Traditional & blackwork · Bengaluru
Nearly everyone chooses a design on a phone, pictures it small, and gets a shock when the stencil goes on. So here it goes onto a life-size drawing of the part of you it is meant for — before you commit to anything.
Three artists · Minimum charge ₹2,500 · Walk-ins for small flash
The wall
Nothing on this page is stock art. Ravi and Sneha drew all eight, and they are tattooed straight off the wall. Choose one and it drops into the size tool below.
Sizes and prices above are the same design on a forearm, so they compare like for like. Both move with the size you choose.
Actual size
Your design, on a life-size drawing of where it is going. Move the slider and the centimetres, the chair time and the price move with it.
Showing Swallow. Change4–8 cm
In proportion
Exact against the limb on any screen — it is a ratio.
Life size
Scroll inside the box if it runs past the edge — that is the point. Hold a ruler against the scale to check it.
The easiest first placement. Flat, easy to reach while it heals, and one of the least painful areas we work on. Heals in about two weeks.
We print a stencil and place it on you before any needle touches skin. You can change your mind then. Nobody has ever annoyed us by asking to move a stencil.
Adult average measurements, not your arm. The tool also stops you sizing past the width of the limb, because a flat drawing cannot show a design carrying on around it.
Detail costs time and two artists work at different speeds. Minimum charge ₹2,500, whatever the size — it covers setup, a fresh needle and cartridge, and the artist's time.
Probably not, until you tell it. Browsers assume every screen is 96 pixels per inch and almost none are — on a typical phone a “centimetre” drawn this way comes out around 7 mm.
Fix it once and this device remembers: hold any bank card against the box and drag until it matches. Every bank card is 85.6 × 53.98 mm.
3.78 px/mm — the browser default
The other panel does not depend on this at all. It is a ratio, so it is right on any screen, calibrated or not.
Custom work
Custom work needs a ₹2,000 deposit that comes off the final price. Flash off the wall doesn't. The deposit pays for drawing time, which happens whether or not you turn up.
Move the appointment with 48 hours' notice and the deposit moves with it, once. If we cannot draw something you are happy with, you get it back in full.
We will take another tattoo as a reference and draw you your own version. We will not copy one line for line. We don't do colour realism or portraits — ask and we will point you at someone who does.
01
References welcome — photographs, other tattoos, a bad phone sketch. Tell us placement and rough size.
02
In the shop or on the phone. This is where we say if something will not work at the size you want. We will say it.
03
₹2,000, five to ten days. You see the drawing before the appointment, and two rounds of changes are included.
04
Placed, looked at, moved if you want it moved. Then we start.
The artists
We work differently enough that choosing the right one matters more than choosing the right day. Not sure? Leave it on no preference and we will put you with whoever suits the piece.
Bold traditional
14 years working
Learned on a hand-drawn sheet wall in Kochi and still draws on paper before anything goes near a machine. Single-weight outlines, flat colour, black that still reads at arm’s length in ten years.
Won't: Colour realism and portraits — he will tell you who in the city does them well.
On the wall
Blackwork and dotwork
9 years working
Works almost entirely in black — solid fill, stipple, and negative space cut out of it. Slower than Ravi by design: large black areas need a steady hand and a client who can sit.
Won't: Dotwork under about 5 cm. The dots close up as it heals and turn into a grey smudge.
On the wall
Lettering and script
11 years working
Keeps no flash, because lettering is drawn to the words. Send the exact text and the placement and he comes back with two or three treatments. He sets the line breaks himself and he is usually right.
Won't: Very small script. Under about 4 mm of letter height it closes up within five years.
No flash on the wall, on purpose — lettering is drawn to the words, so there is nothing to keep on a sheet.
First tattoo?
Most people who walk in here are on their first or second. None of this is meant to talk you into it or out of it.
If you are still unsure, come in and ask. There is no consultation fee, and we would far rather spend ten minutes telling you a design will not read at 4 cm than tattoo it anyway.
Book
This is an enquiry, not a confirmed slot. We ring you back to agree the design, the price and a date. Nothing is charged through this form.
Your design, placement and size come from the wall and the size tool above — choose them there and they arrive with this. If you would rather just describe it, say so in the last box.
Prefer to talk? Ring the shop, or walk in for anything small.
Aftercare
Printing this page prints only these instructions. If it contradicts what your artist said on the day, do what your artist said.
Redness spreads outward after day three, it gets hotter or more painful instead of less, there is yellow or green discharge or a smell, you have a fever, or a raised itchy rash spreads. See a doctor first, then tell us on +91 80 4123 8867 — we keep a record of every ink batch.
One free touch-up within three months on anything we tattooed, as long as it was looked after. Small gaps after healing are ordinary, particularly in solid black and on hands, feet, elbows and knees. Ones needed because it was picked, sunburnt or swum in are charged at the minimum.
Find us
Address
2nd Floor, 14 Wood Street+91 80 4123 8867
bookings@ironhandtattoo.in
Second floor, above the framing shop, no lift. Tell us when you book if that is a problem and we will move you to the ground-floor room, which we keep for exactly this. Trinity Metro is eight minutes on foot.
Hours
| Tue–Sat | 12:00–20:00 |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 12:00–18:00 |
| Monday | Closed |
Last walk-in is taken 90 minutes before close. Appointments run to the booked time — more than 20 minutes late and we usually have to move you.
Age and ID