311 9th St E # 9, Brooks, Alberta inside Aquarius Body Art Emporium.
Business hours are 11-6 weekdays but tattoo session hours vary and we are not always tattooing during regular business hours.
I appreciate you picking us out of all the great artists out there! If you are looking to book with Marlana, it's usually sufficient to stop by the studio during business hours and talk to Holly. Otherwise, fill out the contact form on this site and we can chat. Some designs we can figure out directly through email, while others we will have to meet up for a consultation.
Once we discuss ideas and decide on a direction, we will take a deposit and book you in. Usually within a few days of our appointment, we will contact you with the finished design.
Deposit is a standard procedure in the industry and it ensures that you are committed to the process. Deposits are non-refundable! Deposit will count only towards the tattoo that we have agreed upon on our initial booking, deducted at the end of the final session, if we are doing a multi session piece. All deposit are non-transferable towards other tattoos or individuals.
Deposit will cover missed appointments if not enough notice is given (at least 72 hours but more is always better). If you have provided 72 hours notice, we do hold deposits for upwards of 12 months from the notice date so you will still have plenty of opportunity to rebook if something does come up.
If you are unhappy with the final design after we have discussed it and agreed upon a direction, we can definitely make small adjustments to it. But if the piece has to be re-designed in any major way, we will require another deposit. In cases of large pieces, we have spent upwards of 20 hours designing and multiple days prior researching reference material. A lot of work goes into the process before our actual appointment date.
Mirza's passion is photo realism in black & grey or color and he enjoys pieces containing textures, small details, high contrasts or anything that gives him freedom to design. His work is more oriented towards photo realism, so he uses actual photographs as references to digitally design a piece as opposed to drawing it by hand.
As a junior artist, Marlana can take care of most linework or solid color pieces but her passion are traditional tattoos.
With that being said, the more you tap into an artists passion and more freedom you allow during the design process, generally the better the piece will be! Best results are usually achieved by providing the artist with a general theme and letting them conceive it for you.
Sometimes as they very much depend on the existing piece. If it is really dark, colorful or large, it's highly unlikely that it can be covered up.
Reality is that new ink does not cover the old ink like a coat of paint on a wall. Both will eventually settle and mix in the skin and those dark tones will re-surface again. Trick is to choose something dark or busy and also add something new that will pull the eye away from the coverup. Or use the existing piece as your starting value and build up from that which can severely limit range of values and contrast.
In either case, it's tricky and requires flexibility from the client. I the coverup is possible, you will have to be fairly open on that final design as our options will be limited. And keep in mind that the old ink might show through once the piece heals and might require another session to neutralize completely.
While we prefer not to work on other artists pieces, we can definitely take a look and decide on case to case basis.
Well before your appointment date, you should try to avoid sun exposure, moisturize and hydrate. Skin tone is not crucial for smaller tattoos or more bold styles like traditional but for realism, less tanned you are the better. Realism often relies on contrast alone and it is really difficult to pull off good contrast on dark skin.
You want the best piece possible so please try to cover up and keep that skin as light as you can during those sunny days. On the day before the tattoo, avoid alcohol and get plenty of rest and then in the morning have a good breakfast. Feel free to bring a snack and something to drink and just try to relax and enjoy. Please do not use or apply any numbing creams or products before talking to your artist first! Tattoos are cash only so please plan accordingly.
We will provide you with care instructions after our appointment but generally you want to keep the bandage on for 24-36 hours unless you are allergic and severe redness occurs. Tattoo will be seeping blood, plasma and ink during that time and the bandage will fill up, which is normal.
Those first 24 hours are important because we want the tattoo to stop seeping and for that liquid to stay in liquid form without scabbing which is what the bandage helps with. Liquid will also contains plasma which will kick start the healing process. After 24-36 hours, take the bandage off (warm water helps so it's best to do it in the shower), wash, dry and keep the tattoo clean.
After another 24 hours with the bandage off, you can start applying tattoo ointment (play it by ear - if it feels really dry, you can start earlier or it feels fine, you can start later). Do not overdo it with the ointment as humid environment will encourage bacteria growth. It is better that you keep it a little on a dry side versus keeping it too wet. Don't put any ointment on scabs and don't itch or pick at the tattoo.
Tattoo is basically a wound so treat it as such. For two weeks minimum, don't sleep with your pets and keep them away from it, no swimming, baths, saunas, tanning or excessive sweating and irritation and avoid sun exposure. Sun is a big one for long term care as well. It can massively fade away your tattoos so if your piece is on a particularly exposed area, wear tattoo specific sun block or cover up.
No problem we want the best representation of our work out there! Allow the piece to fully heal for at least 4 weeks as it definitely won't look its best during the healing process. If you book a touchup within first 3 months and it looks like the tattoo was taken care of properly, we only charge $30 setup fee. This excludes difficult to heal areas such as hands, fingers, feet or around any joints where the skins would flex a lot.