From Idea To Reality: Getting A Custom Tattoo Design

When trying to find the perfect tattoo design for your next tattoo, each one of us wants it to be unique, meaningful and personalized just for us.

But – how does one go about getting a custom tattoo design?

Finding tattoo custom design can be tricky but it pays off long term.

You will forever love your forever artwork that goes into your skin.

The time, money and pain you have to put up to make your vision reality needs to pay off.

So, here is our guide on how to go about your custom tattoo design – step by step!

First things first: how to come up with a tattoo idea?

No matter if you’re looking to come with a tattoo for women or a tattoo for men, the process is the same.

We will talk about the steps  to take when coming up with the tattoo idea:

Once you have all this, you’re pretty much set up.

Go ahead and write down a brief description of your tattoo idea in a Google Doc or in your Notes app.

You absolutely can leave some things open to discussion further with the artist.

Does that sound cool so far?

Let’s move deeper into tattoo styles and how to choose something that’s going to represent you aesthetically.

Anybody who’s not heavily involved in the tattoo industry might not know what are the different tattoo styles.

The list of tattoo styles can be so long that we wouldn’t have the time to describe them all.

Especially because people started tattooing from ancient times and it’s now a staple body modification form that’s never lost its popularity throughout the decades since 1950s.

But, let’s start from the beginning – right?

As we know that tattoos come in a variety of shapes and sizes, what exactly does a term tattoo style cover?

Tattoo styles have nothing to do with what they depict or the theme or symbols they cover.

It is the general look of the tattoo, the unique approach of how something is drawn, rather than what is drawn.

Now, as you would imagine, just like painters, sculptors, musicians, certain tattoo artists specialize in certain styles of tattoos.

Of course, there are artists that are more versatile than others and cover a variety of styles, as well.

This might not be a good option if you’re looking for someone with a deep knowledge of a certain tattoo style.

Moving forward, you might ask, and with every right, would every tattoo artist have their own style?

And the answer is – yes, of course.

However, as long as they have a certain take on how they draw things – they still stick to a specific type of a general tattoo tattoo style giving it their own “magic dust”.

That all said, here’s a quick run through through some of the most popular tattoo styles:

• Photorealistic
• Gray wash
• Illustrative
• Mandala
• Tribal
• Fine line
• Single line
• Trash polka
• Watercolor
• Traditional American style
• Neotraditional American style
• Dotwork
• Geometric
• Biomechanical
• Celtic/Viking Knotting
• Japanese Irezumi
• Blackwork
• Abstract

Tattoo fonts span across almost all possible type and written fonts, all the way to custom calligraphy done just for you.

When you’re trying to get a writing tattoo designed, there are several things you need to have in mind.

Those are:

1. The tattoo designer will either need an exact font that you need recreated
2. An example of a font you like to reference when creating a custom font for you
3. Yes, designers can replicate writings. Say, you have a note from someone you love, or a post it, or a letter – that is possible to replicate.

The most important things about lettering tattoos and tattoo fonts in general (and where they differ from typed up or written letters) is the size.

When tattooing letters, the skin cannot act like paper. That said, letters require space to heal well and for the lines to look good (not blow up).

If you want a thicker tattoo font, be ready to set aside 1/3-1/2 of an inch for each letter.

Alternatively, if it is a fine, thin lined tattoo font for cursive writing, it might be able to be smaller.

Cover up tattoo ideas get a bit trickier, but bearing a few things in mind they can get a lot easier.

When planning your tattoo cover up, customization is *everything*.

Having someone work around your no-longer-wanted tattoo and enhance it to something you love is probably the most rewarding thing in the tattoo industry (or in the world really?)

In this paragraph, we’ll also be discussing tattoo cover up vs. tattoo removal.

OK, so, you’ve decided that you want to cover up your old tattoo.

That is exciting because something new and wonderful is about to happen!

Here are the steps that are important:

• Come up with a tattoo idea you’d like to cover it with
• If you don’t already have a tattoo design in mind, think of ideas that you’d like your new design to represent and what symbols can express those ideas
• Talk it through on a tattoo consultation (keep in mind: this is a free step when enrolling with Tattoo Stylist since it’s the most important part to getting your tattoo started)
• Work 1 on 1 with a tattoo artist on your tattoo cover up design

In certain cases, it’s best to have the laser tattoo removal done at least partially before you go to get your new tattoo design inked.

Especially in cases in which the old tattoo is still recent in tattoo-time (less than 3 years) and it has dark lines and/or dark shading.

The reason for this is to:

1) Have more flexibility with your new tattoo design

2) Making sure the new tattoo will truly look well without too many revisions

Finally, there is another option that you can go for instead of tattoo removal.

It is blacking out the area and going in with white ink on top. Results can look amazing, even though they take time.

By taking time we are talking about the fact that white ink on top of black ink cannot show after the first inking sessions.

It can take many sessions (depends on many factors how many exactly), until the beautiful new white patterns start showing up. Also note that in between each session you need to go through the regular tattoo healing cycle.

Let’s start with a little comparison story.

Have you ever thought about starting running? It sounds like a good idea. It’s healthy, boosts stamina and lowers the risk of heart diseases.

If you were to start now, you wouldn’t just take any random used shoes from your family’s closet and put them on, right?

Just like every shoe adapts to a persons’ foot, every tattoo adapts to a certain value, emotion, symbol or a memory that you want to express.

Consider some of the reasons most of our clients had in mind when they decided to customize their tattoos:

1. It represents who you are.
2. It’s significant and carries a deeper meaning.
3. It’s made for your body proportions so no details will be jammed.
4. It’s unique just for you
5. Apart from not wanting to copy other people’s designs, it is considered illegal in case certain designs have been protected as intellectual property