Frequently asked questions about tattoos

A price is quoted per piece rather than per hour, and it cannot be quoted before three things are visible: size, placement and how much detail the drawing carries. The same design on a forearm and on ribs is two different jobs. There is a minimum charge for any piece, because even a small tattoo takes the same sterilisation, the same new needle and the same setup. Send a photo of the placement and a rough size on WhatsApp and a range usually comes back the same day.

On WhatsApp, which is how most sessions here get booked. Until the idea, the size and the placement have been talked through, a date does not mean much, and one conversation saves three rounds of messages. There is also a booking path on the site that shows exactly how it works; it is the second route, not the first.

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For a small piece, usually not — it gets settled in messages. For a large one, for a cover-up, or for anything sitting over a scar or an existing tattoo, yes, and preferably before a drawing is paid for. It takes about fifteen minutes: we look at the skin, measure the placement, mark it in pen and decide whether the idea works at that size. If it does not, you hear that then rather than later.

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A small fine-line piece runs about one to two hours, including the stencil and the setup. A medium one, three to four. Past that it gets split: after four or five hours the skin behaves differently, pigment takes less well and both people are tired. A sleeve or a back piece is a series of sessions rather than one long day, and that is a craft decision rather than a commercial one.

Yes, and mostly it depends on placement. Forearm, calf and outer arm are usually manageable; ribs, inner knee, elbow and foot are harder, as is anything close to bone. It is pain that accumulates rather than pain that spikes, which is why we stop when we need to — five minutes in the middle spoils nothing. Someone who has eaten, slept and not arrived off a night out has a completely different session.

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Eat something real in the couple of hours before, sleep, and drink water. No alcohol in the 24 hours before — it thins the blood and makes the work harder. Sunburnt skin does not get tattooed here, and that is a quality call rather than a comfort one: the skin peels and takes the pigment with it. Wear something that lets us reach the placement without you undressing entirely, and bring a charger and something to eat for a long session.

This studio tattoos people aged 18 and over, and checks ID at the door — including when it looks unnecessary, because a check that happens sometimes is a check that does not happen. That is this studio’s practice. No legal information is given here, about the studio or about anyone else.

Because a handful of things change how the work is done: pregnancy or breastfeeding, epilepsy, diabetes, clotting disorders and blood thinners, the state of the skin at the placement itself, allergies to latex, nickel or pigments, regular medication, blood-borne conditions, surgery or an implant in the area, and alcohol or drugs in the 24 hours before. It is signed at the studio, before the session, on the day — not sent ahead and not filled in on a phone on the way. You can read it here first and arrive knowing what it asks.

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The short version: keep the covering on for as long as you were told, wash with clean hands and unscented soap, pat dry rather than rub, and put on a thin layer — thin, not greasy. Do not scratch, do not pick, do not swim and stay out of the sun for the first few weeks. The full instructions, including what is normal and what is not, are in the article.

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The surface closes in about two weeks: the first week is red and tender, then comes a dry flaking stage that looks alarming and is not. The skin underneath keeps recovering for another one to three months, and during that time the tattoo can look dull or hazy — that is a stage, not the result. Friction, heat and sun are what actually damage it in that period.

Yes. Once healing is finished we look at the piece again, and anything that settled unevenly — a line that broke, a spot where pigment dropped out — gets corrected in a short sitting. The studio holds a window of a few weeks from the end of healing for that, and inside it the touch-up is part of the job rather than a new one. Damage from sun, swimming or picking in the first weeks is a different conversation, and it gets said up front rather than afterwards.

You can, and it is a good starting point. What happens to it: the artist adapts it to the body — to the size, to the direction of the lines, to where the skin moves — and sometimes thickens lines that would not survive a decade. If the drawing is another artist’s work, it needs their permission; copying a recognisable piece off Instagram is not a request that gets taken here. A drawing made in the studio is sent for approval before the session and reworked until it is right.

We do, and sometimes we say no. A cover-up follows one rule: what goes on top has to be darker, larger and denser than what is underneath. An old, very black piece — or one that has already been covered once — narrows what is possible over it, and the honest answer is sometimes a few sessions of laser lightening first and the cover-up after: elsewhere, then here. It is better to say that at the first meeting than to agree and be wrong about the result.

By style, not by who is free. Roni does fine line, botanical and script; Lev does blackwork and ornamental; Tamar does neo-traditional and colour. If the idea sits between two of them, send it and we will say whose it is — including when the answer is "not mine". A session with someone who does not work in that style is a wasted session for both sides.

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The studio is in Florentin, Tel Aviv. Street parking in the evening is hard and most people come by bus or scooter; there are car parks a few minutes’ walk away. Entry is by appointment only — there is no open door for passers-by, which is also what keeps the room quiet while someone is being worked on. The exact address, the hours and the Waze and Maps links are on the contact page.

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One person, yes, and on a long session it usually helps. The working room is small, so not more than one, and no dogs; children do not come into the room — it is a room with needles and blood in it, and there is no way to make that suitable. Whoever comes waits in the waiting area and can step in for a moment rather than for the whole session.