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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

(OR, EVERYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GETTING A TATTOO FROM ME)

THE BASICS

Where are you located?

I work at a private, by-appointment-only studio, Constellation Tattoo Collective, at the Workshop St Johns complex at 6635 N Baltimore Ave, Suite 292, in north Portland, Oregon on unceded Chinook land. The studio complex is large and labyrinthian, so make sure to view the story highlight “Shop Directions” on my Instagram profile.

What is your name? (This is on my Instagram profile but I guess it’s an uncommon name & confuses some people!)

My name is AB Moore, and my business is Valley Tattoo. “AB” is pronounced like the letters A and B- they’re initials, like “AJ”. You can call me “AB” or by my business title, “Valley.”

What pronouns do you use? (or, Help! This whole pronouns thing confuses me!)

I use they/them. I identify as a trans non-binary person. Please do not address me as “she, her, lady, girl, female, woman, femme, miss, it,” etc.

That’s ok, but please know that you are coming into an entirely trans owned and operated studio, and many of our clients are trans and/or non-binary as well. Try your best to take care with gendered language at our studio when addressing both artists and other clients. If you don’t know someone’s pronouns, just ask! Best practice is to introduce yourself to new people with both your name and pronouns, and they’ll typically return the gesture.

How long have you been tattooing?

I started tattooing in 2013, and was self-taught. I have been a licensed full-time tattoo artist since 2017.

What is your rate?

I price my work individually per piece using a flat rate sliding scale. Click here to read the complete sliding scale policy.

When filling out your booking form, I ask you to name your ideal budget, with your placement on my sliding scale in mind as a guide. Ultimately, I always design a piece that fits your stated ideal budget. If your budget doesn’t match your proposal, we will discuss if there’s a possibility to split the tattoo in multiple sessions to accommodate a higher budget, or if there are ways to simplify your design to have it fit within your budget.

How do you accept payment?

Cash is STRONGLY preferred. If you are unable to bring cash, please come prepared to pay via PayPal, CashApp, or Zelle. Please make sure you have one of these apps installed on your phone and ready to use the day of your appointment! They are both free. I cannot accept payments via Venmo or any other banking app, and I cannot accept credit/debit card swipes or checks.

How much is a deposit?

I require a non-refundable $150 deposit for all appointment types. This deposit will be taken out of the total price of your tattoo upon payment at your appointment. If you need to reschedule, you will be asked to pay an additional $50 deposit.

Do you have a drawing fee?

For custom work, I do not offer in-person consultations or provide preview sketches, so there is no “drawing fee” or “consultation fee”. If you request that your custom design be reworked by over 50%, you forfeit your deposit to accommodate a $75 redrawing fee. If you choose not to proceed with a tattoo (custom or freehand) after the drawing has been made, I will keep your deposit as a drawing fee (re: custom work, this fee does not double if the design has been redrawn.)

I charge a flat drawing fee of $150 for freehand work. Freehanding a design (drawing the design on skin with no stencil) can sometimes take 2-3 hours, depending upon the size and complexity of the design, and is exponentially more collaborative than custom work. This process gives you more opportunities to share your creative input as we create your drawing together, and a more specialized placement for the piece, because it is drawn to fit your body.

What is the difference between Custom, Freehand, and Flash appointments?

Custom Work appointments are for unique tattoo designs based upon your proposed idea & budget, drawn in advance of your appointment, which incorporate little to no freehanding in the tattoo process (all stenciled). I try my best to make your specific ideas come to life, and will have a finished drawing ready the day of your appointment for you to review, at which time you may request minor changes to the design before moving forward with the tattoo. I welcome your input and will do my best to fulfill your vision, within the limits of the medium, but if over half the tattoo must be redrawn, I charge a redrawing fee (see section above: “Do you have a drawing fee?”) Custom work is the best option for very specific ideas & details, species-specific animals & plants, scientific illustration, first tattoos, anxious/nervous people, tattoos based upon pre-exiting artworks, anything small/medium and detailed, framed designs, and designs with geometrical elements.

Freehand appointments are for tattoos drawn on your skin the day of your appointment. By selecting a freehand appointment, you are consenting to giving me total creative freedom, and will not be able to preview a refined sketch at your appointment date. Sometimes I will have a rough compositional sketch ready the day-of, or will make one with you to give you an idea of what I’m going to do— but generally, you should expect not to see a sketch of your tattoo until I have drawn it onto your skin. This is the best option for large pieces, textural pieces, complex placement ideas, body-contour/musculature-specific placement ideas, gap-fillers, blast-overs, dragons and mythical creatures, and adventurous folks who really like my drawing style and are are not concerned with specific details. It is NOT a good option for scientific illustration of specific flora & fauna, geometry, and small pieces.

Flash appointments are for pre-existing drawings tattooed with no changes. Flash pieces are sold at flat rates dependent upon scale & level of detail. Flash will occasionally be released via my newsletter, or on Instagram for last-minute booking opportunities outside of my standard booking cycle. (I do not currently have a Flash Book to view at the studio.)

What is your Covid safety protocol? Do you require masks?

I require my clients to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and wear masks to the studio. If there is a medical reason you cannot get the vaccine, please indicate this when submitting a booking request, and have a negative Covid test no more than two days old to present at the time of your appointment. This is for the safety of my immunocompromised coworkers, as well as for the safety of my household. Everyone at my studio wears masks and requires our clients to wear masks at all times while in our studio. We run an air purifier and use hospital grade virucide & disinfectant on most surfaces.

Do you tattoo over scars?

Yes! Scars should preferably be at least two years healed, with occasional exceptions. I have plenty of experience tattooing over scars- if you have any questions or concerns, however, we can discuss them during our email consultation and throughout your appointment.

Do you do cover-ups?

It depends. My style is primarily linework-based, which does not lend itself to full cover-ups, and I do not work in color, which tends to be the best option for significant cover-ups. However, if what you’d like covered up is a small, faded handpoke, for example, I can totally work with that. If you aren’t concerned with totally covering up a tattoo, a blast-over is an option that works well with my style. (A blast-over is tattooed on top of older tattoos to create a layered effect, with the older tattoo still mostly visible beneath the new tattoo. A cover-up is a tattoo that completely or mostly covers the older tattoo.)

Will you do color tattoos?

No. Full-color tattooing is not my expertise. I am interested in exploring color tattooing, but I am not confident enough with my skill set to offer this to clients yet. I will consider single color elements under very special circumstances, but will need sufficient notice to see if a coworker has color ink I can borrow for the task. I do not personally stock color ink for my own work.

Is there anything else you won’t tattoo?

I won’t tattoo another tattooer’s work or a tattoo based on an artwork reference (from Pinterest, google, or otherwise) without knowing the artist and having their permission (if living) or being able to credit them for the design. I don’t do human portraits and I dislike tattooing trees as a dominant subject matter; I just don’t like drawing them, and I’m just not your artist. I won’t tattoo in a cultural art style that is not my own (ie, Japanese style dragons, Thunderbirds, etc…) I am a white person of Scotch-Irish, Norwegian, German descent, and I consider this as cultural appropriation. I also do not tattoo runes due to the conflation between this content and fascist imagery/symbolism. I don’t tattoo mandalas, heavily geometric designs, spaceships, dreamcatchers, lady heads, traditional style, realism, or anime/manga. At this time, I am disinterested in tattooing pet portraits.

What days of the week do you work?

At the moment, I normally work Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 1pm. I do not work on Saturdays, as these days are reserved for a coworker at my studio.

Do you do guest spots in other cities?

I love guesting! I most commonly guest in studios in Baltimore, MD, Oakland, CA, and Asheville, NC. If you’d like me to come to your city, shoot me an email with a shop you recommend! I prefer to only work in queer-owned spaces.

To keep track of news & updates regarding my booking and travel plans, follow me on instagram at @v_a_l_l_e_y and sign up for my newsletter.

When will you email me back/respond to my DM?

I do not regularly check my email, and my assistant Jazzy is only part-time. I also miss most DMs. Please be patient and try not to take it personally! There is no set schedule for when I check and respond to emails.

Do you do walk-ins? Can I stop by the studio without an appointment (to talk or look at flash books, etc)?

No and no, Constellation Tattoo Collective is a private, appointment-only studio. We do all of our booking online, and do not have traditional flash books to peruse. We are also limiting the number of people in our small shared studio as a Covid precaution.

On a related note, please do not email me asking if you can slide into a time slot. When I arrange my appointment calendar, do not make room in my schedule for spontaneous booking requests. If I have spontaneous availability (due to a reschedule, no-show, etc), I will post about it on Instagram to fill the spot.

Won’t fine line tattoos fade more quickly than traditional tattoos?

Not if correctly applied. All tattoos spread and fade over time due to natural skin cell aging and UV exposure, no matter what style. I would like to note a few things here- 1) Wear sunscreen and you won’t have to worry about this. 2) I design tattoos with aging in mind- if you want a lot of details in your design, I will make sure to scale & design the tattoo appropriately. We can fit in more details on larger pieces. Please trust me! 3) Depending on how fine the lines are, some fine line pieces may heal to look more like a pencil drawing than an ink or marker drawing (think American Traditional tattoos). This doesn’t mean it’s a bad heal. Some people love this aesthetic! It’s all about personal taste, in my opinion. 4) Most of the tattoos you see on my Instagram are not what I would consider “fine line tattoos”- I never use single needles, although I do use super fine gauge, tight groupings, that often give the appearance of a single needle tattoo, but are easier to apply and heal more evenly (in my opinion and with the style I work in). I describe my style as “illustrative” because I usually use many different line width variations in my pieces, ranging from bold to fine. 5) Touch-ups are free for the first year, so if there were any application/technical or aftercare issues, they can be remedied.

BOOKING PROCESS

How do I schedule an appointment or consultation? 

Fill out and submit your tattoo proposal using the form on my Booking page. Please do not email or DM about appointment availability- this will be ignored.

After reviewing submitted proposals, I will notify you via email about the status of your proposal's acceptance. If I accept your proposal, I will share available dates with you, keeping your preferred availability in mind. Once you have selected a date that works for both of us, you will be prompted to secure your appointment with a non-refundable $150 deposit. Your deposit will be subtracted from the cost of your tattoo upon payment at the studio.

How do I know that my appointment is confirmed?

Your deposit is your appointment confirmation. Once you have sent your deposit, you’re all set. I will be in touch for your email consultation the week of your appointment only if I have any further questions! I will email you if I need to reschedule you, or if there are any other issues with your appointment date.

How does the email consultation work?

My consultation process is done via email, beginning with your submitted proposal form. When your proposal is accepted and your appointment confirmed, I will email you any thoughts and questions we have about your proposal (Please be patient, it may take me a few weeks to respond to everyone). Please respond to my questions as best you can and request any significant changes to your proposal (ie, scale, subject matter, placement) in this initial round of emails. I also welcome you to attach any references you may have at this time.

I reserve the right to cancel your appointment and keep your deposit if you “bait-and-switch”— if you significantly change your proposal concept once your appointment is confirmed. (ie, I booked you for a large custom dragon tattoo and you decide you want a palm-sized horse.)

When the week of your appointment date arrives, I may follow up with any additional questions about your design, but this is not a standard practice. If you haven’t received a follow-up email, it means that the initial booking process gave me all the information I needed to create your design or design concept.

Do you do in-person consultations?

No. I am confident that the email booking & consultation process is sufficient for most custom & freehand appointments, and for multi-session pieces, we will likely spend a lot of time at your first session appointment talking logistics about the tattoo.

Will I be able to see sketches or make changes to my design before my appointment? or, When will I see a sketch of my design?

No. If you have opted for a Custom appointment, I will have your finished design ready for you to see the day of your appointment, at the studio. You are welcome at this time to try on the design via stencil, request minor changes, play with scale, change your placement idea, or cancel your appointment if unhappy with the design (for day-of cancellations, I keep your deposit as a drawing fee). If I have to revise over 50% of the drawing, you will be asked to pay a $75 drawing fee and I will redraw your design for you. This is why your initial booking form is very important! Please be as specific as possible to avoid this scenario, and know that the work I create will always have my hand and style in it.

Regarding Freehand work- you will be able to make changes to your freehand drawing as I draw onto your skin. I will give you many opportunities to revise the direction of my sketch as I work on the drawing on-skin before tattooing begins.

The only changes you can make to flash tattoos is to scale- I can resize flash, but will not change the designs (unless we’ve discussed changes over email).

Can you send me a preview before I book or pay a deposit?

I do not send preview sketches for any appointment type or dollar amount, and definitely not before a deposit is made.

How do you determine a cost estimate for a tattoo? 

The complexity of design, variety of different subjects, line & texture detail, style of shading, placement on the body, and size of your design all influence the price of your tattoo. In general, fine lines take longer to execute than thick lines, stippling and black fill take longer than just linework, and wrapping placements, as well as placements with multiple muscle/skin transition zones take longer than flatter planes on the body like the forearm or thigh, and these are all things I take into consideration as well. When writing your proposal, please consider all of these factors to come up with your ideal budget- a number that reflects the sizing, placement, and level of detail you want to see. I do my best to work with and not exceed your specific stated budget. I never exceed an accepted ideal budget at payment without prior communication.

Do I need to include a numerical "ideal budget" on your Booking form?

Please include your best numerical estimate on this booking form- I want to design a piece for you within your ideal budget range! If you say "whatever makes sense," or "you decide," I may end up creating something way under or over your budget and then we will have to start over! This section on my Booking form is here so that I can design within your range, and determine how to work with you on your concept to have it fit your personal budget. I rarely, if ever, exceed the “ideal budget” on your booking form.

Can I commission you to design a tattoo for me for another artist to tattoo? Can I get a design that you have already tattooed?

Sorry, no. The design I create for each client is a custom, original drawing designed for me to tattoo with my hand. I have a separate rate for freelance art and illustration, and welcome projects like flyer and album art! Send inquiries to a.valley.b@gmail.com.

THE APPOINTMENT

When do I need to arrive for my appointment?

Please don’t arrive early. Your appointment time is the best time to arrive! If you do arrive early and the door is closed, please wait outside the studio. I will come get you when I am ready for you. If the door is open, come on in!

What do I need to bring to my appointment?

Bring layers of clothing- the studio is air conditioned and gets chilly. Also bring your valid ID, driver’s license, or passport, a mask, and cash! Bringing snacks and a water bottle is a good idea too, but we do keep snacks stocked and have glasses available for water at the studio.

Can I bring my friend/partner?

In general, yes, you are welcome to bring one friend, but please ask me first! As a pandemic precaution, we are limiting the amount of people in the studio at any given time, so if you are coming in on a day when other artists and clients are present, I may have to say no. Please don’t bring more than one person. If you’d prefer a private appointment with no other artists and clients at the studio, let me know- usually Mondays I can have the studio to myself.

Can I bring my ESA?

Oregon law specifically allows ADA service animals in tattoo studios, which unfortunately doesn’t include ESAs..

Is there a private bathroom at the studio? Are your bathrooms gendered?

Our studio does not have a private bathroom. There is one unisex single stall bathroom in the building, as well as larger multi-stall gendered bathrooms with key codes. The men’s room code is 1997, the women’s room is 1996. The unisex bathroom does not have a door code.

What if I need to cancel or reschedule?

Shoot me an email about it- I understand that life happens! In most cases, I will try to work with you to reschedule if I have room for it. Please give me 24 hours notice when possible. For day-of cancellations or no-shows, I keep your deposit.

Your deposit is non-refundable. If you must cancel due to a positive Covid test or symptoms, and are able to reschedule, I will honor your same deposit for the rescheduled tattoo. Otherwise, I request a $50 reschedule fee.

Should I tip? What’s an appropriate tip?

Tipping is not necessary, but is greatly appreciated! Industry standard for tipping is usually 20% to cover supply & studio rental fees, but I love and appreciate non-monetary tips as well (tapes, books, stickers, goodies, dead stuff, toys, Magic cards, cat treats). The cost of basic PPE and some of our studio’s most frequently-used disposable supplies have become more expensive and difficult to obtain due to pandemic-related supply chain issues. Your tip helps me to offset the increase in cost of supplies.

What kind of ink do you use? Is it vegan?

I use Waverly Bluebird and Waverly Dark Black for my black inks. Both are vegan, and made with powder pigment, distilled water, alcohol, and kosher vegetable glycerin. And made in Baltimore!

What kind of bandage do you use for your completed tattoos?

I use Recovery Derm (breathable, watertight, sealed transparent adhesive bandages) to wrap your tattoo post-procedure, unless you have sensitive skin or are allergic to adhesives- this kind of bandage optimizes healing! If you opt out of this bandage, we have non-adhesive alternatives.

How should I care for my tattoo after my appointment?

I will be giving you both verbal and written aftercare instructions after your tattoo (or first session) is complete!  But if you want to get a head start, stock-up on your favorite unscented moisturizer, liquid antibacterial soap, and paper towels. For more information and recommendations, click this link.

How do I get in touch for a touch-up?

Email me at valleytattoo.booking@gmail.com, and please attach a photo and a brief explanation of what you would like to be touched up. I try to keep a few days open in my schedule each month to accommodate touch-ups, reschedules, etc- so once I see your email I will let you know what dates are available. Touch-ups are always free up to a year after your initial appointment. After a year, I require a $50 supplies/time fee. This is because touch-ups are intended to fix or finish a tattoo I have made that hasn’t healed as desired- not as maintenance after sun damage, poor aftercare, or a life lived! Even with proper aftercare and diligent sun protection, tattoos exist in your living skin, and a touch-up cannot reverse, revive, or remedy a tattoo that has changed naturally due to time, aging, and inevitable sun exposure. This doesn’t mean I’m not available for maintenance sessions for year+ aged pieces, but I will ask for you to manage your expectations about what we can and cannot change and will price such sessions on a case-by-case basis.

Will you share my tattoo on Instagram? Will you tag me?

You will be asked to sign a consent form before your tattoo begins- one of the sections on the form asks whether or not I have permission to share the photo on Instagram (or my website, marketing materials, etc). You are welcome to opt out! Please feel free to remind me at the end of your appointment, as well, and to let me know if you’d like to review and delete any photos I have taken of the work- I encourage this for tattoos in sensitive (or oft-censored) placements, but anyone is welcome to this review of my photos. I will always ask for your consent before photographing you & your tattoo.

Please know that I am social-media-avoidant and do not usually post finished tattoos right away, and I don’t always share every tattoo I make online! Maybe I didn’t get a great photo, I forgot, or I’m not interested in more inquiries for a specific kind of work at the moment (Instagram is, after all, a marketing tool for my business.) If I don’t share your tattoo, please don’t take it personally! You are welcome to email or DM me for the photos I took of your tattoo for you to share as you will.

I generally do not tag my clients’ personal social accounts when sharing my work on Instagram. However, if you are another maker, creative, or small business badass and could use a boost, please let me know, and I will absolutely tag you/your business!

What’s the best way to take/send healed photos?

The best healed photos are taken straight-on, not at an angle, with natural light- for tricky placements, it’s best to ask a friend to photograph it for you. Try to avoid stark shadows/lighting- I want a photo that clearly shows how the tattoo has healed and settled. Seeing healed photos helps me to grow as an artist. A tattoo will be fully healed one month after your appointment, so wait until at least one month to send me your photo. Email your photos to me at valleytattoo.booking@ gmail.com.