Custom Tattoos in Mesa, AZ

• Sun 12–6 · Mon–Thu 12–8 · Fri–Sat 12–10
• Custom & cover-up work
• Free consultations
• Financing available

Tagz Tattoo draws custom tattoos at 2735 E Main St, Suite 9 in Mesa, open every day. Bring a reference or a half-formed idea and the artist who would tattoo it sits with you first, free. Custom black and grey realism, sleeves, and large-scale work.

Custom tattoos at Tagz, built from your idea

You have a picture in your head, or a reference on your phone, or a rough sketch you did at your kitchen table. That is where a custom tattoo starts.

We are at 2735 E Main St, Suite 9, right on East Main in Mesa, just east of where the Main Street light rail line ends at Gilbert Road, a few minutes east of the Temple and the downtown breweries. Bring the idea in and we will figure out how to put it on skin so the whole thing holds together.

AG owns Tagz and put the team together. Black and grey realism is his lane, and it is what most people drive in for. He posts the work, healed and fresh both, on TikTok and YouTube at @agtattoos.

Watch some of it before you come in. A healed piece from the artist who would be doing yours tells you what you actually need to know.

Recent work from our Mesa tattoo shop

Black and grey realism, sleeves, chest pieces and hand work done in the shop. AG posts more, healed and fresh, on TikTok and YouTube at @agtattoos.

Fresh ink always looks crisp. Healed work is what tells you the truth, so scroll @agtattoos before you come in.

Same day, or worth a consult

How a custom piece goes

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.

• Free consultationSit with the artist who would do the work. You pay nothing at the consultation.
• Same-day walk-insWhen a chair is open, walk in off East Main and get started that day.
• Get Tatted NOW, Pay LATERFinancing on bigger work. It is a soft pull, so it does not touch your credit score.

Ready to talk through your piece?

Call or Text the Shop

The consult

Consults do not cost anything. Sit down with the artist who would do the work, not a front desk, and bring whatever you have. A photo, a couple of references you like the feel of, a name and a font, or just the idea in your own words.

We talk size, placement, and style first. A quarter-size fine line piece on the inner wrist and a black and grey half sleeve are two different conversations, and both start the same way.

You tell us what you want. We tell you what the skin will hold.

Placement matters more than people expect. Over bone and thin skin, the ribs, inner arm, elbow ditch, hands, back of the knee, the needle feels sharper and the design has to be drawn to fit the way the body moves.

Fleshier spots sit easier and take detail well. The artist redraws your reference around the spot you pick.

Your reference is already somebody else's tattoo

Most references that come through this door are already tattoos. Somebody saved a photo of a piece done on a different body, at a different size, by an artist working in a different style, and it looks perfect in the shot because it was fitted to that arm and nobody else's. Copy it line for line onto you and it stops working, because the thing it was built around is gone. So the artist is not tracing your reference. They are reading what you actually liked about it, the subject, the weight of the blacks, the way it wrapped, then rebuilding that for your body. Bring the picture. Just come ready to hear why yours will not look like it.

The stencil

Once the idea is settled, the artist builds the drawing and pulls a stencil. We lay it on, you look in the mirror, and we move it until the flow is right.

This is the last cheap chance to change your mind about size or angle, so we take our time here. Nothing goes in until the stencil sits the way you want it.

The build

Small custom work often goes in one sitting. Bigger work does not, and it should not. A full sleeve, a chest panel, a back piece, a leg, those get built across sessions.

The first session is usually linework, mapping the flow so the shapes lock together and the piece hangs right as a whole. After that come the shading and saturation passes, with healing time between each.

The reason is the skin. It only takes so much in a sitting. Push past that and it heals rough and the ink drops out, and then you are paying to fix something that did not need fixing.

What a piece looks like healed is what counts, and the day you walk out it is still fresh and swollen, so judge it later. So we go at the pace the skin sets. Nobody at Tagz blinks at a full sleeve or a back piece, and The Big Room, one of the several rooms here, is set up so a long sitting is not crammed in a corner.

Any size, any style

Single needle to full sleeve. Black and grey realism is the core, and there is color, fine line, and traditional in the building too. The roster rotates month to month.

AG is the constant. Over time you will see names like Eddy, Cam, Alex, Steve, Priscilla, Tanner, Carlos, and Presley come through.

Because the lineup moves, call ahead and see who is booking your style. If you want fine line and the fine line artist is booked out, better to know before you drive in.

Cover-ups are custom work too, just with a harder constraint. Old ink underneath dictates how dark and how big the new piece has to be, so bring the existing tattoo in and we will tell you honestly what can go over it.

First-timers are welcome. Most people are jumpy walking in and forget about it a few lines into the first pass.

Have a reference in mind? Call or text the shop →

Same building, fresh cut

There is a barber in the same building. Sit for a piece, grab a cut before you leave.

That is the one stop shop line you see in the reviews. Same-day walk-ins when a chair is open, free consults, and we host private events too.

Paying for it

Price depends on the piece and who does it, so call and ask for a real number. You will hear it at the consult, before you are on the hook. A deposit holds the appointment and comes off the total.

For bigger work we run Get Tatted NOW, Pay LATER. It is a soft credit pull, so it will not touch your score, and you can pay monthly or every couple of weeks. Approved means no deposit.

Aftercare in the Mesa heat

Mesa summers run past 110, and that matters for a fresh tattoo. Keep it out of direct sun and out of the pool while it settles. A new piece healing under a July afternoon on East Main is not the same as one healing in the fall, so we will walk you through the specifics for the season you get it in.

Custom tattoo FAQ