To wonder how you know a tattoo artist is any good?

[BarryBarry]

I can't afford one atm so it's moot anyway right now but how on earth do people decide who to trust to permanently mark their skin? Like what distinguishes a good tattoo artist from an excellent one? What if they are having an off day? How do you know?!

Recommendations
Some have actual pictures of their work
Make sure they're long established and have all necessary paperwork health blah blah so better to go to an actual shop, not someone's home.
And they're not cheap

It's like buying artwork for your house, you look at previous work, get someone who specialises in what you are looking for and make sure it is perfect before spending your money.

Tattooists come in two types, you get your 'pop art' style tattooists that copy similar and endless patterns from a book and stick them on people who 'just want a tattoo' then you get tattooists who are artists. Go for the latter every time.

You pay a bloody fortune. Look at their past work, think about it a lot, talk to people. If you are in a city, ask around. Ask people who have stuff you like. Google them.

I went on personal recommendation with regards the studio and spoke to the owner about the type of work I wanted and he told me which of the guys would be best suited to the style.

After I'd met him, gotten him to draw up some work, seen photos of his previous work and spoken to some of his other customers I was then happy to book and appointment. Over 159 hours of work later and I don't regret my decision to go with him.

I went on recommendation and the tattooist work.

Thank you all I had a browse of some online and I can't believe the difference in quality between some tattoo artists! I'm going to have to save for a long while so I'll use that time productively I think and look and look and look.

Make sure none of their work appears on here.

Oh. My. GOD. marjory, those are tattoos of my nightmares!

Avoid getting a large prominent tattoo on a market stall in Thailand, and offer to buy a crate of beers for yourself and the tattooist before starting.

You'll end up with something that looks like a 5 year old has drawn with a biro, and it will cost a fortune to redo.

Recommendations and seeing the tattoos that people have from the place they are recommending.

www.greatbritishtattooshow.com/entertainment/tattoo-awards

www.tattoojam.com/entertainment/awards

www.tattoofreeze.com/awards

www.newyorktattooshow.com/tattoo-hall-of-fame/

Educate yourself, go along, look on line look all the artist's work.

It a bit like buying art for your home, either you get a cheap print from Ikea, or you go to art galleries and find an artist you adore, save up and commission something brilliant. Tattoos are fairly permeant, so well worth finding a master and having something special.

I don't have tattoos(except radio therapy ones)

but I have a friend who people travel from all over the world to get their tattoos done from, I bought some of his art work, he has a fine art degree.

Just out of interest, how much does a tattoo cost? It's one of those things I couldn't even guess at. If you told me £30 I'd believe you, if you told me £300 I'd believe you - absolutely no frame of reference, even with the IKEA art analogy.

And I'm a bit at 159 hours of work -crikey! Bet the Sistine Chapel didn't take that long .

I'm watching this with interest. Bit scared but I want one for 40th next month

Personal recommendation and seeing pictures of healed tattoos. Be wary of people whose portfolios are solely fresh works as tats look different when healed

I'm booked in for 3 hours work in 2 weeks time to the tune of £210....

Definitely see examples of their work. Facebook pages for the studios are good as you can see how many people like their work and also see comments good and bad!

My dh has spent approximately £3000 so far getting tattooed, he has most of his chest done and is half way through a full sleeve at the moment. His tattooist charges per hour and designs them for him from scratch based on what he wants. She draws them first and it goes back and forth a few times until he is happy with it and then it gets inked on.

Price Def depends on what you're getting, intricacy, size, black and white or colour etc. Best way to find out is to go and speak to the tattooist.

I've got 4 and have been between £20 and £100. Next one will be over £100 due to size.

Thanks for all the replies and links!

A bit of an aside question but do tattoo artists tattoo characters from TV shows etc or do they have to change the way they are drawn for copyright type stuff? I'd love save up to get a half sleeve or sleeve designed made up of favourite characters from childhood and now but I wasn't sure on the legalities?

I'm blown away by some of the portrait type ones some of these people can do! Amazing.

As far as I know they can do anything, I've never heard of copyright being an issue but perhaps I'm wrong as dh and I don't have any character tattoos.

Indigo norwich and in particular Joe carpenter (who often works there) are very good, even if you are not local to them if you Facebook them lots of examples of the work they do will come up.

Dh gets charged £70-85 an hour depending on the experience and reputation of the artist he chooses to go with. He mostly has 2-3 hours done at a time but it totally depends on what you have done and how much colour etc.

I made a mistake and got one done on a whim. First guy charged me £20 for an outline, second (well researched) guy cost me £80 to fix it. Always ask to see previous work and in particular similar to what you want. I wanted a white tattoo it is now pink where the first guy used shading ink instead of white tattoo ink. Love my tattoo but its not quite what I wanted

Where in the UK are you? I know some superb artists in the south east

A friend of DPs is widely regarded as one of the finest tattoo artists in our region. However, his Christmas card this year, complete with a little cartoon of Father Christmas, made me wonder how the hell he has earned his reputation; it was shocking, crap handwriting, spelling mistake (!) and pretty mediocre drawing. I'm going to ask about this remarkable discrepancy when I see him next, I'm baffled .

Two to three hours at a time? . Doesn't it like, really hurt?

I second fairy Indigo in Norwich are brilliant, I had my first tattoo done there. Also I know a really good one in Cambridge, Custom Ink Tattooing, where I had my second tattoo. All have been custom designs and I couldn't be happier with them.

I agree with previous posters, make sure they are artists, look at their previous work, can they do custom designs, how proud are they off their work, do they ever refuse some work due to morals, ethics etc?

Good luck