RTS Tips & Tricks

S1.E3. Shh... It's a booking secret.

You've made the decision in your head, that's it, you're doing it! Maybe you've just celebrated your 18th birthday or maybe you've just jumped over that mental hurdle that stopped you before, either way, you're super excited to get your first tattoo. Buzzing! Now what? You want the tattoo right now! Let's go! But, where? Where do you go? Who to? What do you want? What do you do? How much is it going to cost? When can you get it done? Ar! All of a sudden it's overwhelming and you've lost your buzz. Well, relax, it's all good!

Take a minute and have a little step back. Check out some tips and advice that you will find useful to make those right calls, I gotchya!

1. Take. Your. Time!

As exciting as it is, honestly, just take a beat. When it comes to the tattoo world, I think it has an insanely wide gamut, with a ridiculous amount of styles, artists, shops, opinions and knowledge (or lack of!) to chose from, which can mean an incredibly happy client or a complete and utter disaster. Slow down, take a minute.

2. Asking the right questions.

Don't get me wrong, theres a place for impulsivity and acting on a whim, but a tattoo is very much a permanent change. For some people, this holds a lot of weight. If this sounds like you, then for sure taking a little breather. You want to start figuring out what is actually important to you and what you want to gain from the tattoo. You might want it to be perfect and start your tattoo collection off to a high standard, you might want it to be really meaningful, you might want the day to be a great experience or you might not actually care too much and just want a tattoo. There's no correct answers here but either way, getting clarity on a few things will for sure help you make some decisions further down the line. Once you're backed up with some clear answers and priorities, you can then take your time to do some more focused, targeted research and finding an artist or studio that aligns with your answers, that's a recipe for success right there.

3. What factors to consider.

Some of the main things to contend with when looking at your first tattoo:

• the type of tattoo art style you want (how it looks)

• how far you're willing to travel to get the tattoo

• how long you're prepared to wait

• what's your budget

4. Artist choice is crucial

Personally, I think your choice of artist is critical and directly related to the success of your tattoo. Doing your research and marrying together what you want to the artist, this is the key. Want a good realistic portrait? Find an artist that does good realistic portraits. Want a bold coloured traditional tattoo? Find that artist. It's not overly complicated. Yes, there are lots of artists that are versatile and again, this is why I think narrowing down what's important to you helps with this next stage as it might not exclusively be the finished work that is the only thing that matters. Hypothetically, for example, you could love an artists work, but they're based in another country and you're not willing to travel that far, so then you have to adjust your parameters once new factors come into play.

5. What next?

I think all these questions can be broken down a lot further and this is all just the tip of the iceberg really. I'm sure we will delve deeper into answers further down the line but the goal here is not to get overwhelmed, so we will keep it pretty simple. If you do get to stage of finding that perfect artist and you're ready for that next step, try to follow their individual guidance on appointments. Every artist books clients in different ways, for example with us, it's best to contact the artist directly from their individual links on our artist page or if you need a little more help you can send us a general enquiry through our website. A lot of artists work directly through social media or dedicated apps so to prime yourself for a successful interaction and booking an appointment, follow how best the artist advises.

Trust the process.

Take your time, do your research, find that perfect artist and trust the process to get you to your first tattoo. Even if it takes a little longer than you'd like, I can guarantee that in the long term, it will be well worth the wait and you will be so pleased that you cared about these early stages.

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