"Why Won't You Show Me My Design Before the Appointment?"

It's the question I get in almost every consultation: "So... when do I get to see the design?" My answer surprises people — you see it on the day of your tattoo, not before. Here's why.

Let's get right into it. I book a tattoo with you, I put down my deposit... and I see nothing until the day I show up?

Correct. You will not see anything in advance — and I tell everyone that up front so there are no surprises. But here's the part people miss: you're not going to see one design that day. You're going to see multiple. I'll usually prepare four or five versions of your idea, and they're all interchangeable. We sit down together, you tell me what you like — move the composition here, change that font, swap this element — and we mix and match on the spot until it's yours. Then I put the stencil on you, and if something still bothers you, that's exactly the moment to say it. I'm not leaving until we're finished, and neither are you.

Why not just email a design a week ahead like other artists?

Because of what happens next. You send a design a week early, and the back-and-forth begins — a tweak Tuesday, a new idea Thursday, a cousin with opinions on Saturday. I have a lot of clients, and if I did that for everyone, I'd be a full-time email artist and a part-time tattooer. So I flipped it: instead of one design early and endless revisions, you get several designs on the day, and me, live, adjusting them with you. Every hour I don't spend in revision ping-pong is an hour that goes into the actual work.

So when do you actually design it?

The morning of your appointment, I sit down with everything you've sent me and spend a couple of hours building your versions. And that's fresh — your idea, all of my current skill, that day. Not a sketch from six months ago that I'm bored of.

What do you need from clients before that day?

Email me. Put your first and last name in the subject with a short description of the piece so I can match it to your appointment, then give me a plentiful explanation of what you want, with images. AI-generated references are completely fine — I don't care what anybody says about that. If AI gets the picture out of your head and in front of my eyes, beautiful. I'll thumbs-up the email so you know I got it, and it goes into your file.

What if someone changes their mind between booking and the appointment?

Change it! You can send me emails literally until the day before the tattoo. You booked six months ago for a Viking piece and now you want something completely different? Fine — the design doesn't exist yet, remember? That's a feature of this system, not a flaw. Nothing is wasted, because nothing was drawn until your idea was final.

Some people would say this requires a lot of trust.

It does, and I don't take that lightly. Look at the portfolio — that's the trust contract. And I'd rather earn trust by being straight with you than by sending pretty previews. I've had clients tell me stories about artists who talked them out of their idea, never showed them anything, and just started tattooing — and now they're in my chair asking about cover-ups. That's exactly what my system prevents: you see everything, you choose everything, you approve everything. Just on the day, with me next to you, instead of over email with neither of us in the room.

And if none of the designs feel right that day?

Then we sit there and fix it together until one does. They're built to be taken apart — every element can move, resize, or go in the trash. In years of doing it this way, I've yet to send someone home without a design they were excited about. People walk in nervous about this policy and walk out understanding why it exists.

Ready to put an idea in front of me? Book a free consultation — Thursday–Sunday, 12:00–5:30 — or read how the whole process works.

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