I have alwasy pondered the question whether to stick with the same artist for consistency of the look, choose another artist that may be similar, or just say what the heck and go with a new artist for a change.
I have some extensive work that I am always looking to expand upon, but this questions keep me thinking.
I mean I might want to try someone else out, not that I am disappointed in my guy, but…well you can see I am struglling because I am dedicated to my artist.
So while I am at it, what is the going rate? I am paying $150 hr for custom work …
I think other artists tattoo faster too? Not sure but on Miami Ink (and yes I know they edit) but some amazing work seems to come out of two sessions that I know I have had 5..and my session at min 4 hours so i assume these guys on TV aren’t sitting for 2, 10 hr days…
Thoughts on all of this???
Yeah, they edit the sh*t out of the tv show. Usually any amazing work, like magazines, tv shows, or just beautiful custom work in general takes a few sittings. If not you colors get saturated with eachother and become muddled. $150.00 an hour is a good price for custom work, if your guy/girl is good. Usually it’s between $100.00 and $250.00 an hour for most artists. 250 being the best of course, and alot depends on where you are.
Most really good artists will encourage you to explore other artists work that you admire. If they don’t they are in it for your money, and that really is not good. You want an artist who is in it for the art, that way they care about your piece more than you do. Most good artists will want you to bring a new piece to them to incorperate and kind of collaborate with another artist. That’s alot of fun, to incorperate other styles into your own, and the artist learns something every time.
Don’t think it’s a dis-respect thing, because it is not. You only have so much skin so get what you want for you, not just to pay your artist because you think he/she deserves the money or something. An artist only deserves the money for each tattoo he/she does, not the ones in the future. I’m not saying that is why your in this struggle, but some people do feel that they should get all there work done by one artist because he/she did previous work. There are alot of good artists out there, so as a tattoo artist myself, I say explore and enjoy your art. Watch each artist add his/her talents to your existing work and take pride in the outcome.
Depends, on TV you can’t tell what they edit and what not. I often sit for full day sessions at about 10-12hours so I don’t see why they wouldn’t (I’ve never seen the program you are talking about so can’t comment). Artists speed varies hugely on what they are doing. That sort of answers your quiery on changing artist, like anything one guy/gal will be quick with a certain style they feel confident in and quite slow in something they are not so confident in. I don’t see any harm in changing, especislly if you have looked at someones portfolio and thought it looks better standard than what you have. No way would I be loyal in a working capacity to an artist who couldn’t do the work as well as elsewhere, that would be daft, and at the end of the day their is no reason why you can’t just stay loyal mates without the work being done. When I’m laying off I often pop in to see my artist and just have a cup of tea and talk crap for an hour or 2, why not, obviously building up a friendship with your artist is part of the experience as a whole. I know he would like to know why I had moved on if I did, and that would only be to help him understand why and in what area he was laggin a bit.
A good artist worth his salt will remain friends and understand a change as long as he knows why, no need to sneak around without him knowing.
Rates in the UK run at around £50 – £75 maybe more per hour, and if you’re spending alot of time in the chair, full days etc then you should get a bottom rate for loss of change over time, and a good relationship with the artist should get you loyalty and friendship rates, even better:D. Catch 22 really. Speed over quality? I’d rather have quality any day. I can earn more money, I can’t grow extra body parts to make more room.:D
Good luck!!!
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate the comments. As with the friendship rates, that is what I would expect.
I have been going to my guy for about five years and have 65 hrs worth of work with him. For my one dragon it was 16 hours over four sessions. From one session to the next he had raised his rates and enforced them on me! So the first session was $120/hr the second $135, the third and fourth $150/hr.
Now he did do my wife for free .. wait that came out wrong…
He did a small kanji on my wife for free (she did this for me when we got married, her first – so sweet but that is a different story), but that was it.
So over all we are talking about $8000 for both thighs…many people have said it looks awesome so that is good (not that too many people are seeing my thighs, but again a different story!)
Thanks again guys, take care.
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