Frequently Asked Questions: Tattoos

Frequently Asked Questions: Shop

My books are always open, unless I specify otherwise. Please fill out this booking form to contact me for a tattoo.

Unless otherwise stated in an announcement, I work in Raleigh, North Carolina, in my own little private studio. I occasionally travel, and may return to conventions in the future. I will announce those dates on my Instagram, and here on my website.

Any pre-drawn flash will have a range of prices it will fall into; they will never dip below the low end or go above the high end. For custom work, my rates are $180 an hour with a one hour minimum. If this is above your price range, I keep some rotating flash that is $150 that you can pick from, but all custom work starts at $180. A large amount of my flash falls below my hourly rate.

I offer flash, available projects, and freehand customs.

I CAN tattoo: 

ALL bodies, genders, and skin tones (designs will be altered to suit clients’ individual anatomy)

scars healed at least a year

stretch marks that are no longer red

coverups of other tattoos

aged skin

freckled skin

people with chronic infections/conditions who are in remission/not experiencing symptoms

I CANNOT tattoo: 

over large/raised/textured moles

sunburned skin

skin with active acne

people on antibiotics

people on blood thinners

people experiencing jaundice

pregnant people

skin with active eczema or psoriasis

skin with unhealed wounds

minors

intoxicated people

I WILL NOT tattoo: 

inside the mouth

on the anus

inner fingers

partner’s names

people who I believe to be under duress

completions of other artists’ work

cops 

symbols of patriotism

tribal

Hindu/Buddhist religious symbols/figures

Norse symbols (sorry guys, you know who ruined this one)

geometric style

logos

any language neither I nor my client can read

single needle/ultra fineline/linework only

other peoples’ art or tattoos

Native American or “g*psy” heads/pinups

dreamcatchers

geishas

anyone being rude

I LOVE to tattoo: 

vibrant, complex color

clowns

dogs

cottagecore

bugs

horror/monsters/spooky stuff

fandom stuff

kinky stuff

sci-fi

fantasy

animals

pinups

large scale

environments

gay stuff

intricate rendering

weird plants

food

toys

weird/stylized portraits

funny bullshit

Flash are paintings designed specifically to be tattooed. They have set price, size, color, and placement ranges they must fall in. If you want something outside of those ranges, you will need to get a custom piece.

Examples:

Client A wants flash piece 1. Flash piece 1 is $500-$700, 6”-9”, full color with small modifications possible, and suitable for legs, upper arms, or chests. Client A wants Flash Piece 1 to be on their thigh, 8” on its longest side, and wants a slight color adjustment to change some pink details to purple. Their budget falls within 500-700. This is completely doable.

Client B wants flash piece 2, which has all the same parameters as flash piece 1. Client B wants the tattoo to be 4” on its longest side, in black and grey, on their forearm. Their budget is a hard $300. Client B will NOT be getting flash piece 2, but will be offered a custom freehand session for a piece that better fits those parameters.

All flash pieces I do are one-and-done; this means I never do the same tattoo twice, on anyone, ever. Once a piece is claimed, it is gone. I am happy to make custom work that runs along similar lines as claimed flash if you fell in love with a particular piece.

Custom means any tattoo idea you bring me, that I did not offer as flash or an available project. This can be as complex or as simple as you like, it just means it is your idea. All the custom projects I do are in freehand.

Freehand means I create the design of the tattoo on your skin using layers of markers. I have a lot of experience with this, and it is my favorite way to work. Here are some samples.

These are exclusively large-scale tattoos that will take up a minimum of half a limb. I will usually show sketches, color studies, and descriptions of what I’m planning for the final piece. These ideas are flexible, and will be built up with the client who chooses the project.

Example: Available project 1 is a thigh panel or larger; it can also be a full sleeve or torso panel, or wrap around a whole calf. It can be adjusted in scope to fit a full head. The concept is a wizard battle between a wizard lizard and a wizard weasel. It must be in color, but can be any palette. The project will be a minimum of 4 6 hour sessions, but can be expanded to include a full background, which will take at least another 3 sessions to complete. The project announcement includes some sketches and linework for the tattoo, but no finalized illustration like you would see in flash.

No. I’m being uncharacteristically blunt here because it is very important to me. I do not sell tattoo tickets, repeatable flash, custom tattoo designs, any of it. Tattooing is my main income, and one of the primary art media I work in. Under no circumstances, ever, will I produce or give consent for my art to be tattooed by another person. Please do not ask other tattoers to replicate my flash, my already completed tattoos, or my available projects. Please do not buy prints and stickers with the intention of getting them tattooed. If you own an original art piece, it does not give you the right to get it tattooed by another artist. I take this very seriously, as I am passionate both about art and about the rights of laborers to the benefits of their own work. If you violate that, you indicate that while you enjoy my art, you do not care about the survival of the person who performed the labor to create it.

I will get back to you by email within a max of 2 weeks, but usually much sooner. If you don’t hear from me by then, feel free to prod me by email.

Over email we will discuss the details of your project. I do 99% of my consults by email, so please have a clear idea of what you want, or an open mind if you don’t, so that we can come to a good understanding of what the tattoo will be.

Once the project details are decided, we will find a date for your session. I take a non-refundable deposit to book your session. This comes off the final price of the tattoo. If the tattoo is multiple sessions, it comes off the final session. If you would like to use your deposit for a mid-project session, you will need to place a new deposit to book your next one. The deposit is good for 1 reschedule, if you let me know 48 hours or more in advance. 

If you decide to change the tattoo significantly, you may need to pay a new deposit, or even be rescheduled to a different date. This is why it is so important for both of us to have a clear idea of what the scope of the project is. Significant changes can include resizing of over 20% of the original size, new placements, different subject matter, change in budget, or picking a new piece of flash.

As an important note, I am still requiring masks to be worn during the full duration of the session. I will provide one to you if you don’t have one, but if you have a high-quality (KN95 or higher) mask you prefer, please bring it.

Please also let me know if you have ANY allergies or medical conditions. I will not deny you a tattoo because of a disability, but will adapt my practice or materials to accommodate your needs.

Start moisturizing the area you are going to be getting tattooed twice a day, and be religious in your sunscreen use.

Do not alter your shaving habits, as this can cause skin irritation.

On the night before your tattoo, do not drink or take blood thinning medication. Eat and hydrate well, and get good sleep.

On the day of your tattoo, be clean, and wear soft, comfortable clothes that you can easily shift or remove so that the area to be tattooed is accessible. I recommend they not be clothes that are too precious to you, as there is a possibility of getting ink on them.

Bring a sweater, and a LOT of good snacks and liquid. If it will be a long session, bring a full meal, and eat a large breakfast beforehand. I know you may not think you will need these things, or need them to this degree, but you will, and you should bring them, and worst things worse you have some leftovers or a sweater you didn’t need.

Bring your Government-issued Photo ID, enough cash to cover the remainder of your balance (I take card with a surcharge), and a phone charger.

The most important part of this whole long schpiel is that if you have any questions or concerns, you contact me immediately. I am very responsive and want to help. I would prefer to answer any questions as they arise, rather than to hear there is something of concern that has been left unaddressed for days. That stresses me out WAY more than an email at 10pm I promise.

Also if I tell you to seek medical help it is because I am not a doctor and I cannot diagnose things, it does not inherently mean you are in danger, it may be nothing or you might just need a cream but I can’t prescribe medicine.

Tattoos will leak for up to 48 hours after application, although 24 is more common, and the first sleep is where the most liquid comes out. This liquid will usually be some murky, unappealing color, which is the result of the ink in your epidermis (a place where ink is not kept long term, and is thus pushed out) mixing with blood (red) and plasma (yellowish clear) to create Sludge (usually brown, occasionally grey or green if you got some funky colors). If you are healing without a bandage, you will need to prepare for this leakage by sleeping on clean bedding in clean pajamas, which you can bring to the shower and wet if they stick to your skin in the night. If you do not do this, you risk pulling open scabs when The Sludge dries and sticks to the fabric.

I usually use a second skin wrap for bandaging fresh tattoos. If you received this, please leave it on for about 24 hours (doesn’t have to be exact). You can perform most normal activities while wearing it, but it should not be saturated with water (you can shower, just try to angle it out of the main stream of water so that all it gets are small droplets on it), handled with heavy friction, or exposed to direct sun.

At around the 24 hour mark, or whenever after the first 18 hours you normally shower, remove it in the shower under running water. The water should be lukewarm, and you should pull the bandage in the AWAY from the center to loosen it (think like removing a Command Strip from a wall). If the bandage hurts to remove, let it get wetter, and find an adjacent corner to pull from, until the two sections meet in the middle in a V-shape, and release the tension.

Once the bandage is removed, while still in the shower, wash the fresh tattoo with non-scented liquid soap. Antibacterial is good if you have it, but not crucial. It should NEVER be bar soap. Lather the soap on your hands, and massage the tattoo in small circles to release adhesive and plasma without scrubbing and irritating it. The tattoo is clean when it is no longer slimy or sticky. It should have the same texture as the rest of the untattooed skin around it. Use water that is a comfortable temperature on your tattoo; it will be more heat sensitive than the rest of your skin.

Once out of the shower, allow the tattoo to air dry completely. If you are in a rush, you can blot dry it with clean, new paper towel (that’s paper towel fresh out the wrapping, not the roll covered in crumbs sitting on your kitchen counter). I recommend against this if the paper towel is not high quality, as it tends to shred and pill. The tattoo is fully dry when it feels like normal skin, and doesn’t have any residual clamminess.

If the bandage worked well the first time, and caused your skin no irritation, then you can replace it the with the second piece I gave you at the end of your session. This second piece should have been kept somewhere clean and dry, and only applied with clean dry hands.

If the tattoo is large or oddly shaped, I strongly recommend sanitizing a pair of scissors with isopropyl alcohol, and cutting the bandage into several small chunks to allow for easier application. This way you can ensure full coverage of the tattoo, without encasing too much extra skin.

Each piece should overlap at least 1/4” with all of its direct neighbors, so that a gutter does not form between them. Each piece of bandage material you put on the tattoo becomes part of The Bandage. This means that if one piece is contaminated or damaged, the whole bandage is, and that one piece should not be patched or replaced without replacing or removing the whole thing.

This second bandage can stay on the skin for up to 5 days, although it is fine and normal to remove it before then. Remove it when you get sick of it, or if it becomes damaged or contaminated. If you leave it on long enough, and heal fast enough, it may take part of the peel with it. This means that it will have a little afterimage of your tattoo stuck to it. This is normal and fine. Remove it the same way you removed the last one, and begin washing it twice a day with the same soap as before. You can also begin moisturizing as needed when the tattoo begins to feel dry and crackly. When moisturizing, do not let the tattoo become sticky or slimy; like with hand lotion or lip balm, the goal is just to massage enough in that the tattoo loses that stiff, crunchy feeling.

If we agreed not to do a 2-bandage run, your take-home bandage became contaminated, or the first bandage caused your skin significant irritation, then just move to washing and moisturizing twice a day once the first bandage comes off. Be aware that without the second bandage, your tattoo is more prone to friction and contamination, so wear soft, loose clothing over the area, and do not allow it to come into contact with dirt, sweat, animals, friction, or direct sun.

Remove any bandage at any time if it has become compromised. Compromises to the bandage include (but aren’t limited to) tears or curls that expose the tattoo, air or liquid bubbles at risk of bursting, continuous leaking, contact with chemicals that degrade plastic, or contamination such as water, sweat, or dirt making its way under the bandage. Remember, the point of these adhesive bandages is to keep your tattoo moist and protected for faster healing, without allowing bacteria in to feed on said moisture. Any bacteria that get under the bandage and are left there will find a perfect breeding ground, so it is imperative that if the bandage loses integrity, you remove it and wash the tattoo. Being in the dry air and cleaned frequently is far preferable to a contaminated bandage.

If you for some reason do not have or lose your take home bandage, you can purchase second-skin bandages online or at drug stores. Do NOT re-bandage with anything other than clean second-skin. When in doubt, leave it unwrapped.

Tattoos usually take up to a month to properly “settle in” to the skin. This means it will be a month before the area can be tattooed again. However, the tattoo is safe to swim with, apply sunscreen to, and return to the gym with once it has completed its first peel, and there are no scabs or open wounds remaining. This usually occurs in 2 weeks or less. Often, tattoos will have a second, less dramatic peeling phase immediately following the first. During this time the tattoo may look glassy, out of focus, milky, or Just Kinda Off. Don’t worry, this is normal, and is usually resolved with further healing.

Almost certainly not!

While I am a huge proponent of EVERYONE in tattooing becoming better informed and more hygienic, there is a huge difference between “not gatekeeping” and “taking on the responsibility of teaching another person an extremely complicated and challenging profession.”

In full transparency, I have taught people before; most were apprentices at shops already, and one was a close friend who was both disenfranchised enough to not be able to find an apprenticeship elsewhere, and who expressed a dedication to learning the craft, while also having already been educated in art and the business of art. I don’t regret any of the help I gave people, but the amount of energy and responsibility it takes is overwhelming, and it’s honestly not something I’m in a financial or mental position to do right now.

I believe everyone has a right to pursue an education in tattooing should they wish it, but not everyone has the right to do tattoos. This may sound like splitting hairs, but the difference is crucial; many people who approach me wanting to go into tattooing have not educated themselves nearly enough on cross contamination and tattoo safety. These skills are much more urgently necessary than the ability to make beautiful art, because bad tattoos can be fixed, but infections can be deadly.

I am very willing to answer questions put forth by people who have clearly done a lot of work educating themselves. I don’t want to come across as uncaring, but after having seen many “leftist safe space” tattooers being so filthy they are an active danger to the communities they claim to serve (in particular disabled people), I have lost a fair amount of patience for people flippantly dabbling with a medically significant practice.

My advice to aspiring tattooers: get VERY good at art. Draw from life and draw on physical media you can’t undo with. Get your Bloodborne Pathogen certification online, and really pay attention to the lessons. Spend time on tattooer Reddit and other social media spaces, and ask thoughtful questions. Find your local leftist tattooers in town, and if you can’t afford their tattoos, buy their merch, visit the shop, get feedback without expecting an apprenticeship from it, and ask them who their friends are. Follow as many leftist tattooers as you can, and when they inevitably offer their services for trade, offer your services as well. Become part of the tattoo community BEFORE you start laying lines in human skin; that way, even if you never get an official apprenticeship, you will have a wide breadth of experience to draw from for questions and critiques. And above all, remember that the “stay humble” shit that traditional artists like to spew is, at its best, a reminder of the responsibility you have to the people who trust you with their bodies, and do not become petulant or defensive if you are told you need to do better to serve them.

I ship orders out on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I try to go for once a week, for easier organizing, but will do twice if I receive a large influx of orders midway through the week. If I travel out of town, I will either shut down my shop, or make an announcement about delayed shipping. Most orders will arrive 5-10 days after shipping, with the exception of original pieces, which are shipped Priority for added security, and should arrive in 3-5 within the continental US.

I’ll send out discount codes occasionally through my newsletter or on my Instagram. Sometimes I’ll put products I’m discontinuing or are overstocked on sale. If you are a tattoo client who sent over a high-quality healed picture, you are eligible for a promo code and free item with an order. Email me if you haven’t received one.

Every order comes with at least 1 freebie, the stickers I use as my business cards. Otherwise, freebies are a “while I have them” kind of thing. You can’t choose what you get, but you can put limits in the comment box of your order (e.x. “i’m afraid of spiders” or “nothing with blood please” or “nothing overly pink”).

Right now it’s just the US and its various ill gotten hostages territories, Canada, and Mexico. It will hopefully be more in the future, but honestly learning all the pricing and procedures is very overwhelming for me, so it may take a while.

If you want merch in a different size, use my contact form or email me directly and we’ll see what we can do about it. I’ll try to accommodate what I can, but I’m just one guy with a printer, so I can’t guarantee everything will be possible.

If you want a custom illustration, that’s a commission and will be treated as such. Also use my contact form for that.

If you want a custom plush/piece of jewelry/sculpture/embroidery other original craft, I’m sorry, I will not do that. I make other art pieces for my own joy, and put them up for sale on occasion, but I am not interested in taking commissions of them.