Well, it's happening. I'm taking the plunge and getting a tattoo. After much thought and confusion, I scheduled my appointment for this friday (ah!), but being a tattoo newbie, I found it difficult to navigate through a world I knew nothing about. So take my experience as one to learn from. I will be sure to post later about my full experience after going through with it, but for now I will share my thoughts and questions up to this point.
Q. How do you find the right person for the job?
A. Lots and lots of searching! For me, I first did a google search, then yelped the place and saw the people who seemed to be the most popular at the shop. Then, I would go to their website and look at their work. If I wanted to see more, I would go to the shops facebook page, tumblr, or instagram (via hashtags). This seemed to work well for me because I could see a variety of work and really assess which artist I liked the most. Another important thing that people don't really tell you is that it is important to get a feel for the shop as a whole as well. This is your experience, so it's important that you feel comfortable there.
Q. How did you go about booking an appointment or did you just walk in?
A. I knew that I wanted to get a tattoo while I was still living in Portland, which meant anytime before July 20th, but I kind of dragged my feet on actually booking an appointment until June. The first place I contacted by email and after about two weeks, I realized that scheduling was just going to be too confusing for us both. He told me that the first appointment he had available was for the end of August, which obviously was not going to work for me. So, I went back to the drawing board and found two places (one of which I had visited before when my friend got her tattoo). I went about trying to schedule the same way: email, which did not work. First of all, it took a while for them to respond because of the high volume of emails they receive and the two artists I contacted said they were all booked up. Feeling discouraged, I told myself that I would just have to walk in one day and hope for the best. My mom (who is in full support of this) and I decided that we would go to one of the shops one day just to acquire information, and lucky me, I actually was able to book and appointment!
Q. What should I bring to my consultation?
A. I would recommend having a very clear idea of what you want, but also being open to the artists interpretation. They are the there to give you what you want, but you have to remember that they can't read your mind or pull out your vision from your head, so you have to be very clear. I brought in two pictures of what I wanted (with minor revisions) and then three of ones that I absolutely did not want. I think that by showing them pictures of what you love and what you hate, it helps them bring your vision to life.
I have a question myself: Is it weird that i'm not nervous?!
Make sure to check back to see how it ended up turning out- I can't wait to see!
with love, lots of it.
