Chris’ family is Native American, or indigenous, or Indian, depending on who you ask. We just think it’s cool. How can you know who you are if you’ve never known where you come from, after all? As such, Mr. Jackson here is celebrating his cultural heritage with not only a sleeve, but a full backpiece, with this lovely gentleman here as the starting point. Done by artist Will Wood in a single sitting.
People love tattoos of animals. We identify with characteristics in them that we’d like to see in ourselves. Strength, bravery, loyalty. Countries, political parties, and even sports teams use images of animals to depict the ideal they want to convey to the viewer and it’s no different with tattoos.
This Work-In-Progress titled Original Sin by artist Will Wood is coming along nicely. Frequently people will rely on Will’s expertise by giving him a premise (such as original sin) and maybe a couple of focal points (the woman’s face and the hand holding an apple with a snake coiled around it, for example) then let him run wild! Will takes great pride in exceeding the expectations of his clients, which is why he has such a long and loyal list of repeat clientele.
This particular piece will be finished up by bolstering the transitions and with the addition of some graffiti-marker-style lettering over the top of the shoulder that simply says ‘Original Sin’.
If this or something like it is up your alley, feel free to send in a consultation form via the tab on this website, and we’ll get back to you within 48 hours! Thanks!
We needed the site space so we discontinued our hilarious Knucklehead of the Month page, but sometimes people just take the cake and we feel the need to share with our adoring public the sheer hilarity that is THIS fucking dumbass.
If you can read, you already understand the problem: Jimmy here is a fucking moron. Not only did we serve an enormous number of happy clients, we went above and beyond by honoring everyone who had already signed up by scheduling them appointments for the next couple of weeks so they won’t feel like their time wasn’t important to us. We didn’t have to do that, no one else does that we know of does. Fact is, the response to this event was huge due to a tattoo convention going on in Nashville that meant many shops weren’t even offering Friday the 13th specials. Still, instead of just turning people away, we chose to go above and beyond in order to take care of people, something we pride ourselves on.
Something else we pride ourselves on is sticking up for ourselves, well, that and our sense of humor. So here goes.
To confirm our suspicions that Jimmy here is just doing the bidding of some other shop that he goes to, or is just plain stupid, we looked up his other reviews. It was telling, and funnier than we thought, so we’ve included some of them if you’re up for a belly laugh.
Three weeks ago Jimmy was at Biolife Plasma services donating plasma. We doubt it was out of the kindness of his heart and it would go quite a ways in explaining why he would wait 3 hours to save $40 on a tattoo (but not 4 hours, 4’s where he draws the line, Jimmy got shit to do), it’s because Jimmy’s broke. Read on, you’ll see what we mean.
It seems, due to no fault of his own, Jimmy here has difficulty getting or maintaining gainful employment. In this review he states that while his sister got a job day-of, they couldn’t find anything for Poor Jimmy. And it certainly had nothing to do with his attitude, lack of education, or poor communication skills. Nope, they’s just assholes yall. Notice the beginning of an apology from corporate, we feel that this is a mistake. The corporate response to these loudmouthed dickheads is creating a Karen-culture never before seen in the country and it’s giving all of us a headache (which we get from continually slamming our heads against the wall after dealing with these entitled shit heels.)
Wait, is shit heel two words? Or is it a compound word? Maybe a hyphenate? Turns out Grammarly doesn’t have all the answers, after all.
So three months ago Jimmy HAD a job, apparently ran a business. Can’t imagine why that didn’t go just swimmingly.
Another apology after Jimmy here has an attitude while most likely wasting the time of someone who actually HAS a job while seeing about his prepaid trac phone. Another apology from corporate. Stop it.
For our part, if someone has a complaint, address it here and we’ll take care of it. If we can’t find a solution to your liking, your request is most likely unreasonable and you should go someplace else. There will not. EVER. Be an apology. Don’t hold your breath.
Fuck you Jimmy, you suck. You should know that, it’s appears to be reflected generally in your life. Try to turn that around man, it’s not too late. Dick.
First, a disclaimer: Lighthouse Tattoo is an apolitical organization, as a business we don’t have an opinion on politics, religion, social mores, etc. We just want to do good tattoos at a fair price. So please understand that what we are about to say isn’t intended to be a political commentary.
BUT IT’S TOO EXPENSIVE TO DO SHIT ANYMORE.
The cost of living has gone through the roof. Rent’s high, interest rates are high, inflation’s BEEN high; and all this after the gut punch that was Covid. These developments have a disproportionate impact on our typical demographic of 18-28 year-olds. In short: it’s hard out there right now and we are aware of that. Something must be done.
So, for our part, Lighthouse Tattoo is introducing a shop-wide (excluding Will Wood) sale. Every artist at Lighthouse Tattoo will be offering a 5 hour session for $300.
Let that sink in. That’s an hourly rate of $60 in a industry where typical hourly rates have climbed to be double that, and sometimes even more (Will, for instance, charges $160 per hour). Why? Well, because Math. If you can’t afford to get tattooed, you won’t. If you don’t, we can’t afford to live. It’s a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one. If we make it easier for you to AFFORD to get that next tattoo, and if we stay busy because of that, then you get that new tattoo you’ve been wanting and we get to pay our own high-ass rent.
This is not the way a lot of people do business. We see the price tattoo artists are charging climbing all the time, to keep up with the cost of living. We believe this to be a mistake financially and ethically. Lighthouse Tattoo is of one mind on this: as long as we are able to work consistently and serve our clients, the dollar-per-hour charged means so much less than our ability to work consistently. It’s the law of averages really.
How long will this sale last? It depends. If it doesn’t work the way we think it will, it isn’t sustainable and we will have to pivot. So if you want to pay less for your next tattoo, please share this with your friends and let’s see if we can’t make this change a lasting one.
What DOESN’T a $300/5 hour session mean? It doesn’t mean you can get a sleeve in a day; it doesn’t mean you can share the time with a friend; it doesn’t mean you can get a tiny tattoo for $60 an hour. It also doesn’t mean if your tattoo takes less than the full 5 hours that you won’t have to pay full price (people have asked all of these things, it’s why we’re explaining it here).
Well, what’s that last part mean? $300 for 5 hours means your session will take between 4 and 5 hours to complete, from the time you show up to your appointment to the time you are wrapped up at the end of your session. If you are getting a larger piece, you will likely get a little more bang for your buck. If you need any extra drawing prior to starting your session due to resizing or an artwork change, it will eat up some of that time, so be sure to communicate with your artist fully before the day of your appointment to avoid an confusion.
This deal is intended to give our clients, both existing and new, a break from some very difficult financial times. We need your active participation to make it work. So help us help you. Schedule that next tattoo session at Lighthouse Tattoo early, often, and tell your friends!
P.S. Will’s demographic tends to be a bit better off financially in the first place, but he is considering a way to provide an entry-level to a younger market with a similar deal, without putting pressure on his younger artists who aren’t booked out as far, so stay tuned to Lighthouse Tattoo for the details and announcements on Will’s Deal!
This remarkable (and slightly out of focus, sorry) tattoo of the gorgon Medusa was applied by artist Will. Out of Greek myth tattoos, the story of Medusa is perhaps the most popular, followed closely by the labors of Hercules (especially slaying the Nemean Lion; Cerberus; and the Hydra), then images depicting the king of the gods, Zeus. With such good company, the fact that the story of Medusa resonates with so many people is impressive. Hers is the place of highest honor among the tattooed Greek myths.
Keep your eyes on the cross. A secular interpretation could be to pay attention to the cross you bear, or basically, your responsibilities. Whether religious or secular, the idea that people ought tend to their interests isn’t a new one. “Mind your business”; “Put your money where your mouth is”; and “Look before you leap” are all quotes that reflect a similar, if not the same sentiment.
Find your passion. Makes sure it’s something worthwhile, even if only to you. Set yourself on a path toward that goal or worldview and don’t look back. Heaven is an ideal we can all pursue.
Our artist Amanda is pursuing her dream of becoming your favorite tattooer. If you care to participate in her journey feel free to call or swing by the Lighthouse Tattoo, at 328 North Cumberland st in Lebanon TN between the hours of nnon and 10pm, seven days a week, or simply fill out a consultation form on this website and we’ll call you!
On Friday the 13th of June, Lighthouse Tattoo will be hosting another Midnight tattoo offering. At the stroke of midnight, June 13th, we will start our Friday the 13th deals! We will be taking appointments until the day-of and doing tattoos on a first-come, first-served basis for those without appointments and we’ll go until we run out of people to tattoo! Then, at noon on the same day, we will re-open for more Friday the 13th tattoo madness! We will be taking appointments in 30 minute increments starting at midnight that Thursday night/Friday morning, so if you have a preferred artist, be sure to call the shop and schedule your appointment early! We will post our Friday the 13th offerings on this events page, on our website homepage, as well as our social media, so you can pick what you want ahead of time.
This excellent black and grey rendition of Lady Justice by Amanda brings to mind the honorable ideal that justice should be blind, so that it can be wielded equally across the population. Lately though, it seems that Lady Justice has been hijacked for political reasons, and by both sides.
Griping about it isn’t going to do any good. Complaining never has. You got a problem with it? Get up and do something about it, but maybe keep it shy of being a fucking nutter, okay? Two wrongs don’t make a right, after all.
Continuing our Artist Feature on young Amanda here, notice the delicateness of the work presented and the attention to detail contained therein. If you’d like to schedule an appointment or consultation with miss Amanda, or any of the other artists at Lighthouse Tattoo, click our Set an Appointment tab, fill out the requested info in as much detail you can muster, and we will contact you within 48 hours! Cheers!
These fine tattoos were made by Amanda and remind your writer of the fine notion ‘Birds of a feather fly together.’ Truer words are rarely spoken. People have this tendency, no, it’s more of an innate need to find others similar to themselves. The significance of this as some sort of survival mechanism would be better left to an evolutionary psychologist, but you get the idea: We like being around like-minded individuals, we find comfort in the familiar.
Crisp, clean lines and dramatic, smooth shading highlight what makes a relatively simple-looking piece so striking in its execution.
These photos of a Samurai tattoo pay homage to the warrior culture as exemplified in the Bushido code. Not unlike the knights of yore and their code of chivalry, but more developed, Bushido is a philosophy as well as a way of life. We tattoo quite a few soldiers, both past and present, at Lighthouse Tattoo, and there’s certainly a theme that can be observed: Vikings; Templar Knights; Spartans; and Samurai. There’s other things people get to commemorate their military service, but those 4 themes far and away are the most popular, as they reflect a pedigree of warfare few others can match.
The two photos you see here were taken a bit more than a month apart, one fresh right after being completed; the other healed. If you’re interested in scheduling a consultation appointment with their talented creator, Will Wood, or any of our other fine artists, please click the ‘Set an Appointment’ tab on this website and we’ll reach out to you withing 48 hours. Thank you, and we hope you enjoy the artwork!
We’re having a luau: grass skirts, coconut bras, beach balls, and all! Wear your best beach get-up and bring your best umbrella drink mixers (cause it’s BYOB) and get ready to set the summer on fire! We will be throwing a virgin into a live volcano, so be sure to bring some sunglasses and something that’s wash and wear. There’s no cover charge and this party is open to the public, so feel free to bring some friends and erase some memories!
On Friday the 13th of June, Lighthouse Tattoo will be hosting another Midnight tattoo offering. At the stroke of midnight, June 13th, we will start our Friday the 13th deals! We will be taking appointments until the day-of and doing tattoos on a first-come, first-served basis for those without appointments and we’ll go until we run out of people to tattoo! Then, at noon on the same day, we will re-open for more Friday the 13th tattoo madness! We will be taking appointments in 30 minute increments starting at midnight that Thursday night/Friday morning, so if you have a preferred artist, be sure to call the shop and schedule your appointment early! We will post our Friday the 13th offerings on this events page, on our website homepage, as well as our social media, so you can pick what you want ahead of time.
That’s New York City in the background. and don’t worry about the guy in the photo, he’s perfectly safe.
Strange though, how many people would comment about how they’d never do such a thing, purely out of fear. Some people never get that tattoo they’d always dreamed of for the same reason and we think that’s such a shame. They have lots of reasons that keep them from taking the plunge, maybe they won’t like the finished product; how much will it cost; what if they can’t take the pain; what if their friends/coworkers/parents/lover doesn’t like it… blah blah blah. All we hear is a life busy being unlived.
You’re gonna die.
Listen, you need to hear that sometime and you need to accept it. You also need to accept the fact that none of us really no what happens after that, other than life for everyone else will go on. So we’d like to strongly recommend getting your feet wet, your hands dirty, and living a little, while you still can. “Try everything once, except incest and folk dancing” is the old quote, I believe Sam Clemens, Mark Twain, said that one. We’d also like to add ‘…and meth, don’t try meth.’ But I digress.
Go on a trip. Have a conversation with a complete stranger. Call your mom. Eat, drink, pray. Find something in this world that gives you some meaning and do it with all your heart. Love like crazy. Tell someone you’re sorry if you mean it. Mean it. Be willing to make a mistake and maybe most of all, be willing to forgive yourself when you do.
And that, kids, is some of why we get tattoos.
Time’s always slipping away. In fact, that’s one of the most appealing things about a tattoo, isn’t it? We take them with us when we go. Something special about a form of personalized jewelry that can’t be passed down or stolen. The pull of making your art a part of you notwithstanding, we all have lost sleep at some point or another thinking about the impending swipe of the Grim Reaper’s scythe. What better way to face that fear than to pay homage to the fact that fearing the inevitable is just plain silly. Less morbid fascination than acknowledgement that life should be lived to fullest due to its fleeting nature, depictions of the Grim Reaper are always welcome at Lighthouse Tattoo, like an old friend.
Look, we’re just gonna totally overlook that second Joker movie, our Harley Quinn is Margot Robbie, as we’re sure you’ll agree. The Suicide Squad Harley captured so much of the comic’s personality and tone, coupled with a bit of the old ultraviolence and a big-assed hammer, what more could you ask for? Nothing knocking Lady Gaga’s portrayal, her singing chops were necessary for the role and for that particular role, so was the only choice to be made, but damn, can we get a little bit of the old Harley Quinn back?
Who doesn’t love owls? Animal portraits are a staple in the tattoo game, and none better can be found than the animal portraits done by Lighthouse Tattoo’s own realism specialist Will Wood. This particular piece is part of a Native American sleeve-in-progress, the completed work we’ll be sharing with you in the coming weeks upon its completion. Interested in getting something wild? Fill out our ‘Set an Appointment’ tab on this site and we’ll reach out to schedule an appointment with this artist.
Amanda has been a part of the Lighthouse Tattoo family for about 18 months now. She has fostered a life-long love of art by getting her degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in Studio Art and seeking out the single best tattoo mentor she could find in master tattooer Will Wood. She has shown her artwork at her alma mater and the Frist Art Museum in Nashville,
Over the last 18 months we’ve watched her meteoric rise as her technical tattooing skills rose to meet her considerable artistic ability. Combined with a growing client base eager to see her spread her wings, Amanda is slated to become the next big thing Lighthouse Tattoo has to offer.
What makes something the best of it’s kind? I mean, how do you determine that value-set? What’s best for some may not be what’s best for another and that’s what we’d like to determine, as far as tattoos go.
For instance: Is the best car in the world the fastest? The best looking? Or the one with the best handling and ride? Or are you just looking for a good price and a reliable daily driver? The prized possession of your favorite rock star or professional athlete may break the bank for the typical American. I mean, a Lamborghini is super nice to have, but not if you’re living in it. Turns out a super car is a shitty apartment. It’s all in the metrics.
‘Metrics’ you say? ‘What the fuck is that?’ you say? Metrics are simply the things we use to measure any given value. For some of us, price is an issue. For all of us, value is a big deal, we don’t care as much about how something costs as long as what we’re getting is ‘worth it.’ Metrics are the categories by which we determine whether or not the thing we’re buying is worth it. And largely those metrics are based on our particular situation at the time.
That car? Sometimes you just need to get there bro. Not fast, not in style, you just can’t be late to work or you’re gonna get fired for being late to work again and then you’re going to end up homeless and you can’t have that because then Sheila will leave you and you can’t have that because, honestly, Sheila got that ASS bro. You know what I’m sayin’.
But sometimes you’re at a drift competition because you watched The Fast and the Furious part 2 one too many times and while tires aren’t held in high regard, coming in at first place is. And then there’s straight-line speed. Drag racing. The quarter mile. Or maybe you think an F-type Jaguar is the most beautiful thing ever made, or maybe a Corvette Stingray.
You see, the metrics you use to measure a thing matter. Same goes for tattoos.
What makes Lighthouse Tattoo the best? Let’s look at those metrics.
Ability: Lighthouse Tattoo has the most capable artists in the field today. Will Wood has won every tattoo award category that exists at one point or another, so much so that we don’t have space to display all of his trophies and plaques. So many of them are simply filling boxes in the basement, a testament to something even the untrained eye can see, Will is one of the single best tattoo artists in Middle Tennessee.
Price: We work hard to keep our rates low for our customers. We do this because of our love for this artform and we understand that times are tough all over. You’ll find our prices competitive with anyone around and sometimes people are shocked to see how reasonable our rates are. We do this by offering a tiered skill level of more than a dozen artists at Lighthouse Tattoo, everything from the Apprentice level to Master Tattooer. Which leads us to our next metric.
Availability: Lighthouse Tattoo is open seven days a week, from noon to 10pm. We have more than a dozen artists to choose from. We do this in order to keep our availability for walk-in tattoos and next-day-or-so bookings high. We understand that many people want to get something done quickly and we seek to fulfill those desires as often as we can. The more complex or larger a piece is, the more forethought will be required, of course, and setting an appointment is always preferred.
Customer care: Lighthouse Tattoo has more than 500 five star reviews on Google, and for good reason. We answer phone calls, respond to messages and emails, we’re open seven days a week for consistent hours, and we work with people to make sure all reasonable requests are met. Combine that with our no B.S. policy and you get a pleasant, straight-forward way of doing business that is centered on a positive client experience. This does come with a caveat: We don’t well tolerate people who try to mistreat us. This should come as no surprise but we thought it’s be a good idea to put it here anyway. The vast, vast majority of our few negative reviews has been by people who have never been tattooed or pierced at Lighthouse Tattoo and got angry because we wouldn’t give them something for nothing. We recommend checking those reviews out as well as the good ones, as the responses are pretty hilarious!
People: Along the lines of Customer Care, we’d like to take the time to highlight the people who work at Lighthouse Tattoo. Handpicked for their personality and trained to offer a uniform level of service across the entire shop, we recognize that some people just get along better due to similar personalities or demographics and we’ve worked hard to build an artist corps that is diverse and approachable.
In all, Lighthouse Tattoo strives to provide the best artwork, pricing, availability, customer care, and personal experience around. We invite you to examine our portfolios before visiting the shop and seeing for yourself!
