Hi, my name is West and I found this forum when searching on Google. The majority of you seem to be very knowledgeable about tattoos, so I have a few questions I was hoping you could answer.

I will be getting my second tattoo as soon as I get paid. A good friend of mine who is a professional graphics design artist drew the tattoo for me from scratch and we worked on it until we were both very pleased with the results.

Here is a picture of the design:

[Image removed at request of the poster.]

The tattoo will be going on the right side of my right calf. The idea is that all of the white in this picture will be skin, and all of the black will be pure black ink.

As you probably noticed, the tattoo has several spaces that are filled with very thin, close lines. I also realize that some of them are a little crooked. It is my intention to have the tattoo artist make the lines as straight as possible when putting the actual ink on me. However, I am curious about how the close spacing of the lines will turn out once it is actually tattood on me.

Anyway, here are my questions.

Q. Will the lines bleed together because of their close proximity to one another?
Q. Are most tattoo artists capable of doing such fine detail?
Q. If the lines are too close and will bleed together, what would be a good alternative so that I could keep as much of this design in tact as possible?
Q. Can you read what it says in the design? I wanted it to be clever, but also obvious enough to determine what it is.
Q. Do any of you know the approximate cost of this design, assuming the artist I find is a trained professional?
Q. Do you like this design? Usually peoples opinions on something like this wouldn’t concern me, but I also understand that tribal based designs are rather cliche. While I love this design, I also don’t want to look like a frat boy.
Q. Do you have any recommendations on a lotion product to use during the healing phase? Also tips regarding showering and sun contact are appreciated.

Thanks for listening and I look forward to some feedback. Nice to meet you all.
-West