Full sleeves, back pieces and other large scale black and grey realism, planned session by session for clients across Glasgow and Scotland.
A full sleeve or back piece is a different undertaking from a single tattoo. It has to work as one coherent piece of art across a large, moving, three dimensional surface, hold together in composition from every angle and still make sense years after the last session is finished. Most studios aren't set up to take this kind of project on properly, because it doesn't fit into a single afternoon appointment.
This studio works only at this scale. Large scale black and grey realism, planned as a proper multi session project from the very first conversation, for clients across Glasgow, East Kilbride and the rest of Scotland.
A single small tattoo can be designed and inked in one sitting because there's very little room for the composition to go wrong. A sleeve or back piece has to account for how the design flows around the arm or across the shoulders, how separate elements relate to each other rather than existing as isolated images and how the whole thing reads at a glance rather than as a collection of parts.
That's why nothing here starts with a price or a quick sketch. It starts with a proper concept and placement consultation, exactly as described on the Investment page, where the studio's flagship Guaranteed Realism Project structure exists specifically to remove the three things clients worry about most on a big piece: how it will look, what it will cost and what happens once it has healed.
Every full sleeve, full leg and back piece here is built as a Guaranteed Realism Project. It exists to remove the three worries that stop people starting a big piece: not knowing how it will look, not knowing what it will cost and not knowing what happens once it has healed.
You see it before it is real. Your design is planned with you at a free consultation, drawn once you have booked with your deposit and sent to your client portal to approve and adjust. You also see it placed on a photo of your own body. Nothing is tattooed until you have signed it off.
You know the cost before you start. One fixed project fee is agreed at consultation and covers every session. If the piece needs more time than planned, that time is on me, in writing.
It is guaranteed once healed. When your piece has fully healed, send me photos through your client portal and I will ask you in if anything needs a closer look. If any area has not healed to the standard we planned, I put it right free of charge at any time in the 12 months after it has fully healed. Follow the aftercare and keep it out of the sun while it heals and the guarantee stands.
Most full arms take five to seven days, full legs six to eight and back pieces eight to twelve, with sessions every second week. You will get your own number at consultation.
Composition planned for the body it's going on, not just the paper it's drawn on. Session pacing that respects how skin actually heals between sittings, rather than rushing a large area for the sake of finishing quickly. And consistency of technique across every session, so the earliest work and the most recent work still look like they belong to the same piece once it's finished.
Seeing the design on a photo of your own body is part of every project for exactly this reason: you see how it sits on you before the first line goes in, rather than trying to imagine it from a drawing.
Large scale realism amplifies every weakness in an artist's technique, because there's simply more surface area for a mistake to be visible on. Two decades of dedicated, self taught technique is what makes taking on this scale of project sustainable rather than a gamble, for the client and for the piece itself.
It varies by design complexity and how much detail the piece calls for, but sleeves are planned across multiple sessions from the outset, with pacing built around your skin and schedule rather than rushed to a fixed date. I have written a full guide to how long a sleeve tattoo takes and another on what a realism sleeve costs in Glasgow.
Yes, before your first session. The design is planned together at your free consultation. Once you are booked it is drawn up and sent to your client portal with a mock up on a photo of your own body, so anything can be tweaked first.
That's part of why the Foundation tier exists, a standalone piece can be planned from the start to leave room to grow into something larger later, if that's the direction you want to take it.
Yes, back pieces are one of the primary large scale projects the studio takes on, alongside sleeves and other multi session commissions.
Apply for a consultation with your idea and roughly where you're picturing it. Large scale projects always start with a proper conversation, not a quote.
Apply for a consultation and tell me about your idea, placement and size.
Apply for a consultation