Original work, start to finish
Drawn for you
A custom tattoo starts as a conversation, not a picture off a phone. You bring the idea — a subject, a feeling, a story, sometimes just a rough direction — and it gets drawn from scratch to fit your body, your placement, and the way you want it to read.
Over thirty years of it, in a private appointment-only studio in Parksville, BC, serving Qualicum Beach, Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island.
How the design happens
1. Consult (free). Thursdays and Fridays, or by arrangement. Bring references — including ones you don't like, which are often more useful. We talk placement, size, colour or black and grey, and how it might grow later.
2. Deposit. From $100. It books your time, pays for the drawing, and comes off your final price.
3. The drawing. Done to your placement and your body's lines. You see it before the machine comes out.
4. Changes. Expected, not resented — better to move it on paper than on skin.
5. Tattoo day. Stencil placed, checked in the mirror, adjusted until it sits right, then we go.
Colour or black and grey
Colour gives you brightness, mood and a neo-traditional punch — the kind of piece that reads across a room. Black and grey gives you depth, realism and the most predictable ageing. Plenty of pieces use both: a black and grey base with colour where it earns attention. If you're undecided, that's a consult question, not something you need settled beforehand.
What makes a good custom piece
The best tattoos have room to breathe. Designs that try to cram six ideas into one forearm end up unreadable at arm's length and worse in ten years. A strong piece has a clear focal point, honest contrast, and negative space doing real work. Part of the job here is protecting the design from being overloaded — including when the person asking for the overload is you.
Placement and growth
Where a piece sits matters as much as what it shows. Some areas flex and stretch, some fade faster from sun, some hold fine detail poorly. If there's any chance this becomes a sleeve or a larger project later, say so at the consult — a first piece designed with that in mind is enormously easier to build onto than one that has to be worked around.
Rates
$200/hr, $200 minimum, half day (3–4 hrs) $500, full day (4–7 hrs) $850. Deposits from $100, credited to your final price. Multi-session projects are quoted and scheduled up front.
Questions
Good to know
How long does the design take?
Usually a week or two between consult and tattoo day, depending on size and how busy the books are. Big projects take longer because they're worth it.
Can I see the drawing before the appointment?
Yes. You see it before any needle touches skin, and changes are expected — that's the whole point of drawing it first.
What if I don't like the design?
Then it gets changed. Adjustments are part of the process and part of what the deposit covers. It's far cheaper to redraw than to regret.
Do you tattoo other artists' designs?
Flash off the wall here, yes. Copying another tattooer's custom piece, no — that's their work for their client. Bring it as a reference and you'll get something original in that spirit instead.
Can I bring my own drawing?
Absolutely. Plenty of people do. It gets adapted so it works as a tattoo — line weight, contrast and placement all behave differently on skin than on paper.
Ready when
you are.
Free consultations Thursdays and Fridays in Parksville — or send the details over and we'll start there.