Practical answers about booking, pricing, sessions, and aftercare. For anything not covered here, the booking form is the right place to start.
Walk-ins are welcome Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 6 PM at Stained in Pain Tattoos on Chicago's northwest side. First come, first served. Walk-ins are for small, simple pieces or flash designs, since the chair time is shorter than a custom appointment needs. Anything custom or larger needs an appointment. My minimum on any tattoo is $200.
Book a free consultation through the form at tattooingwisdom.com/tattoo-appointment, and I'll get back to you within a day or two to schedule the appointment itself. The form asks for your name, contact info, what you're thinking about, and a few details so I can come into the consultation prepared. After the consultation we settle on a date and you leave a $200 deposit to hold it. The deposit comes off your final tattoo price.
A consultation is a one-on-one conversation, usually 20 to 40 minutes, where we figure out together what your tattoo is going to be. I want to hear what you're thinking about, what's pulling you toward it, where you're imagining it on your body, and what your sense of scale is. I'll bring questions and observations, and we'll work it out together. By the end you'll have a clear sense of what the piece is, what session time it will need, and what the price will be. Consultations are free. More detail on the consultation lives at tattooingwisdom.com/consultation.
Yes, all tattoo appointments require a $200 deposit to hold the date. The deposit comes off the final price of your tattoo. It's nonrefundable, but it transfers to a new date if you reschedule with at least 48 hours notice.
Reschedule with at least 48 hours notice and your deposit transfers to the new date with no penalty. Less than 48 hours notice forfeits the deposit, and you'll need a new $200 deposit to rebook. Same-day cancellations and no-shows forfeit the deposit. If something genuinely emergent happens, reach out and we'll talk.
Wednesdays and Thursdays are my walk-in days, with walk-in hours 1 to 6 PM both days for small flash and quick pieces. I tattoo by appointment the other days of the week, alongside drawing, writing, and teaching. The Wednesday and Thursday window is a deliberate channel for walk-in volume, not a sign I'm only available those days.
I do both. Large custom appointments any day of the week, and small walk-ins on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 6 PM. Custom appointment work tends to be sizeable since that's where the depth of the consultation pays off, but small pieces work well as walk-ins, and flash designs are made specifically to be quick and small. My $200 minimum applies either way.
My minimum is $200, and most custom pieces fall between $400 and $2,000 or more depending on size, complexity, and how many sessions the piece needs. Half-day appointments are 3 hours and full-day appointments are 6 hours, priced by session and quoted in advance at the consultation. There's no surprise pricing. The minimum covers setup, supplies, and the time it takes to do any tattoo properly.
A tattoo's price covers the artist's time at the chair plus everything that doesn't happen at the chair. Drawing, consultation, supplies, single-use needles and ink caps, shop overhead, and the years of practice that make a tattoo good and lasting. Cheap tattoos exist, but a cheap tattoo cuts corners that show up in the final piece and in how it ages. The fair price for a tattoo is what it costs to make a piece that holds up for the decades you'll have it.
I accept cash, all major credit and debit cards, Venmo, CashApp, and Apple Pay. Deposits go through the booking system as card payments. Final payment happens at the appointment.
Tipping is appreciated but never required. The standard range in tattooing is 15 to 25 percent of the tattoo's price. A tip rewards the time, attention, and craft that went into the piece. If you can't tip on a given day, no problem. Returning for more work, sending friends, and leaving an honest review go just as far.
Yes, getting a tattoo is uncomfortable, but most people find it more endurable than they expected, especially in fleshier areas like the upper arm, thigh, and back. The needle feels like a sustained scratching or hot sensation, not a sharp single pain. Discomfort varies a lot by body location. Ribs, sternum, hands, feet, and the back of the knee are sharper than the calf or outer thigh. Most clients settle into the rhythm of a session within the first 15 to 20 minutes. We can take breaks whenever you need one.
Most sessions are either a 3-hour half-day or a 6-hour full-day, with the actual session length quoted in advance during the consultation. Small walk-in pieces can be 30 to 90 minutes. Larger custom work often takes multiple sessions, each sized around what your body can productively absorb in one sitting. Going past 6 to 8 hours in a day tends to reduce the quality of the work on both sides.
No, I don't use numbing cream, because it can change how the skin takes the ink and alters the texture of what I'm tattooing through. If you've used a numbing product on your own before coming in, you need to tell me before we start. That part isn't optional. The cream affects the work and I need to know what's happening under my needle.
Yes, bring whatever references, sketches, or saved images you want, and we'll work from them together. I rarely tattoo a reference image exactly as-is, because what makes a tattoo work on your body is different from what makes an image work on a screen. I'll usually take what you bring as a starting point and adapt or rework it so it sits well on your body and ages well over time.
Yes, I do cover-ups, refreshes of faded older work, and integrations where I work the existing piece into a larger composition rather than replacing it. An integration is when an old tattoo gets woven into a new design that holds the older piece in conversation with new work, instead of just covering it up. Bring photos of the existing piece to the consultation and we'll talk through what's possible. Some tattoos are better candidates for cover than others, and dark heavy ink limits the options.
Yes, I do all of those. I use white ink in many of my pieces, and I'll do an all-white tattoo if that's what you want. I also tattoo faces, fingers, and hands. Before we start, I'll want to talk through the trade-offs, because those placements are visible work that can affect employment and how you move through public space, and they tend to fade and shift faster than tattoos on covered skin. A permanent mark on a highly visible place is a different conversation than one on covered skin, and I want to be sure the choice is considered, not impulsive.
Yes, you can bring one friend to keep you company during the session, as long as they stay calm and don't crowd the work area. Larger groups or kids in the studio aren't a good fit for the focus the work needs. For a longer multi-hour piece, having one person with you can help a lot.
Yes, eat a full meal before your appointment, drink plenty of water the day before and the day of, and skip alcohol for at least 24 hours before. A blood-sugar dip in the chair can make a session much harder than it needs to be. Caffeine is fine in moderation. Alcohol thins blood and affects how the ink sits, which is why the same-day-before window matters. I won't tattoo anyone who's visibly impaired by alcohol or drugs at the appointment, and you'll be asked to reschedule.
Keep your first bandage on for at least 2 to 4 hours after the session. If you've gone home with a second-skin adhesive bandage instead, leave the first layer on for 24 hours, then carefully remove it, wash the tattoo gently, and apply a fresh second-skin layer per the directions you'll go home with. After bandage removal, wash gently with unscented soap, pat dry, and apply a thin layer of unscented lotion 2 to 3 times a day for about two weeks. Surface healing is usually 2 to 3 weeks. The deeper layers continue to settle for another 4 to 6 weeks after that. Avoid direct sun, swimming pools, hot tubs, and the ocean for at least two weeks. Don't pick at scabs or peeling. The specific aftercare method I send you home with depends on the piece, and detailed instructions go with you. More at tattooingwisdom.com/aftercare.
You get one free guaranteed touch-up within the first 12 months after your tattoo heals. Come see me during that window and I'll address any spots that didn't take or settled unevenly. Additional touch-ups, or touch-ups outside the 12-month window, are billed at regular session rates. Touch-ups on work that wasn't done by me are also at regular rates.
You have to be 18 or older to get tattooed in Illinois, and I'll check ID before any work begins. There are no exceptions for minors with parental consent in my studio. This is both Illinois state requirement and my own policy.
No, I won't tattoo anyone who's pregnant or actively breastfeeding. There's no clinical consensus on the risks, but tattoos involve open wounds, ink absorption, and longer sessions that aren't a good fit for either pregnancy or nursing. Come back after.
No. If you're sick, reschedule. Getting tattooed is an immune-system event, and your body needs to put its energy into healing the tattoo rather than fighting an infection, plus showing up sick puts the studio and everyone else in it at risk. The regular reschedule policy applies: at least 48 hours notice keeps your deposit on the original terms, less than 48 hours forfeits the deposit per the cancellation policy. Genuine acute illness with short notice is reviewed case by case, but the standard policy is what it is for a reason. Don't show up sick.
Yes, in most cases I can tattoo over fully mature scars and stretch marks. Scars need to be at least 12 months old, fully healed, not raised, and not actively sensitive. Tattooing over a scar that hasn't fully matured can affect how the ink takes and even alter the underlying skin structure. Scarred and stretched skin behaves differently from undamaged skin, and the work often needs a creative approach plus extra sessions to settle well. Bring photos to the consultation and we'll talk through what's possible.
Yes, I work out of Stained in Pain Tattoos at 4211 N Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, a fully licensed studio inspected by the Illinois Department of Public Health, with single-use needles and ink caps, autoclaved equipment, and bloodborne pathogen protocols followed at every setup. I use professional-grade inks from established manufacturers, and I follow strict cross-contamination procedures. Every tattoo is set up with fresh disposables, and the work surface is wiped down between every client.
No, I only tattoo. Stained in Pain has a resident piercer if piercing is what you're looking for, and they share the same studio I work out of.
I tattoo out of Stained in Pain Tattoos at 4211 N Milwaukee Avenue on Chicago's northwest side, in the 60641 zip. Free street parking is usually available within a block. The shop sits on a CTA bus route running along Milwaukee Avenue, with the Blue Line a short connection away. Specific directions and day-of parking notes go out with your appointment confirmation.
Deposits are nonrefundable. Completed tattoos cannot be refunded, because a tattoo is hand-applied permanent work and not a returnable product. If you have a concern about something I made, reach out and we'll talk it through directly.