Congratulations MK and Jake!

This April 2nd, we will be celebrating the pending birth of Jake and MK’s baby. Lighthouse Tattoo has held a family-close relationship with many of our clients and we enjoy being able to shower them with affection in a time such as this. We thank those of you who celebrate with us during this joyous time!

A Tiered Pricing System to Fit Your Budget and Needs

We understand that not everyone wants to break the bank with their next tattoo. Not everyone wants something that requires the highest skill levels in the business. Some folks want names and little stuff, simple things that don’t take up a lot of space. We understand that in these instances, paying the top-tier priced of some of our more experienced artists is prohibitive for many. So we have developed a tiered system to make getting smaller, less complicated tattoos less painful-ON YOUR BANK ACCOUNT!!!

At the top echelon we have realism artist Will Wood, who charges $160/hr and has a 5 hour session rate of $600 for repeat clients (1st-timers pay $800 for that first session, then they get the ‘buddy discount’). Will is the best we have and one of the very best tattooers around, but he still tries to keep the price of his work affordable.

Next we have Deuce and Dave, who each have 5-hr session rates of $400. These two are veteran artists with decades of experience doing tattoos between them. You can’t go wrong here folks, the value you get at those price points is startling!

Next we have Matt and Brady, younger artists with less than 5 years in the business apiece. Both capable, growing artists charge $300/ 5hrs, and we would argue a better value can’t be found anywhere!

We also have a couple of newbies who will tackle pieces for half-price, or $50 per hour, sometimes even less than our shop minimum. These artists have a limited skillset however, so the things they are allowed to tattoo are limited. With time we are sure they will grow and become wonderful artists along with the rest of the staff here at Lighthouse Tattoo.

Dragonfly Rose Tattoo

Deuce has been working on his black and grey and clearly it’s paying off! He just did this single session piece on a great client and we managed to get a decent photo of it for a change (Deuce is admittedly the worst photographer on the planet)! To schedule your next session with this veteran tattooer, visit Lighthouse Tattoo at 328 N. Cumberland st, a block off the historic Lebanon, TN square; fill out the set an appointment form on this website; or call us at 615-784-4500.

Eyes of King Leonidas

It happens like this sometimes: For some reason or another, we’ll end up doing several of the same tattoo, on completely unrelated clients, within a few weeks of each other. We’re not complaining, we absolutely love this image! The texture and intensity of the piece is enough to draw the viewer in a hold them for a while, which we love.

Demon Geisha Tattoo

Matt Steele’s high contrast blackwork style has caught on with it’s impactful intensity. Stark and bold, like the tattoos of the Old School, Matt has something of an old soul about himself. If you like this style and want to know more, feel free to stop by and speak with Matt himself, between the hours of noon and 10pm, Wednesday through Sunday! You won’t be disappointed!

Mr. Sandman, Fred Kreuger!

Another Freddy portrait tattoo wonderfully performed by Will Wood. It’s amazing the amount of staying power some of these villains seem to have, playing on our fears seems to have a lasting effect. The great thing about this particular tattoo is the way Will managed to capture the expression on his face even with all of the added texture from the movie make-up he’s wearing. We think it’s awesome and we hope you’ll agree! Schedule your appointment with Will Wood today by calling 615 784-4500 between the hours of noon and 10pm.

Tiger Style!

As with the Wu-Tang Clan, this tiger is nothing with which to fuck.

Matt Steele’s transition for apprentice tattooer to Journeyman artist is almost complete. Working with his mentor, Will Wood, the founding father of Lighthouse Tattoo, Matt has become a capable young artist. He has learned to work on more difficult areas of the body and turn out clean, bright work, as in this tiger hand tattoo. In just over a year and half of hard work (he’s been here longer, but the time since the government’s Covid shutdown has been the most meaningful), Matt has become a growing force at Lighthouse Tattoo. Call today to beat the rush and schedule your next appointment with this great young artist! 615 784-4500, between the hours of noon and 10pm, or fill out the appointment request form on this website, under the ‘Set and Appointment’ tab.

The More Things Change...

If you’ve been to the shop any time in the last three months you know Lighthouse Tattoo has been going through some serious changes. We added some new faces and the shop got a facelift of its own. We like it because it goes to show how much hard work we’ve been putting in and you MUST like it because we’ve gotten pretty busy here! In fact, we may have actually gotten a little too busy for comfort. Everybody’s got problems y’know?

Our realism artist, Will Wood, has gotten so busy his normal 3-month limit on booking has become woefully inadequate. Something had to be done. Will has now changed his schedule to allow for two sessions per day at a rate of $600 apiece. This is a discount from his usual $160 per hour rate, which fits better into our tiered pricing system, taking out the guesswork for his clients. First-timers and clients who wish to book time other than the 5-hour window of the offered session will still be charged at the $160 per hour rate.

This is a little funny: We hired a new shop manager some time ago and she took us to task on certain issues. The first thing she did was work to significantly increase our capacity to do walk-in tattoos, the second was to address people who try to abuse us for our deposit policy. The last thing she did was notice that Will only scheduled one tattoo per day, then left once he was done. He also had a tendency to offer discounts to his loyal customers (which all of them are, Will has a huge repeat clientele). She decided to try scheduling him the same as the other artists and build in the discount, because while many of his clients can sit for more than 5 hours due to Will’s famously light touch, it’s not usually more than a couple of extra hours and that meant Will wasn’t making as much as he could!

Will is old. He could go at any minute. He has five kids, all of which like to eat EVERY DAY. To get the most out of him before he dies, we decided to work the old workhorse a little more.

The results were dramatic. Repeat clients have been rescheduled with shorter wait times between sessions; The shorter sessions are less taxing to the client, who appreciate the loyalty discount; and Will’s calendar has opened up so he can start taking new clients again (because he’s technically doing twice as much work now, but don’t tell HIM that)!

It looks like there’s a new sheriff in town and we like the direction she’s taking things, we hope you do too!

Demon Dagger

A Hanya, or Hannya is a type of demon from Japanese folklore and this one is a real badass. Performed by Matt Steele and steeped in contrast, you wouldn’t want to run into this fella in a dark alley! Matt has availability starting at about two weeks out, so plan a little bit ahead and great artwork like this can be yours!

Molon Labe Tattoo

‘Come and get them!’

This awesome image of King Leonidas from the movie 300 conveys something many of us have come to feel, certainly as of late. It tells a tale of men, using reason and courage, fighting for what they knew to be right. Willing to die if need be, willing to kill if forced to. Turn on the news and you see that people the world over share the same sentiment and express it in different, sometimes unhealthy ways. Still, it’s obvious the idea of MOLON LABE is alive and well in the hearts of men these days. Let us use our powers of reason to make sure we’re fighting the good fight, just like King Leonidas here.

Straight and Arrow

Arrows are all about moving forward and staying true. Tattoos of them have become popular for that very reason. Let’s face it, we all know that person in our lives that can’t just MOVE ON. The first step in triumphing over trauma is to get through it and move forward. So something terrible happened to you, we get it, life is hard. The more you hang on to that hurt though, the more it’s destined to hurt you. Learn. Grow. Live. Find a direction and move toward it. Get some distance on the past. So much to be learned from the image of the arrow.

Matt Steele is young but he’s no stranger to pain. A sentiment he shares with so many of his clients who are often marginalized because of their youth. It’s hard enough when you’re hurt, harder still when it seems like the whole world refuses to acknowledge it. Please know that even in your darkest hour, so many people in the world empathize with your pain, even if you don’t have access to them or it doesn’t feel like it. Move forward, live on. Life has so much more to offer than what the pain can take away.