The guest artist at Reykjavik Ink now is a guy called Thomas Asher, from Jacksonville, FL.
His Myspace page has some very good pictures and I’m thinking of getting him to put something on me. But I was wondering if any of you had heard anything about his work? First person accounts are always better than portfolio pics.
Also, how much would be ‘normal’ (meaning, what would you guys charge/pay) for a 6×4″ full color cartoon-style tattoo? The price will be $4-500 and I’m just wondering how competitive that price would be?
Well, I was wondering how much it would cost over there 🙂
Ah, none I have told you about yet. I still haven’t completely decided, but I think I might build a ‘sleeve’ around my calf, with all the 100 Acre Woods animals :rolleyes:
To begin with, I was thinking I’d do Heffalump and later add each character as I can afford, all of them placed as they were part of the ‘sleeve’. I’d then get the background filler in the last 2 sittings, once I can afford it.
Considering I have to pay $500 for Heffalump and then 3-500 for each of the rest (Kanga, Roo, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Owl and Christopher Robin) I’ll probably have to pay $1000-1500 for the filler.
Well, the reason is kids… in a way. In some ways, I’m really just a great big toddler :p
I realize that this is a pretty odd tattoo idea, and I doubt many (men at least) have had similar done to them, but it’s strange and quirky and bright and fun, some of which I am and some of which I’d like to be :p
It is also a nice counter-balance to the whole darkness theme that also interests me and is just as big a part of my earlier years. Disney is a big (and still ongoing) chapter of my life, and I want all chapters of my life documented in ink.
I love cartoons and Disney has the major part of my favorite cartoons. In fact, I may love cartoons just as much as I love Sci-Fi and Fantasy. There are many different cartoons that I want to get characters from for my cartoon themed tats, but the adventures of Pooh and his friends have been with me for my whole life whereas most of the other characters are much newer.
Heffalump is just the most adorable little thing and I think it would be a good beginning for the whole colored cartoon theme, especially with it’s purples and pink which are as far away from my color preference as is possible. It would be a commitment to color and to Disney that I would HAVE to follow through with, because a random purple elephant would be pretty out of sorts in an otherwise B/G tattoo world 😀
Incidentally, though, the Heffalump is also the most recent character to appear in a movie, so it’s not all about having been with me forever.
Now, the major issue I’m having with the whole sleeve idea (apart from the cash issue.. I’m really not so fond of having to pay $6000 for half a leg), is choice of characters. As I say, there are many characters from many movies that I’d like to have, but I can’t exactly see how I could fit the various characters into a sleeve that would still feel ‘whole’. I mean… how would Nemo fit in the same place as Baloo? But the 100 Acre Woods characters are all lovely and funny and quirky, and they all live in the same place, so creating a uniform background should really be easy.
Another idea would to gather up all the characters I do like from all the different movies, and create like a montage or whatever it’s called, where the pictures are just spliced together into a great big piece, some things going behind other things and so on. There would be no background at all, only the characters chosen, but that would then mean that I’d have to have the entire thing designed and outlined in one go. That would also mean that I would need someone REALLY experienced in cartoon drawing (maybe a comic-book writer), because he or she would have to fit all the pieces together to make them look good, and would probably have to change body positions and facial expressions and whatnot. Also, that idea COULD become a bit more ‘crowded’, which might be worse as a tattoo (too many lines too closely together). I am a Mordillo fan (jigsaw puzzles) and his drawings are always very chaotic and busy, and I always see something new every time I look at them. It could be fun to create a similar effect in ink, but as I say I doubt it could be achieved because of the whole fading/bleeding factor.
I’ve been thinking a whole lot today and I don’t think that right now is a very smart time to be getting tattooed in Iceland. The prices have almost doubled (~$300 an hour now) since I got my first tattoo, despite the imported goods being the smallest part of the tattooing cost, and they seem to want people to believe it’s due to the depression. Will I still enjoy the piece if I know that the studio robbed me? I might even be better off finding a good artist in the UK, flying over for a sitting and then flying back home. Price would at least not be higher, and it would be a nice trip as a free bonus 🙂
As for ‘modern or old fashioned’ I’m not really sure what you mean, but if you call the 3D CGI cartoons ‘modern’, then no… I don’t like them. I want the characters are they are in the books and the movies created before there ever was CGI.
Something that big and bright is bound to look great as a tattoo, and 100 acre woods would work great as a theme.
To do the big montage, you’d probably need to use a big canvas too – back maybe?
And wow, that’s a big price to ask for tattooing. The guy I go to is $440 for four hours. I was in the chair for nearly five on monday, and he still only charged for four. Are the prices likely to drop again you think?
Yeah, you’re probably right that to do the big montage I might have to use the whole leg, or a back. The back’s reserved though, for either the Phoenix or the Dragon (All depending on what I decide on in the end).
And yes, I believe the tattoo would look good and I’d probably just maintain it every 5-10-20 years to keep the colors fresh. I am sure my kids will enjoy it as much as I do.. whenever they come to be 🙂
The price will hopefully go down again. The place where I got my first charged $200 an hour and probably still does, but their waiting list is miles long and they don’t particularly do the genre I’m thinking of. And besides, if I go there I’d probably just go ahead with the very expensive Phoenix or Dragon designs that I want him to create for me 🙂
Reykjavik Ink ONLY has guest artists, and they usually are very good and have a broad spectrum of styles, which is why I went there. It MAY be that the guest artists get paid in Dollars (of course I don’t know how guest spots work, if they get salary or what) and thus the salary has doubled for the company, but does that justify doubling the sale price of the tats? Relativistics and exchange rates mean that the ~$300 price I’m telling you gives the tattoo parlor ~$150 USD, and that is what it would cost you to get tattooed there, so.. I dunno.. maybe the price is just right and only ridiculous because of the degradation of our currency.
A third place has a guy that does great portraits and japanese but I don’t see him doing cartoon style because it’s not his style and he also fancier really strange colors.. I need the colors to be accurate.
The fourth place is pretty known for loud black-metal and really awesome really dark themed tattoos, so I didn’t even bother asking them about the cartoons.. I mean, I can’t ask a guy that’s drawing a devil eating a pretty naked woman’s heart that he’s just ripped out of her chest, to draw me Pooh! There’s something not right about that 😀
The guy I’m going to opened up his shop a few months ago, and you could almost get a walk-in tattoo, very small waiting list. When I make my next 4 hr sitting, I’d probably be looking at late December, early January if not later. Seems so much longer when you’re really excited to get more work done.
Our currency converts to nearly $100 American an hour for a tattoo.
And about the devil-eating-woman artist, he might have Piglet tattooed somewhere where he can hide it! :p
You must be logged in to create new topics.
