Working Hours
Information Desk
- Every day, from 9:00 to 21:00, for telephone inquiries.
Between 11:00 and 20:00 —while I’m working— it might be a little difficult to take calls, but you can leave a message on the answering machine.
- Every day, 24 hours, for e-mail or fax inquiries.
Tattooing Appointments
- First appointment: from 11:00
- Last appointment: from 18:00
Consultation Meetings
- All weekdays –except weekends— from 11:00 to 20:00
Usually, weekends are reserved for tattooing sessions.
Days Off
None set, but —usually— about a week around the New Year’s and once or twice a year, when traveling.
Holidays longer than a couple of days are always announced, well in advance, on the weblog.
Tattooing Session Appointments
All visits —both tattooing sessions and consultation meetings— are by appointment only. Walk-ins are not possible.
First-time visitors need a consultation meeting prior to any tattooing sessions. For cover-ups, retouches and portraits, a consultation meeting is always required.
- Tattooing session appointments
- Appointments can be made either when visiting for a consultation meeting or by e-mail.
- Appointment cancellation or postponement
- Cancellations or appointment date changes can be made via e-mail or phone, but they must be made at least 3 days prior to the date of the appointment. There is no cancellation fee, but failing to contact me in the case of a last-minute cancellation will most likely result in refusal of future appointments.
Usually, there’s a waiting period of approximately 2–3 months for appointments on weekdays and at least 3 months for appointments on weekends. However, there’s always a chance I have a few openings a little sooner, so feel free to contact me and ask me about it.
Consultation Meeting Appointments
An appointment is required beforehand. The studio is not a regular street shop, so appointments are required even for checking out the place.
Visits while other clients are having a tattooing session are not possible.
- Appointments
- Consultation meeting appointments can be made by e-mail or phone.
- Appointment cancellation or postponement
- Cancellations or appointment date changes can be made anytime —even on the day of the appointment— via e-mail or phone. There is no cancellation fee, but failing to contact me in the case of a last-minute cancellation will probably result in refusal of future appointments.
Usually, there’s a waiting period of up to one month. Most of the time, consultation meeting appointments cannot be made on weekends, but —whenever possible— I’ll try to accomodate those with less flexible schedules. Contact me and we’ll figure it out.
Prices
Depending on the size, complexity and duration, I use two methods to decide the price for a tattoo:
- Subjective (based on my estimation)
- For small designs which can be done in a single session of up to 4 hours, the price is decided subjectively —based on my experience with similar tattoos done so far— while taking in consideration the size, complexity and approximate duration. It depends very much on the design itself but, as a rough idea, a tattoo the size of a regular business card would cost between 21.000 and 35.000 yen, a tattoo the size of a regular greeting card would cost between 45.000 and 55.000 yen and anything bigger than that —but still doable in a single session— wouldn’t cost more than 65.000 yen.
- All prices have the tax included and are not negotiable.
- Objective (based on duration)
- For large designs that can’t be completed in a single session, the price is decided objectively, based solely on the duration of the tattoo, at a fix rate of 15.000 yen per hour (tax included). For example, a tattoo that takes 7 hours to complete will be done in at least two sessions and will cost 105.000 yen (tax included). It’s difficult to estimate an exact duration, but I can always guesstimate pretty accurately.
Methods of Payment
Cash only, in Japanese currency.
For the current exchange rates, you can refer to the xe.com online calculator.
Hygiene Methods
Single-Use
All disposable items —including needles, inks and ink caps, razors, surgical gloves, ointments, skin markers, stencils, packages and paper tissues— are always new and are used only once and disposed immediately after the tattooing session.
Sterilization Techniques
All non-disposable items —including tubes, grips, needle bars— and the needles and ink caps are sterilized and maintained sterile, through a double-cycle process:
- At least 90 minutes in the steam autoclave, at 140°C / 300 kPa.
- At least 120 minutes in the ultraviolet sterilization container.
Non-diluted chlorhexidine gluconate is used as a general purpose disinfectant (for tools, workspace and my hands).
Please don’t hesitate to ask for any other details.
House “Rules”
General
The required age is 20, absolutely no exceptions.
Persons under the influence of alcohol will be denied access to the studio.
The work area is off limits for all visitors other than the person being tattooed. If you wish to allow a friend or relative in while getting a tattoo, please ask me about it in advance.
Visits
Please come alone or don’t bring in more than one person.
Please do not bring along children or pets.
Tattooing
All tattoos are custom work, based on unique, original designs drawn from scratch just for you. All your ideas, requests, suggestions and sample images or sketches will be taken in consideration and used as a starting point in the design process. However, I will not replicate other people’s tattoos; generally, I can do a lot better than whatever photos are brought in as samples.
I don’t do tattoos on face, lips, ears, the front side of the neck, nipples, belly button, the palm of the hands and the corresponding side of the fingers, soles, penes, testicles and labia minora.
It is impossible to tattoo over swollen scars, burns, moles and beauty marks. Also, in the event of suntan or sunburnt skin, atopy, acne eruptions or skin rash, the tattooing session will be postponed until complete healing or until the skin can be inked properly.
For more details, please refer to the FAQ section or ask me.
