Came here to gripe about tattoo pricing and the general lack of advice there is about it online. Here's the thing: I know that tattoo pricing isn't fixed, that each artist prices their work differently and that it would be unfair to expect prices to be standardized across the board. Art is subjective so the cost is subject to change, I get it. But on a great deal of tattoo forums online, discussing prices is considered so uncouth that comments about price are removed, and posters who ask about it are often banned. While I totally understand the reasoning behind it, this culture allows certain disreputable tattoo artists to shaft inexperienced customers on price. This particularly annoys me because I got absolutely fucking fucked on the price of my first ever tattoo, due to a lack of available advice about what to expect. I'm talking literally double the price of a regular outer London tattoo place for the work done, and London is already dick-kickingly expensive as a place to get inked. When I tried to find advice online about whether I was being as shafted as I thought I was, I met the "don't ask about price" brick wall that seems to operate on a lot of online forums. I just wish it was okay to ask "for this area, for this kind of work/style/size what is the median sort of price?". People in the know choose an artist based on their portfolio, and If I really dig an artist's portfolio then of course I would be more than happy to pay above the median, so I don't think that talented artists would have to adjust their price if the work speaks for itself, it would just make it easy for first time customers to make informed decisions and realise when they are getting essentially ripped off. I know that there are a thousand reasons that this would never work, but I really resented the "don't ask, don't tell" culture when I first got work done.
That sounds awful. ... perhaps start a tattoo blog where you go around and review tat artists work and in that talk about price... new people on the scene... people who are internationally known and in that you can have an education area about price and the differences with custom work and standard stuff. The dos and fonts when getting your first tat. Seems to me you might be able to turn this around. Surely you are not the only one who feels this way and maybe you can fill a gap that needs to be filled. . A provide people with knowledge they are not getting anywhere else. If you play it right this could become a carreer too.
I don't have the time or the inclination, plus my ability to review and interview would be so restricted by geography as to be all but useless to anyone who soesn't live inthe same city as me. What I would want to see is just a minor shift in the culture, but I accept, for the reasons i've stated, tha this is unlikely.
i got $120 dropped from my original price. u gotta talk to them, be sneaky, be street. i basically told him i would leave and look around a bit and think about it. he basically told me hold on a freakin' minute sit down i'll take what u got. got a great tat by the most experienced artist in the whole shop, in full color. ask around, never simply accept initial quote. it's ur fucking money.
