What to expect at your first tattoo consultation in London

A tattoo consultation is where a rough idea turns into an actual plan: a sized, placed design with a rough session count and price attached. It’s also your best chance to judge whether a studio and artist are the right fit before you commit to anything permanent.

What a proper consultation covers

At minimum, expect a conversation about your reference images or general concept, rough size and placement on the body, and how the design might need to change to suit your skin and that specific spot. A good artist also asks about any tattoos you already have nearby, your skin tone, and how you want the piece to age over the years, not just how it looks as a fresh drawing.

Pricing should come up clearly at this stage too: whether you’re quoted an hourly rate, a day rate, or a flat price, and whether the design work itself is included or billed separately.

Questions worth asking

Question	Why it matters
Is this an hourly rate or a fixed price?	Avoids surprises on the final bill
How many sessions do you expect this to take?	Helps you budget time and money realistically
Can I see healed examples in this style?	Fresh photos don’t show how ink actually settles
What’s your policy on revisions before the appointment?	Some studios include a round or two, others charge extra
What happens if I need to reschedule?	Deposit policies vary widely between studios

Bringing clear reference images helps more than a vague verbal description. Even a handful of photos showing the style, level of detail and rough placement gives the artist something concrete to build from.

Red flags worth noticing

A consultation that skips straight to a price without discussing your design, placement or expectations is worth being cautious about. So is an artist who won’t show healed work, or one who pressures you to book on the spot rather than giving you time to think it over. Most reputable studios are comfortable with you taking a day or two to decide, especially for anything larger or more permanent than a small piece.

Walk-in vs booked consultations

Not every consultation looks the same. Some studios run walk-in consultation slots where you can turn up, discuss your idea, and sometimes get tattooed the same day if it’s a simple piece and the artist has availability. Others work strictly by appointment, especially for custom or in-demand artists, where you’ll book a specific consultation time and then a separate appointment for the tattoo itself once the design is finalised. Neither approach is better, but it’s worth checking which model a studio uses before you turn up expecting one and finding the other. If you’re after a specific artist with a long waiting list, booking ahead is generally the only realistic option.

Video or email consultations have also become more common for clients who can’t easily get to a studio in person before the appointment day, particularly useful if you’re travelling into London specifically to get tattooed. These work well for straightforward designs but tend to be less suited to complex custom pieces, where an in-person conversation about placement and how the design sits on your actual body gives the artist more to work with.

Whichever format you use, treat the consultation as a two-way conversation rather than a formality to get through before the real appointment. The clearer you are about what you want, and the more openly the artist answers your questions, the smoother the actual session tends to go.

After the consultation

If everything checks out, most studios ask for a small deposit to secure your appointment slot, which typically comes off the total price of the tattoo. You’ll usually get a stencil to review at the appointment itself before any tattooing starts, so there’s a final check before the needle touches skin.

Browsing custom tattoo design studios in London before you commit gives you a sense of how different artists structure their consultation process. You can also read about how we weigh consultation quality in reviews on our scoring method page, and start from the home page to compare studios by style.