| Before emailing please be aware that it is not always the most accurate medium for discussing tattoos. Much more can be achieved, in a shorter time and less effort if you come into the studio in person.
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| 1st Tattoo advice | If you have never been tattooed before then here is some advice for you;
* Make sure you eat before you come in, particularly breakfast. Low blood sugar invariably leads to light headedness which can lead to fainting. * Wear something that gives easy access to the place to be tattooed or be prepared to take your clothes off. We can’t tattoo through clothing or while forcing clothes out of the way. Don’t wear anything that you will be upset if it gets inky! * Please make sure you and your clothes are clean! No one likes being in the proximity of someone elses body odour. We are always sparkly clean for you, please pay us the same respect! * For pain management tips, see the “does it hurt” question.
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| Does it hurt? | Yes, a little bit. Sometimes you barely feel it, other times it hurts quite a bit but it is always bearable (otherwise no one would be extensively tattooed). Some places on the body hurt more than others but that varies from person to person (over bone doesn’t necessarily hurt more). Don’t pick a place based on where you think it’ll hurt less, just get it where you want it because the pain is temporary but the results aren’t.
Try to relax and not tense up (tensing makes it get very much worse quite quickly), and breathe as slow as possible (breathe out on any bad bits), the trick is to accept it hurts but not let it bother you. The people who work themselves up and decide it is going to be agony invariably find that it is! Taking a painkiller (such as Ibroprofen) an hour or so before you get tattooed often takes the edge off a little bit.
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| How much is….? | Prices vary from £35 to £100′s. It is almost always impossible to give a quote via phone and sometimes possible to quote via email. Please feel free to email us images for a quote. Popping into the shop with a printed out image of what you want is probably the easiest and quickest way to get an accurate quote.
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| Can I book for…/ Are you busy on…? | Please note that we can only answer this question in person or over the phone, not via email. We can’t take bookings via email but we can give advice if you email us a picture of what you want, along with the size of the tattoo and whereabouts on the body you want it.
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| Can you design a tattoo for me? | We specialise in custom designs and will happily design tattoos for people, but you need to book in with us first (leaving a deposit) and the design will be ready in a weeks time for you to view. If you are not happy with the design the deposit will be refunded. This is due to the large volume of work we have to do and basically just makes sure that people are serious about getting the work done and not wasting time.
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| Can you send me some designs? | We are very busy and pride ourselves on the designs we have/create in the shop. We never let people take designs away because they invariably take them to another tattooist who for some reason has no waiting list. This is even more true over the internet.
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| Do we do semi-permanent tattoos? | No, we only do permanent tattoos. We have however, reworked many semi-permanent tattoos that have either not disappeared in the specified time or just look so bad after a couple of years that the owner has little choice. Logically, something isn’t going to be there in your skin one day and then gone the next. It will go through a period of looking faded and patchy. If the tattoo is meant to last 5 years, how long will it look good for? A year, two or three? That leaves a long time of it looking bad.
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| How old do I have to be to get a tattoo? | 18 is the minimum age for a tattoo. With or without parental consent. It has been like this since the 60′s and the law is very clear. Anyone (or any studio) that tells you you can be tattooed at 16 with parental consent instantly falls into the “dodgy” category. If they are slack with this law what else will they be slack with? Sterilisation? Be patient!
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| How do I start Tattooing? | We get loads of these emails and we simply don’t have time to answer them all. You need to be very very good at art, truly love, follow and understand tattooing, be very dedicated, and find an apprenticeship. Getting a portfolio of your art together and presenting yourself well to a studio is a start. We get asked countless times about jobs but I can count on one hand the amount of people who have actually brought a portfolio for us to look at. Get together a portfolio of a variety of artwork (tattoo related and non-tattoo related) and take it around every studio you know of. No one will pay any attention the 1st time so go back in a few months with new artwork and just keep doing that (being clean, well presented and polite every time obviously). Also take your portfolio to every convention you can get to (you’ll obviously be going to loads of conventions in the UK and abroad anyway because you’re so into tattooing right?) and show it to your favourite artists (of which there will be dozens because you read all the tattoo magazines every month and know who all the top artists are and what makes them good) and ask for criticism. Everybody I know who has done this and actually been good at art has got their chance. Every other 18 year old with one tattoo (sometimes even no tattoos!) thinks it would be a cool job so you need to prove you’re a little bit more serious than that. It is a difficult industry to get into but it is not impossible. Very few people break into tattooing until they’re a little older so don’t plan on getting a job straight from school just to avoid getting a proper hair cut. Get on with life, get a This leads on to the next point; you must really be good enough. If you have shown lots of people your art and you’re not getting any good responses maybe it isn’t up to scratch. You have to be really good to make an impression. Finally, wanting to tattoo is very popular and there are lots of people who will take advantage of this. Be careful before working for a local studio for free, paying for a course to teach you in two days what should take years, or buying a starter kit over the internet. Don’t get taken for a ride! Unfortunately we do not have any apprenticeships in our studio.
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