Apprentice Walk-in Availability and Special

After our wildly popular Free Tattoo Day we have let our apprentice corps move forward to working with the public. It’s important for everyone to know that ‘Apprentice’ does not mean ‘Professional Tattooer’, it means student, novice, newb. We will have an apprentice on hand daily to offer affordable, small-scale, walk-in tattoos to anyone who is interested in helping one of these young artists develop their skill set while saving a ton of cash in the process!

For those of you interested and able to set an appointment, our Apprentice Special may be to your liking. Any tattoo that the apprentice is reasonably capable of performing in three hours or less can be had for only $100! That is more than a 60% discount from what the typical tattoo artist would charge. Tattoos for less than half price? YES PLEASE! This discount is for a limited time only, as these young artists improve their skills and the demand for their artwork increases, so will their prices! We expect to see some of our best performers ending their special offering by the end of July, so act now and save a ton on that small, simple tattoo you’ve been wanting but didn’t want to break the bank over.

Tattoo shops everywhere have had to increase their minimum prices in order to keep up with the increase in medical supplies and shipping costs. Lighthouse Tattoo has been no different in this aspect, we raised our minimum price to $80 in order to be able to make money on some of the smaller tattoos people want done. In fact, at one point we had to go so far as to just turn people down, as we were too busy to be able to tend to everyone’s needs. That is where our new Apprentice Corps comes in: Young artists, with anywhere from 3 to 8 months of experience, all working with the common goal of becoming the best artists they can. In order to do this, they need people to practice on, and that’s where you come in. If you are willing to give one of these young artists an opportunity, they are willing to give you a steep discount in order to further their learning. Not unlike getting a haircut at the barber college, you may get what you pay for, but these young people are trying and you can help them on their path to greatness while saving a significant amount on the easy stuff!

Please feel free to walk in or schedule an appointment with the apprentice of your choice. Please swing by the shop to check out their portfolios, as this website contains full-fledged artist’s work only. Apprentices tend to develop so quickly that posting their work doesn’t do them justice, since by the time we get everything posted, they’ve already shown significant improvements in their craft.

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!

Grizzly Bear Stare!!!

Fuck the care Bears, this dude means bidnez! With enough teeth and bad breath to make Leo Dicaprio rethink his life’s work, this grizzly bear portrait is intimidating, even WITH a giant scratch running right through it like three weeks after it was done…(way to go Forrest). This whole thing was done in single five hour session by Will as the first session in a full leg sleeve.

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!

Congratulations MK and Jake!

This April 2nd, we will be celebrating the pending birth of Jake and MK’s baby. Lighthouse Tattoo has held a family-close relationship with many of our clients and we enjoy being able to shower them with affection in a time such as this. We thank those of you who celebrate with us during this joyous time!

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.