QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ May 26, 2010 -> 11:09 AM)
Yea, I heard a lot of bad things about Jade Dragon, that's why I stayed away.
Basically from what I read online, Jade Dragon is the type of tattoo shop that takes advantage of the fact that they have an old and popular shop and try to hype it up the shop by hopping onto the novelty of tattooing like they do on tv shows like "Miami Ink", "LA Ink", "Inked", and some other shows.
Basically it seems like they hire mediocre tattoo artists and give clients the false illusion that they're good artists just because they work for an "infamous" shop. A lot of stuff I read basically indicates that the tattoo artists there don't really care and actually prefer it if you pick crappy flash off the wall instead of doing custom work. And they overcharge you, too. That's why I stayed away.
I think there's lots of shops in Chicago. I got my 2 tattoos from Shred at Shred's Inferno on 63rd street (between Cicero and Pulaski, off of 63rd and Kildare) in the South Side of Chicago, and I was lucky I found this shop, because there's not much stuff online about it. Shred is a great artist, he is also the type that cares about doing great work in a safe, clean, and professional manner instead of getting recognition as a world class artist. Shred cares about the trade and not the fame, and that's awesome. :
Also, if anyone cares, Shred did Bulls' Derrick Rose's tattoos.
I also know there's a lot of tattoo shops in the south suburbs, a lot of them are way closer to my house, but I ended up choosing Shred as my artist despite the almost 1 hour drive.
Other shops in the south suburbs, off the top of my head, are:
*Tattoo City in Lockport, Larry Brogan is the owner and their best artist. However, his style wasn't what I was looking for, it was too much of a japanese-inspired style, so I passed him over. The online porfolios of the other artists in the shop also makes me glad I didn't get any of them to do my tattoos and that I shopped around instead. They also do piercings there, and it's a female piercer, so if I ever get my nipples pierced, then I might get it done there, ...yea I'm a masochistic perv, I know.
*Native Rituals on Cicero near 147th in Oak Forest, Apparently the owner of this shop once worked at Shred's shop. However, some of the artists' porfolios online were not my style, so I didn't go there. My sister got a lot of piercings from there and they seem to be a good place to get piercings at.
*Basement Ink on Cicero south of 159th in Oak Forest. I'm not sure who owns the shop now, since I just checked online and noticed stuff saying "under new ownership" so whatever I'm about to say probably doesn't apply anymore, so people should do their own homework before getting work done at this shop. The former owner used to be Stacy Laycoax, and she did AMAZING work. Before I found Shred, I was gonna have her do my first tatoo because her style was similar to what I was looking for. But when I went in, I found out she was involved in a motorcycle accident and broke her tattooing arm. I didn't want to be one of her first post-injury clients because I worried her linework wouldn't be the same, so I shopped around again. I'm not sure if Stacy Laycoax works there anymore or if she moved on to another shop, but if anyone ever think about having work done I would seriously ask her to show portfolio pictures of her work before and after her injury.
West Side Tattoo, Ruby Road off of route 30/Plainfield Road in Joliet. They have a very nice and clean-looking shop, but most of the artists didn't seem to care about me when I went there. They probably didn't take me seriously because I was getting my first tattoo, but one guy did take me seriously, it was Jason Cobb, and I really appreciated it. I paid him to draw up a sketch of what I wanted, but his style was very old-school (like sailor's tattoo style), and it wasn't what I was looking for, so I shopped around. Jason Cobb had a very nice porfolio of work, if anyone is looking for an old-school artist, then I would look him up. Also, some of my friends got tattoo'd here and got great work done.
Wolf's Fine Line on Route 30/Plainefield Road in Joliet, one of my friends told me that this guy sucked, so I stayed away.
Wolf's Tattoo Shop, Lockport near 159th street. This was the first shop I ever went into, and the owner of the shop was an asshole. He wouldn't listen to me about my ideas and basically treated me like a kid because he knew I was looking to get my first tattoo. He also refused to draw up a sketch (it was a custom design I wanted) even though it's common practice for most tattoo artists to draw up a preliminary sketch for a $50 deposit. He refused to draw up anything unless I got a tattoo that very day, which indicates to me that he probably does mostly flash tattoos and crappy little tiny tattoos for spontaneous customers. Stay away from this guy, however, the last I heard this guy's shop closed down, but I didn't verify it though.
Other shops I know of but don't know much about them are:
*Firehouse Tattoo: on Harlem Ave near 70th street in, I think, Burbank.
*South Side Tattoo: on Harlem near 80th street in, I think, Bridgeview.
*Koolsville Tattoo, north of 87th street on Roberts Road in Justice. I went in once to check it out, they seem very clean, but I didn't look at their porfolios too much, so I can't really say much about the artists.
*Tattoo Illusions, somewhere on the east side of Roberts Road in Justice. Forgot exactly where it was, but they have a clean-looking shop. Again, I didn't look too much in their porfolios, so I can't say much about this shop, either.
*Tattoo Depot, on southwest corner of 79th and Roberts road in Justice. Don't know anything about this shop.
*Machine Tattoo, on 111th in Chicago Ridge. Don't know anything about this shop.
There's other shops I know of in the city of Chicago itself that I heard have great artists, such as Deluxe Tattoo and Cherry Bomb Tattoo, but I didn't look much else into those shops besides hearsay.
All in all, I'm glad I found Shred and got my tattoos done by him, because it's a case of finding the right tattoo artist with the right style I was looking for to carry out the job.
And I guess the morale of the story of this post is: Don't settle for the first tattoo shop you go to, or the closest shop to your house. All of the 9 shops I listed from the South Suburbs (minus the ones in Joliet), are very close to where I live and are a very convenient few-minutes drive from my house, but I shopped around until I found the right artist to carry out what I was looking for. So shop around and don't let distance be a factor.
I'll keep Shred's Inferno in mind next time I'm in Chicago. Thanks, Don!