Working Hours

Infomation Desk

Tattooing Appointments

Consultation Meetings

Days Off

All Mondays, some of the Tuesdays and a few days before and after the New Years (all other national holidays are working days).

Appointments

All visits —both tattooing sessions 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 have to be made at least 3 days prior to the date of the appointment. There is no cancellation fee, but failing to contact me will result in refusal of future appointments.

Usually, there’s a waiting period of approximately 2–3 months for appointments on weekdays and at least 4 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 Meetings

An appointment is required beforehand. We’re not working by the “street shop” system, 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 via e-mail or phone and they can be made at anytime, even on the day of the appointment. There is no cancellation fee, but failing to contact me will result in refusal of future appointments.

Usually, there’s a waiting period of approximately one month. Consultation meeting appointments cannot be taken on Saturdays and Sundays, but I’m pretty flexible about this, so I will attempt to match you schedule. Also, there are chances are I have a few openings a little sooner, so please contact me and ask me about it.

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 the size, complexity, approximate duration and my estimation of how much it should cost —based on my experience with similar tattoos I’ve done so far. 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 none are negotiable.
Objective (based on duration)
For large designs which 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 give a pretty accurate guess.
Since the cost will always be decided at the fix rate of 15.000 yen per hour, the prices are not negotiable, but will probably be easier to afford by splitting the duration in shorter sessions.

Methods of Payment

Cash only, in Japanese currency.

For an approximation of 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 tissue— are used only once and disposed immediately after the tattooing session. Additionally, the needles are sterilized before disposal, in an effort to protect the waste collector staff and discarded in impenetrable containers marked as “biohazard” and “sharp”, in compliance to the Japanese laws.

Sterilization Techniques

All non-disposable items —including tubes, grips, needle bars, other machine parts and scissors— and the needles are sterilized and maintained sterile, through a double-cycle process:

  1. 60 minutes in the steam autoclave, at 140°C / 300 kPa
  2. At least 120 minutes under an ultraviolet shower, in a specially destined container

Non-diluted Chlorhexidine Gluconate [C22H30Cl2N10–2C6H12O7] is used as general purpose disinfectant (for tools and my hands).

Please don’t hesitate to ask for details, whenever you need them.

House “Rules”

General

The required age is 20, absolutely no exceptions. Parental consent —in person or via written agreements— is not an option.

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. If —for any reason— you wish to bring someone along, please don’t bring in more than one person.

The studio is located in a “mansion building” —i.e. I have neighbors— so please be generous with your discretion and respect for manners.

Please do not bring along children or pets (see above).

Tattooing

All tattoos are custom work, based on unique, original designs drawn from scratch just for you. Naturally, all your ideas, requests, suggestions and sample images or sketches will be taken in consideration; however, I don’t have nor use flash design catalogs and I never attempt to replicate someone else’s tattoos so, if you bring in photos of tattooed people, please know that your design will only be as similar to those as I can do it without copying or imitating.

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.

site search powered by Google
Copyright © 1993–2015 Dali Rău @ Graphic Tribe. All rights reserved.