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Straight answers

Guides

The things people ask before booking a large black and grey piece, answered without the marketing.

Five questions decide almost every large tattoo: what it will cost, how long it will take, how much it will hurt, how to keep it, and whether the person holding the machine is the right one. Everything else is detail.

These pages answer those five in the order people actually ask them. They are written for black and grey realism specifically, because the answers are different for it: a portrait has a minimum size that a piece of lettering does not, grey wash takes more passes than solid black, and sunlight costs a grey piece more than it costs a bold one.

None of them will give you a price. What they will give you is what a price depends on, so that when you do get a number you can tell whether it makes sense.

What a black and grey piece costsThere is no price list on this site, and you should be suspicious of ones you find elsewhere.
How long it takesReal numbers, from pieces that are finished, not optimistic ones.
Where it hurtsNobody enjoys the ribs. Here is the rest of it, without pretending.
AftercareMost of what a tattoo will look like in ten years is decided in the first three weeks, and by the sun after that.
How to choose a realism artistThe same test applies to Federico. Use it on him.

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Requests go straight to Federico, not to an agency inbox. He answers from his own address.