Allergies and/or sensitive skin?
Cross contamination prevention
How DEEP? How does it work, where does the ink go?
What is soap, DEODORANT and toothpaste for?
Best way to get long lasting bold colors
Design and Drawing Fees/DEPOSIT and the design process
Non-tattoo design drawing fees/deposit
Extra design time beyond the scopes of the average tattoo
More on the design process and deposit
Do you copy/Can you do ANY design I bring in EXACTLY the way it is/Do you replicate others work?
Your first appointment is called your “Initial Consultation”, this is FREE, its when we meet to discuss the ideas and concepts of your design, including price, deposit etc. I take your measurements and map out where the design will be. This is also your time where you can take a look around the shop. Consultations are free and can be given any time the shop is open and I am not with another client. The consultation is perhaps the most important part of getting a tattoo, your ability to communicate your idea to your artist is very very important, use whatever means you must. Bring examples of your ideas, pictures, photos, drawings, sketches etc… keep a journal of ideas, a list of your fridge, a note in you car or your purse or pocket, keep a folder on your computer, collect lots of examples of your favorite things, stuff that is beautiful to you, or that reflects what you would like to see in your tattoo, and bring it all to each consultation, the more the better..
Allergies and/or sensitive skin?
If you have any known allergies or sensitivities to food colors, textile colors, pigments, dyes, metals, or if you just happen to have sensitive skin or bad allergies including but not limited to eczema, asthma or other undesirables that might be triggered by the tattoo process it is strongly advised that you bring attention to this during your initial consultation and also make note of it when you fill out your papers we give you prior to getting inked. Most often what we can do for you is to prepare a series of bandages that have little drops of the colors you will be receiving, you then wear these for a day or so, if you note any reaction then we avoid that color. It depends upon the perceived seriousness of your condition; you could even have a scratch test performed by your doctor. You’re always better safe than sorry, for a bad reaction is NO fun for the client or the artist, it’s not uncommon in cases of severe allergies for the skin to completely reject one particular color while all the others are just fine. fact this is usually one of the easiest ways to tell it is an allergic reaction not an infection, although in cases of contaminated batches of ink the reaction can be relatively similar, but one should note that we go to extreme measure to insure that our colors are clean and free from contaminants and so do our suppliers or we wouldn’t be going through them. Only the best, fuck all the rest!
This answer could ALSO get very long due to the complexity of the topic, with that said, No one at DTES is qualified to give you medical advice. Simply put, if you have or have any doubts that you have any health problems, you need to take the responsibility to check up with your healthcare providers and/or your pharmacist and be sure there are no contraindications for tattooing.
With that said, people who are pregnant, have compromised immune systems, heart problems, or harsh allergies are strongly urged to seek medical advice prior to your getting inked.
This answer could get very long due to the complexity of the topic. Simply put, if you are on drugs of any kind, its your responsibility to check up with your healthcare providers and/or pharmacist to be sure there are no contraindications for tattooing. MOST street drugs aside from pain killers actually make the tattoo process HELL, so avoid them at all cost, even Maryjane has been known to heighten a persons awareness of the pain and decrease thier tolerance to pain, NOT good when you are trying to be at your best.
NO! The reason being that alcohol thins the blood of most people, leading to the bleeding out of your image, which in turn gets blamed on the artist, it depends on the individual client and their body that very day, but it’s just not worth the risk. In addition to this, alcohol does NOT help a person to sit still, must less do so for a long time, AND drunks are notorious for making bad decisions, often times ending in much regret in addition to the famous hang over. We wont even take deposits from drunk people. We take our art form very serious, we think its worthy of our clients showing up at their best.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, most drugs and recreational drugs are useless or even troublesome when it comes to pain relief during a tattoo session, as we have already covered, alcohol is a huge NO NO! Stimulants including caffeine raise your awareness of the pain and increase irritability. Even marijuana has been known to increase sensitivity. Local anesthetics and pain deadners are only nice until they start to wear off, when the feeling starts to come back so does the PAIN, some or most people do better without pain killers at all. MOST ALL self medication would be discouraged except for the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (Ibuprofen/febernedsättande/antiinflammatoriskt).
Cross contamination prevention
Staff at DTES are trained and up-to-date regarding today’s cross contamination prevention, we are following the advice and protocols as standard procedures but we go beyond that with our research we are proud to say that we have formed a pretty fat collection of research.
Our procedures reflect our dedication and commitment towards a safe work place, for both client and staff. We practice universal precautions, and are completely meeting or beating global tattoo industry standards, following all CDC, WHO, and OSHA guidelines, in addition to all local and national laws and regulations. If you have ANY questions regarding our practices, PLEASE feel free to contact us, DTES seeks to be completely transparent in everything we do when it comes to our client’s wellbeing and safety and you are 150% welcome to ask all the questions you wish!
Most everything we use is disposable, everything else is processed & autoclaved. DTES has a clean room specially designed for the purpose and all the equipment to get the job done right, including but not limited to an autoclave that is spore tested on a quarterly basis according to Swedish law. We also keep meticulous records of everything we do. Chemical indicators are used in every load to assure proper steam penetration. We only use the autoclave for our tubes and a handful of other items such as ink cap holders, rinse bottles. Our needles have been Ethylene oxide sterilized at the factory. ALL NEEDLES ARE SINGLE USE AND DISPOSED OF UPON THE COMPLETION OF A TATTOO. All colors and equipment is maintained in protected environments and only employees are allowed access to them, the work stations and the clean room.
You should arrive well rested, and NEVER on an empty stomach, eat a well balanced and nutritious meal. Your goal is to arrive for your appointment in your absolute best condition. Hunger and/or sleep deprivation decreases your tolerance for pain. Keeping an eye on the nutritional content of your diet and staying active yet remaining well rested is the key to giving your body what it needs to cope with adverse situations such as one experiences when getting tattooed.
Controlled breathing and meditation are perhaps two of the most effective methods of limiting your nervous systems and brains response to the intrusion of the needle. Although what you are coping with is an automatic response, the alarm is able to be turned down/tuned out, and there are many ways of doing this. One of the most proper examples of this is the age old breath control technique called Lamaze, face it, if it helps a woman through child birth it will work to get you through your tattoo session. Meditation is also rather powerful in that it can block the pain out by distracting you due to the heavy concentration involved and the fact that the brain can only focus on a very limited number of things at once, the pain being one of them.
Accupuncture, although some folks would say this is plain quackery, others would say the jury is still out, and others still yet would swear by it as effective form of treatment for just about any ailment under the sun. DTES doesn’t take a stance one way or the other on this, instead we are simply suggesting that its an option for those whom it appears to work for.
We do provide the option of a Lidocaine based topical anesthetic (EMLA) @ the cost of 100:- for small tattoos, 150:- for medium tattoos & 200:- for large pieces. Using this has its ups and downs; It does numb the skin pretty good, deadening most surface sensitivity for about THREE hours, it’s not good to keep applying it, so once you’ve had an application you’re done for the session, and then it seems to hurt quite a bit because your not used to it. Also, you MUST NOT BE ALLERGIC TO ANESTHETICS! One of the beneficial side effects is that it constricts the skin which results in less bleeding , but at the cost of the skin becoming tighter, tougher and slightly harder to penetrate.
Areas of the body that have greater concentrations of nerves and bone tend to be the most sensitive for tattooing. The popular ankle happens to be very painful due to the lack of fat and thick muscle tissue, so do the scalp. Shoulders and upper arms are popular not only for the ease with which the art can be shown, but the muscle padding makes it a bit easier to get skin art there.
According to Hudson (1999), the most painful areas for men are considered to be the abdomen, spine, and chest. The most painful areas for women are considered the spine and ankle. The least painful areas for men are the buttocks and arm, and the least painful areas for women are the abdomen, buttocks, thigh and shoulder. In general, the areas near joints will hurt more because there are more nerves located there.
How DEEP? How does it work, where does the ink go?
The needles tend to pierce the skin approximately 1/16 of an inch, depositing color in the dermis layer.
THE SKIN is made up of layers. The first thing to understand is how the skin holds the image. Your skin is not a single layer. It is composed of several layers, each with a different cell structure. The outermost layer, which is rather thin, is the Epidermis. This is the layer that holds everything in and acts as a protective barrier. Below that is the Dermis. This thicker layer is the ‘meat’ of your skin, and is where hair is attached. Below this is the Subcutaneous layer which contains fat cells and is the transfer layer between the skin and the bloodstream.
Your epidermis is constantly being replenished and if you get too much sun, it turns red and peels. If you get a scratch or cut, it usually heals and goes away. This wouldn’t be good for a tattoo – as soon as your skin refreshed itself, your tattoo would be gone! The tattooist pushes through the epidermis and leaves the tattoo in the dermis. Your dermis pretty much stays the way it is for your entire life, so a design put there is permanent. If tattoos are done too deeply, into the subcutaneous layer they often loose clarity as the inner layers also don’t hold the ink, absorbing it instead of sloughing it off.The BASIL CELL layer is the birth place of new epidermal skin cells. Basil cells receive a chemical message when the skin is damaged or when the stratum corneum loses too many cells and becomes thinner than it is supposed to be. This results in the basil cells dividing and differentiating to form new skin cells and start the outward movement that results in new skin production.
Stencils are used as a guide and map to aid the tattoo artist in getting the basic shape of the design committed to your skin. Your design is then built up in layers from the very basic outline that has been traced out, on up to the finished image you selected. A stencil is made by using a special sheet of transfer paper that acts much like a carbon copy, but the color consists of a heat sensitive vegetable based wax impregnated with a very purple antiseptic dye that is the same used by surgeons to mark out their incisions in the operating room. Stencils are applied to clean, un-stretched skin by using a proprietary transfer gel. The area should be in a natural state, meaning don’t flex your muscles or move while the stencil is being applied. Once the stencil is in place, the skin is continually stretched tight, while the tattooing happens. If the skin is not stretched, the needles can actually bounce off the skin, and not penetrate, or the needles can catch the skin, tearing it, either case results in a poor tattoo.
What is soap, DEODORANT and toothpaste for?
HYGIENE! YOU MUST arrive to your appointment in a fresh state, this includes using soap, applying deodorant and brushing your chompers before you walk through our door. If you arrive with a foul smell emanating from your ass mouth or arm pits, we reserve the right to ask you to remedy it or come back at another date, in which case you will be charged a re-booking fee of 300:- this can happen indefinitely. bluE is extremely serious about this, he does not feel it’s part of his job to put up with peoples nastiness, it’s pretty simple. DTES is a spotlessly clean place, and it takes a lot of work to keep it like that and we feel we deserve the same respect. If you don’t like this, there are plenty tattooists who don’t mind filthiness, go find one of them.
What we use we believe to be the safest, best and brightest, most long lasting colors on the market. But each person responds differently, testing for allergic reactions is strongly advised for people with allergies. Feel free to ask all the questions you wish and we will answer to the best of our abilities.
That said, the colors we use come from reputable companies that have been in the tattoo industry for ages. Our colors are the same colors you will find on the shelves of the best artists in the world.
Two of our colors (neon pink & bright orange) are slightly UV reactive e.g. they reflect light uv light back at your eye rather than absorb it. Contrary to popular misconceptions these colors are no more toxic than any other tattoo color.
Best way to get long lasting bold colors
Sometimes a second time over a tattoo will work magic on the duller areas and colors that didn’t take the best, it is common for a tattooist to go over an area a 2nd time to get the color smooth and bold. You will see it get much brighter, needless to say it will last longer that way too. Keep your tattoos out of the sun at all costs, you should make SURE you use the best most powerful sunscreen/sun block that you can find. and feel free to keep your skin moisturized frequently, avoid sensitizing chemicals and anything that is harsh, stay clear of strong perfumes and soaps, deodorants etc, try to use mellow, chemical free, and simple recipe body care products, avoid anything that is hard to pronounce the name of:)
DTES Has GIFT CARDS available from 500:- and up. Our gift cards do not expire. They are registered to ONE person at the date of purchase, they are NON-transferable i.e. no one else can use your gift card. It is important to copy your serial number somewhere and keep it safe, because this is your proof you have the card/credit, without it we cannot guarantee you anything. When using a gift card, you MUST bring PHOTO ID that has the same name as is on the gift card registration. NO cash will be given back. Cards can be recharged at the shop by using the serial number or by emailing us the number along with a note for how much you want to ad and how you want to pay, we take paypal, direct deposit to our bank account & cash. If you have any questions regarding gift cards you are welcome to contact us.
DTES has made a special worksheet for you to use to form a plan for your tatoo ideas, come by our shop and pick one up free of charge. Keep this in a place where you will see it on a regular basis.
Tattoo pricing varies slightly from project to project but it’s safe to say that we try to keep our prices fair. Prices are generally based upon the amount of work it will take to create the design and how long the tattooing procedure will take. An educated guess is made and you are charged that amount regardless of how long it actually takes.
Tattoo Pricing: 800:- an hour for small to medium Tattoos up to 3 hours, 2700:- gets you fastpris session around 4 hours, sometimes a little longer for large pieces requiring multiple sessions, such as backs, sleeves ect., 3700:- up to 8 hours (it’s a pure hardcore though).
Design and Drawing Fees/DEPOSIT and the design process
A certain amount of what we charge for your tattoo goes to cover the time and energy spent in the design process, AND your deposit goes to cover the drawing in the event that you back out or miss your appointment. We hate to say we won’t draw without money up front first, but this encourages you to get a little more involved and do your homework, which usually results in a better more custom fit and personalized design than if we simply try to read your mind, and it also prevents us from having to draw up designs for people who are not serious about the end result or who would otherwise flake out on us leaving us unpaid for the work we have done.
At the “Initial Consultation” Once your artist has taken your measurements and you have decided on a rough idea for the design, they can tell you how much it will cost. If you decide to get tattooed, we then make an appointment for you and take a small non-refundable deposit that will be applied towards your tattoo if you keep your date. if you need to reschedule, please do this at least 48 hours in advance. If you fail to do so or miss an appointment you will be required to pay for all future appointments in full
Small Designs Deposit is 250:-
Medium & Large Designs Deposit is 500:-
Sessions, Back pieces and Sleeves Deposit is 500-1000:-
A favorite way of making tattoo designs is to take 2 or more different images from different sources and put them together using the computer, manipulating it until it is cool and they re-drawing it by hand, sometimes even repeating the process by digitizing the drawing and manipulating it again in the pc and so on until the design is strong.
Design time cost is included into the price of your tattoo, we reserve the right to charge for our time spent researching and doing your homework, it’s your body, your ideas, your tattoo. Take time to think about your tattoo, to research ideas,
Keep a list of ideas in a place where you will see it every day.
Form a collection of reference images similar to what you want.
Bring ALL material you have that we can use to understand what you want.
Work with your artist before the day of your tattoo but AFTER you have paid a deposit.
DTES is NOT Mcdonalds, we dont serve up five minute tattoos, anything worth having is worth waiting for, if you are gonna be in a hurry then just hurry your ass out the door.
We very rarely find it necessary to charge for our design work, we feel this should be part of the tattoo fee, but sometimes a design just requires lots more homework than a client is willing to put into it, this is when we charge. Our design fee is 300:- per hour, that’s less than half of our tattoo rate.
Non-tattoo design drawing fees/deposit
If you DON’T want a tattoo appointment yet or if you only want a design to be made, we can still do some drawing and or design for you, we will treat the job as ordinary graphic design which is the same process but with a lot more one on one design consultation and research in the place of the tattooing. (SEE; NON-TATTOO/ORDINARY GRAPHIC DESIGN) In this case the end goal is the design/drawing and not a tattoo, this is slightly more affordable if you only want to create a design, and it gives you much more time with the artist but we require you to pay for the time up front. If when we are done or at any point you then decide you would like to make an appointment for a tattoo then we will give you a price that takes into consideration what you have already spent, BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT WHAT YOU ARE PAYING FOR IN THE NON-TATTOO/ORDINARY GRAPHIC DESIGN PROCESS IS THE DRAWING AND ONE ON ONE TIME WITH A PROFESIONAL ARTIST TO HELP YOU COME UP WITH THAT DRAWING, THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE A TATTOO!!!!
Extra design time beyond the scopes of the average tattoo
If you require us to spend more than the time we set aside for the tattoo you have put a deposit down for (which usually tends to be about an hour of design time for every hour of tattooing), or if you continue to change your mind on us, requiring us to start over from the beginning then we reserve the right to charge for our time spent researching and doing your homework, its your body, your flesh, your ideas. Take the time to bring us what we need to understand what you want, and we will take it from there. With that said, we very rarely find it necessary to charge extra for our design work, but sometimes a design just requires lots more homework than a client is willing to put into it or a client has a hard time making up their mind, its understandable that a person must take the time to be sure their design is perfect for them, but it must also be understood that drawing, design and tattooing is our job, this is how we pay our bills, everybody has a million ideas, if we were to attempt to draw every idea that came through the door we wouldn’t have time for anything else and we would be out of business very quickly. Our design fee is 300:- per hour, that’s less than half of our tattoo rate.
Our ordinary graphic design rate is 300:- per hour, 900:- per 4 hour session. There is NO deposit, the time is to be paid for up front. This includes a FREE initial consultation which is when we work out a plan and trade ideas, this is also when you would drop off all research you might have. We then either go to work on our own, or we can arrange for you to sit in and oversee the process.
More on the design process and deposit
When I take that deposit, you get a receipt, a paper to fill out and sign, aftercare instructions, an appointment, and then I draw you up the design (this can take some time, it all depends on the design and how productive our communications are). It is very important you tell me exactly what is on your mind throughout the whole process, and feel free to be as critical as you need to be to get exactly what you want, appointments are usually set out far enough to allow for this process to evolve the design, this is your body, your money, your idea, let’s work together to make the most of it.
!!! It is very important you keep your appointment, this is what the deposit is for, if you need to reschedule, please do this at least 48 hours in advance !!!
Come in to our shop and you can search our database, alternatively you can flip through books at libraries, search the internet, you can find inspiration just about anywhere there are designs, anything can be tattooed, so just bring us some examples of what you’re thinking of and we can put together a tattoo for you that is complexly original and 100% unique to you.
Do you copy/Can you do ANY design I bring in EXACTLY the way it is/Do you replicate others work?
The most important issue here is that YOU get what you want but we also need to respect the unique and oftentimes one of a kind artwork that has been designed for other people. regardless of whether or not you care about being unique, the original owners and artists oftentimes do, so its not as much to do with copyright law as it is ethics and decency.
With that said, it is possible give you a tattoo that is similar to anything you bring us.
DTES is located directly across the Storgatan from the Systembolaget between a Netto and ICA, either one is only about 1 minute walking distance, We are also located within about 3 minutes walking distance from the 520, 510 & 521 bus stop (Klippan’s Åbyplan) There is long term parking within about 2 minutes from DTES. For the detailed map information go to Karta.
We are typically open between 13:00 and 20:00 Tisdag through Lordag, BUT Sometimes we open at 14:00 and oftentimes we don’t close until 22:00 on weekdays and even as late as 24:00 on Fridag & Lordag. So in otherwords we are here most all the time. If you have a particular special date
in mind we will try our best to give it to you, the earlier you book an appointment the better.
If you can’t make it during opening hours just call and make an appointment.
