Our Appointment Policy
Lighthouse Tattoo seeks to provide the very best tattoo work for our customers. As such, our more established artists work on a By-Appointment-Only basis, this prevents scheduling conflicts and gives the artists sufficient time to produce original artwork to our standards. We take an $80 non-refundable deposit on all appointments, with a $100 deposit for all-day appointments. These deposits are taken out of the overall cost of the tattoo and more about them can be read in the Deposits section. We primarily set up appointments in person due to the fact that we have some paperwork everyone is required to fill out. So if you would like to set up an appointment, swing by the shop so we can do it all in person! If you are from out of state or are more than an hour way, we will do our best to accommodate you and get you taken care of.
We ask that anyone who needs to reschedule give us a 48 hour notice and reserve the right to keep any deposits for last-minute cancellations. The first time a client needs to reschedule is usually a free pass, we understand that life happens and can make getting to an appointment impossible or not a priority. Kids get sick, cars break down, finances take a hit sometimes without warning. Someone seeking to reschedule a second or third time may forfeit their initial deposit and have to leave another deposit to get another appointment, Lighthouse Tattoo leaves this decision up to the individual artist who the appointment is with. So be nice.
Good work takes time. It takes preparation and planning. It takes patience. It's with these things in mind that we ask our clients to understand that appointments are better made well in advance of getting the tattoo. It's not uncommon for an artist to be booked solid for weeks or even months especially during the busy times of year. Bookings from the end of February to the end of April should be made at least eight weeks in advance, as most tattoo shops get a higher volume of customers with tax refund money making more appointments. Conversely, during the holiday season (the six weeks or so following Halloween) things tend to slow down. People are more likely to spend their money for gifts, or travelling to be with family for the holidays. Taking these considerations into account can help you avoid disappointment when you find out you aren't going to be able to get that new tattoo from your favorite artist when you thought.
It’s called a ‘Walk-In’ for a reason.
We get a ton, and I mean a TON of calls about walk-ins. The term ‘walk-in’ means different things to different people, however, and we’d like to take some time to clear some things up here.
To tattoo shops the world over, ‘walk-in’ doesn’t mean that you can walk in and get tattooed immediately. It means you can get tattooed sometime THAT DAY. A walk-in may need to schedule an appointment for several hours after the time they come in. So it looks like this: A prospective client comes into the shop with a tattoo idea that can be drawn and tattooed that day, usually something small, and if the artist has time that day a walk-in appt in scheduled. That client will usually leave the shop for a time and either catch a quick movie, grab a bite to eat, maybe just go walk around the malls for a couple of hours, then return to get their tattoo once that artist has finished what they are working on and gotten their tattoo ready.
Another scenario is one where the artist can knock out a super-tiny, quick piece out without much preparation time at all. In this scenario, if the artist isn’t already working on another client, the walk-in may be able to get tattooed immediately. This usually only happens at Lighthouse Tattoo in the event of a last-minute cancellation or if the client is willing to be tattooed by an apprentice.
Disclaimer for stupid people: If you call Lighthouse Tattoo and ask if we have time to do a walk-in, the answer will always be ‘yes’. This is because there is no possible way of knowing whether or not we will have the time to do a piece when we don’t have concrete answers to a lot of questions about the tattoo: size, color or black and grey, style of tattoo, subject matter, you know, things that require forethought, something that isn’t present with a walk-in tattoo. We have no way of knowing if the prospective client is just ‘window shopping’ or is serious, we don’t even know if they’ll show up! We also don’t know if all of our scheduled appointments will show up either, sometimes people can’t make it and we have extra time on our hands. Sometimes we get done early or an artist may be willing to stay late to fit someone in. Many times, if the client is nice and they want something small that doesn’t require prep work, they can get tattooed at the end of the night if they’re willing to leave a deposit and come back later that evening.
All of that being said, we want people to understand that it’s called a ‘Walk-In’ not a ‘Call-In’ for a reason. Tattoo shops don’t really take calls for walk-ins seriously, as it shows a lack of understanding about the process and a general lack of consideration for tattoo artists and what we do. But if you DO call us about a walk-in, we’ll tell you to come in! Then when you do and still can’t get tattooed because you have no understanding of how this works, you’ll leave pissed off and write us a 1-star review to try and destroy our business because that’s the only power you can wield in the world (behind a keyboard), and we’ll copy that shit into the Knucklehead of the Month or just clown you directly on the review reply itself, all when you could have just thought ahead a little bit and scheduled an appointment or booked something once you came in. You just ruined your best chance to get a great, affordable tattoo from one of the best places around all because you couldn’t plan a little in advance or understand that we can only do one tattoo at a time and there are other people in the world besides yourself that want bodyart? Sheesh. All that frustration so easily avoided.
If you want to get tattooed as a walk-in, please don’t call, please walk in and we’ll do our best to take care of you!
What we won’t do…
Here at Lighthouse Tattoo, we pride ourselves on being able to provide our customers the widest range of services around. From piercings to tattoos, we strive to give our customers the best quality of work they can get. With that comes a lot of stuff we just won’t do.
We do not offer anything to our customers that will harm them directly or indirectly. That means different things in our different areas of expertise. Here is a run-down of the most common services we refuse and why we refuse them.
PIERCING STUFF WE WON’T DO:
Snake eyes tongue piercing
-Because: It’s horrible for your oral health. It can be argued that any and all oral piercings are bad for your mouth, but some are definitely worse than others. From the added risk of breaking teeth while chewing to the fusion of the two independent muscles in your tongue, this one may be cute…but it’s a bad idea.
Dahlia piercing
- Because: They will not stay in for any real length of time. They have such a small amount of skin (that is constantly expanding and contracting) between the jewelry and your teeth that any chewing endeavor with these bad boys could end VERY badly. (That means it could be bloody and painful, if you caught that.)
Pierce you when you are about to go to the beach
- Because: Sun damage and bacteria from the ocean complicate the healing of any piercing. This is the same reason that we have you avoid tanning or sunbathing for a protracted length of time after attaining a piercing.
Put a dermal in the divet of your clavicle
Because: Dermals need a static, flat surface on which to rest so that they can anchor parallel to your skin. Putting one in a place that moves as much as the dip of a clavicle, a finger, or on the back of a neck puts the piercing at greater risk of rejection than dermals already face. Since these are our most expensive piercings, we want to do anything we can to ensure their longevity and ease of healing.
Smiley piercing
-Because: They cause serious damage to your gums and they will work their way out of your mouth after a few weeks. The skin pierced to give this piercing is so thin and mobile that the heavy jewelry tears itself out of the skin before it has time to properly heal.
Sexually explicit piercings on minor clients
-Because: …….ew?
Earlobe piercings on children under six years
-Because: Though safer and less traumatizing than getting pierced with a gun, ear piercings done in a tattoo shop take longer to do. This means that any child under a certain age runs a higher risk of not being able to sit for the piercing without crying or having a meltdown. We want children who come to our shop to feel safe and comfortable, not traumatized. (We don’t offer piercing for infants because we need our clients to be able to care for the piercings mostly without parental assistance!)
Let a parent send a minor with a written note of permission to attain a piercing
-Other than the fact that notes of this nature are often forged, parents or legal guardians need to be present when their child is pierced. This is required by the health department and it keeps our piercers and clients safe from potential misunderstandings about conduct or aftercare of the piercing.
TATTOO STUFF WE WON’T DO:
Hand, neck, or face tattoos on young or otherwise inexperienced clients
-Because: In this part of the country, very visible tattoos can be the difference between having gainful employment and not. We will not do any of these tattoos unless the person is already heavily tattooed (they know what it’s like to be tattooed visibly and how poorly people can treat them because of it) , independently wealthy (if you’re a wealthy business owner, you aren’t worried about getting hired any time soon), or a convicted felon (most jobs that will hire a person with a record don’t care about visible tattoos).
Hate speech/slurs
-Because: A lot of artists will do these tattoos as kind of a “stupid brand” on a person, to let people know they’re an asshole before they have to bother speaking to them. We do not do these for a couple of reasons, the first being that people bring their buddies to their tattoo shop to get work done and we don’t want to be the shop that will put a swastika on anyone who asks. The second (and arguably most important) reason is that people change. When you’re forty, you might not feel the same way about these things as you do when you’re twenty. We don’t want to make a permanent, regrettable mark on someone that will make everyone they meet on their journey through life treat them poorly. Some people consider these a way to make money as future cover-ups, but we’d rather just not do them.
Exact renditions of poorly done drawings
-Because:If a person sees a portrait done by a skilled tattoo artist, the immediate response is awe. If the work is completely accurate and representative of the photo reference, it is a testament to the artist’s skill and hard work. If that same artist does an exact rendering of a portrait drawn by a thirteen-year-old and uses the same level of skill to execute it, the best that piece will ever look is like it was done by a child. Instead of awe, any audience who isn’t the wearer will see that tattoo and think “wow…that artist has no idea how to do a portrait.”
Significant others’ names who are not married
-Because: These are our number one subject matter for cover-ups. At least three times a week, we do large-scale work over names of ex girlfriends, best friends, and even fiances. That’s not to say that we don’t also do plenty of ex spouse cover-ups but the way we see it, if you’re getting a divorce, you’ve got much bigger things to worry about than covering up a tattoo.
“Tiny tattoos” with a significant amount of detail also known as ‘micro tattoos’
-Because: Instagram and Pinterest are often where people find images of these tattoos. That’s a fine way to get an idea for a tattoo, but when looking for work you wish to replicate exactly, keep in mind that Instagram and Pinterest are big, fat liars. The same way that they’ll show you an image of Kylie Jenner in corset and Spanx where they STILL photoshop her waist smaller, these sources will show you photos of fresh tattoos that will look atrocious when they’re healed. A good rule of thumb is that if you want a photorealistic tattoo of a single object or image, it probably needs to be at least the size of the palm of your hand.
Reworks of homemade or prison tattoos
-Because: We want to give you the best version of any tattoo you get. Having to go back over the work of inexperienced “artists” is a great way to ensure that at least 50% of your tattoo’s potential to be great is already gone. If you want something done right, get it done professionally the first time.
Exact replications of large-scale work
-Because: It just looks lazy on our part. If you bring us an idea for a half sleeve and we do the exact same half sleeve as the girl in your reference photo has, we’ve taken the easy way out and everyone is going to know it. We give you a tattoo that is as unique as you are, every time.
If you’re new to the Nashville area or are just looking for a fresh scene, check us out at Lighthouse Tattoo. We think our discretion sets us apart from a lot of the others around, and we think you’ll feel the same way.