Finding the Perfect Tattoo Designs Online
By Lou Bardach, Managing Partner
Flash2xs.com, LLC: www.flash2xs.com & www.tattoofinder.com

Finding the perfect tattoo design has been a challenge since people started getting tattoos! Whether it's a small tribal butterfly for a lower back or a huge skull for a forearm, finding the most suitable design to adorn your body can be an energy intensive task. The advent of the Internet has provided a GREAT way for people to find designs that they would like to have tattooed on their body. Traditionally, ink seekers have been limited to the selections they could find on the walls at their local studios. Now these "walls of designs" are available online!

Melissa browses TattooFinder.com for the perfect tattoo design.

Increasingly, web sites have popped up to specifically help people find tattoo designs. In general, these types of sites could be put into four different categories:

1. Websites with "free flash" (tattoo designs) to browse through.
2. Websites with subscription fees to view their entire tattoo design collection.
3. Website portals such as Google and Yahoo.
4. Websites that charge for single designs.

At first glance, "free" looks pretty good, right? Well, free can be good, especially if you are looking for IDEAS for a tattoo. Websites that post free flash (and there are many) usually base what they offer on artwork that is "donated" to their free flash selection. In general, anyone with paper and pencils can submit designs and call him/herself a "tattoo flash artist." The point is, you get what you pay for, and the quality of designs to be found in free flash galleries is generally pretty poor (with the exception of a little jewel now and then). Again, this can be a good to look for tattoo design IDEAS, but not such a good way for people to find designs that they would want to put on their bodies permanently.

The second category of tattoo designs to be found on the Internet could be described as "smash and grab" deals. These sites charge a "subscription fee" to view all tattoo designs in their collection. This too can be a great way to browse through many designs and get an IDEA of what type of design a person might want. The subscription-based model usually consists of single artists who post their entire collection of designs on a site, or sites that accept "donated" designs from artist in return for a free subscription. Again, with this model, you will most likely not find the best quality tattoo designs.

Check out more daggers, roses, and hearts!

Check out more of Edward Lee's tattoo designs!

Keep in mind that the best tattoo flash artists make their living drawing tattoo flash. Why would they want to make their entire collection available for one low subscription fee, or donate tattoos of their best artistic creations to a site for free? The answer is, the best tattoo flash artists don't do this, and as a result, the subscription-based tattoo design services generally offer substandard tattoo designs. Regardless if the tattoo you want is a large, intricately detailed piece or a small, simple design, the quality of the tattoo design should be top-notch and flawless.

The third category of ways to find tattoo designs on the internet is to use website portals such as Google or Yahoo. Typing in a specific design on one of these sites will bring up results from web pages of all types. Conducting a search using the “Image” selection on these sites will present you with visual images of the tattoo design you had in mind. However, finding exactly what you want using this method can be a tedious task. Furthermore, while this seems like a quick and cheap way to find designs, much of this artwork is not “tattooable” and does not provide the stencils the tattooist needs to tattoo the design.

Check out more American and rose tattoo designs!

Check out more of Edward Lee's tattoo designs!

The fourth category of ways to find tattoo designs on the Internet is the "pay-per-design" model. These services are by far the BEST way to find top quality tattoo designs online. The way these sites generally work is that they let you view a small thumbnail image of the tattoo designs they offer that you can browse through for FREE (hey, there is that "free" word again!). Once you find the perfect design(s) that you want to get tattooed, you then pay for the design to access the larger image to print and take to a tattoo studio to get inked.

Another HUGE benefit to the "pay per design" model is that you get "stencils" (also known as "line drawings") with the purchase of any tattoo design! If you bring a tattoo design into a tattoo studio without stencils, the tattoo artist will then need to create the stencils in order to tattoo the design on your body. Since tattoo artists generally charge $80 - $150 per hour for their work, having these stencils done by a tattoo artist can be VERY EXPENSIVE. Generally, they will simply add the cost of doing the stencils into the price they quote you for the tattoo, so you won't even know they are charging you for this. So in reality, you can actually SAVE MONEY by purchasing a tattoo design (with the stencils) on a pay-per-design website since you get the stencils with the design. Free flash websites and subscription-based websites, generally DO NOT offer stencils with their tattoo designs.

The website that currently offers the largest selection of tattoo designs and has designs by some of the best tattoo flash artists worldwide is www.tattoofinder.com. With over 17,000 designs and growing, TattooFinder.com provides a variety of tattoo designs ranging from devils to angels, Greek to African, sports to card games, and many, many more! TattooFinder.com is a division of the www.flash2xs.com website (Flash2xs.com, LLC) that sells tattoo flash sets to hang on the walls directly to tattoo studios. So when you purchase a design at TattooFinder.com, you are getting the same top quality tattoo designs (sold as single tattoo designs) that you would find on the walls of the best studios in the world, only you get to view the ENTIRE collection!

So, in summary, free flash sites and subscription based sites can be great to get some IDEAS about the type of designs you might want to get tattooed. But to find the perfect tattoo design, you will want to go to a pay-per-design website. Pay-per-designs websites generally offer the best selection of tattoo designs by the best tattoo flash artists in the world, and sell all designs with stencils (line drawings).