Design + Tattoo

Velvet Vocals

Hey,

Just wondering if anyone can recommend a place to get a design plus a tattoo... I have a clear idea of what I'm looking for but I've never seen anything like it, it's in my head... if you know what I mean.
I'm in dublin but I don't mind traveling if the person is worth traveling for. I've been thinking about this particular tat for a few years now, it's about time I got it done.
Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers,

VV

Diceicle

Whatever artist you go to will want some form of reference material. If you cant find anything online, then draw something up yourself and the artist can take it the rest of the way. What style would you describe it as? Japanese, New-school, tribal?

Velvet Vocals

Ehm I 'm not sure what style it would be. I do have things and pictures I can reference though and I have a very clear idea of what I want it to look like which I think I'll be able to convey when speaking to the artist. Thats why I want to find someone that's really good and that I can talk to about the image first and who'll hopefully get what I'm on about

Diceicle

To be honest, without knowing what style or type of image you're looking to transform into a tattoo then it's kind of hard to advise.
I take that because you can't describe it you're idea is of an abstract nature with no definitive imagery involved.
Even taking that as true, its hard to recommend an artist. Some artists are awesome with colour others are not so good, same can be said for Black and grey work.
Take what you have along to Zulu, Colourworks and Snakebite, look at portfolios and chat to the artist that takes your fancy.

Velvet Vocals

I know what styles I like and I have several images that I know would be a good jumping off point. I have no doubt that I'll be able to explain what I'm talking about to a good artist.
So you reckon Zulu, Colourworks and Snakebite would be good places to start then? are they in dublin?

Velvet Vocals

by the way I really appreciate your taking the time to advise me!
cheers.
VV.x

Sofaspud

If you show us the images you're basing it on or describe the style we'd be better at recommending artists, different artists would be better for different styles.

Star Lord

Sofaspud wrote: »

If you show us the images you're basing it on or describe the style we'd be better at recommending artists, different artists would be better for different styles.

^ this

Velvet Vocals

Ok, so I've attached some images. The style would be the first one, but I want the tree to be as big and shaped like the real cherry tree. I would an elephant walking away but looking back to the left of the tree and I'd like the roots of the tree to be a hindu style design......

I hope that makes sense....

Diceicle

Velvet Vocals wrote: »

Ok, so I've attached some images. The style would be the first one, but I want the tree to be as big and shaped like the real cherry tree. I would an elephant walking away but looking back to the left of the tree and I'd like the roots of the tree to be a hindu style design......

I hope that makes sense....

If I were to pick someone in Dublin for this tattoo it would probably be Jani from Zulu, their new shop is on Ormond Quay, near the "Italian Quarter". Other people on here may be able to advise you on some other appropriate artists. One thing to consider, might be, seeing as how the cherry-blossom in the first pic is of a "painterly" style, is that something you want to carry on through your tattoo, as most tattoos are of an illustrative style. Just something to think about and maybe raise with your artist.
I'm not sure who is tattooing in Snakebite these days (seems to change faster than I can keep up) but they usually have a good quality artist(s) in there, go to www.snakebite.ie and have a look at Jersons portfolio, he sometimes does guest spots during the summer.

Velvet Vocals

thanks Diceicle, Jersons stuff looks amazing. but I wouldn't be able to get it done till the summer if I went with him coz he only does guest spots.
do you know if Zulu have a website? I've done a search but can't find anything.
Thanks again!!!

Velvet Vocals

any recommendations for Inkwell Tattoo for this type of job? has anyone here used them before? would you say they're good?

Diceicle

Hi VV

Here's a link to Jani's Myspace

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=69624705

As far as the situation goes, if Jerson is more suited to the style you're after then I would hang on until summer as it would be worth it in the long run. You've plenty of time to enjoy an awesome tattoo or plenty of time to regret a bad one.......

Meant to say earlier, but have you considered the size of the piece? If you want the cherry-blossom and the elephant beside it then you will probably have to go to your back or thigh area in order to get in maximum detail.

Inkwell has a good rep. Mark in there has done some work for people on this forum and a friend of mine is getting a piece done by him and is very happy with it.

Velvet Vocals

Hey Diceicle,

Good point about Jerson! I'm going to go and see John in Inkwell and have a chat with him about the design and after that I see if I want to wait till the summer. Sure I've waited long enough, a few more months wont hurt.
As for size, I was thinking on hip and up my side and if necessary over on to my back. That should be big enough.
thanks again for all the advice, I really appreciate it!

by the way, if you're free this weekend I'm playing a gig... bring the one you love or just come for the music
www.myspace.com/valeriecoynemusic.

(Had to do some shameless self promotion there... sorry:))

mayblue

not sure where you can go here in dublin however...i've been to the snakebite last year to get a design etc....DO NOT go there...

I had a bad experience, 1st because you have to pay 50 euro for a design which they take away from the price if you get it done there, however if you don't...they keep the money and i had to kind of pray to get at least a copy of the design....
2nd because the tattoo artist i dealt with was grumpy and not friendly at all.....

i'm not saying they are all bad but my personal experience in that place wasn't a good one...

finally i got the design i wanted off the internet after a long and hard research, went to the other side of the world and on the spur of the moment i got it done and the artist, apart from being cute, was very nice and friendly ....it cost me 100euro instead of the quoted 300 i got here...

Star Lord

mayblue wrote: »

not sure where you can go here in dublin however...i've been to the snakebite last year to get a design etc....DO NOT go there...

I had a bad experience, 1st because you have to pay 50 euro for a design which they take away from the price if you get it done there, however if you don't...they keep the money and i had to kind of pray to get at least a copy of the design....
2nd because the tattoo artist i dealt with was grumpy and not friendly at all.....

i'm not saying they are all bad but my personal experience in that place wasn't a good one...

finally i got the design i wanted off the internet after a long and hard research, went to the other side of the world and on the spur of the moment i got it done and the artist, apart from being cute, was very nice and friendly ....it cost me 100euro instead of the quoted 300 i got here...

I got my second tattoo designed and done in Snakebite. The €50 is a deposit on getting the piece done there.

mayblue

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

I got my second tattoo designed and done in Snakebite. The €50 is a deposit on getting the piece done there.

yes it's a deposit if you want to get the tattoo designed and done by them, however if you just get the design without getting the tattoo, they keep the 50euro

and as i said at the end, my personal experience wasn't a good one, however i'm sure other artists working there are more friendly than the one i dealt with, who surely didn't make me feel i was putting myself in good hands even if he was the best tattoo artist in the world.

dancingqueen

I am soon to be getting a tattoo from John in Inkwell and a friend of mine has had all his tattoos done by him - he's amazing.

Good luck meeting with him!

Star Lord

It's pretty much the same as anywhere when you pay a deposit and cancel the booking then. It's the reason people are made pay deposits anywhere.

Not saying it's good to not even get the design after that, but it's what I'd expect from any business tbh.

FTA69

mayblue wrote: »

yes it's a deposit if you want to get the tattoo designed and done by them, however if you just get the design without getting the tattoo, they keep the 50euro

Sure so what? You're asking them to take time away from their often busy schedule to put a fair whack of effort into customising a design for you, the least you can do is compensate them by way of a deposit if you decide not to get it after all. You pay for their time like.

Diceicle

mayblue wrote: »

yes it's a deposit if you want to get the tattoo designed and done by them, however if you just get the design without getting the tattoo, they keep the 50euro

To be blunt, Snakebite run a business not a free tattoo design service. If their artists design a tattoo for you, you have to expect to pay for it surely??

As for the bad customer service, some tattoo artists just have rock star attitudes, most very unjustified.

AARRRGH

mayblue wrote: »

I had a bad experience, 1st because you have to pay 50 euro for a design which they take away from the price if you get it done there, however if you don't...they keep the money and i had to kind of pray to get at least a copy of the design....

You expected them to do the design for free, AND you should be able to take the design to another tattoo parlour?

Talk about unreasonable...

mayblue wrote: »

2nd because the tattoo artist i dealt with was grumpy and not friendly at all.....

Yeah, they should make an effort to be friendly, but maybe you pissed them off by being unreasonable?

Star Lord

mayblue wrote: »

2nd because the tattoo artist i dealt with was grumpy and not friendly at all.....

One thing I'd like to ask about this... do you know if the tattoo you were getting designed was something that the artist was interested in/specialises in? Or was it just that they were a tattoo artist/studio you'd heard recommended?

FTA69

I just went into Smily Dogg in Cork City there today and a sounder more helpful bunch you couldn't meet.

-lala-

FTA69 wrote: »

Sure so what? You're asking them to take time away from their often busy schedule to put a fair whack of effort into customising a design for you, the least you can do is compensate them by way of a deposit if you decide not to get it after all. You pay for their time like.

+1

Why should you get a tattoo designed for free so you can take it to some other tattoo artist?!

mayblue

-lala- wrote: »

+1

Why should you get a tattoo designed for free so you can take it to some other tattoo artist?!

i respect artists, their time and the effort, no problem about that but not when I have asked for a design and I've been told that I could discuss with the artist as many times as i wanted and then after waiting for 3 weeks for it and finding it was not "up to standard" as other designs i saw in that place and told the artist what i liked and didn't like, when i went back the second time, after other 3 weeks i simply said, there's a wing missing and he went all huff and puff..... to me that's not worth 50euro...
the design was crap i tell you and it was simple enough that it shouldn't have taken 6 weeks to design and, considering i was paying for it, the least he could do was to listen to what i asked...

i'm a very reasonable person and i'm not pushy in any way, but he didn't behave professionally and to me those 50euro were paid for less than average work in terms of design....

so there you have it!!!!

hot2def

just to give the other side here



Personally I don't usually take a deposit to draw, I'm just not comfortable with it, because of incidents like this. I don't want a customer to feel like they are being held over a barrel to get tattooed before seeing a design.


because of this policy, I get shafted continuously. I have rakes of drawing that took hours to do, that no one came back to see. I have my time wasted regularly.


Having said that, no one is leaving the shop with a copy of a drawing, even if they do book in to get tattooed. 50 quid isn't enough to get me to draw to make other tattooists money. It would be heartbreaking, esp if the tattooist in question made a balls of it.

Raze_them_all

hot2def wrote: »

just to give the other side here



Personally I don't usually take a deposit to draw, I'm just not comfortable with it, because of incidents like this. I don't want a customer to feel like they are being held over a barrel to get tattooed before seeing a design.


because of this policy, I get shafted continuously. I have rakes of drawing that took hours to do, that no one came back to see. I have my time wasted regularly.


Having said that, no one is leaving the shop with a copy of a drawing, even if they do book in to get tattooed. 50 quid isn't enough to get me to draw to make other tattooists money. It would be heartbreaking, esp if the tattooist in question made a balls of it.

I would consider that karma, your good enough to do the donkey work but not the real thing? Fook that.
I have no bother paying for an artist to do a sketch.

mayblue

hot2def, i understand your point of view and as i said i do respect artists that put a lot of work and effort into what they are doing but in this specific instance, i don't believe the artist put any effort whatsoever in what he designed for me and as a matter of fact i don't even think he liked what i wanted to get done.... now i'm wondering, if you don't want to do it, why ask me 50euro and make a crap design when he could have told me in the first place, i'm sorry but i'm not into this style or whatever other excuse and let me go my way.... i wouldn't have bothered him anymore and would have gone somewhere else.....

as a customer, i don't like to be played like a fool like you, as an artist, don't like to waste your time on a customer that is not coming back to complete the work....

hot2def

mayblue wrote: »

hot2def, i understand your point of view and as i said i do respect artists that put a lot of work and effort into what they are doing but in this specific instance, i don't believe the artist put any effort whatsoever in what he designed for me and as a matter of fact i don't even think he liked what i wanted to get done.... now i'm wondering, if you don't want to do it, why ask me 50euro and make a crap design when he could have told me in the first place, i'm sorry but i'm not into this style or whatever other excuse and let me go my way.... i wouldn't have bothered him anymore and would have gone somewhere else.....

as a customer, i don't like to be played like a fool like you, as an artist, don't like to waste your time on a customer that is not coming back to complete the work....

I think you should have had a chat with rob, if you wanted your money back.

FTA69

Well tattooing is a trade to all intents and purposes, its a highly skilled profession that takes much training and practice to master. Tattooists will spend ages drawing etc, collecting a portfolio, learning particular styles and continually researching. They start off on paper, pig skins, synthetic skins and themselves; what they do is highly specialised. Hence the €100 an hour price.

Now, take a carpenter for example. Same story. If you went into a carpenter and asked him to make you an oak table with certain engravings on the legs. He asks you for a picture and exact measurements, you tell him you don't have these but ask would he knock something else up anyway to see if you like it. Would you seriously envisage a carpenter doing this for free? Just on the off-chance you'll come back, or won't change your mind, and will be happy with it? Of course you wouldn't, its entirely reasonable to pay a deposit for work commissioned. Now if the standard is completely sh*t and without effort then that's a different kettle of fish. But if you're dissatisfied because he couldn't exactly create the design that was nowhere else but in your own head well that's tough, in fairness you weren't giving him much to work with while at the same time demanding a tradesperson invest considerable time and effort. That's just business like.

Personally I wouldn't ask an artist to customise a piece without giving him a sh*tload of stuff to work with. I'd be giving him numerous printouts of the style I wanted e.g. Asian. The item in question e.g. koi carp and numerous examples of the type of colouring. This way the chances of him making a design not to your satisfaction are a lot slimmer. Now if he's a lazy assh*le and comes up with sh*t then that's fairly scanty, but that's why I'd make sure he's a good artist I heard about via word of mouth, Cork is an easy city to do that in.

I went in today with a piece I wanted slightly customised, handed him a stack of images, had a good chat with him and had no bother paying a deposit as I've complete trust in what he'll come up with. He and the shop he works in have a top reputation so I think I'm in safe hands.

Anyway, that's my opinion on the topic and I can't wait to get a dacent tattoo on Monday afternoon.