this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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Tattoos

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When you're planning out a tattoo, do you find the artist and then decide what you want, or do you come up with an idea and then find an artist whose style matches what you want? If the latter, how do you find that artist? Do you just search through the local shops or social media to find someone whose style matches what you want, or is there some sort of database where you can search artists by style and location?

I've got a series of medieval animal illustrations that I'd like to turn into a sleeve. It's fully designed (aside from whatever twist the artist wants to put on each one to match their style), but picking an artist who can trace a printout seems as if it would do them a disservice for the work they're putting into it. I'd love to not have to drive for ten hours to get what will likely be multiple days of work, and searching for artists that do engraving or woodcut styles don't seem to have a web presence anywhere nearby.

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[–] Florn@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Commenting so I can find this later, I finally know what I want for a first tattoo and I also want it to look medieval-ish

[–] ClassIsOver@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

I've found plenty of good stuff on Instagram (tattoo research is the only reason I have a burner account), but it's usually from major cities around the world, not somewhere close.

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

The most recent tat I got was of medieval animals but it's just a rip from the image.

I was working away so I already had the image, just walked around Tooting in London until I found a shop they did walk-ins and took it from there

[–] CodingCarpenter@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

I went to just about every shop in my area until I felt comfortable. Definitely some places feel dirty or off and in those situations just nope right out.

From there I narrowed it down to artist and I've followed him shop to shop since