Tattoo minor details, request opinion?

Question

A first tattoo is a prospect of mine, as long as I settle on a design. Right now, I am thinking about a songbird (finch, swallow, etc.) perched on a guitar neck. I do not wish to add color to my tattoo.
-Should I get an outline, detailed drawing, or silhouette of a bird?
-Should I get an outline, detailed drawing, or silhouette of a guitar neck?

I'm not sure how much drawing and detail I should get. It might look funny to have a silhouette of a bird perched on a drawn guitar neck, or vice versa. And I think that a silhouette of a guitar neck might be too illegible or too boring.

If my total design is about 3" x 3", how much would you estimate it costs? I KNOW PRICES VARY ON DETAIL, TIME, ARTIST, ETC, but I'd appreciate an estimate.

Thank you.

Answer 1

If I were you, I'd go to a reputable tattoo parlor close to your home and have them sketch what they would tattoo based on your ideas. That's always the best way. They know what looks good, what lines, what shapes and what shading. If I knew what I wanted, just not exactly how I wanted it to look, I'd do exactly that.

Answer 2

The bigger the tattoo, the better detail looks. Thusly, the smaller the tattoo, the less detail will show (it will all bleed together eventually and end up looking like a blob). 3x3 is pretty small for the amount of detail you probably want.
Why do you want that particular design? If there is something significant in your life about the guitar, then focus on that. Same goes for the bird. [By the way, swallows are a Navy thing. It signifies whether or not a sailor has crossed the equator and how many times].
As for price, I've found that artists usually charge about $100/hour.

Answer 3

I say go for the black and gray.

They usually do a normal heavy black outline as normal, and do details and shadowing/shading with gray. No color, but it looks WAY better than just straight black... It helps to add a little more depth and a lot more detail.

Take your ideas to a tattoo shop near you...give them your ideas, bring reference material if you have it, and tell them you're thinking black and gray and see what they come up with. I'd be willing to bet you'll love it.

As for price, you're right, it does vary greatly on those aspects as well as your location. I'm in Seattle and here and in Boise, I could probably get a 3x3 from $60-$100...especially if there's no color...

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Black only tatoos tend to look better with clear details. be pepared to spend at least 100 bucks on a good detailed tat.
if you are going to detail one element then it would look more uniform to detail the second as well.
your design could work as an outline, but you qould need to spend a great deal of time designing it so it did not look like a home job or jail tattoo.