I like m both, however the first one seems to be more of a portrait specialised person and in her portfolio is nothing that looks like the idea you’re describing, the second artist has all kinds of work in his portfolio so he might be a better to work with your idea. However the only way to really find out is visit both shops and talk to the artists;)

Well, Jessie seems to be fairly proficient at B/G portraits, but I’m not overly impressed with her lettering and banner work

Roman, however, bothers me somehow. Some of his pieces are okay and others I really hate. There are quite severe blowouts in places and poorly executed lines all over the place, and then you have other pieces where he does good lines. He truly sucks at anything relating to anatomical correctness (including faces), but his strong suit seems to be the more traditional/Japanese kind of work. I find his (lack of) color blending skills bothersome, but not being much into the whole traditional/Japanese themes, I can’t say if that is intentional or not. Overall, to me he looks to be of somewhere around average skill and little artistic ability.

Frankly, you could find better artists in both fields, but you could also find worse ones.

What I meant, though, is that even though you don’t really know what you want, surely you know what you like and don’t like. As I see it, you need to build that into some cohesive ‘image’ in your head of what this totem might conceptually look like, if for nothing other than being able to say “I like this but I don’t like this” when your artist shows you his sketches.

But with so little to go on, you would definitely need a good artist to transform your half-formed thoughts into a proper tattoo piece. Roman is definitely not up to that, and seeing as what Jessie does best it reproduction of reality, I’m not sure she has the artistic imagination to create fantasy out of thin air.

Well, again, since Traditional/Japanese isn’t really my area of interest, I can’t really say how Danny’s work compares, but at least both Danny (and Jessie, too) does very good lines. I don’t like the lack of color blending, but I’m starting to imagine that’s just my view on Traditional/Japanese in general that’s coloring my opinion there (pun intended).
Danny’s portrait work is not as good as Jessie’s, though, and his artwork is all bad.

If you like this sort of thick, bold lines and sharp, vivid colors, perhaps you’ve found where your tastes lie? Maybe you like Traditional and/or Japanese artwork, and want your totem to be somewhere in that category?

Obviously, you can’t know what these people can come up with until you’ve talked to them and even seen some sketches, and it may well be that I’m WAY off base with my belief that they’re not very artistically creative.

There are users here from all over the planet, so perhaps if you said where you’re at, people might recommend good artists in those genre’s, relatively near your location, for you to browse through.