This is based out of the UK it appears, everything is done digitally which lowers costs as opposed to paying 5x as much having tattoos custom drawn.
The positives:
– You can actually get redesigns as many times as you want, and trust me you will need a minimum of one or two because the artist has to interpret what you are saying, so the first draft will be off
– You can add as much subject material as you would like
– Cheap cost, and the cost doesn't go up if you keep redesigning or adding more subject material (unless the size of the tattoo changes)
The negatives:
– "Input during 100% of the process" , this is an exaggerated statement. You are allowed to give input every time they send you a draft, however, I never found an instance where they would send you anything while it was in progress.
– Takes FOREVER. I'm not sure how busy they are but their communication is absolutely terrible. They don't give you updates, it's basically a "Okay thanks we will have the first draft available hopefully in 6 days and then you can give us input" On day 3 I emailed asking for an update….no response….day 4, asked for a progress image so I could no if its way off, or spot on….no response….Day 7…hey where is it? "Thank you for patience, it will be ready within 24 hours".
– They use a lot of stock images and will sometimes not use the image you want because of copyright, just be aware of that. Hey I want this statute. Well that's fine to go show that to your actual tattoo artist, but as far as this companies design for you? It will have a different statue.
– They struggle to listen sometimes, and take their own creative liberties. I had several times where I said, why did you add this? This means nothing, replace it with this, and the redesign even would be wrong. "Okay, I said to add ABC, why did you add DEF?"
Every re-draft took no less than 2 days, regardless of the complexity of the change. I simply asked to delete a layer (it's essentially photoshop). Delete…a layer….aka a two second project. Took two days.
So you have to have patience. In all, this entire project took one month before they sent me the final images. That included 4 redesigns. Also, when they say they will send you the stencil and final image…it's not a hard copy. It's a digital copy that you have to go print yourself. Also, the stencil is nothing more than your final image, photoshopped with a bit of a negative filter so that it only shows the outlines of items.
Again, the cost is cheap, its a nice way to get a rough idea of what you want. I have not attempted to go to an artist yet and say "will you do this" but at least you can go to one and say hey, this is what I want, redesign it as you see fit. Because some artists don't want to copy.
In summary, it's cheap, it takes a long time, I would suggest it for much smaller tattoos. It's good only for giving a starting point on your full tattoo design, if you aren't comfortable going to an artist and making a big big deposit to have them start drawing. This way you can go find an artist who can say "Yeah I can totally do that tattoo, here's my portfolio" Basically you can go around asking artists if they are good enough to do it.