About TAROTTOO Project

  • Short version:

    TAROTTOO is a tattoo project where I draw inputs for my creative process from a tarot reading of a spread I created specially for this project. Meditation and intuition are also very important resources.

    Context (long version):

    I have always been interested in tarot since I was a teenager. I had a couple of decks, but never got into really studying it. In the beginning of 2022 I attended Paulina Hupe’s extensive tarot course called “The Universe of the Tarot” and it opened up a whole new world for me (in my daily life, creative process and spiritual practices).

    Since then I have the tarot as my daily companion. I do my own personal readings and since the course finished I started also reading it for other people.

    Now I felt like it was time to put together two of my many passions: tattoos and tarot. As you can read it in my bio, I tattoo since 2014 and now, almost 10 years after I started that journey, I feel it is time to also create a more abstract and intuitive tattoo practice.

    — Enters the tarot —

    I chose tarot to be the guide of TAROTTOO. Through a spread I created specifically for this project, I will let the cards and my intuition take me through the realms of creativity and technique to give you a tattoo that marks a moment in your life.

    Tattoos for me are a moment — kinda like a photography is a “screenshot” of our life timeline. From the most simple intentions to the more complex deep ones, tattoos are always a moment. Of pain, suffering, joy, amusemet, presence. A moment that sticks to you. Under your skin.

    With TAROTTOO I want to create a more intuitive approach to how I create this moment of marking your skin with ink, based on what you brought up. It is a process that involves trust on both sides: you trusting me to design something for you through the cards, intuition and technique, and me trusting that you will be connected to this process, giving me permission to access the many layers of this tattoo.

  • 1. YOUFILL UP THE FORM:

    You fill up the booking form: https://solaura.art/tarottooform

    2. I SEND A FOLLOW UP EMAIL:

    I send a follow up email to book a one-hour video call consultation and to give you the sliding scale with the daily rates. I will also ask that you send me a photo of the body party that you wish to have the tattoo, in case you have a specific idea of placement in mind.

    3. WE DO THE ONE-HOUR ONLINE CONSULTATION:

    I will be asking you personal questions if necessary, so please feel welcome to not answer them if you don’t feel like it. The questions are for me to understand more about this tattoo and start connecting to it for the beginning of the process. In case you leave the placement to me, I will ask you for some body photos on our consultation (if you have any questions about this process, please feel welcome to ask me during our consultation).

    4. YOU MAKE A NON-REFUNDABLE DEPOSIT OF €200,-:

    If you want to keep going with the process, you pay a non-refundable deposit of €200,- which will be deducted from the daily rate of your first session. (ATTENTION: Please read careful the item “Do I HAVE to tattoo the design even if I didn’t like it?” of this FAQ for more information on this deposit.)

    5. I START MY CREATIVE PROCESS:

    I make a tarot reading of a spread I created specially for this project, meditate on it, tune in my intuition, my resources and skills to create the final design.

    6. I SEND THE DESIGN TO YOU:

    Once the design is ready, I will send you via email: the final piece and the mock up of it on your own photo.

    7. YOU CONFIRM THE DESIGN:

    Once you confirm the design, we book the session(s). At this point I will be able to give you a rough estimate of how many sessions we will need. But please, don’t take this as a final number. It is never an easy task to predict how long a tattoo session will take.

    8. WE DO THE TATTOO SESSION(S):

    We do the session(s)! Yay!

    9. WRAP UP:

    In the end of the first session, you will receive also an A4 signed art digital print with a photo of your cards, a resumed inspirational version of my reading which guided me to do your design, and the design itself (or a version of it, if the tattoo is freehanded on your body).

  • No. The tarot reading is a guide to the creative process of your tattoo. The design will be abstract, made according to my process of tarot reading (specific for you), meditation and our one-hour consultation. So no tarot cards or tarot elements will be tattooed.

  • Yes. You will send me a photo of the placement on your body and I will do a mockup for you to see the idea beforehand.

  • You don’t have to get the tattoo if you didn’t like it. In that case, the €200.00 deposit you payed in advance for the start of the process will be kept, and you will still get the A4 signed art-print anyways (you have to pick it up at the studio or pay for me to send it. You will also pay all the eventual shipping costs). Each design is unique, so they will not be tattooed on another person, even if you don’t get it tattooed in the end.

    1. We can make only fine adjustments to fit your anatomy, but not to the design itself. The idea of TAROTTOO is to explore my tattoo and art creative process through tarot, intuition and meditation focused on what we talked in our one-hour consultation and your inputs on the TAROTTOO form.

    2. But don’t worry! :-) I do custom projects as well. For those, please fill up this form: https://solaura.art/tattoo/bookings (you can send me your idea and I will draw it for you. But this is not TAROTTOO project).

  • You will write on the booking form if you have a preference for any specific placement or size or if you want me to come up with them; in both cases, you will not be able to change them later, so please take your time to reflect on these. :-)

  • TAROTTOO will be mostly in black ink (and shades of gray, and white ink if needed), but if in my creative process I see any color that could fit the design, I will let you know and we can discuss and agree to it beforehand via consultation or e-mail.

    1. Yes, you will see your cards. In the end of the session I will give you also an A4 signed art digital print with your cards, a resumed inspirational version of my reading which guided me to do your design, and the design itself (or a version of it, if the tattoo is freehanded on your body). You will receive only the signed printed, without a frame. You don’t have to pay for the print, it is already included in the costs of the session (you will only pay for shipping in case you don’t get a tattoo in the end, as we covered in the other topic above) or in the deposit if you chose to not get the design tattooed.

    2. You will not receive a standard tarot reading for yourself. As mentioned before, the tarot is used as guidance for my personal creative process. But if you want a tarot reading, I am also trained and skilled to give you a personal reading, outside my tattoo work. Send me an email if you are interested and I will reply with my fee.

About the tattoo session

    1. TAROTTOO is a project charged on a daily rate sliding scale. That means you will be able to chose how much you pay for the tattoo day session, based on your income and life accessibilities. The sliding scale has a guiding text to help you place yourself in the tiers. You will receive the sliding scale after you fill up the booking form.

    2. Daily rates mean that I charge for the entire day of session. So if we need three sessions to complete the project, you will be charged three daily rates; if we need only one day, you will be charged only one daily rate; and so on. — In case of multiple sessions, you will be asked to pay each session right after it is finished. The deposit will be deducted from the first session payment (more on that below on item 5).

    3. The exact duration of a daily rate can vary according to the customer’s body and mind on the day. But please be prepared to spend the whole day at the studio (from morning to evening, in most cases).

    4. If you wrote on the booking form that you have a limit budget for this tattoo, I will talk to you about it to arrange something.

    5. There will be a non-refundable deposit of €200,- to start the process. This amount will be deducted from the total of the first session if you decide to get the tattoo. If you go on with the process, but after the design is ready you decide to not get the tattoo done, the €200,- will be kept, for my previous work and the A4 signed art-print (for more info, please check again the topic above “Do I HAVE to tattoo the design(…)?”)

    6. I will send you an invoice at the end of each session with the amount you chose from the sliding scale and the payment information.

  • The tattoo session is considered booked when we both confirm the date and time per email. If there is a cancellation at any time, I will keep the deposit of €200,-. Same thing if the person sees the design and decides to not tattoo: the deposit will be kept for the work already invested. In both cases you will still receive the A4 signed digital art print (as long as you come pick it up at the studio or pay for the shipping).

    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 a nutritious meal before your appointment.

    1. 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 be signed before the session where this information will be clearer, but it is just to make sure we talked about this before we meet.

    2. 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). Plus, alcohol makes your blood thinner so that is not good for tattooing.

    3. As we will be mostly all day long at the studio, 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.

    4. 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, books and sometimes a dog (!) to pass the time.

    5. 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 there 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 (or less depending on the tattoo, I will orient you on that after the tattoo session) 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 this BEFORE we schedule the session if the dates coincide).

    6. Use the cream Cicaplast Baume B5 for the next week, 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 :-)