What You Need to Know About Sleeve Tattoos!
You have a few tattoos, but you can’t seem to stop thinking about how cool it would be to get a sleeve, right? There’s a lot of great artists to choose from, but is it the right one for you? Let’s talk about your options.
Designing smaller, one-off tattoos, and full sleeves are completely different approaches. A sleeve is a tremendous commitment. They're nearly impossible to hide if you don’t wear exclusively long-sleeved shirts. When you do decide to show it you would prefer a well-done sleeve that will gather ooh’s and ahh’s!
Before you browse black and grey tattoo studios near Indy, reputable tattoo shops or a reputable artist near you, we’ll discuss what you need to know beforehand! A typical tattoo session is easy. What you should consider before undertaking this huge financial and time commitment, is to look for an artist whose work you will appreciate for years to come. If you’re considering a full sleeve, read through what expert artists would love for you to know beforehand:
There are various types of sleeves. “Quarter,” “half,” and even “full sleeve” are used to describe how much coverage a tattoo has on the arm or leg. Most artists/studios refer to a full sleeve as shoulder to wrist, both sides of the arm, basically complete coverage. Some could use the term “sleeve” differently, so it’s best you know how your artist defines “sleeve” tattoos.
Budgeting for the tattoos
Almost every tax season when I operated a street tattoo shop, someone used to call the studio and asked “how much is a tattoo sleeve?” It’s an entirely valid question and important question, but there is no easy answer. It’s kind of the equivalent of asking: “how much is a bag of groceries?” Context matters.
Different styles of tattooing can take dramatically different amounts of time! Think about comparing how long a simple outline tattoo verses a full color realism piece with various portraits, depths and colors to produce a quality art piece.
Every artist tattoos at different speeds, because of their chosen style and each client has different size arms and legs, so sleeves can take anywhere from 3 to as many as 10–or even 15–sessions! The number of sessions is then based on the length of the sessions decided by the budget of the client.
On top of that, every artist has different rates. Rates can be dependent on years of experience and expertise. Expertise is often times shown by winning tattoo competitions/awards, sponsorships and being printed in magazines. Some of the most elite/famous tattoo artists charge $500-$1000/hr!! A majority of tattooists with 5-15years of experience charge around $150/hour. So for someone who has been recognized in a Tattoo magazine, a television show, has awards at shows etc. $200-$250 per hour is what we shall be looking at for those with exceptional skills.
Because every sleeve and every client is different! I always do my best to estimate the number of sessions a sleeve is going to take, but generally the estimate is a range of how long sleeves “typically” takes. Most of the time I can give a decent idea.
When estimating the cost of your sleeve, the first thing you should understand is that it’s going to be expensive. Quality work is not cheap, and when you’re getting so much coverage, you’ll drop a good chunk of change. With everything we talked about so far and the range of rates in today’s tattoo industry, you could be looking at anywhere from $5,000 to upwards of $20,000 with an award winning artist to get your sleeve completed. When you think about it like that, you can definitely be in for some sticker shock! Try not to get overwhelmed. You won’t be spending all that money at once. Most clients take months, or even years to complete full sleeves. It’s perfectly acceptable to break up the project into 3-4 hour sittings spaced a couple weeks apart or at your own pace. Keep in mind no artist wants to leave a piece semi-done. So you will walk out with something that resembles a good stopping point.
Aside from the financial commitment, sleeves are obviously a huge time commitment as well. Full day sessions here are scheduled from 12-10 ish, which can be a very long and difficult day for the client and the artist. Most artists even recommend doing sessions on back to back days so you get a lot of coverage at once! Keeping in mind the financial considerations, work on whatever timeline works for you. If you want to come in back to back days every couple of weeks and smash out a sleeve in a couple months awesome! If you want to do a session every 3 months, or even more, that’s great too.
That being said, I do recommend following your artists recommendations when possible. For example, if a section of your sleeve is going to be very intricate and time consuming, it might be best to just do back to back days, rather than leaving with a tattoo that doesn’t look finished or is missing a major component.
Be flexible with your artist! Because sleeves are usually made up of multiple subject matters, it can be hard to think of everything you want in the sleeve, let alone think of how to piece it together! Allow your artist to give input on what subject matters might go together the best, flow, direction and what would look best for each piece of your arm. Some sleeves are planned from the beginning, and sometimes they’re pieced together one session at a time. Expert artists will take the time to prepare and make sure everything is tied together in a cohesive way.
If you are thinking about getting a free consultation, I’d be excited to talk through the process and hear about your vision. Reach out here to schedule a consultation and get started!