Advice from a studio owner who has seen the best and worst of this industry, including inside her own walls.

I’ve been on every side of this question. I’ve walked into shops as a ~very~ nervous client, as an artist looking for a place to work, and now as the owner of Inkvictus Studios in Raleigh. I’ve seen some things I’ll never forget, and not always in a good way.

So let me be upfront: this isn’t a post from someone who thinks her shop is perfect. We’ve gotten things wrong. That’s exactly why I think I can answer this question honestly.

The Red Flags I’ve Seen With My Own Eyes

Before I ever opened Inkvictus, I walked into a shop where the owner’s behavior toward a woman in the studio made it clear that nobody’s comfort or safety was a priority there. Nobody else in the room seemed to think anything of it, and that told me even more. In other shops, nobody even said hello when I walked in. I stood there feeling like I was not welcome, like I was an inconvenience instead of someone about to trust them with something permanent. Those moments stuck with me and they’re a big part of why Inkvictus exists, and why I think the way a shop makes you feel in the first few minutes matters just as much as the art on the walls.

Here are a few other things I’ve witnessed firsthand:

• Artists overpromising, underdelivering, and then shrugging it off with “that’s just what it is”
• “Tattoos should hurt” used as an excuse for rough work or zero care for the client’s comfort
• Constant “smoke” breaks in the middle of appointments
• Studios that smelled like weed or alcohol
• Artists handling needles in ways that made it obvious sterile practices weren’t being followed

If you see any of these, walk out. Plain and simple.

Pay Attention to the First Five Minutes

A good shop greets you, and with a smile. That sounds small, but it tells you everything about how you’ll be treated once you’re in the chair.

At Inkvictus, every client is greeted the moment they walk in. We do a mini consultation before the appointment and walk through the entire process before a single needle comes out. The goal is for it to feel like a collaboration, because that’s exactly what a tattoo is.

What Clean Actually Looks Like

Here’s something a lot of people don’t know: North Carolina’s tattoo laws haven’t been meaningfully updated since 2002. That means you can’t assume a shop is safe just because it’s open. You have to look for yourself.

Here’s what I’d check for:

• Sharps containers at every station
• Sterile, single-use needles opened in front of you
• Everything wrapped and covered, including machines, bottles, and surfaces
• Artists washing their hands and telling you they’re doing it
• Hand sanitizer dispensers around the studio
• Red tape or barriers marking off areas clients shouldn’t touch
• Gloves, always, and changed when they should be
• A studio that’s clean overall, not just at the station
• Room to breathe, with each artist having their own space instead of everyone crammed together

That hand washing one is my favorite. A good artist doesn’t just wash their hands. They announce it, because they want you to know.

Portfolios Only Tell Half the Story

Everyone tells you to check the portfolio, and you should. But here’s the truth from someone who has done the hiring: everyone posts their best work. We’ve trusted great portfolios before and it’s bitten us.

You’ll hear people say to look at healed work instead of fresh work. That’s good advice, but healed photos are genuinely hard to get, so don’t expect a huge gallery of them.

What I’d pay more attention to is how the artist answers your questions. Are they honest? Will they tell you when something is outside their skill set? Are they upfront about their limitations? Nobody is perfect. We’re not robots and we make mistakes. What you’re looking for is someone genuinely invested in growing as an artist.

What a Good Consultation Sounds Like

One of the first things a good artist should ask you is your budget. Not because they’re trying to squeeze you, but because a skilled artist should be able to create what you want, reasonably, within what you can actually spend.

That conversation tells you a lot about what the artist prioritizes. Are they just agreeing to everything to make the sale, or do they seem invested in your piece?

A few questions I wish every client would ask:

• How do you keep your station clean?
• How long have you been tattooing, and how much experience do you have with this style?
• What are you still working on as an artist?

Listen for humility. Ego and cockiness are a warning sign. If an artist can’t admit they’re still growing, they probably won’t take it well if you tell them you don’t like something. That’s how you end up hearing “it is what it is.”

A Good Artist Respects Your Wallet, Too

Pricing is subjective, and it’s hard to say what’s “fair.” You’ve probably heard the line about cheap tattoos not being good and good tattoos not being cheap. I think that attitude is unfair to people.

Tattoos mean a lot to people, emotionally and mentally, not just visually. That’s why accessibility matters so much to us, and why Inkvictus runs a Pay What You Can program. The right artists prioritize their clients and their clients’ wallets.

What Happens After You Leave Matters

A good shop doesn’t forget about you once you’re out the door.

Every Inkvictus client gets complimentary aftercare. I think it’s asaine to send someone home with a fresh open wound and tell them to stop at Walmart for soap and lotion. We go over aftercare in person, text the instructions, and reach out to every client within four weeks to make sure they’re happy.

If they’re not happy, we figure out why. If it healed poorly because aftercare wasn’t followed, we explain why it healed that way. We also offer a complimentary touch-up to every client. Just know that a touch-up covers healing, not age.

We’ll always reach out. Healing well is a team effort between artist and client.

How a Good Shop Handles Mistakes

Here’s where I’ll get honest about my own studio.

Not everyone who has worked at Inkvictus has lived up to the standards we hold. Over the years, we’ve had artists who overpromised and underdelivered, and we’ve had client experiences that fell short of what we expect from ourselves. When that happens, we don’t look the other way. People who can’t meet those standards don’t stay here.

When things go wrong, a good shop owns its part and creates a reasonable path forward. That might mean reworking the piece, making adjustments, or connecting you with someone better suited to fix it. Inkvictus has even paid other artists to correct work done by people who are no longer part of our team.

A good shop isn’t one that never makes mistakes. It’s one that doesn’t hide from them, and keeps raising the bar because of them.

What “Good” Really Means

You can learn a lot about a shop by looking at what it does when there’s no money involved.

Since day one of Inkvictus, I always said I’d offer areola restoration, and to this day it’s my favorite service. We offer it pro bono. People say I should be charging for it, and I completely disagree. How do you put a price on helping someone feel whole again? And even if insurance covered it, that’s just one more hurdle. I’ve heard from people who waited years for insurance, only to be denied. For people seeking gender-affirming care, a denial feels almost guaranteed right now based on this political climate.

Here, it’s simple. Come in for an in-person consultation, then book your appointment.

So when you’re deciding whether a shop is good, look past the art for a minute. Do they give back? Do they make care easier to reach, or harder? Because when I think about what makes a shop “good,” I find myself asking: how good are you if you’re profiting off of people who just want to feel whole?

The Industry Is Changing

If you only remember one thing from this post, let it be this: the big, scary, male-dominated “chop shops” aren’t all there is anymore.

There are artists and studios all over now who prioritize safety and genuinely care about their clients. Artists no longer have to go through a two-to-five-year exploitative, abusive apprenticeship to get into this work. A lot of the ugliness this industry was known for doesn’t exist as freely as it used to.

And even though North Carolina’s laws haven’t protected you, there are people actively fighting to change that.

We will never claim to be the best. In a state without real, updated regulation, it’s hard to even know what “best” means. But we don’t take this work lightly. We keep fact-checking, keep growing, and keep being loud about what we find.

The right people always find their way here.