Custom Concepts

From idea to stencil

Every tattoo in this shop starts as a conversation, but custom work is where the conversation is the point. You bring whatever you have — a story, a handful of reference images, a meaning you want carried, or one sentence and a shrug — and the artist's job is to turn it into a design that could only belong to you. Some of the best pieces on our walls started as "I don't really know, but…"

How the process works

First a consult, free, at either shop: what the idea is, where it goes, roughly how big, and which styles you're drawn to. The artist then designs the piece — composition drawn to your body, not to a sheet of paper — and you review it before anything is permanent. Placement matters as much as the design itself: a piece that flows with the muscle it sits on will always beat the same image stamped on like a sticker.

Heritage, story and scale

Custom is where heritage pieces live — Aztec and Mexica work, religious compositions, family tributes — alongside full sleeves planned as one composition, and small pieces with a story too specific for any flash sheet. If the idea has weight to it, custom is how it gets carried properly.

Custom work at Tough It Out

Bring us the idea and we will tell you honestly what it wants to be — then put it in front of the artist who does that best. That's the shop's whole operating principle. Julio, Elias and the team specialise differently on purpose; your idea gets matched to the right hands, not to whoever is free.

A sentence is enough to start. Placement, rough size and a reference picture help — but nobody needs it figured out before they get in touch.