For decades now, custom tattoo artists have had to be mindreaders. They’ve had to take a handful of sentences in explanation for your next tattoo idea and translate that into a masterpiece that you would adore forever. The process was often about as fun as pulling teeth. Breakdowns in communication could lead to frustrating deadends and after endless redraws and consultation sessions, patience grew thin. Sometimes, through sheer fatigue, either the artist or the client would simply give up and quit the process altogether, ending what should have been an exhilarating experience with a dull thud. Far too often, prospective clients would be soured on the tattoo experience forever, never getting the piece they really wanted because they couldn’t find an artist that could read their mind.

That is where the internet comes in. With an infinite resource of images, any client can quickly collect images that represent what they want or at least a strong direction to point their artist to. These images also provide the artist with a jumping-off point for their questions as opposed to trying to decipher vague language. References provide the artist with a map of not only which direction the client wants to go, but what they don’t want as well. A great way to use your references is the ‘I like this and this, but not this’ format. That way, the artist has a more concrete version of your idea from which to start their original drawing.

Feel free to email your references to info@lighthousetattoo.net or simply bring them in on your cellphone, although emailling them with a written description provides the artist an idea that they can reference at will, so it’s preferred. Also, this sort of correspondence is preferential during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Please remember to be as thorough as possible when writing the description of what you want. Someday soon we will post about the laughably inadequate descriptions some people offer us through email: ‘I want a tattoo, how much?’ with no name or picture is particularly difficult to figure out and usually gets ignored. Ah, the life!

We sincerely hope this description of the tattoo artist as amateur mind-reader goes far in helping new clients understand how they can help us become more efficient at giving them exactly what they need! Hope to see you at Lighthouse Tattoo soon!