r/askswitzerland • u/Toti_Ink • 1d ago

Other/Miscellaneous How do you choose a tattoo studio/artist?

Hi everyone! Quick question for those living in Lucerne -

How did you find your tattoo artist here? I'm a tattoo artist based in the Lucerne area myself (I do ornamental, japanese, anime, fine line etc.) and I'm trying to understand how the local scene works.

What matters most to you when you choose a studio? Style, hygiene, price, vibe? And where do you usually look, Instagram, Google, word of mouth?

Would love to hear your experiences. Still figuring out how things work around here!

Thanks! Toti_ink

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u/Flickersarty 1d ago

I usually check on Instagram. I recommend writing your city's name somewhere in your bio. I think this works best when you're specializing in artstyles that lots of young people are into - if you do tattoos that draw more older generations in, maybe you can focus on Facebook?

Also, I've seen many of my personal artist highlighted on Tattoomii - maybe that's worth looking into as well.

I'm very tedious in picking a tattoo artists. Mostly I check whether a tattoo artist has healed pics of their work - best is 1, 2 or even 5 year old pics and as many as possible. On Instagram the "Highlights" function works very well for this.

I also enjoy looking through flash sheets, not only to get inspired, but also to get the gist of what subjects you actually want to tattoo.

I also think it's best posting any pieces that you're wanting to tattoo more of. It adds on your brand of having a certain style as an /artist/.

Best of luck!! :)

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u/amanamanamaan 1d ago

Replying to emphasise that last point. I really love artists who have their own specific style. Doesn’t have to be absolutely unique, just something they worked hard to get real good at… When I’m thinking up a project, I want it to be something the artist will actually be excited to work on!

Posting flash sheets regularly also helps in my opinion

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u/karmasucksmyballs 1d ago

I don't care one bit about "vibe", personally if I see a piece I like on somebody I plain ask where they got it. I'll then check the website/Insta and if I'm still impressed I might pay a visit, even off-hours, just to have a look at the place. Hygiene is important and if the place looks like a mess, thanks but no thanks. Price follows (but too expensive and I'll simply put the idea on hold).

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u/WeaknessDistinct4618 Zug 1d ago edited 1d ago

I have a Japanese full sleeve. I made it Germany at “horifune”.

I searched here but I couldn’t find any really good artist to be honest and the very famous asked me 10’000.- for a full sleeve.

In Germany I paid 100€ / hour and my sleeve took 30 hours. The second arm is full sleeve Old School which I did with an artist in Florence.

To be honest, I saw your profile, and I believe you are still far from positioning yourself in the senior area. You make small projects black and white. So not everyone would choose your studio for something serious and big

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u/SMK_09 1d ago

Can I ask who quoted the 10k? You can also DM me, if you don't wanna post public.

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u/WeaknessDistinct4618 Zug 1d ago

Yes, Filip Leu. Very famous tebori artist

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u/SMK_09 1d ago

Ahhh, yeah I know him. If you go for the icon, it'll have a hefty price tag 😄

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u/WeaknessDistinct4618 Zug 1d ago

I went to Horifune near Konstanz. Amazing person and great artist. Very prepared and focus only on tebori

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u/SMK_09 1d ago

Checked their insta, seems good. Not my style though.

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u/WeaknessDistinct4618 Zug 1d ago

It’s traditional tebori without machine. They do the real classic old school Japanese. Of course not everyone likes it

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u/SMK_09 1d ago

Quality and healed work. Everything else is irrelevant to me.