Our staff prides themselves on offering a clean, safe, and comfortable experience while getting a piercing or a tattoo. Our piercers are all members of the Association of Professional Piercers, and dedicated to continuing education and always providing the best possible service. Our tattoo artists come from a range of backgrounds and skill sets, from street artists with lettering specialties, fine artists who love black and grey realism, and comic nerds ready to rock something new school and colorful. Our diverse cast of artists means we have someone for every client, style, and tattoo.
Planning & Preparation Questions
Make sure you are well rested, have eaten a good meal 1-2 hours before hand, and stay hydrated. Come with your phone or tablet fully charged, and feel free to bring 1-2 friends, but not the entire gang. Make sure your friends are ready to be polite and well behaved, anyone being distracting may be asked to wait up front.
It’s much more important to dress for comfort then to dress for fashion. Come in clothing that is comfy, loose is usually better, and make sure there is easy access to the area you are getting tattooed. Keep in mind you may get cold, or want to keep certain areas covered, so dress with that in mind. We do have dividers available for privacy, depending on tattoo location.
Before booking your session, make sure you have a plan! Come in and discuss things with an artist, design a cohesive piece, and discuss the timeframe. Bringing in photos helps immensely as well. We can make a back piece or sleeve work around other small pieces, but it always will look better when you come in and create a plan, and let the same artist execute that for you. Understand that for a very large project like a full sleeve or a back piece it will cost over $1,000, to even come close to completing the entire piece, and it will take multiple sessions. Plan for things to take some time, and budget accordingly for your sessions. For the actual sessions, consider bringing some reasonable snacks and sugary drink, and eat a great meal beforehand.
- Take a Shower
- Don’t bring your kids, particularly for long sessions (1-10 hours)
- Ensure you have proper identification with you
- Eat before you come in! Seriously!
- Have realistic expectations – understand your idea may not be possible to be tattooed, or may need to be tweaked to work. Please understand our artists just want to give you the best tattoo possible. Certain artists may not offer all placements or types of tattoos, based off personal comfort level and skill. Piercings can be anatomy dependent, and you may lack the anatomy to safely support the piercing you want. Our artists will always be honest about anatomy or design considerations.
If you are
- Drunk
- High
- Pregnant or recently delivered (1-3 months post delivery)
- Sick
- Pre or Post surgery
- On Acne medication like Accutuane
- Sunburned
- Don’t know what you want
- Don’t have proper ID
- Going swimming in the next 2 weeks-1 month
- When you’ve been told by us that it’s a bad idea/unsafe
Will it Hurt?
A tattoo in most locations is not overly painful. It feels like an uncomfortable sunburn, a cat scratch, or someone drawing on your sunburn with a pen. It doesn’t feel good, but it’s entirely bearable for most locations. Some locations such as knees, elbows, stomach, and head may be more intense. Eating well beforehand and getting plenty of sleep will ensure the experience is as comfortable for you as possible.
Most piercings are comparable to popping a sensitive pimple or waxing a sensitive hair. It’s not painless, but it’s also not the end of the world. It’s a momentary pinch and it’s done forever! Piercings can often seem more intimidating than tattoos, but we promise that done the right way by a skilled piercer, you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy the experience is!
Pricing Questions
We often have hours into drawings before you ever come in, and this deposit covers the time our artists put in for your piece before you arrive. Deposits help ensure people come in for their appointments, and deposits come out of the final price of your tattoo. Deposits are non-refundable, but can be transferred to another artist or service.
Our shop minimum is $100, which covers supplies, setup and time. You may not realize, but we go through the same amount of supplies for a small tattoo as we do for a medium one, and everything must be cleaned and sterilized correctly. Due to COVID-19 we are also taking extra cleaning and sanitation steps to prevent the spread.
Tips are never expected but always appreciated. Tattoo Artists and Piercers are service workers like your hair stylists, nail techs, waitresses and delivery drivers. The same tipping scale you may use for them, works for us too!
We LOVE to give stuff away, we regularly donate to charity and give back to the community, as well as donate within our industries. Our owner gives his time to continuing training and education. We charge what we charge because we provide a quality service.
We do offer hand and finger tattoos but we warn all clients that these placements are not guaranteed. They are notorious for falling out quickly, and leaving patchy tattoos or falling out altogether. Because of this we offer only one free touchup on hands and fingers, and after that we must charge since these can often need many touchups to stay.
Policy Questions
You must be 18 or over to get a tattoo, with proper ID. This includes any form of government issued ID that has a photo and birthdate, and is valid.
For lobes we can pierce as young as 5-6 with parental consent and a valid birth certificate, and for anything beyond lobes you must be 15 and up with parental consent and valid state issued ID. Parent or legal guardian must be present for the entire piercing. For minors 5-14 years old we require the original copy of the birth certificate and a valid state ID, driver’s license, or passport for the parent/legal guardian.
For minors 15+ years old, we require a valid government issued photo ID like a permit, driver’s license, passport, or identification card for both the minor & parent/legal guardian. The minor & parent will need to have matching last names or addresses. If you do not have any of these things, then we will accept the original copy of the birth certificate plus a school ID with a photo of the minor. If a legal guardian is signing for the minor guardian must bring court issued documents.
We can not accept photographs or copies of any of this documentation. You must bring the originals. We can not accept expired IDs. We can not accept ANY other forms of ID.
If you have any questions about age requirements for certain piercings, please direct yourself to our Piercing Prices With Jewelry list.
If you do not bring proper ID we WILL NOT be able to pierce or tattoo you.
Walk-ins are done on a first come, first serve, never guaranteed basis. While we try to accommodate everyone we sometimes do fill up fast. We suggest appointments if you have a time constraint, or for larger pieces.
For any jewelry changes or downsizes you are welcome to either book over the phone or through our website. All other piercing procedures will need to be booked through our website. Appointments for a tattoo must be done after an in person consultation. These consultations are always free. If the design is simple, some artists will book online through email or messenger, depending on the design and difficulty. The artists contact information can be found on their respective pages.
There are some piercings that require more in-depth marking and measuring that we can not guarantee on a walk in. If you are curious whether we are or are not able to take the procedure you had in mind as a walk in, please feel free to call the shop to confirm. We always suggest an appointment for these services as we can not guarantee them on a walk in basis. Some of these services are offered only with specific piercers, you can contact us for scheduling or more information at info@icontattoo.com.
To ensure that the concept and design is correct, and that we are booking the correct amount of time and sessions for each tattoo. Without seeing the area we are tattooing in person, we can’t accurately scale and size the tattoo.
Your deposit is non-refundable if you no show. You have up to 24 hours to reschedule an appointment, but anything less than 24 hours notice you will lose your deposit.
Yes! Icon is a family friendly studio, and we allow all ages. We offer piercing services from 5 and up for simple lobe piercings. Our front lobby and piercing spaces have been designed to be family friendly.
That being said, there are certain health hazards for young children in a tattoo and piercing studio. Minors are strictly not permitted in the back tattoo area, or any of the cleaning or processing areas. Minors also can not be left unattended while a parent or guardian gets pierced or tattooed. That means there must be someone present who can watch the minor, our staff is not able to do so. Minors can come back with their parents to the piercing room, but under 15 they must have someone to watch them. We have biohazard areas in our piercing rooms for sharps and tool disposal, and we don’t want to risk an unattended child hurting themselves.
Yes! We are very happy to do a large number of children’s lobe piercings and we have found a system that works great for us. 12 and under we require an appointment, and we strongly suggest an appointment for 13 and 14 year olds as well. The wait for walk ins can often be long (sometimes 1-2 hours) and we have found for folks getting their first piercings the wait can cause them to become more nervous. We do book out sometimes 2-3 weeks in advance so plan around that!
We also offer tandem piercings by appointment, where we have two piercers pierce at the same time. For anyone who seems a little nervous or scared about their piercing, this is absolutely the way to go and makes things quick and comfortable! You can email us to schedule a tandem appointment at info@icontattoo.com.
These piercings can take 3-5 months to fully heal, and you won’t be able to remove them or swim with them during that time. So plan these piercings around your summer and sports plans!
We have exam tables rated up to 600 LBS at the studio. We also have massage tables rated to 200-400 LBS. Each artist works with different tables or chairs, so if you need a specific table please let us know and we will ensure we schedule you to have that table open for you.