Thursday 20 January 2011

So you want a tattoo?

Let me first give you my 2 (admittedly subjective) ¢ about the act of getting tattooed.

It’s not a rush. Educate yourself. Look around. Go to a few different shops. You may have to travel a ways. Ask questions. Ask to see the shop. Avoid a place that doesn’t want to give you a tour. Ask to see the autoclave. Ask to see spore tests. How often do they do spore tests? Call your local health department and ask about the shop. Ask if you can use the bathroom. (I always go to the bathroom in a restaurant first. The state of it tells me a lot about the place.) 

Go for a consult if you like the work the artist does. So it costs you a bit of money. So it costs you some money for their time to draw stuff up. So what. Ask them out for a friendly beer or take them to lunch. Do you like that person? Having a rapport with an artist is as important as you liking their style of work. You may be in very close proximity to an artist for many hours, literally days to weeks over months and years depending on the extent and complexity. You may love their work, but if you don’t actually like the person and enjoy spending time with them, that could get a bit awkward. The memory of getting that tattoo will often be as indelible as the tattoo itself. (I have friends who got pieces at conventions from artists they had always liked and the whole experience was tainted by the fact that the guy ended up being a total asshole.) Find someone that you click with. It’s a chemistry thing. Do you like what they have done before? Do you think their style can do justice to your vision? Do you get a good vibe from that person? Conversely, a good artist may well say that they have no interest in doing your piece. They may feel they can’t do it justice, their style may not mesh with what the piece requires, or they may just think it’s a terrible idea. A good artist will have the honesty to tell you that your idea is best left as a T-shirt.

Do you like the music the shop plays? Having to listen to Cannibal Corpse for four hours straight, might be totally awesome or totally awful depending on your tastes. Bring an iPod with you if you really want to listen to something specific.

What’s the vibe of the shop? Friendly happy people or surly bikers? Again it all depends on your tastes I suppose.

Don’t wear your best clothes to get tattooed. Ink may drip on them and it is tough to impossible to get some of those pigments out. Wear a shirt and pants you don’t really care about.

Drinking before your tattoo is just not a good thing to do. It won’t make your tattoo experience more pleasant. Drunks are a pain in the ass at the best of times, but they bleed like stuck pigs, don’t sit well, are more likely to puke, etc. Most shops will turf your ass if you show up drunk, or just acting like you’re under the influence of something unsavoury.

Putting any sort of “numbing cream”, EMLA, or any other sort of topical anaesthetic on yourself before hand will make many tattoo artists cancel the session on you. It affects the nature of the skin to a degree that makes tattooing it a no go for some artists.

Please, bring in some real reference material. A tiny low-rez jpeg off the internet is very marginal. Go to the library and find some books, buy a book or two, get some good colour photocopies made of the images you like. Or, go and find images on stock photo sites, and pay for the high rez versions. (And another point: don’t bring in that irreplaceable photo of your grandfather. Please go and get some good colour photocopies made of it. While I’m sure most people will treat it with the reverence it deserves, shit happens. Things get misplaced, lost, inadvertently crumpled, etc. If you can’t afford to lose it, get copies made.)

Have a good meal before your tattoo. This becomes even more important the longer the session lasts. Tattooing takes a lot out of you. Bring some healthy snacks with you. Bring some juice with you. Don’t be a knucklehead and go work out at the gym right after or go to get wasted at the bar later. Take it easy for a day or two. Eat good, healthy food for a few days after. Before you even go to the shop for the tattoo, put clean sheets on your bed, and consider keeping your pets out of your bed/bedroom for a few days. 

Any sort of worries you have about how it will look in years to come will be largely unfounded. Those old guys you see, the ones that got their tattoo when they were in the Merchant Marine in WW2, that’s now an indistinguishable blob? The “inks” that were used back in those days were often made from shoe polish, lamp soot, whatever was available. The colour “inks” were often dyes, not pigments like they are now. The difference between them is night and day. In general, tattoos done in the last few decades hold up really well over time.


These artists are ones that I think are doing consistently exceptional work. The absolute pinnacle of what is being done today. Pushing boundaries and expanding the art of tattooing. I compiled this list partly as a showing of what is possible. If the work you see isn’t up to the caliber these folks are creating, you should look elsewhere. Really. If they aren’t striving to be the absolute best artists they can be, you shouldn’t waste your time, money and skin on them. Now, some of these folks will charge a pretty penny. Some of them will be booked up for months, years even. Some of them may not have any interest in doing what you want and turn down your request. They can afford to be choosy. Despite all that, I think you should look for some of these really exceptionally talented artists to do your piece. Use this list as a benchmark. Life is too short to get a shitty tattoo.

In some cases I’ve linked to specific artists, but often in a shop there will be other artists. Nose around a little and you may find someone else you like. Many artists do guest spots at shops, or make appearances at conventions around the country and world. If that’s the case it may save you some travel time and expenses.

Some of these people are close friends, some of them have tattooed me, some of them I’ve hung out with at conventions, some have tattooed friends, some of them nothing more than I’ve admired their work for decades. I’ve been around tattooing for twenty five years and I get to see fantastic work on a regular basis. In that time I think I’ve learned to deduce what’s truly awe inspiring, and what isn’t.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are many great tattoo artists and shops out there, and I’m sure I’ve missed some. If you think there is a really exceptional artist in your area, please let me know.

NORTH AMERICA
Alabama
Mobile

California
Mike Cole – www.mikecoletattoo.com

Northridge
Mike Devries - http://www.mdtattoos.com/
Jeff Johnson - http://jjtattoos.com/

Fullerton

Alhambra

Yucaipa

Grass Valley

Apple Valley

Los Angeles
Eddy Deutsche - http://eddydeutsche.com/

Orange

Oxnard

Long Beach

Cedar Ridge

San Diego
Ben Grillo - http://www.myspace.com/bengrillo (all the reasons why MySpace sucks.)
Fip and Patty Kelley - http://www.avalontattoo.com/

Salinas

San Francisco

Hesperia

San Jose

Sonoma

Oakland
(although if you can figure out what the hell to do with his website, let me know. Run an image search for his name and lots of stuff will come up.)

Colorado
Pueblo

Denver
William Thidemann - http://thidemann.com/
William Thidemann - www.myspace.com/thidemann

Connecticut
New Haven

Delaware
Middletown

Selbyville

Florida
Riverview

Miami

Georgia
Atlanta

Marietta

Illinois
Chicago
Guy Aitchison, Michele Wortman - http://hyperspacestudios.com/

Lockport

Aurora

Clifton

Indiana
Fort Wayne

Indianapolis

Griffith

Maine
Portland
Watson Atkinson - www.watsonatkinson.com

Massachussets
Kingston
Stinky Monkey Studios - http://www.stinkymonkeytattoos.com/

Easthampton

Clinton

Michigan
Detroit

Livonia

Ann Arbor
(does mainly tribal, but does it exceptionally well.)

Kalamazoo

Clawson

Eastpointe

Minnesota
Mankato
Megan Hoogland – http://www.meganhoogland.com/

Minneapolis

Nevada
Las Vegas

New Jersey
Beachwood

New Mexico
Albuquerque
Brian Everett - http://route66tattoos.com

New York
New York

Brooklyn

Massapequa
Justin Weatherholtz - http://kingsavenuetattoo.com/

Buffalo

North Carolina
Asheville

Ohio
Cincinnati

Dayton

Martins Ferry

Reynoldsburg
Durb Morrison - http://www.durbster.com

Oregon
Portland
Grants Pass

Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Paul Acker - http://www.paulacker.com/ (will make most give up in desperation)

Verona

Pittsburgh

Tennessee
Nashville

Texas
Austin



San Antonio

Houston

Virginia
Richmond

Washington
Seattle


CANADA
Alberta
Edmonton
Eye of the Lotus - http://www.eyeofthelotus.com/

Calgary

British Columbia
Vancouver
(Probably the best tattooist in Canada.)

Manitoba
Winnipeg

Ontario
Burlington

Hamilton

Kincardine
SugarShack/Scott Duncan - http://www.sugarshacktattoo.com/

London


Oakville
Cory Ferguson - http://www.gptattoo.com/

Ottawa

Peterborough
Lannie Glover - http://www.perlnerd.com/

Waterloo

Windsor

Quebec
Montreal
Dave Knight - http://psctattoos.com/
(unfortunately the site is down, but he is at Point Saint Charles, and is definitely worth looking into. Easily one of the best tattooists in Canada..)

Saskatchewan
Saskatoon
Eye of the Needle - http://www.eyeoftheneedle.ca/

EUROPE
Austria
Vienna
Czech Republik
Ostrava

Denmark
Helsingor

France
Paris
Stephane Chaudesaigues - http://gallery.graphicaderme.com/
Stephane Chaudesaigues - http://www.labetehumaine.fr/news_en.htm

Germany
Kitzingen

 Berlin

Hungary
Zalaegerszeg

Italy
Grado

Poland
Krakow

Russia
Moscow

St. Petersburg
Sergey Baradim - http://bardadim.com/

Spain
Madrid

Switzerland
Lausanne

UK
Sunderland

Birmingham

ASIA
Japan
Yokohama

Okinawa
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