The Personalized Tattoo Approach

Does this sound like you?

• I know the perfect tattoo design is out there somewhere waiting for me (or I’ve already found my design on TattooFinder.com).
• I may want to make a few changes to my tattoo design (perhaps alter some colors or line thickness).
• I have a limited tattoo budget and I want to get inked right away!
• I definitely want to know exactly what my tattoo will look like BEFORE it’s inked on my skin.

If you’re interested in a tattoo, you likely have at least some idea in your mind of what it’s going to look like and where you’d like to have it. Maybe you’ve searched the TattooFinder.com database of 32,000 designs, found the perfect piece of tattoo-friendly artwork and it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for. Or it could still be out there, waiting to jump out, hit you in the gut and just feel right. In both cases, getting tattooed is really about connecting with an image or an idea and wanting to make it permanent. The Personalized tattoo approach really centers on that one image or design reference and the options you have to make it yours.

There are plenty of modifications you can make that, although minor to the original design, will make your tattoo an individual expression. Would you change the coloring? Make the lines thicker or finer? What about including some shadowing or highlights? The Personalized tattoo approach gives you the creative control in finding a design that suits you and, if you’d like, altering it. Don’t be afraid to take the reigns of your design process! Whether you decide to modify a design or go with the original artwork because you think it’s perfect “as-is,” your ultimate result should be a tattoo that you really treasure. Despite any other suggestions or even pressure that you might get from others, your opinion matters most.

“A young girl came into my shop looking for a tattoo,” says Rachael Bardach, co-owner of the Colorado studio Main Street Tattoo and a tattooist since 1991. “After awhile, she found flash artwork that she really liked, but told me it wasn’t quite what she wanted. She told me she liked everything about it, but a friend told her not to choose something off the wall to get tattooed . . . that she had to get something ‘custom.’ I thought it was sad. Here is a girl who finally found a design she really loves and, because of peer pressure and misinformation, she wasn’t going to get it. I suggested that we start with this design, and modify it to make it personalized just for her. We ended up changing a few colors and some shading, tattooed it and she was ecstatic about her new Personalized tattoo.”

Like Rachael’s client, you might find that some stigma to a design “off the wall” exists because of the pressure to get something “unique.” A lot of people have this misconception because they don’t realize that personal modification is possible or they’re afraid someone else will have the “same” tattoo. But the truth is that all tattoos become unique and one-of-a-kind once they’re inked to your skin. No two tattoos are exactly alike, even without any modifications, because of differences in tattooists’ techniques, skin color, placement of the tattoo on the body and size of the design. The Personalized tattoo approach gives you control of the design process in finding a great tattoo and making it perfect for YOU.

Potential benefits to the Personalized approach:

• ACCURACY: You have a very good sense of what your final tattoo will look like before the design is applied to your skin. Tattoo-friendly design reference that you already connect may require little or no design modification and the stencils that come with it help insure that the “paper-to-skin” translation is accurate.
• CREATIVE CONTROL: You maintain a high level of creative control in your tattoo experience. When you select a tattoo-friendly design to get tattooed, you don’t need to evaluate the artistic capabilities of the tattooist — only their knowledge of safety and tattoo craftsmanship come into play.
• EFFICIENCY: You potentially bypass a long, time-consuming design collaboration process. When you find your perfect tattoo design you can take it to the tattooist of your choice and get it inked NOW.
• BUDGET MINDED: While different tattooists will quote various prices for any given tattoo, you may be able to keep your tattoo costs minimal. Being well prepared with tattoo-friendly design reference and stencils means you won’t need to pay for the tattooist’s time in the design development and modification process.