Free Tattoo Day Dumb Shit

From now until our Free Tattoo Day, we will be including info and entertainment here so some of ya’ll can laugh and some can learn. To whit: this young lady whose head was in the wrong place when she asked about free tattoo day. She basically let us know if she shows up and doesn’t get tattooed she’s gonna be pissed. It’s a lot to infer from the first contact, but considering the answer to her question was readily available online and she chose to forego that, it seems obvious she was doing what so many before her had already done: Try to get a guarantee she could get a free tattoo. We told her simply not to come, she found that rude, even though it wasn’t. Her gas is obviously very important to her and we don’t think an apprentice-level tattoo that can be done in under 2 hours is worth driving 3 hours for. Seriously. If you want to drive for three hours, come for the party, not the tattoo. Also, telling someone they’re being rude is rude, so careful with that shit. You seem to want me to care about your feelings when all you want is something from me for nothing. Hard to find a fuck to give there, sweetheart! We’ll have tons of these inquiries over the next two weeks. Hundreds. for the sake of expediency, we’re going to be short with people. You’re going to have to get over it or you’re going to get your feelings hurt.

So what actually happened during this exchange? This young lady played her hand, we saw that she wanted a guarantee that we don’t offer and we told her she would be better off spending the gas money on a local tattoo. We cut down all of that info to ‘Just don’t come’ because we are trying hard to respond to everyone and it’s been pretty constant since our original announcement a couple of days ago. She responded by calling us rude, then telling us she was going to do exactly what we’d recommended, just not in so many words. We weren’t even rude, just straight forward in our response. This is the problem with that type of person, they feel the need to say something when they could just move on. Social media is destroying the mental health of its users, as evidenced by this young woman’s response. We’re complete strangers who just told her the event probably wouldn’t be to her liking, especially with current gas prices and her distance from the shop, so she decided to call us rude. You can’t win for losing folks.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

We are back from vacation and are working hard to keep up with demand. It may be to no avail, but switching to an appointment-only basis has worked wonders to reduce unnecessary foot traffic and allowed us the focus on the people who are willing to do business in a way that helps us serve them best, so maybe it’s worth it. We have several things in the currently in the workings. On June 18th, we are planning our second annual Free Tattoo Day, please look through the Events tab to find more information about that as well as our Harry Potter Fan Appreciation Day; as well as several other prospective festivities, like the Bikini Bike Wash or maybe the addition of a Free Piercing Day, to complement the free tattoo day. Stay tuned to Lighthouse Tattoo as we have much more to come, don’t miss out!

By Appointment Only

We’re swamped. Overwhelmed. In over our heads. In other words, we’re too busy.

It’s a good problem to have, don’t get me wrong, but it does still present certain challenges. As such, Lighthouse Tattoo will no longer be offering walk-in tattoos of any size, for any reason. We have to do this in order to whittle down the backlog of appointments so we can get to a point where we can offer our services in a more timely fashion.

We have lost three people in the last three months and that has put our already very busy shop at a disadvantage. Rather than asking our existing clientele to wait longer while we deal with this backlog, we have decided to streamline the process by eliminating walk-ins and prioritizing those repeat customers. We hope everyone understands and we thank you for your patience over the next couple of months while we get everything worked out.

For those of you who are still interested in getting tattooed, please feel free to swing by the shop to set up an appointment, or fill out the ‘set and appointment’ form on this website and we will get back to you. Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! We know this is a special holiday to celebrate all of the amazing mom's out there! We will be closed tomorrow, May 8th, so we can spend time with family and celebrate! And we will be open as usual on Monday, May the 9th! We hope everyone has an awesome Mother's Day!

R-A-T-T-F-I-N-K=RATTFINK!

He’s lean, he’s mean, he’s lime-green, he’s RattFink, Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth’s claim to fame. It’s okay if you don’t know who he is, not everyone can be cool, kids. RattFink is a staple in car culture and motorcycle culture, so squares won’t get it, they never do. Want to be one of the cool kids? Swing on down to Lighthouse Tattoo and we’ll change your life for the better, or worse, whatever!

Live Fast, Die Young

That’s the whole point isn’t it? If you’re not living on the edge you’re taking up too much space, right? So move forward, put the hammer down, and lean into the wind, ‘cause whatever it is, it won’t last, might as well enjoy the ride!

This sweet traditional American-style piece was performed by our very own Matt Steele. Call 615 784-4500 or swing by the shop between the hours of noon and 10pm seven days a week to schedule your next appointment with him!

A Tiered Pricing System to Fit Your Budget and Needs

We understand that not everyone wants to break the bank with their next tattoo. Not everyone wants something that requires the highest skill levels in the business. Some folks want names and little stuff, simple things that don’t take up a lot of space. We understand that in these instances, paying the top-tier priced of some of our more experienced artists is prohibitive for many. So we have developed a tiered system to make getting smaller, less complicated tattoos less painful-ON YOUR BANK ACCOUNT!!!

At the top echelon we have realism artist Will Wood, who charges $160/hr and has a 5 hour session rate of $600 for repeat clients (1st-timers pay $800 for that first session, then they get the ‘buddy discount’). Will is the best we have and one of the very best tattooers around, but he still tries to keep the price of his work affordable.

Next we have Deuce and Dave, who each have 5-hr session rates of $400. These two are veteran artists with decades of experience doing tattoos between them. You can’t go wrong here folks, the value you get at those price points is startling!

Next we have Matt and Brady, younger artists with less than 5 years in the business apiece. Both capable, growing artists charge $300/ 5hrs, and we would argue a better value can’t be found anywhere!

We also have a couple of newbies who will tackle pieces for half-price, or $50 per hour, sometimes even less than our shop minimum. These artists have a limited skillset however, so the things they are allowed to tattoo are limited. With time we are sure they will grow and become wonderful artists along with the rest of the staff here at Lighthouse Tattoo.

Dragonfly Rose Tattoo

Deuce has been working on his black and grey and clearly it’s paying off! He just did this single session piece on a great client and we managed to get a decent photo of it for a change (Deuce is admittedly the worst photographer on the planet)! To schedule your next session with this veteran tattooer, visit Lighthouse Tattoo at 328 N. Cumberland st, a block off the historic Lebanon, TN square; fill out the set an appointment form on this website; or call us at 615-784-4500.

Eyes of King Leonidas

It happens like this sometimes: For some reason or another, we’ll end up doing several of the same tattoo, on completely unrelated clients, within a few weeks of each other. We’re not complaining, we absolutely love this image! The texture and intensity of the piece is enough to draw the viewer in a hold them for a while, which we love.

Demon Geisha Tattoo

Matt Steele’s high contrast blackwork style has caught on with it’s impactful intensity. Stark and bold, like the tattoos of the Old School, Matt has something of an old soul about himself. If you like this style and want to know more, feel free to stop by and speak with Matt himself, between the hours of noon and 10pm, Wednesday through Sunday! You won’t be disappointed!

Mr. Sandman, Fred Kreuger!

Another Freddy portrait tattoo wonderfully performed by Will Wood. It’s amazing the amount of staying power some of these villains seem to have, playing on our fears seems to have a lasting effect. The great thing about this particular tattoo is the way Will managed to capture the expression on his face even with all of the added texture from the movie make-up he’s wearing. We think it’s awesome and we hope you’ll agree! Schedule your appointment with Will Wood today by calling 615 784-4500 between the hours of noon and 10pm.

Tiger Style!

As with the Wu-Tang Clan, this tiger is nothing with which to fuck.

Matt Steele’s transition for apprentice tattooer to Journeyman artist is almost complete. Working with his mentor, Will Wood, the founding father of Lighthouse Tattoo, Matt has become a capable young artist. He has learned to work on more difficult areas of the body and turn out clean, bright work, as in this tiger hand tattoo. In just over a year and half of hard work (he’s been here longer, but the time since the government’s Covid shutdown has been the most meaningful), Matt has become a growing force at Lighthouse Tattoo. Call today to beat the rush and schedule your next appointment with this great young artist! 615 784-4500, between the hours of noon and 10pm, or fill out the appointment request form on this website, under the ‘Set and Appointment’ tab.

The More Things Change...

If you’ve been to the shop any time in the last three months you know Lighthouse Tattoo has been going through some serious changes. We added some new faces and the shop got a facelift of its own. We like it because it goes to show how much hard work we’ve been putting in and you MUST like it because we’ve gotten pretty busy here! In fact, we may have actually gotten a little too busy for comfort. Everybody’s got problems y’know?

Our realism artist, Will Wood, has gotten so busy his normal 3-month limit on booking has become woefully inadequate. Something had to be done. Will has now changed his schedule to allow for two sessions per day at a rate of $600 apiece. This is a discount from his usual $160 per hour rate, which fits better into our tiered pricing system, taking out the guesswork for his clients. First-timers and clients who wish to book time other than the 5-hour window of the offered session will still be charged at the $160 per hour rate.

This is a little funny: We hired a new shop manager some time ago and she took us to task on certain issues. The first thing she did was work to significantly increase our capacity to do walk-in tattoos, the second was to address people who try to abuse us for our deposit policy. The last thing she did was notice that Will only scheduled one tattoo per day, then left once he was done. He also had a tendency to offer discounts to his loyal customers (which all of them are, Will has a huge repeat clientele). She decided to try scheduling him the same as the other artists and build in the discount, because while many of his clients can sit for more than 5 hours due to Will’s famously light touch, it’s not usually more than a couple of extra hours and that meant Will wasn’t making as much as he could!

Will is old. He could go at any minute. He has five kids, all of which like to eat EVERY DAY. To get the most out of him before he dies, we decided to work the old workhorse a little more.

The results were dramatic. Repeat clients have been rescheduled with shorter wait times between sessions; The shorter sessions are less taxing to the client, who appreciate the loyalty discount; and Will’s calendar has opened up so he can start taking new clients again (because he’s technically doing twice as much work now, but don’t tell HIM that)!

It looks like there’s a new sheriff in town and we like the direction she’s taking things, we hope you do too!