Hi Whip.

Love the concept of the tattoo idea.

With regards to fiding a decent artist – there are several ways;

Word of mouth – A good artist will be known by happy customers. If you see somebody with a really good tat don’t be shy of asking who and where.

Local studios – A good tattoo artist will be honest and state whether they can deal with black/shade portraits or prefer to just do colour. Have a look round your local studios and get a feel for the quality of artists there.

I would suggest however that you use the internet to check out tattoo artists if you are willing to travel upto a couple of hundred miles.

In all cases take a good look at their portfolio’s and see what inspires you. You should not have too much difficulty in finding an artist who can do balck and shade as a decent tattooist will be able to handle both (even if they prefer to do one over the other).

Good Luck

Matthew

Hi Whip,

No there is nothing rude about viewing somebody’s portfolio and leaving the shop afterwards. The key is being polite and just state that you are browsing with an intent to future work.

That way there is no time wasted as they will let you get on with it and focus on their own thing.

I did a tour of the states and saw over 50 studios in my travels – but only had the one tattoo done there. I am pleased to say that all but one of the artists had no issue with me browsing, and this guy had a dog taking a piss in the sterile area so I was out of there anyhow.

Good Luck with your search.

Matthew

For my money, if the artist has a problem with you looking at their portfolio, then they aren’t professional enough to warrant your business. The sad truth is, for every professional, amazing artist who’ll treat you with care, there’s twenty guys who can’t draw an even elipse and have only a passing aquaintence with cleanliness and aftercare, a hundred morons working out of their basement who reuse needles and pass on nifty blood borne diseases, and one dude with a dog pissing in his sterile area. The only way to weed out the people who give tattooing a bad name, or for that matter the amazing artists from the mediocre is by word of mouth and their professional portfolio.

So, basically, if you don’t do the research before hand, you run the risk or getting a bad piece of work, and an artist should expect that request. If they got a problem with it, seriously, FUCK THEM.

On the issue of traveling to get work done, my sister and I both only get our tattoos from this guy named Troy Coe up at Lambadi City in Cincinnati. As he pointed out to me at my last sitting, I’m pretty much a living portfolio for him at this point.

At any rate, I still live there, so no biggie. But, atm, my sister’s in the process of getting a back piece that’s going to require roughly five five hour sittings from him, and she now lives in Wisconsin! So, over the course of three months, she’s going to drive from Wisconsin to Ohio for a tattoo five times. And you know what–I understand. In the small company town she lives in, she hasn’t been able to find a single artist whose portfolio impresses her. So, since ink lasts forever, she’s not going to get ink from someone with no sense of design, crooked elipses, and only a vague sense of hygiene. She’s coming back to were she knows she’ll get something to be proud of.

That’s how it’s supposed to work.

Love. Peace. Metallica.

Well, I got to say man, the dog pissing the sterile room beats out any bad hygiene story the rest of us have, but I got a better stupid artist story then rolling up at the counter.

I’m the official tattoo guy in my family. When one of my cousins, aunts, siblings, ect. want to get ink done, they pretty much always come to me and ask me about design, ideas, and where they should get it done at. Usually, I just direct them to the guy who does all of mine’s shop, and he’ll take care of them, but occasionally one of my vast array of cousins have their heart set on a shop and pester me to go check it out for them.

Well, a couple years ago, my cousin Monkey Spot (so named for the patch of monkey fur on his forehead) wanted to get a snarling rottwhiler with chain coming off of it on his wrist, and wanted to see this shop I’m always sending people to. So, I rolled him up there, make introductions, and stepped back and let them work their shit out.

Problem was, when it came down to price, my artist wanted $250, and Monkey Spot’s head exploded. He said he had a buddy who’d do it out of his basement for $40. My artist tried to talk him out of it, but Monkey Spot wasn’t listening as my man was obviously trying to gyp him, and I should be ashamed of myself for being in on ripping my family off.

I didn’t see Monkey Spot for about six months after that. I saw why. He got his ink, but it looked less like a rott and more like a amorphous blob. And here’s the kicker:

The artist, who was apparentaly half drunk, messed a line up pretty freakin badly. Now, instead of trying to work it into the design, he instead took his tattoo gun and scribbled it out, just like you would in elementary school when you misspelled something and didn’t have an eraser!

Monkey Spot walked around with that for two full years before he shamefacedly went back to my guy and got it covered.

For $800.

Love. Peace. Metallica.