blood and steel – finding a tattoo artist without losing your mind

Ok, so you are ready to get a tattoo. Congratulations, it took me 12 years to take the step and I hope everything will be finished until autumn. The last few months I thought about little else, I was even dreaming about getting inked by someone I read about in a magazine. I´m a little obsessed by now but I hope you can profit from my sleepless nights. I´m not an expert, I´m just expressing my opinion. If you are into tattoos you will know most of this already.

I won`t tell you anything about your picture of choice, that`s of course really up to you, but please don`t fall for a trend, you`ll regret it. How to notice the major trends? Be informed!
Here are some of my thoughts on how to get your Tattoo right.

1. Read: There are maybe a hundred Tattoo Magazines in print right now, try to flip through some of them. The good ones will have written text that won`t insult your education, reports from conventions, artist portraits and interviews and some info on the background of tattooing. Be careful if the pictures of the tattoos shown are too bright and colorful – Photoshop is the path to the dark side. Magazines are important to know the state of the art, to know what really is possible. Be warned though, your standards will be ridiculously high.
Always try to see behind what is tattooed (an anchor, a portrait…) and try to see the tattoo itself. How is the shading, are the lines straight, do you like the use of colour, how does the tattoo interact with the body of the person ?

Check out the websites of artists that appeal to you, no matter where they are. Even if you can never go there to get a Tattoo, this will enhance your knowledge on how a tattoo should look like if done properly.

2. Visit: Check out the calendar of the magazines you read and see if you can find a tattoo convention near you. There will be dozens of artists at work there, you will hear the sound of buzzing needles, you can look through their portfolio, talk to them about your ideas (if you have any yet) and giggle at the showacts. Take a close (well, not too close) look at the tattoos people are wearing, ask them where they got it from if you feel like it. Check out the websites of these conventions to see what artists are going to participate. Watch them work on living, breathing skin to really get an impression of the difference between magazine pictures and real tattoos. Important conventions for Europe would be Frankfurt, Rome, London, Milano. Amsterdam, Stockholm and many more.

Of course there are some artists that are really good but that are not featured in magazines or at conventions.
Don´t believe the hype!

3. Style: By now you should have noticed that certain artists favor different styles of tattoos. Try to find out what style you want and find somebody who excels at that style. Do you want a traditional japanese piece? Old School? Realistic? Polynesian Dotwork? Abstract? If you are like me you will try to find some books on the specific style, but hey that`s my job in real life. I think it`s really more about the style and artist than the actual topic of your tattoo. Try to think about this like collecting art, with your body being the gallery.

4. Think global: If you found an artist you really like and he lives next door, good for you! Most of the time this will not happen. Try to determine how much money and effort you want to invest. Is it ok to go to Berlin with a cheap airline to get the Tattoo of your dreams, do you want to travel to Japan or just take the subway to the projects? It`s up to you. Many good artists will come and work at a convention near you or they might have a guest spot at a local tattoo studio. E-Mail them and ask about it. Don`t make too many compromises. Yes, traveling to Stockholm 3-4 times to get your chest covered is expensive, but you`ll have that ink for life. There is no rush to get tattooed if you are not 95. If you live in a big city chances are there are some great artists just around the corner, so be sure to research locally too! You will hardly have to travel to the US or Japan, there are a lot of great artists in Europe. Write to a lot of people and tell them about your idea, ask about cost, how many sessions they think this will take and their waiting list. About cost in general: it pays off to ask differnt artists for the cost/duration of the same project, there are differences…but: if you want good ink you will have to pay accordingly.

5. Communicate: If you found somebody, get in touch, tell her about your idea, see if this will work out on an emotional level. A good artist you trust will make that skull look special on your skin even if there are millions of skulls in the world. Try to ask about good studios for your style at a nice and friendly forum but don`t get immersed too much. If you are sure about your artist and have a set date, stop reading magazines or forums, it will only make you miserable…try to enjoy the feeling of knowing that your choice was knowledgeable.

This seems to be a lot of work? You thought you would just get drunk and go for it? Of course it`s up to you to build your gallery but don`t get mad if nobody wants to visit.

I´ll appreciate any comments from people with more experience than myself.

I´ll post links to my favorite artists soon.

mate!
randori.

Shown Tattoos in order of appearance by:
Shige (Yellow Blaze, JP)
Viva Dolor (FR)
Mike DeVries (US)