Turbo Skull
A quick little turbo skull.
The Rave of the Shay-Vine
Don’t ask. WIP.
Wizard of Oz, The Cowardly Lion
This is the result of the first session on a Cowardly Lion portrait by our resident realism artist Will. Sometimes clients get done with the tattoo before he does and that’s okay! This piece represents about 5 hours so far, with another hour and a half needed to finish it. It’s sandwiched between the Scarecrow and Tin Man. This leg sleeve also includes Dorothy; The Wicked Witch of the West; The Wizard; a flying monkey; and will include the addition of Glinda the Good Witch as well as some background.
This Tattoo is also on Will’s Wife Crystal, so it bears an especially important place in his portfolio!
The Scoop On Coverups
One of the most popular requests we get at Lighthouse Tattoo is the covering of old tattoos. The art of the coverup is a delicate one and can go wrong in many ways, so it is deeply important to find an artist who is knowledgeable and well versed in performing these tattoos. Here is step-by-step process for how to get a coverup that will effectively erase your tattoo from sight (and not need to be covered up, itself).
Deciding to cover your tattoo
This can also be called the “moment of clarity”. It happens at different times for everyone, sometimes even years before a coverup appointment is made! Basically, you look at your tattoo, realize you absolutely do not like it, and begin troubleshooting where to go from there. The only options to pick from, realistically, are to cover the tattoo or get it lasered off. It is not uncommon to require laser treatment on a tattoo before you even cover it!
2. Deciding what to cover it with
This one can be a toughie. Some subject matters work much better as coverups than others, so some flexibility is required on behalf of the client here. Typically, we recommend organic, non-portrait imagery so that light sources may be played with, proportions skewed, and colors catered to cover what is already there. It’s a good idea to look up other coverups online and see which tattoos you like so you have a few ideas before you consult with an artist. (Subject matters we recommend for covering other pieces are: birds, flowers, snakes, dragons, fish, or other naturally occurring imagery, done in a boldly outlined, brightly-colored style.)
3. Finding an artist
Find out how many tattoo shops there are in your area and LOOK AT PORTFOLIOS! You will want to pick an artist based on their quality of work, so you’ll have to do some leg work ahead of time. This can include looking online at an artist’s portfolio/Instagram account, looking at tattoos your buddies have gotten from local artists, and even physically going to a shop and talking to a tattooer about your piece. You may have to travel a bit to get your piece done by the artist you want.
4. Consultation
Once you have found an artist whose work you like, you’ll probably want to talk with them ahead of time about your tattoo and what you want to do with it. This is where the artist tells you if your ideas for the coverup will be effective or not, offer alternative design suggestions, and tell you a figure for how much money the tattoo will cost. Coverups tend to be more expensive than the tattoo being covered because they require much more work on the front end and in the tattoo chair. Being prepared for this ensures that you will not have to sacrifice quality for financial security.
5. Getting the coverup
This is the easy part! You basically just have to sit/lay there while the artist does all the hard work. You may have to sit for multiple long sessions before the coverup looks complete, so always bring snacks, drinks, and something to entertain yourself!
6. Your new life
Huzzah, the old tattoo is gone!!! You’ve made it through the arduous journey of living with a bad tattoo and then fixing it! You’ve likely ended up with a piece of work that you’ll be proud to show off instead of one that you cringe when people ask about. You should be proud.
FAQs and Problems We Run Into
Why does it cost so much?
The industry standard for tattoo artists to charge is around $100/hour. This covers supplies, time tattooing you, and the time drawing the piece ahead of time. A whole lot goes into doing this job, and we like to compensate our artists for their hard work. For coverups, they require more time, effort, and drawing, so they tend to cost more than your average tattoo.
Why can’t I cover this tattoo with a portrait?
The long and short of it is that with all the tweaking and readjusting of your image you have to do when performing a coverup, a portrait would end up looking ridiculous. The human brain is trained to recognize a face wherever one could be. This is why when you look at whorls in a wooden door or at a funny shaped cloud, you see faces more often than not. This same mechanism helps us to recognize when a face looks malformed or wrong. A portrait is not idea for a coverup because it would be SUPER noticeable that the face is altered somehow, and your friends would never let you hear the end of it.
If you can’t do the tattoo for me today, I’ll just go somewhere else and let them do it.
This mentality could be part of the reason people end up needing coverups in the first place. Whether an artist has time slots open for clients or not, getting a same-day coverup is unlikely. The amount of preparation that goes into covering a tattoo is nothing to turn your nose at, and it often requires extracurricular working hours from the artist. You’ll want time for a consultation ahead of time, as well, so you can make sure you like the drawing you’ve been shown and make changes ahead of time. Expecting this amount of work to be done in a single day is unrealistic. If someone says they can do such an involved piece mere hours after you’ve requested it, you may want to look at the other work they’re turning out. Rushing the process is no way to get a good tattoo!
The original tattoo was $50, why is it so much money to cover it?
Coverups generally need to be at least 3x the size of the original tattoo to be effective. This provides you with enough surface area to introduce a new focal point to the piece, effectively “distracting” viewers from noticing it is a coverup. Coverups require color gradients, shadows, highlights, and color schemes that can take much longer than your original tattoo. Tattooers charge according to how long a piece takes. If it takes hours, you’ll be charged accordingly.
Can’t you just black it out?
We can. But we won’t. That is going to look ridiculous and lazy, and we don’t want our reputation to include any of those words.
We hope this was a helpful read! Coverups can be overwhelming to consider getting without a little preliminary information, and we like to help make the tattoo process as smooth as possible. We are extremely big on discretion here, and we think you should be, too! Tattoos are one of the most permanent decisions you can ever make, and you want to make the right choice. Even if you didn’t the first time.
If you are looking for a coverup in the Nashville area, check us out! Lighthouse Tattoo is home to wonderful artists, and we even have an artist who specializes in trickier coverups. If you wanna come ask us about your tattoo, swing on by! We’re located at 328 North Cumberland Street in beautiful Lebanon, Tennessee, and are open Sunday-Saturday, 12:00-10:00.
Vacation Time!!!
Lighthouse Tattoo is going on vacation! We will be gone from September 4th to September 15th. During this time the shop will be manned by a skeleton crew. We will do our best to answer phone calls, to schedule appointments, and answer questions, as well as performing piercings. Your patience is greatly appreciated.
Summer's Blue Jay
Here’s a nice blue jay tattoo on Summer. This is a portion of her last session, the other part being a poppy flower on her forearm. As this sleeve gets completed we will be posting more pics, so stay logged in to lighthousetattoo.net for updates!
Heath Ledger Joker Tattoo
Our new buddy Jack started a Villain sleeve with the Heath Ledger Joker piece. A wonderful way to begin a fleshly ode to endearing bad guys. Ledger’s Joker was undeniably maniacal, though many found his logic with regard to how we decide the value of human life a damning mirror to look in:
‘If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds. Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.’
This statement rings with a haunting truth to many, especially during a pandemic and after the very public murder of George Floyd by police. It’s certainly aged well. A sentiment for the Bukowski crowd, for sure, something to keep you up at night if you didn’t already know it. THERE IS NO EQUITY-the Joker screams as he tries to give back to the little guy by blowing things up. It would almost be funny if the same thing wasn’t happing on an almost weekly basis by various would-be Jokers in real life.
We don’t have the answers and it’s the power of the Joker to reveal this truth to us in the most unsettling of ways. He is Chaos to the Batman’s Order, entropy in a flailing, made-up, arbitrary system. A wild card in a game without any real rules and we love him for it. For this makes him truly terrifying. Enjoy!
Don't Half-Ass It
Matthew McConaughey’s dad is right- Don’t half-ass it, whatever it is! Anything worth doing is worth doing right and that is why Lighthouse Tattoo has become so wildly popular-we do things right. We don’t cut corners, we don’t mince words. You get the best work at a fair price, a 90-day free touch-up policy, and customer service that is second to none (as long as you’re not a knucklehead).
All the hype is great, but the point is that the difference between getting the best tattoo work and something that’s substandard isn’t immediately recognizable by the vast majority of the general public (which includes you). You don’t want to half-ass that next tattoo and that means taking a little time to comparison shop. We strongly recommend side-by-side comparisons of our work next to, well, anyone else’s for that matter, in order to help you make an informed decision about where you can find the best quality.
Of course, for a significant percentage of tattoo shoppers, price is a large factor. We would also like to strongly encourage you to think about this: The price difference between the worst artist working out of a shop in the greater Nashville area and the award-winning work being turned out at Lighthouse Tattoo is less than 100%. For instance, if you were to pay $200 for some hatchet-job in a chop shop, you could probably have gotten something beautiful and unique for $400 or less at Lighthouse Tattoo. (Here’s another doozy- those numbers are pretty accurate for most shops, if you shop around a bit, you can probably find someone much better for not a lot more money. Regardless of the city or even country you’re in!) And don’t get us started on the self-taught, amateur, shit-heels we call ‘scratchers’, the money people think they’re saving with these knuckleheads is later spent on cover-ups and laser tattoo removal.
So, whether you decide to come to Lighthouse Tattoo or go somewhere else, just be sure you don’t half-ass your decision making process and undercut yourself for the rest of your life in the process! We think that even though the wait may be a bit longer and the price may be a bit higher, the lifelong happiness of a job well done is worth the work involved! We’ll see you at Lighthouse Tattoo to schedule your next appointment soon!
Tattoos for Fine Art Lovers, A WIP
The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Giambologna
Will wanted us to post this WIP, or Work-In-Progress for this half-back piece.
Not long after the formation of Rome, Romulus orchestrated the abduction of some 30 women from the neighboring Sabine people, in order to increase the birth rate of the male-heavy population. From Wikipedia:
‘The motivation behind the abduction of the Sabine women is contested among ancient sources. Livy writes that Rome's motivation for abducting the Sabine women was solely to increase the city's population and claims that no direct sexual assault took place during the abduction. Livy says that Romulus offered the Sabine women free choice as well as civic and property rights. According to Livy, Romulus spoke to each of them in person, declaring "that it was all owing to the pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to their neighbours. They would live in honourable wedlock, and share all their property and civil rights, and—dearest of all to human nature—would be the mothers of freemen.’
As the story goes, it was the women’s pleas that ended the ensuing battle and resulted in a truce between the Romans and Sabines. Rome would go on to become the seat of the Western world and the model for our own Republic.
It has been treated extensively by artists, including Picasso, Degas, and Reubens. We are proud to be able to convey such a powerful image on someone who loves fine art as much as we do. It is truly an honor.
Popeye the Sailor Man!
Deuce got this Robin Williams Popeye portrait from resident portrait artist Will Wood the other day. We’re all fans of comedy here and when Mr. Williams died it was a blow to all of us. Deuce and Matt Steele both have tattoos of the famous funny man, each being done by Will, who considers it an honor to be able to show his love for the man through his art. Portraits are the singular best memorial tattoos that can be done, there’s no mistaking the love someone expresses for an individual indelibly etched into one’s own flesh. Just make sure you go to the right artist, ‘cause if it’s messed up, it’s ruined forever. Lighthouse Tattoo has been proven to be home to one of the best portrait artists around: Will Wood.
A Great Anniversary
Once the dust had settled after our Harry Potter Fan Appreciation Day/ Anniversary Party, it was time to assess the damage.
We had a world-record-setting tortoise; four new tattoo contest winners, a half-dozen costume contest winners (great job Vannah; Abby; Maddie; Moriah; Christian; and Davis); and a dancefloor littered with stories that will never be told. A success indeed.
Great party notwithstanding, everyone had the same question on their minds: When’s the next party?
Let’s start by saying this-There WILL be more parties. They’re simply too much fun not to continue them. With this Delta variant of COVID-19 gaining steam, however, we’ve determined that discretion is the better part of valor and have decided to indefinitely postpone any further group festivities.
Except for one.
We are sincerely considering hosting a fully vaccinated tattoo party to tide everyone over. Let us know what you think!
Blue Rose Tattoo
Deuce knocked out this great little rose as a walk-in the other day for a young lady’s first tattoo! We explained to her that getting tattooed as a walk-in is dicey at best, but Deuce had a last minute cancellation that day, so she lucked out! Interested in tattoos of pretty flowers? Want to meet some nice new people who like to have fun? Generally feeling lucky? Lighthouse Tattoo has what you need: We call him Deuce!
Alexis Henry - Euphoric Fire
The fiery stylings of Alexis Henry, known professionally as Euphoric Fire, will ignite something within you this Saturday!
There really is something about fire, isn’t there? It creates a visceral response from the viewer and it comes to the forefront of our imagination whenever we think about something exciting, from a rocket launch, to the pyrotechnics at a concert, to fireworks on the 4th of July, and even Burning Man. Fire gets us all going on a primal level. Please join us this Saturday and feel that excitement as we celebrate the Harry Potter universe we all love!
and They Say We Don't Do Walk-ins...
If you haven’t already noticed, we kind of have a theme on this website where we clown people who leave us 1-star reviews because they couldn’t get tattooed as a walk-in. While most of the walk-in business we do is quite small, we wanted to include this piece to prove that we in fact DO take care of walk-in clients as time allows. This particular piece was done by our fearless leader, Will Wood, who just happened to be hanging out at the shop on his day off. This young lady came in, wanted a Jason Voorhees mask from the Friday the 13th horror movie series, and a match made in, well, Hell was born! Will knocked this lil’ guy out in about 2 and a half hours and both he and his (walk-in) client went home with smiles on their faces!
Let's Get this Party Started!!!
We’ll see you at Lighthouse Tattoo on July 31st at 7pm for our Harry Potter Fan Appreciation Day Party! Games, contests, prizes, food and drink, good people and great tattoos, what more could an evening have to offer?
Where Are We Going? and Why Are We in This Handbasket?!?
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. All we know is that road took a detour to Lighthouse tattoo for this badass Hades piece! Hey, even if you’re good with the Lord, hedging your bets couldn’t hurt, could it?
Of course we’re being facetious, but dagnabbit, that’s a nice tattoo! The second installment of James’ Greek Gods sleeve, this Hades is so nice we had to include some close-ups of it here. Enjoy!
Greek Gods, Continued
This is after James’ first 8-hour session.
This is the healed result. The image is a bit distorted in the first photo, as James was seated with his arm on a rest when we took the picture.
James’ Greek gods sleeve is coming along nicely, as you can see! The healed Zeus is striking to behold, James has a big arm and Zeus is larger than life! The subsequent Hades tattoo follows, less chiseled in his depiction, with a look of fear, or certainly apprehension toward his more powerful brother. In the next session artist Will Wood is going to add crowns of fire and lighting for these god/king brothers. Then on to Poseidon!
Interested in award-winning black and grey realism from an artist whose work has been time-tested? Lighthouse Tattoo has what you need! Open seven days per week from noon to 10pm, you can swing by the shop to schedule your appointment or call 615 784-4500 to book by phone.
Hogwarts is Coming to Lighthouse Tattoo!
With Harry Potter Fan Appreciation Day fast approaching, we want to make sure everyone is getting their costume ready! We will be doing half-priced Wizarding World-themed tattoos from noon until about 7, so be sure to schedule your appointment early. We really do love to see people dressed up at these events and we try to reward the ones who go above and beyond, so here is a list of the costume categories: Best Professor; Best DeathEater; Best Fantastic Best; and Best Muggle (be creative with this one, we either want to see the most nonmagical no-mag ever, or a specific muggle that we can all enjoy). Contest winners may win as much as a free session from an artist of their choosing, so go all out, it’ll be worth it!
Hummingbird and Lily Tattoo
Summer and her husband Adam have been coming to Lighthouse Tattoo for the last couple of years and this hummingbird and lily tattoo is her most recent addition. This is the result of her first session with Will, as some details will be added once this heals. Beautifully blended, deeply saturated color realism pieces have become part and parcel of Will’s work outside of his Black and Grey realism fame. We strongly recommend considering him for your next color piece!
New Additions to Harry Potter Day!
With the fast approaching Harry Potter Fan Appreciation Day, we want to keep everyone posted on the added entertainment we have coming to the party that evening. We have secured fire dancer Euphoric Fire and enlisted the musical stylings of Tennessee’s own Bellsenberg, comprised of the duo of David Isenberg and Starr Belle for your live listening pleasure. Stay logged in to lighthousetattoo.net for more as the big day approaches!