Tattoo Shop Near Chandler, AZ

Planning a bigger piece from Chandler

Planning a bigger piece is mostly about size and sessions, and it is worth sorting before the needle ever comes out.

1. Free consult. Sit with the artist who would do the work, not a front desk. Bring references or just the idea, and talk size, placement, and style.
2. Stencil. The artist draws it up and pulls a stencil. You check the flow in the mirror and move it until it sits right, before anything goes in.
3. Linework. The first session maps the outline so the piece reads as one thing instead of a stack of separate tattoos crowded together.
4. Shading and saturation. Later sittings build the depth in passes, with healing time between, so the skin takes each pass clean.

The first session is usually linework, getting the flow down so the arm reads as one piece and not a bunch of separate tattoos crowded together. After that come the shading and saturation passes. It runs across a few sittings, and that is on purpose.

Skin only takes so much in one go. Push past that and it heals rough and the ink drops out in spots. What you care about is how it looks healed, not the swollen version you walk out with the day of.

Placement changes the day too. Over bone and thin skin runs sharper: ribs, inner arm, the elbow ditch, hands, back of the knee.

Fleshier spots ride easier. If it is your first tattoo, say so, and we start somewhere sane.

After you leave, on the drive back to Chandler

The National Weather Service puts the normal July high at Phoenix Sky Harbor at 106.5°F (1991-2020 normals), so plan the drive home to Chandler with a fresh piece covered. Keep a fresh piece out of direct sun while it settles, and stay out of the pool, the lakes out in Ocotillo and Fulton Ranch included, until it heals. Bake a new tattoo in the sun or soak it in a pool and you will pull ink and wreck a good piece.

Lindsay Road runs north out of the bottom of Chandler and ends up in Mesa. It starts at Hunt Highway, the city's southern limit and the Pinal County line, and stays inside Chandler for its first three miles. Past Ocotillo Road it follows the Chandler and Gilbert border, crosses the Loop 202 just north of Germann Road, then passes Baseline Road into Mesa. Our shop is on East Main near Lindsay Road, so you can ride it north almost to our door. An OpenStreetMap route from Veterans Oasis Park goes 148th Street, Ocotillo Road, then Lindsay Road. A route from Tumbleweed Park uses the Santan Freeway and Gilbert Road, then Ray Road before it joins Lindsay. Those two parks measure 12.2 and 10.3 miles from our door in a straight line, using the same coordinates.

Picking your artist before you drive up from Chandler

Start with our owner's @agtattoos to see the black and grey realism up close. Since the roster rotates, call and ask who is booking your style, whether that is color, fine line, traditional or a cover-up. We handle everything from a single needle line to a full sleeve, and everybody from a first-timer to somebody closing out a back piece.

Tumbleweed Park, south of downtown, hosts the annual Ostrich Festival and the Fourth of July Fireworks Festival. If one of those weekends lands on your appointment day, look at the City of Chandler events list before you leave.

Money, deposits and walk-ins for Chandler clients

A piece is priced by what it is and who does it. Call for a real number. A consult costs nothing. A deposit holds your appointment and comes off the total.

Bigger pieces can go on Get Tatted NOW, Pay LATER. The check is a soft pull, so your score stays untouched. You pay it every couple weeks or monthly, and an approved plan needs no deposit.

Same-day walk-ins when a chair is open. Hours are Sunday noon to 6, Monday through Thursday noon to 8, and Friday and Saturday noon to 10.

We do private events too.