Straight answers to the things that stop people booking a tattoo — from the first idea to a healed tattoo. Each guide points you at real, credited work in the catalogue, and health guides quote dermatologists who specialise in tattoos.
What does an Old School (American Traditional) tattoo actually look like?
How to spot good neo-traditional work
New School tattoos explained: exaggerated cartoon shapes, saturated colour and bold outlines - who they suit, how they age and what to look for.
A skull in bold traditional linework reads as classic memento mori; the same skull rendered in soft realism can read as a portrait study.
Strong contrast — solid black, bold outlines, blackwork, traditional styles — tends to show best.
How a tattoo consultation works: what to bring, the questions to ask, how deposits, booking and design changes usually work, and what to avoid.
Old School (American Traditional) Neo-Traditional Realism Watercolor Blackwork Tribal Japanese (Irezumi) Dotwork Still torn between two?
Japanese tattooing — traditionally called Irezumi — is built around large, flowing compositions rather than a single isolated image: dragons, koi, tigers, and folklore figures set against backgrounds…
Almost any style can be executed as dotwork instead of traditional shading.
Where a traditional tattoo is built from a bold line first and color second, watercolor often inverts that: the color is the drawing, splashed and layered the way…
What varies by style is how that action is used: a bold traditional outline and a fine, delicate line are the same underlying process, applied differently.
Nine stages from a vague idea to a healed tattoo. Every guide ends with a link to the next step, so you can read them in order — or jump straight to where you are.
The worries people mention most — and where the honest answer is.
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Health guides quote dermatologists who specialise in tattoos word for word. New to the words? See the tattoo glossary. How guides are written and corrected: editorial policy.