How a design gets made

I design from your story, not from a copied image. Alex Roze, tattoo artist at Rocky Mountain Tattoo in Kelowna, BC.

Before tattoos, there was design. I was 16 when an agency recruited me as a graphic designer, and that was my first real lesson in what quality and responsibility to a client actually mean. It is also why traditional tattooing was my first love — I was fascinated by how something complex can be compressed into a few simple shapes, less information, yet the meaning stays whole.

A story, not a picture. What happened, who it was for, why now. If it connects to other tattoos you already have, that matters too — it changes how the new one has to sit.

A rough sentence is a real starting point. You do not need to arrive with a reference, a style, or a finished idea. Most people do not.

A drawing on paper and a drawing on skin are not the same object. The body moves, the ink spreads, and the piece has to still read in ten years. That rules some things in and some things out before any style is chosen.

• Placement — where it goes decides how large it has to be to hold together, and how it moves with you.
• Ageing — in black and grey the range of values is chosen so the piece stays readable on skin as it settles and ages. In traditional work, colour is picked flat and saturated to stay clear over decades, and the design is drawn to read from a distance.
• Compression — what can be removed while the meaning stays whole. Less information, not more.

Style comes out of this, rather than being picked first. Black and grey builds form through light and shadow rather than heavy outline. Traditional uses bold outlines, solid colour and a limited palette. Neo-traditional keeps that linework and adds painterly depth. Which one suits your piece is part of the work, and it is a fair answer to say you do not know yet.

I draw on the day of the appointment. Rarely, I send a design ahead.

That is why I ask for as much as you can give me first, and why I tell you what I am thinking and why before we get there. The decisions get made in the conversation. By the day, the drawing is close to determined.

My expertise is not taste. I construct from constraints, experience, rules and compositional theory. You are not betting on whether you like what I happen to feel like drawing.

One design, not a menu of options — depending on size. I draw on an iPad, so changes are quick.

Change as much as you want. There is no limit and no charge for it.

I will push back if I think a change hurts the piece, and I will tell you why. Then it is your call. I am open to anything that still gets to the best result — the argument is about the result, not about who is right.

It is rare that someone does not want the final design. If it happens, you paid a deposit and I will find a resolution we are both happy with.

I would rather not tattoo someone who is not confident trusting me. Send me everything you have and let me build the right one.