What sort of things should people consider before getting a tattoo?
We sat down with the founder of Madness Ink in Chatham, Keith Smith and former Wallaceburg artist Neil Malcolm who provided us with some insight into this question.
SC: What things should people be doing before they get a tattoo?
Neil: Choosing an artist is very important.
Someone could be a world-renowned artist in a specific style, but just because they are world-renowned doesn’t mean that you are going to get your best tattoo from that person. If you are looking for a portrait of your kids, your grandmother, something like that and you go to see a new school artist that is good with bright colours and more kind of animated designs, just because he’s world renowned and booked up for two years, you’re probably going to get a nice tattoo but it might not be exactly what you’re looking for.
It’s one thing to look at artists, look at their portfolios, see what they’re really good at. If you like all the stuff you see, you can go talk to them. Throw your ideas at them, see what they think. They might even say what you’re looking at is not going to translate. Many times you can air brush something, but you can’t really tattoo it as well. So picking an artist is a huge step in getting a tattoo.
Keith: Don’t go to somebodies basement to get a tattoo.
A lot of people think about the price. It’s $20 I can get this tattoo, sweet. It’s going to be $80 if I go to Madness Ink and get this tattoo. I saved $60. Do you want to save $60 on something you’re going to live with the rest of your life? That goes back to the choose your artist.
That’s not necessarily that we are the end all be all in in tattoo artists, but we’ve done this for many years, we’ve trained properly. We’ve got all this stuff under our belt and we can guarantee when you walk out the door that your have a beautiful tattoo.
Madness Ink is located at 225 St. Clair Street in Chatham. To book an appointment, you can call Keith at 519-358-5377 or Neil at 519-437-2389.
This article is sponsored content and is a part of our Keep It Local Business Spotlight feature. Contact Dana Haggith for more information – 519-784-4610 or dana@sydenhamcurrent.ca.
