Tattoo Policies
Thinking about booking an appointment with me for a tattoo, either flash or custom? Read this first!
Deposits
When booking an appointment with me, I will ask you for a deposit to hold your spot. Depending on the size of the tattoo, the deposit will be $100-$300. I accept all deposits over Venmo, and I will include the details over email when we have decided on a date. You have seven days to pay the deposit before your appointment time will be offered to someone else.
The deposit is non-refundable, which is to protect my time and the effort I put into scheduling and preparing for your appointment. If you cancel your appointment at any time, you forfeit the deposit. In the case of rescheduling, you may be able to transfer your deposit to another date, depending on when you reach out to reschedule. If it is too last minute for me to fill your appointment time with another client (usually within one week), you may forfeit your deposit and be asked to pay another deposit for your new appointment time.
All that being said, I know life happens and I am willing to work with you if you communicate with me! I’m a reasonable human, I just have to write all this stuff for the people who will take advantage of my time if I don’t. When in doubt, just ask, and we’ll work something out.
Pricing
My minimum is $200. This is only for very small and simple tattoos, done in under 1 hour. Every other tattoo is priced per design.
After you submit an idea for booking, I’ll give you a range for the price estimate. That price is based on the information I have from your submission form, so it is subject to change day-of if the tattoo design is different than I imagined. These are some of the ways the price of your tattoo could change:
Time: I don’t have a set “hourly rate”, because I feel that it can lead to rushed work or clients refusing to take breaks to avoid paying extra. If you have a full day session, we’re going to take a lunch break whether you like it or not, because I need to eat! Unless you want shaky hands and a grumbling stomach tattooing you. I always want you to take a break if you need it, especially if you need a bathroom break or a snack or just to lie down without worrying that you’ll have to pay more. That being said, excessive breaks will lead to a more expensive tattoo. At the end of the day, I have to charge for my time, and if the tattoo ends up taking much longer than anticipated because we’re taking more breaks than tattooing, we’ll discuss alternate pricing.
Size: If you want the tattoo much larger or smaller than we talked about previously, it will end up being more or less expensive than the price estimate. Sometimes this isn’t because of a miscommunication- we may just decide on a different size because it fits well with your body or fills a gap between other tattoos.
Technique: If we decide to change the style of your tattoo, such as add color, a realism element, or glitter/stippling, the price will change accordingly. These are more difficult techniques, and may increase the amount of time or materials I will use.
Placement: Some parts of the body are more difficult to tattoo, and I will charge more to tattoo them. Namely ribs/side, chest, stomach, butt, high inner thigh, armpit, hands, feet, elbows, knees, neck, head, and face.
When in doubt, ask me! I am always happy to try to work with your budget, just let me know.
Sliding Scale Tattoos
I’m working on sliding scale pricing for flash designs only! Check back later once I’ve smoothed out the details.
Tattoo Designs
I DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO FLASH DESIGNS/PRE-DRAWNS (in some cases I will allow minor color adjustments).
I design each tattoo specific to the client, and I will not copy or reproduce anyone else’s work without their consent. Every design you get from me is original and one of a kind (unless it is a repeatable flash design). I am often asked if clients can see the custom designs before their appointment. I don’t generally show clients their tattoo designs ahead of time for a few reasons:
If we have to make changes to the design, I prefer to talk about it in person to ensure we don’t run into miscommunications that lead to unnecessary work on my end
I have to protect against the possibility that you could take the design to another artist who will tattoo my artwork for cheaper
The more time you have the sit with the design, the more time you have to second guess yourself, or ask for second opinions from others with different thoughts. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can lead to designs that are less authentic to you.
I’ve found that it’s best to show you the design when you arrive for your appointment. We’ll sit down, talk it through, and discuss placement, size, and details of the piece. Any minor changes will be done on the spot, with no extra charge. Major changes to the design that would cause me to redraw the design (including but not limited to: main subject change, completely different style, completely different placement (for larger pieces)) will result in an additional charge to the tattoo to account for drawing time, and may require the appointment to be rescheduled.
There are some cases in which having the design ahead of time works best. In these cases, we will treat the design process as a commission separate from the tattoo, with it’s own additional pricing. If you’re interested in this, please let me know and I will give you an estimate.
If you want to change your design idea before you see the final design at your appointment:
Your appointment is over a week away - yes the design idea can be changed, just email or contact me.
Your appointment is in less than a week - chances are I have already drawn a design for you. In this case, any major changes to the idea will result in additional charges to compensate the additional drawing time. Minor idea changes will not result in additional charges, unless there are many of them.
Inappropriate Behavior
I have a zero tolerance policy, and I reserve the right to stop tattooing at any point in the process if I feel necessary, whether the tattoo is completed or not. This includes but is not limited to: you are disrespectful, offensive, inappropriate, or threatening. I welcome those with different opinions or beliefs than me, up until those beliefs are harmful to myself or others.