks to be a cover up

@MusiCA99 125914 wrote:

I live in Toronto…so yeah definitely lots of artists.

Check out Chronic Ink.

Top photo is iguana with a make-over.
This iguana in bottom photo was done by an “artist” that had been tattooing for over 20 years.
Had I gone to current artist Anthony Zamora first, he said he would have made the iguana huge.

Sorry you’re not happy with your tattoo, it’s got to be a horrible feeling 🙁 I have to agree though that it’s not well done.

I was a tattoo newbie too, but I researched tons of shops in my area, and then joined this forum to read and lurk for awhile to get an idea of what makes a good tattoo good, and a bad tattoo bad. I also posted the artists portfolio who I was interested and got feedback on if the members here thought he was decent. I did all this *before* making an appointment with the artist, because I knew that if I was going to get something permanently inked on my body, I wanted to be damn sure I did everything I could to ensure I’d be happy with the results and it would be well-done. I don’t have any big, intricate pieces but it was still important to me to do my research first, rather than be disappointed and unhappy later.