I want to get tattoed, but I don’t know by whom?
How to pick the right artist who can make the long awaited tattoo of a “wolf howling at the Moon, with legs covered by an enormous old timely clock, which itself transitions into a compass pointing to the dates of birth of all the people you know?”
Nowadays there is a great variety of artists to pick from and a massive amount of people with tattoos each of which having their own preferences and advises on “how to live your life”. Having said that it’s also true that making the choice of “how and where to get the artwork you’re dreaming about, on your skin” could still be a great challenge.
The key to start making that choice is looking inward rather than outward. We should spare some time to think about what we truly like visually and symbolically and its always a good idea to have some mixture of both. You have to keep in mind that the tattoo will be a part of our life for as long as we live. So it’s very important to get a tattoo that reflects our own vision of ourselves, rather than the expectations and tastes of others.
After you make the decision on what to have engraved on your skin, it’s time to begin the process of finding the right artist. As a starting point don’t just jump right to the first person that have been suggested by a friend. Take a close look at their work in the social media platforms or anywhere else they present their work. It’s also very helpful to talk to a person who has been tattooed by that artist ideally made more than half a year ago. The last suggestion is not so easily applicable for everyone so even just looking at photos of their work would be enough to have an initial idea of the quality of their work and their skillset.
Other key aspect is to choose the artist based on the style of the tattoo you’re looking for! There is no artist that is equally good in every style, we all have strong and weak suits. Even if we see that a certain artist is good at one thing doesn’t mean he’ll be good at another style of work- that’s unfortunately impossible. Even Superman has the Kryptonite, so be careful to pick the artist based on the style you want.
After you make sure that the quality of their work is on point and the style matches your expectations it might be useful to read about the different styles of tattoos and mainly how they age. Afterall the skin is a living organ that changes with you so it’s always good to be prepared of what to expect the tattoo to look like after 5/10 years. It would have been nice to know that the tattoo would look brand new after a few years but that’s unfortunately impossible. Just like a piece of clothing or a piece of furniture the tattoo also changes its appearance as it ages.
The changes are not so striking in some styles compared to others. But overall as long as the tattoo is not too small, the artist have enough skill and practice and you take good care of your tattoo and overall skin condition, the changes in time will be somewhat minimal. I would advise you to learn about the different styles and how they age so that you’ll know what to expect in time.
Alright, now were at the stage where you’ve found the artist, you’re happy with the quality of their work, the style is exactly what you’re looking for, you have realistic expectations for the aging process of the tattoo and it’s now time to get in touch with the artist and book an appointment. My now more than 10 years of experience with tattooing shows me that nowadays there is ono more vital aspect of the process which is- will you like the artist as a person.
It might sound strange to some, because the artist’s work is supposed to be most important aspect, you shouldn’t forget that getting a tattoo is a process much more like a ritual than just buying art. At the very least you’ll spend a lot of time with that person! Especially if you’re getting something very massive it could take up to days that you spend together in a very intimate environment in which you’ll inevitably feel pain. Keeping that in mind if you don’t like the personality of the artist because he’s being rude or condescending, or the hygiene is not on the level it should be, my experience show’s me that the bad memory might be mentally attached to the new tattoo. So it would be best after you get in touch with the artist to go meet them in person to get a feeling of what they are like in person. Unfortunately that factor cannot be measured but fortunately most of us can feel weather they like someone or not using our intuition.
The whole process might look long and hard but if you take the necessary time and measures and get through all the points and be sure to enjoy each one of them, I promise you that the whole thing will be worth it and you’ll be happy with your decision.
I hope this post will help you in navigating on the road of transforming your skin into a personal gallery of memories and art. If after all you’re a fan of the more impulsive adventurous decisions and have experience with them and are sure you will not regret them, then it’s always nice to get something small by yourself or together with a good friend of yours. My only lifesaving advice in for you in that situation is to be really careful to choose a studio that has the necessary amount of hygiene so that you don’t leave with an infection alongside the tattoo (or worse), but rather with a tattoo and a nice shared memory that will make you smile every time you look at the tattoo.
