it’s a toss up between kat and garver. i love kat and she is so very talented but i am not big on black and grey. i love color. so garver wins, plus he is super hot!

your best bet would be to utilize one of those tattoo shops you spoke of. it doesn’t cost for you to look at the artists portfolios so look at them until you find an artist who’s work you love. (ask if they personally drew the tattoos and that it’s not flash) then you may feel better about paying some money up front. my artist required a deposit when i first started going to him, many custom artists do. BUT if at any time i had not liked the drawing he came up with all i had to do was show him what i didn’t like or what i wanted changed and he would do it. all artists want you to be happy with the work that you get and will work with you to make it right for you.

to get any kind of detail, especially with a penny the tattoo would have to be fairly large but the artist would be the best person to tell you the ideal size for the tattoo. i would say the whole thing would need to be atleast five inches tall and however wide to make it look proportionate. when i imagine the image you describe i see a realistic sun, like a sunset just very round but with a kind of blur on the edge. i see a branch with the bird perched on it in front of the sun so it would look like you were watching a sunset but the bird is in front of you obstructing your view of the whole sun.
that’s just my first impression. i hope that helped some.

please be sure to pick a talented artist to do your tattoo. there are plenty of artists out there but not plenty of good ones. your tattoo sounds like it could be awesome but it could also totally suck if you get a bad artist.

do you just want to see what it looks like or are you looking to get a similar tattoo?? any tattoo artist who specializes in custom japanese style tattoos could do something for you. my tattoo artist loves to do japanese masks and is great at it. check him out