Session Sale Ending

For months now, we’ve worked hard to keep prices down, limiting our 5 hour session rate to $300. This was only possible as long as we were able to maintain a high volume of clients, as the biggest obstacle to making money in the tattoo business is NOT doing tattoos. Unfortunately, as happens every year around this time, it appears that people are spending their money on other things, so we have to end our sale.

Starting November 2nd, the artists at Lighthouse Tattoo will return to their normal session rate of $500 for 5 hours. This is still a great value at less than the typical rate for a lot of shops and it will allow us to keep the lights on even if we’re not as busy during the winter months.

Now, let us be clear, we’re letting you know this because it’s still possible to prevent the rate change. If business picks up and increased volume allows us to offset a reduced rate, we’ll continue the deal. So take advantage of this sale while you still can and maybe we’ll be able to keep it going!

Hercules

Hercules wearing the head of the Nemean Lion. Greek and Roman mythology has always been popular tattoo fare. The richest of the stories and the history, as well as our exposure to it as young children (how old were you when you heard your first Hercules story?) as well as the visuals it conjures, lends it well to this ancient artform.

Cover-ups Are An Art All Their Own

Far too many people have tattoos they can’t stand anymore. It’s the single biggest threat to the longevity of the tattoo business-tattoo regret. We opened Lighthouse Tattoo as a way to bring good, affordable tattooing to Middle Tennessee. In doing that, we brought even more tattoo shops into town once they realized a market for the business was sustainable. We’re very proud of that fact. Unfortunately, we have been inundated with requests from clients to get old or substandard work covered up.

Cover-ups require a skill set that’s different from the typical tattoo process. Knowing what will work and being able to execute a good finished product; being willing to say ‘no’ when a client makes an uninformed and poor request; and being willing to take the necessary time to creates a good cover-up are all traits we foster here at Lighthouse Tattoo.

This cover-up was performed by Amanda and everyone was well pleased with the result. If you need something covered up or reworked, Lighthouse Tattoo is open seven days a week, from noon to 10pm.

Halloween Party!!!

On Saturday, October 18th, starting at 8pm, Lighthouse Tattoo will be hosting our annual Halloween Party! Those of you who know, know. For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of attending: This free event is open to the public (so bring friends); is BYOB (do your dope at home or in the car, wherever, just not here, please and thank you); is a costume party replete with costume contests and prizes (check out the flier); and is likely the most fun thing you’ll do all day.

Hell Awaits

This third installment of a Heaven/Hell/Salvation backpiece offers a vision on what’s waiting in Hell. This large piece was rendered in a single 7,5 hour sitting by resident realism artist Will Wood, who is widely regarded as the best in the business, at least in middle Tennessee. To see more of his work or possibly schedule an appointment with him, simply click on his name under the Artists tab on this website or the Set an Appointment tab and mention his name.

Jason Voorhees Can't Swim

Come on dude. You’re telling me one of the greatest silent psychos of all time was created because no one in 1980 figured you needed a safety declaration that little Jason here wasn’t a strong swimmer? Those were different times for sure. Well, here’s one for helicopter parenting.

Jason, really only evil because he seems to have such a problem with cheap drugs and free sex, has been a registered Republican since his introduction in the 1980 Friday the 13th film. But we didn’t really fall in love with him until part 3, when he got that hockey mask. Jason’s come a long way since then, as have the rest of us. He went to Manhattan, then space, fought Freddy, and even stopped killing the black guy first. But the poor bastard never did learn how to swim.

Michael Myers

Silent psychos are one of the things that make horror movies great. They add a sense of mystery to a recipe so straightforward- run, hide. But why? What made this psycho so psycho? Maybe we’ll never know. To the best of our knowledge, Michael Myers comes second only to Leatherface in the genre of franchise horror silent psycho killers. Try saying that three times fast.

In honor of our upcoming Halloween Party on October 18th, we thought we’d share a few horror-inspired pieces with you. Enjoy!

Cast Down

Will Wood is simply one of the very best tattoo artists in the Southeastern United States. With over 20 years of experience, his black and grey realism is regarded, even by his haters, as world class. This tattoo would be a great example of that skill, except it wasn’t done by Will.

Amanda Gibbs has been apprenticing at Lighthouse Tattoo for about 2 years now. Between her own lifelong passion for pursuing visual art and Will’s undeniable expertise in the medium of tattoo, this depiction of the archangel Gabriel casting Satan out of Heaven is the culmination of that time, passion, and expertise. We expect great things from Amanda, great things indeed.

and she smells better than Will, too!

Jesus Christ

We love the Lord. Well, some of us do. While not what you’d call a Christian tattoo shop, our owner Will is a Christian, though not a very good one, and if you want to talk to him about matters of faith, be our guest! Be forewarned, it can turn into an all-day conversation.

That being said we feel the need to address an issue we’ve become aware of: Lighthouse Tattoo does not perform Satanic tattoos.

Take a breath. We do demons and depictions of evil monsters all the time, we love it. We do logos for metal bands that have satanic themes, no sweat. We also don’t have a problem tattooing secular satanic imagery such as that Church of Satan statue of Baphomet since it’s largely an atheist organization that promotes ideals of religious freedom, freedom even FROM religion, in a hilariously cheeky fashion. We do tattoos from many other religions as well.

HOWEVER. If you actually worship Satan and want a tattoo dedicated to such, we have only this to say: Please reconsider. Lighthouse Tattoo has a relatively simple ‘No Hate’ policy when it comes to what we will and won’t do and the religious depiction of Satan is that of hate personified, in any positive light.

If this seems like splitting hairs to you, or you’re willing to lie to try to sneak one past us, Lighthouse Tattoo probably isn’t the place for you.

That being said, Jesus loves you. Even if you’re weird. Even if you’re trans/short/fat/ugly/dumb/rich/poor/atheist yada, yada, yada, you get the idea. You matter; it matters, and we’d all be a bit better off if we slowed down long enough to see the value in that value. All the best ~Lighthouse

An Introduction

Our latest addition to Lighthouse Tattoo is young Vanessa. These hotrod flames around a wrist are one of her early forays into wraparound tattoos and we’re quite pleased with her progress over these last few months. We have no idea what the pirate duck is about, but we like it, so we kept it in for your enjoyment. Vanessa is currently accepting new clients and she focuses primarily on Traditional American-style tattoos. If this seems up your alley and you’d like to save some money by getting a tattoo from this young tatter tot, you can contact Lighthouse Tattoo by calling 615-784-4500 or fill out the submission form on our ‘set an appointment’ tab on this website.

Wyatt Earp

This is a poor cellphone photo of a really fun tattoo that our artist Will Wood performed while doing an out-of-town guest spot. We’ll be sure to get you a healed photo ASAP.

Tombstone is a singularly great stylized western film starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, depicting the Texas law man and the historic gunfight with the Cowboys at the OK Corral. Decades later and people still love the film, so much so, that another Wyatt Earp film starring Kevin Costner has been completely overshadowed. To his credit, Russell’s performance didn’t wither when compared to a uniquely great portrayal of John ‘Doc’ Holliday by the late Val Kilmer. We love the movie, we love the tattoo, we hope you do too!

Greek Mythology Leg Sleeve WIP

We’re not sure if you can tell from the photo, but this tattoo is an ankle-to-knee monster. This WIP (Work-In-Progress) is going on one of our favorite and most prolific clients. What can we say, we love the guy. After two full sleeves and full torso of work from our awarding-winning realism artist (and the fucking best around) Will Wood, he’s finally moving on to his legs.

This piece, in keeping with a Greco-Roman mythology theme, is based on the story of the Gorgon Medusa, one of the most favored stories completing with the likes of the Labors of Hercules and the stories of Perseus. We wanted to give you a little taste, rest assured we’ll be keeping you updated on this magnificent body of work!

Tiny Tattoo Tuesdays

With the increased costs of medical supplies since Covid and the corresponding jump in inflation, the price of tattooing has continued to rise at a time when wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living. That giant sucking sound your bank account makes every time you go to pay rent is a stark reminder of that. The average home price in the U.S. has risen 45-50% in the last four years. Simply put, if your pay hasn’t doubled in the same time frame, you’re fucked. We think that’s wrong.

So here’s what we’re doing about it: To coincide with our on-going $300 for 5 hour sessions, on TUESDAYS of the next couple of weeks, Lighthouse Tattoo will be offering tiny tattoos at half-price, even below our normal minimum.

Normally we have an $80 minimum to cover our expenses, but a lot of you have come in asking for really small pieces and at times we’ve gone below our base price to take care of you, but we need to concentrate those small pieces into a single day in order to make it cost-effective for us. This should make the practice sustainable and thus, you can get tiny tattoo for as little as $40. We think this is the lowest price for any tattoo anywhere within miles.

What’s a tiny tattoo you ask? Some examples of recent requests: A single-line cross on a wrist, a little, single-lined red heart, ‘let them’ in single-line cursive, a linework butterfly/angel wings/sun/moon. We’re not trying to get rich doing these tattoos, we feel that they are as legitimate as any other tattoo requests, and we think it’s not fair to force people to pay that minimum is we can help it. With your help, we can change the way things are done.

So call us now and set up your appointment to get your tiny tattoo starting this Tuesday, September 17th! We look forward to seeing you!

An Update

A few weeks ago, in an attempt to combat a ferocious economy and offer some relief to the tattoo crowd, Lighthouse Tattoo started a sale of $300 for a 5-hour session. We told you we would continue this sale as long as heavy participation allowed us to remain profitable and to your credit, it’s been a fine success. With this is mind, we will be continuing the $300/5hr sale for the month of September. Please remember that we need your active participation to keep this sale alive, so get that tattoo you’ve been waiting for, share this post with your friends, and live a little in a world that seems so intent on keeping us all down!