From signal
to skin.

Stage 01

The Idea

A rough concept is enough to start. It does not need to be finished.

Most pieces begin as a sentence and a photo taken at a bad angle. That is a workable starting point. What we need out of this stage is the subject, roughly where it goes on the body, and roughly how big — everything after that is our job, not yours. If the idea is still forming, consultation is built to pull it out of you in order rather than asking you to arrive with it already solved.

You bring · A subject, a placement, an approximate size in inches.

Stage 02

Style Fit

The idea gets matched to a technique that will still read in ten years.

Horror realism, black & gray, color realism, nightmare realism, portrait and cover-up work each hold detail differently as they age and each want a different amount of skin. Matching the concept to the right one of those is the first real decision in the project, and it happens before any drawing time is spent. If the honest answer is that your concept wants a style we do not specialise in, you will be told that here rather than after a deposit.

Stage 03

Proof, Not Promises

Healed work is the only evidence that counts.

Fresh photographs flatter every artist. Healed photographs do not. The portfolio marks which pieces have been photographed after healing, because that is the state your tattoo spends the rest of its life in. Judge the shop on those, and on the pieces closest in style and placement to what you are asking for.

Stage 04

Knowing What Happens

This page. Read it once and the rest of the process holds no surprises.

Uncertainty is what stops most people booking, and almost none of it is about the needle. It is about not knowing what is expected of them, what it costs, how long they will be sitting, or what happens if something goes wrong. Everything in that list is written down — here, on the pricing page, on the aftercare page and in the policies. Nothing about this shop's process is communicated only in person.

Stage 05

The Numbers

$100 per hour, $300 4-hour session, $50 to hold the chair.

Two figures govern every quote in this shop: $100 per hour and $300 for the 4-hour session. The session rate is the standard booking and works out cheaper per hour than hourly. Larger work is quoted per project at consultation, but it is quoted out of those same two numbers — there is no third rate that appears once you are committed.

Stage 10

Stencil and Approval

Nothing is permanent until you have looked at it in a mirror and agreed.

The design is transferred as a stencil and positioned on the skin. You look at it in a mirror, standing, in the position the tattoo will actually be seen in. It gets moved, re-sized or re-drawn until it is right. This is the last reversible moment in the process, and it is not rushed — the needle does not start while there is still a question about placement.

Stage 11

The Session

4-Hour Session, with breaks when you need them.

The work runs in a single continuous session with breaks taken as required — you are not expected to sit motionless for four hours to prove something. Larger pieces are built across multiple sessions with healing time between them, and the session plan agreed at consultation is the one that gets worked to. If the piece finishes early, it finishes early.