FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
could people stop asking about pricing. how hard is it to make a phone call.
plus the question has been asked/replied 1000 times in this thread already
most local shops are 140-180 an hour.

look up the shops and the artist's portfolios are online.

strictly tattoo is probably what your lookin for.

If you're new to looking at portfolios, read this

Guen Douglas: How to Properly Examine a Tattoo Portfolio « TAM Blog

great post !!

i think there should be a sticky with this and a few othere things.

Anyone have any experience with shops in Vietnam?

Edit: I'm also gonna do a short review of my experience at trigger happy with jay. Steer clear if you can!

I had several appointments booked to finish a 3 quarter sleeve. During the consultation, I told jay everything I was looking for (koi tattoo with specific colors, examples). Left the consultation happy. In our first appointment, jay completely "forgot" that I wanted a colour tattoo and ran the shader right through the koi's head. Because of this, I now have to change the whole concept of the tattoo and change accommodate a black koi fish into the art. (I put forgot in the quotations because I have a strong feeling jay never even wrote down anything during our consultation)

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I decided to keep on going with our other planned appointments, hoping we can work with a black fish. 1 hour before our appointment, jay calls abruptly and cancels the appointment on me! I know things come up but you have to take accountability for your actions. Now my day has been wasted. Jay tells me to call back in a few days to re book. Yeah rights I thought... I ended up calling him anyways but he never picked up. Jay finally calls me on a Sunday afternoon a week later and we book another date.

Our third session was alright, but boy did I feel rushed. The lines on my tattoo are all crooked and out of the outline and line thickness is all inconsistent. Im really upset at this point. Note: I haven't displayed my disappointment yet hoping that we can all still fix this with shading and what not.

4th appointment: again, 1 hour before the appointment starts jay cancels on me. Me being in public was the only thing that had me biting my tongue and not cursing at jay. I told him I wanted my deposit back and that I would take my business elsewhere. The tattoo is about 20 hours from being done.

Fast forward a month later (I haven't went back to get my deposit yet), he calls me and asks if I want to book an appointment. I'm like wtf is this shit?

Anyhow I just want to share my experience with the RS community of my experiences with jay. I have gotten art from other artists in van and this is by far my worst experience. Jay is unorganized and does not seem like he has the passion for his work. Everything is rushed and mechanical.

End rant

That really sucks. :rukidding: I hope you get lucky and find another artist that will be willing to work with what you have to fix it to what you hoped it would be.

Oh man that's fucking brutal.. you should have ditched him after the first session though TBH. Can you post some pics so we can see how bad it is?

im looking into getting a half sleeve of some japanese art
i went to adrenalin for my first one but none of the artist specialize in japanese
any recommendations on where and who??

thanx

There are lots of suggestions in the thread, check it out :)

shitty that you got a bad experience with jay. i guess the increase of business in his shop is getting to him. and with jay there really is no "consultation" with him, he pretty much just free-hands the work on the first appointment and asks if that is what you had in mind. it's a shame that his quality in work has gone downhill... trigger happy was beginning to make a name for itself.

i suggest for you to let him finish however many koi's you had in mind for your sleeve and then let jesse at blackwater finish the rest of the work, since their styles are pretty similar. dunno if jesse would touch his work though...

Yeah, I did research on jay and found out he used to be Jesse apprenticeship which was exactly why I booked with jay to start with; all my other work has been done with Jesse and thought the styles would be consistent enough. I didn't book with Jesse again because his wait list was so long. Guess this is the price you pay for being impatient... I have some other work with Jesse next month to finish some other pieces so I might swing it by him and see if he's open to it, if I don't find anyone else by then. I have a feeling Jesse would do it but knowing Jesse at the same time, it's going to come with a very long and hefty rant lol!

Skinny--I'll take some pics and post em up as soon as I can

^ book with andrea!! style is somewhat similiar and shes def a lot better than jay, more friendly, actually take her time with her consulation etc etc

I was at sinister skin on saturday for 5 hours and they had some guy come in that was tattoo'd at the dutchman and wanted his tattoo fixed but they could only suggest getting it lasered to lighten the tattoo and then come back and they would work something out.
Ive been to the dutchman twice and wasn't really happy now that i think about it, i get way better work and prices at sinister skin only problem is Dave books 3 months + in advance :\

Thanks for the suggestion man, but I'm not too much a fan of her work. The only time Im heading back is to get my deposit back lol


3 months isn't much for a great tattoo! :)



http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...h/90a4a1d5.jpg
http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...h/4ddeeaec.jpg
http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...h/c99d36f2.jpg

It's hard to show the flaws so I tried to take a pic of the obvious ones. It looks better on camera, for whatever that's worth haha

^ yea i was just gonna say it looks alright until the second pic.

Yeah those lines are jacked

well it could be worse,.. the lines are fucked but not to noticable untill you look really close.

damn tbh its not tat bad, but i know how you feel. sucks when you pay and you dont get the top quality especially when its a tattoo.

Yeah it's not bad from afar, but like this shit is on me... For life! But it's not just the poor artwork from jay, but of how unorganized and shitty "service", for a lack of a better word.

It's not that bad and is fixable with shading and re-doing some of the outline and contour but never will I recommend trigger happy tattoo to anyone.

Hell I never even wanted a black koi to start with!:rukidding:

The shitty service would almost be worth it if you got a killer tattoo in the end. Unfortunately that one is decent at best right now.

it doesn't look to bad but its not what you wanted. I would rage if that had happened to me, shit i was kinda pissed that i got cancled on with my tattoo guy but then he got me in 3 days later after hours 6-11 on a friday night so dude really made up for it.

General question. I see alot of guys in van who rock those sleeves and they all look pretty sketch. Is it safe to assume that those with tats do criminal activity? Im not talkin bout just any tat but the ones u see on asian guys... Dragons kois demons and the sort

No its not safe to assume, alot of people have tattoo's and full sleeves are becoming more common.