Our scheduling process explained

Black 13 consists of seven artists and two assistants that deal with what we call our customer and artist relations. When a customer calls, emails, or stops in, we work with them individually to understand their needs and determine the artist best suited for them. We feel that our artists are at their best when they are focusing on their artwork and with the amount of time needed to prepare and fulfill each appointment, our assistants work on behalf of the customer and the artist to discuss ideas, estimate cost and time involved, and schedule the customer along with being a point of contact along the way. The scheduling process does take time and often involves multiple emails or phone calls to follow up with a customer before everything is nailed down. Often times we will schedule a consultation for the artist and customer to meet after we have started working through ideas and prior to final scheduling. While we strive to work in a efficient manner, we aren’t trying to rush through things for the sake of getting more customers in. Our goal has always been to provide quality work with a quality experience and we believe that while this takes more time, it’s well worth it and delivers the best outcome.

On top of the daily workload, our artists travel from time to time so we occasionally experience a slightly longer turn around time while working through ideas. We always try to let you know ahead of time when a artist is unavailable and the turnaround time may be extended. We can typically follow up with most ideas within two to three business days. For smaller ideas, we can usually schedule them at the first point of contact and get these ideas in quicker. We are also able to work smaller ideas in as walk ins the same day depending on our schedule. On average, our wait time for a tattoo can span anywhere within 3 to 5 days, or sometimes 2 to 4 months in advance depending on the ideas and artist best suited. If you’re looking to get in day of or only have specific days in mind, we always suggest stopping in or giving us a call. While we may not be able to discuss all the details in full at the first point of contact, we can at least determine if we may be able to work with your timeline quicker than we can through email. For any type of scheduling, please provide as much info as you can at the beginning of the process to help us get started faster. Don’t worry about being too detailed, we like it.

Why so much communication prior to scheduling? We want our customers and our artists to be as informed as possible. Once we put you in the schedule we want to know that we have a solid understanding of what you want so the artist can prepare your sketch and have it ready for your appointment. All of our artists feel comfortable working within certain styles so thorough communication up front assures us that we have you with the artist best suited for your needs. Due to our workload, its hard for us to sketch prior to scheduling a appointment. Because of this, we communicate as much as possible prior to scheduling then build time into the appointment to show you the sketch, make any needed changes, and start the tattoo. Please note that if you change your idea at all prior to a scheduled appointment, you must contact us in advance to discuss the changes. Not doing so may result in us rescheduling the appointment and the customer possibly losing the deposit.