What makes something the best of it’s kind? I mean, how do you determine that value-set? What’s best for some may not be what’s best for another and that’s what we’d like to determine, as far as tattoos go.

For instance: Is the best car in the world the fastest? The best looking? Or the one with the best handling and ride? Or are you just looking for a good price and a reliable daily driver? The prized possession of your favorite rock star or professional athlete may break the bank for the typical American. I mean, a Lamborghini is super nice to have, but not if you’re living in it. Turns out a super car is a shitty apartment. It’s all in the metrics.

‘Metrics’ you say? ‘What the fuck is that?’ you say? Metrics are simply the things we use to measure any given value. For some of us, price is an issue. For all of us, value is a big deal, we don’t care as much about how something costs as long as what we’re getting is ‘worth it.’ Metrics are the categories by which we determine whether or not the thing we’re buying is worth it. And largely those metrics are based on our particular situation at the time.

That car? Sometimes you just need to get there bro. Not fast, not in style, you just can’t be late to work or you’re gonna get fired for being late to work again and then you’re going to end up homeless and you can’t have that because then Sheila will leave you and you can’t have that because, honestly, Sheila got that ASS bro. You know what I’m sayin’.

But sometimes you’re at a drift competition because you watched The Fast and the Furious part 2 one too many times and while tires aren’t held in high regard, coming in at first place is. And then there’s straight-line speed. Drag racing. The quarter mile. Or maybe you think an F-type Jaguar is the most beautiful thing ever made, or maybe a Corvette Stingray.

You see, the metrics you use to measure a thing matter. Same goes for tattoos.

What makes Lighthouse Tattoo the best? Let’s look at those metrics.

Ability: Lighthouse Tattoo has the most capable artists in the field today. Will Wood has won every tattoo award category that exists at one point or another, so much so that we don’t have space to display all of his trophies and plaques. So many of them are simply filling boxes in the basement, a testament to something even the untrained eye can see, Will is one of the single best tattoo artists in Middle Tennessee.

Price: We work hard to keep our rates low for our customers. We do this because of our love for this artform and we understand that times are tough all over. You’ll find our prices competitive with anyone around and sometimes people are shocked to see how reasonable our rates are. We do this by offering a tiered skill level of more than a dozen artists at Lighthouse Tattoo, everything from the Apprentice level to Master Tattooer. Which leads us to our next metric.

Availability: Lighthouse Tattoo is open seven days a week, from noon to 10pm. We have more than a dozen artists to choose from. We do this in order to keep our availability for walk-in tattoos and next-day-or-so bookings high. We understand that many people want to get something done quickly and we seek to fulfill those desires as often as we can. The more complex or larger a piece is, the more forethought will be required, of course, and setting an appointment is always preferred.

Customer care: Lighthouse Tattoo has more than 500 five star reviews on Google, and for good reason. We answer phone calls, respond to messages and emails, we’re open seven days a week for consistent hours, and we work with people to make sure all reasonable requests are met. Combine that with our no B.S. policy and you get a pleasant, straight-forward way of doing business that is centered on a positive client experience. This does come with a caveat: We don’t well tolerate people who try to mistreat us. This should come as no surprise but we thought it’s be a good idea to put it here anyway. The vast, vast majority of our few negative reviews has been by people who have never been tattooed or pierced at Lighthouse Tattoo and got angry because we wouldn’t give them something for nothing. We recommend checking those reviews out as well as the good ones, as the responses are pretty hilarious!

People: Along the lines of Customer Care, we’d like to take the time to highlight the people who work at Lighthouse Tattoo. Handpicked for their personality and trained to offer a uniform level of service across the entire shop, we recognize that some people just get along better due to similar personalities or demographics and we’ve worked hard to build an artist corps that is diverse and approachable.

In all, Lighthouse Tattoo strives to provide the best artwork, pricing, availability, customer care, and personal experience around. We invite you to examine our portfolios before visiting the shop and seeing for yourself!