For almost 8 years I charged my tattoos per project, but I am updating my pricing method and starting to charge per hour of tattooing or per day for bigger projects. I will still be charging on a sliding scale basis. However, if you would like to talk about adjusting the prices or payment installments to better suit your budget we can discuss this. Here is the new pricing method:

1. Price per hour: that means only the time we are actually tattooing will be charged. The minimum price is one hour (if your tattoo takes less than one hour, you will be charged the full hour), and from the first hour on, the half hours are also counted. That means: if your tattoo took, for example, one hour and 15 minutes, I will charge you one hour and a half; if it took, let’s say, one hour and 45 minutes, I will charge you for two hours.

2. Placement and stencil time: this time will not be added to tattoo time and you can take as much time as you need to get the placement correct. Sometimes people need a longer time to feel the tattoo size and/or placement and that’s okay. We can change the stencil as many times as needed and I will be there to guide you through the process if necessary.

3. Price per day: in case of a bigger tattoo where we will need more than one session, or special projects like Generative Tattoos (collaboration with Bruno Gola), Non-Straight Lines For Non-Straight People or Phottoo Book for example, I will send you a sliding scale with the prices per day. That means we will spend a whole day together (from 10 am to 10 pm more or less) so be prepared for that (check the topic below “How to prepare for your tattoo session”). If we have several sessions, we will talk during our consultations about how many of them we might need, but we will only know for sure at the end of the process, so be prepared to afford more sessions than we guessed (or less, who knows). And as I said, I will be happy to work out the payment in installments if it’s better for you.

4. Sliding Scale: I charge on a sliding scale basis. You will receive the sliding scale per email. Please read it with care and sincerity and choose where you fit. This is the price you will pay per hour of tattooing or per day according to the complexity of the work. At the end of the session I will tell you how many hours we took, you tell me the price you chose and I will send you an invoice with the final price and my bank account for the transfer. In the case of bigger tattoos, the chosen day price will be paid as soon as we end each session day.

5. Custom drawings: There is a €30-100 fee for custom drawings that will be added to the final price of your invoice. I will let you know ahead how much this will be, depending on the complexity of your drawing. Please check the topic “Custom drawings” below for more info. In the case of guest spots in other studios (when I'm not in my own studio in Berlin), this fee will be adjusted to the local currency rate.

6. All the prices will be adjusted according to the current market price and my experience as a tattooer (which in august 2023 will be 9 years). I will always work on a sliding scale to try as much as I can to make tattoos less elitist and more accessible for the people who need it.

7. About the sliding scale: please keep in mind that if you have more accessibilities and privileges, it is a great gesture to pay as much as you can. Doing this means that you’re actively helping me to make my work more accessible to a wider range of people, not just those who can pay the top or the middle rate.

It is a pleasure of mine to draw something unique for you, to understand the ideas, thoughts and emotions flowing through your head and materialize them into an amazing tattoo. This is a process that I hold very dear to my heart and I love to discuss the drawing with the person and work on it with them if necessary. Here are some guidelines to make this process go as smoothly as possible:

1. Process: when you fill up my booking form, please try to be as detailed as possible with your idea. There is space there for it. Be creative and write whatever comes to your mind, I’m here to listen. With that done, I will send you a follow-up email and there I will ask questions if I need to, or I will tell you an estimation of the date the drawing will be finished by. I will try my best to send you the drawing prior to the session, but depending on my work demand, it might not be possible.

2. Custom drawing pricing: There is a €30-100 fee for custom drawings that will be added to the final price of your invoice. I will let you know before how much this will be. Price will be decided according to the complexity of your drawing. In the case of guest spots in other studios (when I'm not in my own studio in Berlin), this fee will be adjusted to the local currency rate.

3. Changes in the drawing: You can make three changes to each tattoo drawing. Please be very clear of what you want to be changed. If you find it difficult to write about it on our email thread, please let me know and we can organize a zoom or telephone call. If you still need changes after the first three, there will be a €20 fee to each change (or the respective price in the current exchange).

4. Payment to drawing fee: All the drawing fees will be added to your final invoice.

5. Cancellation of tattoo session, or “do I have to pay for my drawing?”: I understand tattoo sessions get canceled and it is no problem at all (for the session cancellation fee, please check the item “Cancellations and reschedulings” below), just please let me know as fast as you can so I can free my schedule and you will be asked to pay the drawing fee (and changes fee if there were any) as well as the standard session cancellation fee.

• Drawings made by another person:

I find it beautiful when people come to get a tattoo of their own drawings or by dear friends, partners or family members. I find that to have another person’s drawing on your skin is such a big gesture of trust and appreciation. Given that, there are some drawings I won’t do. So here are my guidelines for other people’s drawings:

1. I will only tattoo other people’s drawings with a written authorization by them and the invoice of purchase if you bought the drawing. You can forward the letter or email with their authorization or send my email to them so they can write directly to me: tattoo@solaura.art.

2. If the drawing is yours, you will still need to give me written authorization per email.

3. I will not copy things from the internet. Using references to illustrate your idea(s) is okay, but every drawing I make will be made specially for you, so please don’t insist.

1. The appointment will be considered scheduled when we both confirm it by email. IMPORTANT: Please make sure you wrote down the correct date and time. If you forgot your appointment or got the dates confused and didn’t show up, this will also count as canceling or rescheduling.

2. I tattoo on weekdays and I prefer to keep it during commercial hours, but if you need an exception, please let me know in the booking form. There is a field there for you to tell me which week days and times work better for you.

3. Please read with attention the cancellation and rescheduling policies below. I will ask that you confirm you read everything before filling up the booking form.

4. Please don't schedule things after your appointment, because we never know for sure how long the session will take. So it is good to always have extra time besides what we predicted.

There is a difference between tattooing from my studio in Berlin where I have more flexibility and doing a guest spot in another studio anywhere in the world because the studios have their own routines and schedules. This will be sorted according to the situation, so please find which one is your case:

— When the tattoo is happening at my studio (SóLaura Studio) in Berlin:

1. CANCELLATIONS: there will be no deposits needed, but you will have to pay a cancellation fee of €80, at any time you cancel an appointment that has already been booked. The appointment will be considered booked when we both confirm it by email.

2. RESCHEDULINGS: there will be no rescheduling fees if you do it a week before our session. If you do it within the week prior to our session, there will be a €20 fee (per each rescheduling) added to your final invoice.

— When the tattoo is happening during my guest spot in another studio anywhere in the world:

1. CANCELLATIONS: there will be a deposit needed to confirm the booking of the session (I will let everyone know the fees according to the place where I am guesting). If you cancel the session at any times, I will keep the full deposit.

2. RESCHEDULINGS: if you want to reschedule your session while I am guesting, I will keep half of your deposit as a rescheduling fee.

— If I have to reschedule your tattoo session for a reason that is mine, you will get a €20 discount in the final invoice in both situations above (tattooing at my studio or at guest spots).

1. Wear comfortable clothes and make sure the placement of the tattoo is easily reachable.

2. Prefer darker colors and not your favorite outfits because there might be ink stains happening.

3. Moisturize the placement of the tattoo with a skin lotion every day for at least a week prior to the session. This helps a lot to smooth out the skin, facilitating tattoo work.

4. Drink plenty of water (for life!) and make sure you eat before coming.

5. If you are prone to fainting, are taking blood-thinner medicines or have any other conditions that I should know about, please let me know beforehand. There is a Tattoo Consent Form to sign before the session where this information will be clearer, but it is just to make sure we talked about this before we meet.

6. DO NOT drink alcohol or use any sort of drugs before your tattoo session (If I notice that you have a compromised judgment on the day of our session, our appointment will automatically be canceled and your deposit and/or fees already paid will not be refunded).

7. If we are having a whole day session, bring lunch if you want (you can also order take out from here or go to one of the nice restaurants in the area - vegan options available as well), enough snacks and specific non-alcoholic (and preferably not caffeinated) drinks you want. There are spätis and restaurants around with different ranges of prices.

8. You can bring company for the tattoo session, but please let me know beforehand. Depending on how full the studio is on that day, for covid and other safety reasons, we will ask for the companies to wait in the lounge outside. There are couches, games and books to pass the time.

9. You can bring your pet, but they need to come with a caretaker to be with them during your session. Pets are not allowed inside the tattoo room, but they can hang out in the other areas provided that they have a caretaker at all times with them. (Please let me know if it is an exception and we will talk about it). There is a small water container for pets here, but you have to bring their own food.

1. Water Bottle (you can get water here of course, it’s just to be more practical)

2. Snacks if you are a snack person or lunch and other snacks in case of a whole day session.

3. Blankets or warm clothes like socks for example, if you usually feel cold when you get a tattoo. The tattoo room is heated and we have blankets here, but it is better to guarantee.

1. I work with TattooMed Second Skin. Second skin is a protective film that helps the skin to keep a uniform healing with the right amount of humidity the skin needs to heal easily. It works very well for most people, but if it is the first time you are using it, let me know if you see any uncommon red spots or burning/warm feeling. In this case, I will advise you to remove it right away and will tell you how to do the aftercare in this case. Please write to me right away if this happens.

2. You will leave the second skin on for four days and then gently remove it - you can shower with it and it is breathable, just make sure you don’t hit your tattoo or scratch it anywhere. (Tip: Protective film removals can be a little painful depending on the placement on the body, how tight the skin is holding it or even if it is placed over an area with more hair. To make the process a little easier, sometimes what helps is to remove it right after a shower.)

3. When you remove the second skin (gently!), wash the tattoo area to remove any leftover ink and body fluids that may have come out. Use a neutral antibacterial soap, making it like a foam and gently washing your tattoo with it.

4. Rinse it with water (lukewarm, not so cold and not so warm either) and dry it gently patting with a paper towel (if there is some glue residue leftover from the second skin, don’t worry, it will come off eventually with time. Do not scratch it trying to remove it, just leave it).

5. After removing the protective film and doing the proper cleaning, you can leave the tattoo area open, but still be very careful for two weeks after the date of the session: do not scratch, do not let anything scrape the tattoo and the areas around it and don’t go swimming, sauna, bath, sea, lake or river in these two weeks. (“Ah, but I’m going to travel to a beach right after the session”: please let me know BEFORE we schedule the session if the dates coincide).

6. Use the cream Cicaplast Baume B5 for the next week, two to three times per day. Apply a thin layer to your tattoo and let it dry before putting clothes on.

7. Keep your tattoo completely away from the sun for around one month after the session. Make sure you are covering the tattoo area in a way the sun doesn't touch it. After the healing, apply sunscreen every time you expose your tattoo to the sun for better aging of the tattoo pigment.

8. Working out after the tattoo: The best case scenario is that you don’t workout for two weeks after your tattoo session (including bicycle riding, etc). Sweating and stretching the skin is bad for tattoo healing. If for any reason you cannot avoid physical exercise, please let me know prior to the session so we can talk about it.

9. If it gets itchy during the healing process, you can make a gentle ice compress for a few minutes to alleviate the itching. Don’t leave the ice on it for a long time. This is also a good tip for the first couple of days of any tattoos.

10. I like to receive updates of the healing process, so please send me photos every two or three days until the tattoo is fully healed. And of course, let me know if you have any further questions.

If you still have questions, please write to tattoo@solaura.art :-)