What Your Artist Actually Needs to Know Before Tattooing You

A good consultation isn’t small talk before the “real” part starts — it’s where most of the decisions that actually determine how your tattoo turns out get made. The more useful information your artist has going in, the fewer surprises come up once the needle is already moving. Here’s what actually matters to bring or mention, and why each piece matters.

Your health information

This isn’t a formality — it genuinely changes how a session is planned:

• Any medical conditions or medications, especially diabetes, blood thinners, or anything affecting immune function or healing. See our medical conditions guide for specifics on what to check before booking.
• Allergies, particularly to latex, certain metals, or anything you’ve reacted to before — including a previous tattoo, if that’s ever happened.
• Skin conditions on or near the placement area — eczema, psoriasis, active irritation, or scarring. This affects both placement and how the piece will heal.
• Whether you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, if applicable — worth mentioning directly rather than leaving it unsaid.

None of this is about disqualifying you — it’s about your artist planning around your actual situation instead of a generic one.

Reference images — more than one, with notes

A single “I want something like this” photo isn’t enough for an artist to work from confidently. More useful:

• Two or three references, each showing a different element you like — this line weight, that shading style, this placement.
• A short note on what you like about each one — “the shading here” or “the size relative to the wrist” tells your artist what actually matters to you, rather than leaving them to guess.
• Realistic expectations — a reference is a starting point for your own design, not a template to copy exactly, especially if the reference is someone else’s real tattoo.

Our guide on finding design ideas goes deeper on where to actually find useful references and how to use our gallery for this.

Placement and sizing — decided together, not assumed

Where a tattoo goes changes more than how it looks:

• Some areas (hands, fingers, ribs, feet) take longer to work carefully and hurt more than others.
• Placement affects how a design needs to be adapted to fit the body’s shape — a design that works flat doesn’t always work wrapped around a curve.
• Sizing trade-offs are worth discussing openly: a design with fine detail generally needs more space to age well, not less.

If you’re not sure yet, that’s a completely normal thing to work through in consultation, not something you need to arrive with fully decided.

Budget and time expectations

Being upfront here helps your artist give you a design and a plan that actually fits:

• A rough budget range, if you have one — it changes what’s realistic for size and detail level.
• How much time you actually have that day, especially if you’re traveling and working around a schedule.
• Whether you’re open to a piece being split across multiple sessions, which is completely normal for larger work — see our guide on how long a session actually takes.

Anything affecting how you’ll handle the session itself

• If you’re anxious about pain or worried about needing a break, say so upfront — it changes nothing about whether you can get tattooed, but it helps your artist plan pacing.
• If you have language concerns, mention it — we’re used to working around this, and it’s better addressed before the session starts than mid-way through.

Why this matters more than it seems

Every piece of this adds up to the same thing: an artist who genuinely knows your situation can make better decisions than one working with partial information. It’s not extra paperwork — it’s the difference between a design and a plan built around a generic client, and one built around you specifically.

What to expect at GOAT Tattoo Studio

Come to your consultation with whatever you have — references, questions, uncertainty about placement, all of it — and we’ll walk through the rest together. Nothing here is a test you need to prepare for; it’s just the information that helps us do our job well.