First event with Power Palette

[CCink]

Last night was my first event with my new Power Palette.
I'm hooked.

I liked getting the different hues with the color wheel. I got, brown, BROWN! :)

Even people who had seen other tatists were impressed with the color wheel and my single gun action. :cool:

True, I was kinda slow at first, but picked up speed as the night went on. I think I averaged about 16 tats an hour. :o
I think I'll get faster before our public event bookings.

This event was a TV show wrap party in a steak house/bar. from 7PM to 10PM and I had to be at my day job the next morning. Not having to clean and break down a six-gun setup, I was in bed in 30 mins.

I found instructions on this forum from March of 2007 with information on how to make a stand (http://www.tatstore.com/forum/showthread.php?p=69#post69) , worked great and pretty convenient, no tipping and looked good.

There is a lot of good, useful information in this forum. Thanks you guys for all your help.

[BigBob]

Ok, I've got to ask. So far I am having a lot of trouble getting brown. I know it is supposed to be a mix of green and orange but I either get green or I get orange. I can't seem to find a spot in between to get a mix. What's the trick?
By the way, congrats on your gig. My first one is a 3 day rattlesnake festival in mid April and I'm really looking forward to it.
You're right about this forum. Reading it is what convinced me to start this crazy adventure at 62!
Big Bob

[jjrardin]

Congrats on the gig. I was curious about somebody going from multi guns to the PP. I have only used the PP, and it is cool and all, but I don't have anything to gauge it off of. It's good to know you prefer it over the multi gun setup.

Hey Big Bob,
I took out the green because you can get green with blue and yellow, and I mixed green, orange, and black until it was brown and I put that in the last bottle. To get tan, I get the brown going, turn it to white and get tan long enough to do a TAT. Are you going to the Apache Rattlesnake deal? I hear it's a barn burner :) I was gonna go, but I found one closer to home.

[BigBob]

Jim,
Thanks for the idea on getting a brown for the PP. I'll try that one. And, yes, it's the Apache show I'm doing. I hear there are 2 other tatists there but it's real close to where I live and it will be good experience for a new tat artist. I'll let you (and the rest of the forum) know the results when I get home. I have to get me a camera before then so I can get some pics.
Bob

[jjrardin]

There should be plenty of people for 3 TATists. I did a small event with one competing guy, but his stuff wasn't as nice as my TATstore stuff, and I did very well with higher prices. Good luck, I can't wait to see some pics :)

[one1wizard]

Hello jjrardin,

When you say you do better with the higher prices, do you mean high price events or do you mean higher price tats,
If it is the tats may I ask you what you charge for your tats.

Tony
tonyinflorida1@verizon.net
atattoo4u.com

[jjrardin]

Hey Tony,
I meant the TATs. His Tats were $3, 6, and 8 mine are:
Green $6 2 for 10
Blue and yellow $8 2 for 14
Red $12 2 for 20

I didn't get the manual with my used kit, so I came up with prices on my own. As a noob, I couldn't tell the difficulty difference between blue and yellow dots, so I charge the same.... they are still not very different, seems kinda arbitrary, it really doesn't matter though.

I have been very loose with the 2 fer pricing though for bffs and brothers and sisters, ect... not necessarily 2 on one person. I usually will stop a group of girls and tell them I have "2 fer" specials. Oh, I'll get one if you get one giggle giggle giggle.... I love it LOL

[noobie]

Can I ask how does one go about figuring how to price?

[JOAT]

I price my designs for volume and profit. I charge $5-$8-$!0 it keeps it easy and flowing so the crowd will know there is nothing over $10.

[etool]

Like you guys, I tried the green, and orange, and was less than satisfied. After playing with different ways of doing it, I came across a good mix. I do either a light coat of yellow, and then mist it with black for a lighter brown/tan, or for a darker brown, I spray orange, and then mist with black till I get the look I want. The bucking bronc was done with black over yellow, the lion, and horse were done with black over orange. Hope that helps.


http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20924205/342124444.jpghttp://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20114413/326055833.jpghttp://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20924216/342124673.jpg

[etool]

My mom started doing TATs before I did, and she played and played with the pricing. Started out with a base price for 1 color TATs, and added a dollar for each color, tried a flat rate for colored and single color, different prices for different sizes, and everything in between. When I started shooting we still had not really settled on a good pricing system, and we were doing some shows together, and had to come up with a universal system so she wasn't quoting one price and me another. We settled on 5 for a small to medium single color, 8 for 2 colors, and 10 for anything over 2 colors. For large, armbands, and back tats, it is 10 for single color, and 15 for multi colored. We have had no problems with those prices. Good luck!

[noobie]

It's interesting how people have different pricing I am wondering where everyone is from and how the cost of living is in everyones region. I would think one would charge more for tats in NY then someone in FL. I like the $5, $8 & $10 but is there a general rule of thumb? Like anything over 3" is considered medium or am I being way too technical? lol

[worliness]

by colored dots. We have a poster with the price matrix on it. Green dots are $5 (one color), Yellow are $7 (two colors), Blue are $10 (as manycolors), and Red/Pink are $14 (as many colors). This makes it very easy for the customers, even the young ones. We have the prices posted on the same display as our tattoo designs.

[noobie]

Okay I see. Do you make your own prices and then use the colored dots? And what about size of the tat? For instance if you have a yellow dot $7.00 tat for one person wanting a small design and another yellow dot for someone wanting a large design, do you charge extra for the larger tat? Because you'd be using more ink?

[Tat2guy]

noobie: what we do is say its the paws or foot prints we just spray a couple of them on the customer and leave a couple of tracks like they are walking off. The customer thinks it cool and I feel better about charging that price for such a small tattoo.

[etool]

up to the individual. We used the same price structure in KY and IN that we used here in MI, and we had no problems. I have no clue who came up with the dot system, and I really do not like it. Some of the designs that are one color dot are harder to do than others with the same color, and some are easier than dots that are supposed to be harder. We base our price on how much ink it will take, and how hard it is to do. An Arm band for example, while not taking much ink, is a alot harder to do than say one of the sports balls with the flame. You have to keep the arm band lined up, especially if they want more than 1 color in it. So the arm band 1 color is the same price as the sports ball multi color, $10.00. The sports ball 1 color is $8.00 because it takes so much ink, the arm band multi color is $15.00 because of the difficulty, it takes longer. I can shoot 3 sports balls faster than I can do 1 arm band. The same applies to back TATs, while they may not take as much ink, when they want multi colors, they take longer, and are harder to do, for example the butterfly tribal. It takes way more time to do, so we charge more.

None of our TATs go over $15.00 unless the customer wants to combine stencils. For example, I did a dagger with a fire bird in the center, 2 stencils, each stencil alone was $8.00, but the combination was $20.00 because i had to tape off parts of the dagger stencil, and line things up, and shoot parts of the design more than once.

I did an arm TAT that I charged $30.00 for. She wanted 2 stenicls, with 1 of them shot twice, and in 2 colors.

I did another TAT that I charged $25.00 for. Again 2 stencils, 1 was 3 colors, and one was 2 colors, but she wanted them stacked.

No magic formula, or rule.
http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20218811/328139323.jpg

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20218811/328139016.jpg

[worliness]

our own dots. We go in order of difficulty and use of ink. Noobie: The dots are placed beside the tat design on our flash board. If they pick out our Metallica design, it has a yellow dot beside it and they know that it is $7. Now they get 2 colors with that, but if they want three colors, it is $1 extra for each additional color (which would make their tat $8). I hope that this helps explain a little better.

We like the dot system. We use it on all of our boards, even the ones we make ourselves. Most of the ones we sell they ask for the dots, as well. I have had one request for letters to be used, but I think that would get confusing, considering some stencils have letter in the stencil number. What system do you use etool?

[noobie]

I accidently found these responses. I don't seem to have the nak for finding my own posts LOL. This helps so much.
Now, etool? let me go figure out what that all is and I'll get back. This time I will write down how to get back in...
TatStore Forums > Equipment > Airbrush Color-Changers > First event with Power Palette

[etool]

Generally speaking, a customer will look at the banner(supplied by TAT Store with system), while they are looking, I do the hi how are you thing, ask if they see something they like, or if they are looking for a particular design. Most generally, they say yes, and want to know how much. I tell them the prices range from $5.00 to $15.00 depending on size and colors. After they choose the design, and how they want it colored, I give them the price.

Most of the designs are close to actual size on the banners, so you can tell by looking at them about how much ink, and how long it will take. The small to medium TAT's we do for $5.00-$6.00 1 color. If they want 2 colors, then we charge $6.00-$7.00. If they want 3 or more colors they are $8.00-$10.00. Large TATs, including all the arm bands, and back(tramp-stamp) TATs start at $10.00 for 1 color, and $15.00 for multi-color.

If there are a few people together we do occasionally give discounts, but most of the time we charge full price for each TAT. And we really push for the crystal accents on several or the designs. We charge $1.00 per crystal, and we really moved a lot of them last season once we made the effort. They give that little bit of sparkle and the kids love them.

To give a couple for examples, the 4 stars I believe it stencil #6, on the poster/banner is 3 colors, 2 colors for the stars, and a white dot in the center of each star. For the tri-color TAT I would charge $7.00. We sell them all day long at that price. But, I tell them I can do that design 4 ways. Tri-color like on the poster, 2 color(no white dot in the center) for $6.00, 1 color for $5.00, or I can do it 2 colors with a crystal in the center of the top star for the same price as the tri-color. This is by far one of the most popular TATs we do, and people pay $7.00 without a 2nd thought.

Another of our most popular ones is #179 the tribal butterfly. Anyone who has shot this TAT knows that it takes a little bit of time. There is a lot of color, and a lot of detail. We charge $10.00 for 1 color, and $15.00 for multi-color. Once and a while we will do it 2 colors for $12.00. We sell these all day long for $15.00.

And another of our most popular designs, #117, the Grim Reaper. This is one of my favorite to shoot, and another one that gives our customers several options. I can shoot it 1 color for $8.00, 2 colors for $10.00, and then I offer them the option to fill it in for $15.00. By filling it in, I mean once I shoot the stencil, I go back, and actually fill the skull in with white, and the hood any color they want(most popular colors are blue and red). And finally, after they decide the colors they want, they can choose to use crystals for the eyes, for an extra $2.00.

SO as you can see(I hope), I give my customers a VERY wide range of options, and I price them according to what my customers want based on size and difficulty. You can see more of the work I do, and the creativeness of my customers on my site, but I will post a pic of each of the above examples here.

I hope this helps. :)

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20250877/328952358.jpg

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20250877/328782227.jpg

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20218811/328140325.jpg

[etool]

We charge $8.00 for the first 3 letters, and $2.00 per letter after that. A single letter is $3.00.

In Paintsville KY, I actually did the words TRAMP STAMP across 2 girls lower backs. They paid $20.00 each. I cut them a break on price because there 2 of them, and it was funny as hell.

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2196/11313640/20924205/342124452.jpg

[noobie]

I found my way in (had to right down and still had a bit of a time) but thanks for typing all of that. It will take me some time as I will be reading this over and over again til I have it all absorbed. I am going to check out that site. later!

[Tat2guy]

Etool: The little white dot in the stars isn't really a dot of white paint. It is a airbrush technique called edgeing. Take your airbrush and spray just the edges of the stars in a circle leaving the center paint free. This technique can be use on several stencils for a really cool effect. It works very well on white people and lite skined spanish and black people.

[etool]

We always thought it was a dot, lol, and so have our customers. I will keep that in mind.