Blackwork
Solid black and heavy shape. No colour to hide behind, so the design has to be right before the needle goes anywhere. Bold lines, big fills, negative space doing real work.
ブラックワークHome Services
What goes
on skin
Five things I draw best, and what happens between your first message and the day you sit down.
Pick the one closest to what's in your head. I'll take it from there.
Anime & Manga
Characters and panels held in line work, the way they were drawn on the page. Screentone, speed lines, a full panel with its lettering — or a single portrait clean enough to read across a room.
アニメ・漫画Comic
Western comic art: inked figures, halftone, lettering, whole covers if that's what you want. Same logic as manga, different line.
コミックVideo Game
Sprites, key art, weapons, crests, UI. Bring me the screenshot, bring me the box, bring me the thing you screenshotted in 2011 and never deleted.
ゲームPop-Culture & Books
Film, music, the paperback you've read nine times. Fine line or heavy black depending on how much of it you want people to see from across a room.
ポップ・本Not on the list? Ask me anyway. I work in other styles, and Japanese and tribal art runs through most of what I do.
How to get tattooed by me
Three
Three
steps
Local Roots Ink welcomes walk-ins, but time with me starts with a message.
Send me the idea
Text me, fill in my booking form, or DM. Your references do most of the work.
We talk it through
Character, placement, rough size, how much black. I'll tell you what still reads in five years.
Book the day
You come to Local Roots Ink in Des Moines and sit for it. I tattoo in Tacoma and Seattle too — ask me.
Rates & deposits
What it
What it
costs
Straight numbers, no "prices on request". You should know roughly what you're in for before you message me.
Minimum & flash
Shop minimum is $150. Flash and panels run $150–400.
Sessions
Portraits, sleeves, multiple flashes & big projects: half day (4 hrs) $600, full day (7 hrs) $1,000. You can get multiple pieces done within your 4- or 7-hour session. Some pieces take more than one session. Past 7 hours it's $150/hr.
Travel rates
When I'm tattooing away from the shop: half day $700, full day $1,100.
Customs
Everything else is custom, quoted by the piece. Send me the idea and I'll give you a number.
Deposit: $100, non-refundable. It goes toward the final price of your session and covers one reschedule. After that, each reschedule is a $50 fee that doesn't come off the total (COVID and emergencies excepted). I don't reschedule a third time — the deposit and appointment are lost. Running 30 minutes to an hour late with no update forfeits the appointment.
Fill in my booking form
Booking form
Tell me
Tell me
about it
The long version — everything I need before a bigger piece. For a quick question, text me instead.
Know what you want?
Send the character, the placement and roughly how big. That's enough for me to answer properly.