(01) — How a piece happens
Five steps.
Roughly ten weeks.
Nothing is drawn before the consult and nothing is booked before the deposit. You see the drawing at least four days before you sit, and one round of changes is included in every piece we quote.
Everything below is the actual sequence, with the actual money attached at the point it changes hands. If a step here surprises you on the day, we have failed at this page rather than at the tattoo.
(02) — The sequence
Enquiry to healed,
in order
Roughly ten weeks from first email to the day you sit, and another fortnight before the piece is yours to look after alone.
-
01
Enquiry
Send placement, rough size in centimetres, three references and your budget ceiling. We reply within four working days telling you which resident fits and what it will cost — or that we are not the right studio, which happens about one time in five. Leave the artist field blank; the floor routes it better than you can. Free · reply in 4 working days
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02
Consult
Thirty minutes in the studio or on a call. We look at the body part, talk about how the design has to wrap, and agree the session count. This is also where you see the resident's physical book if you want to. Free, and it does not commit you. Free · 30 min · no deposit yet
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03
Deposit
€120 holds the date and pays for drawing time. It comes off the final session, not the first — so on a four-day piece you still pay full rate on days one, two and three. Movable once with seven days' notice; lost if you no-show. €120 · non-refundable · off the final day
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04
Drawing
Two to three weeks. You get the drawing four days before the session and one round of changes is included. If it is wrong we redraw it; if it is still wrong you walk with the deposit spent and no hard feelings. Nobody here has ever talked a client into sitting for a drawing they were unsure about. 2–3 weeks · 1 revision included
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05
Session
Doors at 11:00. Eat first, bring lunch, expect five to six hours with breaks. Large work runs across multiple days booked back to back where your skin allows it — skin stops taking ink well after about six hours, and we stop when it does rather than pushing to finish. €780 day · €420 half day
(03) — The day itself
Eleven till six,
roughly
A full day in the chair, hour by hour. Bring lunch, headphones and something with sugar in it. There is no music on the floor.
- 10:45Arrive. Photo ID checked, consent and medical form signed at the desk. If you have eaten nothing, we will send you to the bakery two doors down before we start.
- 11:00Stencil. This takes longer than people expect — placement is argued about standing up, in a mirror, sometimes three or four times. Nothing starts until you say the position is right.
- 11:40Outline. The loudest and usually the easiest part. First break comes when the outline closes, not on a timer.
- 13:30Lunch, forty minutes, off the chair and out of the room. Eat properly — most people who feel faint at hour five skipped this.
- 14:15Shading and packing. The long stretch. Breaks every forty minutes or whenever you ask, and asking costs nothing and never annoys anyone.
- 17:30We stop when the skin stops taking ink cleanly, which on some people is hour four and on others hour seven. Finishing at all costs is how pieces heal badly.
- 17:45Wrap, aftercare card taped to it, and the balance settled in cash or by transfer. You leave with the next date if the piece runs to more days.
(04) — Rates & minimums
Priced by the
day, not the hour
Hourly billing rewards slow work, so we do not do it. Every piece is quoted as a number of sessions at the rate below, agreed in writing before you sit.
€420Up to 3 hours
Small to medium single-session work — palm-sized ornamental, script, a contained neo-traditional piece. Most first tattoos land here.
€7805–6 hours, one sitting
The standard unit. Half sleeves, backs of thighs, large ornamental panels. Multi-day work is booked as consecutive full days.
€150Any piece, any size
Covers setup, single-use tubes and needles, and the drawing time even on a two-centimetre piece. Nothing goes out below it.
(05) — The pricing logic
Why a day rate
and not an hour
An hourly rate pays for slowness
If the clock is the unit, every minute of hesitation is billable and every artist who works quickly is punished for it. Nadia can outline in ninety minutes what would take another hand three hours. On an hourly rate you would pay her less for being better, which is an absurd way to run a floor.
A day rate makes speed the artist's problem and the finished piece yours. Nobody here has any reason to stretch a session, and nobody is watching a clock instead of the skin.
Drawing time is real time
Two to three weeks of drawing goes into a piece before you arrive — at scale, on paper, then redrawn to the body part. That work happens whether or not you eventually sit, which is why the €120 deposit is non-refundable and why nothing is drawn before it is paid.
The deposit comes off your final session rather than the first, so a piece that grows from two days to four does not quietly become a piece where you have already used up your credit.
The minimum is not a markup
€150 on a two-centimetre piece is not us pricing you out. A single-use tube, needle set, ink caps, a stencil, a full station strip-down and the drawing itself cost roughly the same whether the tattoo is two centimetres or twenty.
If a piece is genuinely too small to be worth €150 to you, that is a reasonable conclusion and we will say so at the enquiry rather than at the desk.
What is never on the bill
The consult is free and stays free even if you never book. Redrawing after the one included revision is free. The touch-up inside ninety days is free. Aftercare product is not sold here at all — the card tells you to buy unscented lotion at any chemist, and it costs about four euros.
There is no card machine, no booking fee and no per-session surcharge for large work. Cash or SEPA transfer, per day, at the end of each day.
(06) — Three real quotes
What it actually
came to
Three pieces finished on this floor, priced end to end. The deposit is shown where it was actually applied — against the final day.
One half day
Total paid€420
Three full days
Total paid€2,340
Four full days
Total paid€3,520
(07) — Aftercare
Fourteen days,
and it's yours
The same card we tape to your wrap. Follow it and the touch-up is free; ignore it and we will still fix it, but you will pay half a day.
We do not sell aftercare product. Unscented lotion from any chemist, about four euros, is the whole shopping list.
- Hours 0–3Leave the wrap on. It is not doing anything you can improve by looking at it.
- Hour 3Unwrap. Wash with clean hands and unscented soap, lukewarm water, no cloth. Pat dry with kitchen paper, not a towel.
- Days 1–3Wash twice daily. A rice-grain of unscented ointment after each wash — enough to shine, not enough to sit wet.
- Days 4–14Switch to a plain unscented lotion, two to three times a day. It will flake and itch. Do not pick it and do not scratch it.
- All 14 daysNo pools, baths, saunas, lakes or sea. Showers are fine. No direct sun on it, ever, and SPF 50 on it for life once healed.
- SleepingClean sheets, and on the other side for the first three nights. A fresh piece will mark the bedding for a night or two — that is ink and plasma, not a problem.
- Back at workNext day is fine for a desk. If your job is dirty, sweaty or in water, take the day — a covered fresh tattoo under a shirt all day is how infections start.
- Call usSpreading redness, heat, yellow discharge or a fever past day three. Ring the studio — that is not normal healing.
Quoted first.
Then a needle is opened.
Send placement, size in centimetres, three references and your budget ceiling. We answer every enquiry within four working days, including the ones we turn down.
Book currently 8 weeks · Deposit €120 · Oranienstraße 41, 10999 Berlin