Portfolio

Having access to social media, one of the best methods to find the best tattoo artist for your design idea is to search on Instagram. Simply search for your city + tattoo hashtag, for example, #NewYorkTattoo.

A list of all the most recent tattoo artists with the newest picture will appear. Go through all the pictures until you find the style that you like.

The size of the Instagram portfolio is important, the more pictures are posted, the more the tattoo artist has worked, is in demand, and has better skills. If an artist hardly has a portfolio and doesn’t post regularly, be cautious.

Style

The style of a tattoo artist is everything. They normally have a signature style, such as dotted lines, light shadows, colors, thick black lines, realistic, minimalistic, etc.

Be on the lookout for each, individual, artist and find the one that has your style. If you look at an artist’s Instagram profile and say to yourself “wow I love them all”, then you most likely found your tattoo artist.

Watch out for the Lines

One of the most important things to look for in a tattoo artist and their work is the quality of the lines.

Are they straight? Are they full? Is that the type of lines that you would want in your design?

You also want to watch out with the shadows used, is it dotted or graded? An artist will most likely always repeat the same style.

How much does it cost?

Every tattoo artist will vary in terms of cost depending on their experience. Someone with a lot of experience and a large portfolio is more likely to provide a solid final result than someone just starting out.

Experience is everything, and the tattoo artist with more of it could have a better technique, higher quality tools and ink, and a better healing method.

There is no way to know beforehand the cost of a tattoo, it all depends on the size, amount of details, and the tattoo artist, but the higher the quality, the higher the cost.

One piece of advice, don’t try to lower the cost or cheap out on this investment, this tattoo will last you a lifetime, so make sure to get the highest quality possible.

Healed Tattoos

Most tattoo artists will post pictures of freshly made tattoos on Instagram, and that is because that’s when they look the best.

Ask your artist to show you healed tattoos, this will give you an idea of what yours could look like.

Tattoo Studio

This is not a deal-breaker, but how far is the tattoo artist’s studio, is it clean, well designed, welcoming, and hygienic?

These questions will tell you a lot about a tattoo artist. If he/she takes care of their studio, this will reflect on your tattoo.