I’ve been looking into getting a Japanese sleeve for awhile now, but haven’t narrowed down an artist. I saw a post on here the other week of Jess Yen, and instantly fell in love with his work. His style fits exactly with what I like, which is a modern/realistic Japanese style. I found out he charges $250/hour, which would unfortunately be way out of my price range for a half sleeve. Do you know of artists with this similar style (emphasis on modern and good at realistic)?
Generally speaking, if you want the good shit, you have to pay the good money. If Jess Yen is exactly what you want, then why not save up and get a 100% satisfactory tattoo?
Besides, prices per hour have little to do with the price of a tattoo. Some artists are very slow and others are very fast. Far better to pay $250 an hour for 6 hours than $150 an hour for 16 hours
This is something I’ve found with paying good artists. My little fella started out tattooing in a little college town, and now he’s a big boy who works Nashville. Well, he charged a certain fee, and I was okay with that. As we’ve developed a friendly business relationship, I’ll say, “I want this,” and he’ll name a price range. This last tattoo he said 200-240, and I said I thought 240+tip was fair because I feel like more pay = less rush = better tattoo.
I see what you are saying, however if you applied that to everything else in life, then you’d be bankrupt. I’d love a lot of things in life, but I end up finding less expensive things that I’m happy with. There are probably some similar artists out there anyway (plus I read on a forum that Jess Yen was slow).
Time spent is an interesting point though, I hadn’t thought of that. Unfortunately I don’t know of any charts saying how fast tattoo artists tattoo. And even if I did save a couple thousand, at this point in my life I can’t justify spending that much on a tattoo.
@ArniVidar 133273 wrote:
Generally speaking, if you want the good shit, you have to pay the good money. If Jess Yen is exactly what you want, then why not save up and get a 100% satisfactory tattoo?
Besides, prices per hour have little to do with the price of a tattoo. Some artists are very slow and others are very fast. Far better to pay $250 an hour for 6 hours than $150 an hour for 16 hours
It’s good to have a budget idea up front, just as long as you don’t compromise on quality.
We have a pretty good Traditional artist working here in Iceland that regularly churns out full Japanese sleeves in one day. That’s some 6-8 hours at $150 an hour. I really doubt that it’s possible to get a good sleeve anywhere for less than a grand.
Your body is the most precious asset you own. It’s not like buying a pair of jeans, a car, or new carpet. You have it forever. Sometimes you have to know when it’s worth spending the money. I own a 20 year old 19″ TV. I can afford better, but I prefer the money. On my body, I’m worth every penny, and so are you.
Who cares, if that’s the artist who does work that you love. Plus you’ll have 2 or 3 years to save up. Once you have talked to him about what you want and he starts to draw something up for you he will be able to give you a rough estimate of hours and cost before you get started.
If he’s willing to take you on as a client, send the deposit. That’s my opinion.
@yodaddynukka 135359 wrote:
Jess yen does fast b/g slow color. Check out tony hu and james tex. Both have “similar” styles with him. Come to think of it, I think they are both more expensive than Jess. No one else, that I can think of, does his style.
Oh okay cool, I def like Jess Yen’s better. I think I”ll go through with the consultation and see how things go.
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