S
skinnyquin
Guest
My brother is covered in ink (20-something hours worth and counting); his advice is always to be very careful about where you go. BMEZine is a good place to start for researching potential places to go; the only place I can recommend is Frith Street Tattoo in Soho, but I guess that's not much use if you're in Cardiff.
The basics are to make sure that the place is clean, the needles are new and not re-used and the guy/girl doing it looks like s/he's had a very good wash. Anyone worth talking to should be willing to sit down and talk it through with you (design and their hygeine procedures) rather than chucking you on the table and starting work, and the point above about autclaves is a very very good one. Your mate is also right about good artists having a waiting list, some people take bookings months ahead. If you can speak to someone who's been to that artist you can be fairly sure how good they are, and most good artists will have a portfolio of work that they're happy to show you.
Hope some of that's useful.
The basics are to make sure that the place is clean, the needles are new and not re-used and the guy/girl doing it looks like s/he's had a very good wash. Anyone worth talking to should be willing to sit down and talk it through with you (design and their hygeine procedures) rather than chucking you on the table and starting work, and the point above about autclaves is a very very good one. Your mate is also right about good artists having a waiting list, some people take bookings months ahead. If you can speak to someone who's been to that artist you can be fairly sure how good they are, and most good artists will have a portfolio of work that they're happy to show you.
Hope some of that's useful.