I got my first tattoo in May of this year after saying my whole life that I never wanted one. Oh, how things change.

My urge to get a tattoo came on suddenly last year and after being randomly struck with an idea that meant a lot to me personally, I was ready to make my idea into reality – but only after months of planning. I took the tattooing prep phase nice and slow to make sure I really did want my tattoo. After six months of still liking the idea I knew I would love the tattoo if I got it.

Not everyone has to do that but it’s something I would recommend if you, like me, often love something compulsively and then hate it later. 

I was completely in the dark about how the whole tattooing process worked when I first had my idea. I asked my friends and boyfriend lots of questions and did my own research – and of course, finally got my tattoo! I’m writing this lengthy guide because I wish I had known all of this information before my first tattoo.

Now let’s get planning!

How do I choose a tattoo artist?

The first step is to figure out if you want something super specific or just anything. This will determine how much actual planning, thought and time you will have to put into the tattoo planning process.

… if you just want your first tattoo ASAP

If you’re just really wanting to get inked, but don’t care too much about the style, artist, or actual tattoo design, you could easily try to walk in to any tattoo shop. Done.

But if you’re picky, like me, you’re going to want to research tattoo artists near you, and really nail down the style you want. That way when you have your consultation your artist can easily tell exactly what you’re envisioning.

… if you don’t know what style you want your tattoo to be in

You can either research tattoo artists or the design you’re wanting first.

I’d recommend starting with the former if you’re not going to be picky about what style your tattoo needs to be. That way you can just find an artist’s style you really like and ask them to do the subject you want. For example, if you know you really want to get a tattoo of a whale but aren’t sure what you want it to look like, you can browse different artists, and as soon as you’ve found an artist whose work you’ve fallen in love with, they can give you that whale in their style! 

However, if you’re dead set on an exact vision of what your tattoo is going to look like, I do not recommend the above planning process. Instead, I would start trolling the shit out of Pinterest and Instagram tags looking for inspiration for your first tattoo.

… if you have an exact vision of your tattoo

In my case, I knew I wanted a super detailed full moon tattoo but couldn’t put into words what it should look like, which is no help to a tattoo artist, so I started on Pinterest. I searched for things like “moon tattoo,” “full moon tattoo,” “full moon art” for days when I had free time.  On Instagram, I did the same thing. I scrolled through the recent and popular posts in tags like #moontattoo, #fullmoontattoo, #moonphasetattoo, #celestialtattoo.

Doing this research brought up styles I had never thought of, others I knew I definitely didn’t want and things super close but not exactly what I was envisioning. I saved all the closest images I could find so I would have reference photos to show the artist.

After all my tattoo research I knew I wanted my moon to be grayscale and super blended. Almost like a watercolor painting, but not realism. Now that is a much more helpful description for a tattoo artist to work off of.

… after you have your design picked out

At this point, you can start searching on Google Maps for tattoo shops near you. Take your time to check every hit Google gives you and check out the resident artists’ work. Favorite shops with artists you like so that once you’ve exhausted all the tattoo shops in your area you can easily go back to the ones you know you like.