Well hello there and welcome. I understand what you’re talking about as far as tacky goes. I’m all about class in the designing stage of a tat. Sail boats are a really hard design to portray on skin without looking like a stamp or something but I think I might be able to help you out. You said you didn’t want something that will have to be redone and covered right? Well I hate to break it to you but you have to get your ink reworked every 10-15 years anyway just to brighten color, fix blurs or smearing, and outline edges. Generally you go back to the same artist.

Finding a great tattoo artist is like striking oil, you’re not going to move to another area for oil after you’ve already found it, you’re going to keep using the oil you’ve found.

To find a good tattoo artist, you’ll need to do some research and ask around. If you see someone on the street with some ink you like, ask them where they got it done. Do tattoo parlor searches on the internet and see where they are. Then check their feedback on the web as well. You may even have to do some traveling to find the artist. Hell mine is six hours away, sometimes quality isn’t readily available.

You did a good thing by coming here, I’ll see if I can dig up some ships for ya. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask and again welcome to the forum.

Understandable and you’re not appearing to be an asshole at all. You’re wise to know what you want and know the consequences of getting something that looks like crap. I applaud your decision. Give me a few minutes and I’ll have the pictures for you.