Summer is winding down - Time to get inked!

I was at my colleague's Salon Grand Opening party on Saturday when I ran into some people from work who were asking where they should get inked. I sent them an email this morning and thought to post it here for those of you who are looking to get inked in Toronto. 'Tis the season!

There are three things you need to look for:

1. A super clean tattoo parlour

2. An artist who understands the vision of what you want. This is really important if you want custom work (for them to design your own tattoo instead of picking from the wall art)

3. Price. Price depends on custom work too. You shouldn't pay more than $100-$150/hr. Anything under $100 is questionable.

　
All the below parlours are very clean

　

I got my tattoo done at Passage. My artist Tyson. You can see his work here. I paid $600 for my ink. And it took 6 hours (split between three days)

　

An amazing place is Seven Crowns Tattoo. It's a little more expensive than passage, but the work is amazing. I'm going to get my next ink there. The place is very clean.

　

Another place I just checked out last week is Forever Yonge Ink. The place is clean, but very small. Not ideal if your work takes more than two hours.

　
New Tribe is very popular. Very clean. I've walked in a few times with friends who have been inked/pierced. Not my favourite though. There are too many drop in's. the place is always crowded.

　
Adrenaline Tattoo is also very good: I had a piercing there (tragus), they were very clean. Not sure about price for ink though. Go online and look at the art work to determine which artist you think will best match the creation of what you're looking for.

If you want good custom work - you're going to have to pay for it. Anything less than $90/hr is very questionable. Paying for a senior artist is ideal as the healing process will likely be a lot easier.

Ask friends where they got their ink done. If when you drag your hand across their ink, you feel the skin is raised, they had a bad artist as he/she put too much ink under the skin.

Most of all, go with your gut. You'll more often than not be right. :)