How to Choose the Right Tattooist for Your Experience

Inked.  Miami Ink.  Tattoo Stories.  It seems like everywhere you look on television today there is someone promoting the tattoo industry.  This may or may not be causing an increase in the number of average, ordinary everyday “Joes” who have been “inked,” but it is definitely causing an increase in awareness, and, on a lesser scale, acceptance of the industry. 

While tattoos and tattooing were once reserved for a “hardened” class of people, for hoodlums, bikers, convicts, and, later on, for military infantry soldiers, it is now becoming more and more common for white collar, upper middle class business men and women to be sporting some kind of ink, whether it be a large, expressive full back piece or a dainty flower nestled in the small of one’s back. 

So, you want to join the ranks of the tattooed masses?  You have picked out a design, now what do you do? Where do you start?  Word of mouth is a good place to start.  If you have friends who have tattoos, ask them where they got theirs.  Were they happy with the experience, the service, the end result?  If they answer no to any of these questions, you may want to avoid the shop where they went, or at the very least, the artist that did their work.  This is not to say that one person’s bad experience is a reflection on the entire shop, or even on the artist himself, but if you can’t trust your friends who can you trust? 

If you don’t have a friend’s experiences to draw from then you will have to do some research on your own.  Start in the yellow pages.  Jot down the addresses of five or six shops in your area then set out.  Visit each shop and explain that you are looking for a new artist and want to get a feel for the place.  As with any other kind of consumer based industry, each place you visit is going to try to sell themselves and their services to you.  Of course since you will be trusting them to apply a permanent adornment to your body, you must be the one to make the final decision.