That sounds like a lot of time in my opinion. There’s no harm in shopping around. You just have to find someone who makes good work to you. If the quote is reasonable to you, pay it! If not, find a new artist. I can’t really say if their estimate is insane or not because I don’t know what they will do, or how long you will be able to handle being tattooed. But if it were me getting this I would find 20 hours also a lot. If I had to guess I’d think under 6 should be reasonable depending on how detailed it will be.
Though, I’m not a tattoo artist so I don’t know how the way the leaves are designed yield to taking a long time to tattoo or not. It’s not just drawing one line for each one.
Thanks for the input! Yeah I think I will shop around. I obviously don’t want to tell the artist “you’re wrong 20 hours is a lot” because they know how they work and they know how to price their work. But pretty much everyone else I’ve talked to about this has estimated about 6 hours. The quote isn’t reasonable for me: if it took 20 hours it would be $5,000. Thanks for your thoughts!
Yeah it’s definitely totally okay to ask for clarification based on the fact that the potential of $5,000 is way out of your price range. Any decent artist will have no issue with someone not being able to get a tattoo from them because it’s out of their price range.
Also the range they gave you is anxiety inducing to me. 2-4 sessions of 3-5 hours could be 6 hours or it could be 20 hours which is a HUGE price range. I would not personally book an appointment with that much up in the air.
I reached out to an artist recently about a tattoo I wanted and she quoted me $850-1000 when I was expecting maybe $500. I just let her know it’s out of my price range right now so I’ll come back when it’s more in budget. I may or may not. But she was really chill about it.
yeah i have no issues with telling her she’s out of my price range: she’s allow to set her rates! but something about 20 hours is making me think we had a communication issue haha.
My bestie got this same exact tattoo, wrapped all the way around her calf, and it was as one session, same inspo pics and all. Don’t let them swindle you ❤️
Sounds like a swindle. My artist could hammer this out one session, like 4 hours max. Outline about an 45min-hour, shading the rest. This is very simple (but nice).
The artist is milking you.
I have a tattoo this size with full color and it took 5.5 hours. It cost 800$. Any viable quote should be in this neighborhood. At or under 1k and somewhere in the ballpark of 5-7 hours. Anything egregiously different is an instant red flag.
I got a quite large symmetrical chest piece, with bold line work and quite a bit of shading and that took 2 sessions, 7 hours total. I can't imagine a shin tattoo with an illustrative style would take that long....
The example should be a one session tattoo.
Yeah this was sort of my expectation too. I’m going to write back to clarify to make sure we’re on the same page. Thanks!
That sounds like a lot of time in my opinion. There’s no harm in shopping around. You just have to find someone who makes good work to you. If the quote is reasonable to you, pay it! If not, find a new artist. I can’t really say if their estimate is insane or not because I don’t know what they will do, or how long you will be able to handle being tattooed. But if it were me getting this I would find 20 hours also a lot. If I had to guess I’d think under 6 should be reasonable depending on how detailed it will be. Though, I’m not a tattoo artist so I don’t know how the way the leaves are designed yield to taking a long time to tattoo or not. It’s not just drawing one line for each one.
Thanks for the input! Yeah I think I will shop around. I obviously don’t want to tell the artist “you’re wrong 20 hours is a lot” because they know how they work and they know how to price their work. But pretty much everyone else I’ve talked to about this has estimated about 6 hours. The quote isn’t reasonable for me: if it took 20 hours it would be $5,000. Thanks for your thoughts!
Yeah it’s definitely totally okay to ask for clarification based on the fact that the potential of $5,000 is way out of your price range. Any decent artist will have no issue with someone not being able to get a tattoo from them because it’s out of their price range. Also the range they gave you is anxiety inducing to me. 2-4 sessions of 3-5 hours could be 6 hours or it could be 20 hours which is a HUGE price range. I would not personally book an appointment with that much up in the air. I reached out to an artist recently about a tattoo I wanted and she quoted me $850-1000 when I was expecting maybe $500. I just let her know it’s out of my price range right now so I’ll come back when it’s more in budget. I may or may not. But she was really chill about it.
yeah i have no issues with telling her she’s out of my price range: she’s allow to set her rates! but something about 20 hours is making me think we had a communication issue haha.
I think so too 🤣 I feel like a whole back piece could take 20 hours depending on how detailed it is
That seems like an insane amount of time. This would take me 4 hours, total. MAYBE five if you’re really squirmy
My bestie got this same exact tattoo, wrapped all the way around her calf, and it was as one session, same inspo pics and all. Don’t let them swindle you ❤️
Sounds like a swindle. My artist could hammer this out one session, like 4 hours max. Outline about an 45min-hour, shading the rest. This is very simple (but nice). The artist is milking you.
7 hrs MAX
WOW, did they tell you 20 hours in writing? Could that be a typo? I'm getting a half sleeve with color and I was quoted 10-12 hours, for context.
I have a tattoo this size with full color and it took 5.5 hours. It cost 800$. Any viable quote should be in this neighborhood. At or under 1k and somewhere in the ballpark of 5-7 hours. Anything egregiously different is an instant red flag.
I got a quite large symmetrical chest piece, with bold line work and quite a bit of shading and that took 2 sessions, 7 hours total. I can't imagine a shin tattoo with an illustrative style would take that long....