Tattooing: how long should it take?

Whats a reasonable range of time for it to take to give someone a new tat?

The formula I'm coming up with is going to be based on the complexity of the tattoo and skill of the tattooist, but thats not the question on the table. What I need to know is, how many minutes it takes to ink someone.

Example tattoo that a player has:
%N has a tattoo of a Chinese dragon on %p left arm that wraps around %p arm. Its tail starts out on %p forearm and the head ends up at just below his shoulder. The cyborg looking dragon has slanted eyes that are alive with blue lightning. The claws of the dragon dig into %N's skin. The open mouth of the dragon is lined with razor sharp teeth that look like they could hurt you. The dragon has metallic tentacles flowing out from behind its pointed metal ears.

How long should it take to apply something like that given your tattooist isn't a n00b at doing it.

By Johnny at Jul 18, 2003 1:52 PM

Anyone have any input to this?

By Johnny at Jul 18, 2003 7:33 PM

I've never gotten a tatoo so I really don't have a point of reference.

By Hirononbu at Jul 18, 2003 7:34 PM

Depends on a lot of things. Some people are bleeders and have to have it done in two sittings. Some tattoo artists are slow (but precise...just the way I like 'em).

Realistically, a tattoo all around your arm would have to be done in a freaking marathon session or in multiple sittings. Now, I haven't had any ink done yet (waiting on some money), but I know a tattoo artist and my bro got some. We're talking hours here.

Best to pawn off the time on 'future technology(tm)' and just pick times that seem reasonable. Base it on character length or number of lines, and make it possible to split it into multiple sessions.

By Murphy at Jul 18, 2003 10:38 PM

What i think we need here is somewhat of a IRL:MOO ratio of how long it should take. I have two on my left forearm, that combined took around 4 hours.

So if they get something that takes up about the area of a dollar bill on their arm, what if we just cut it in half from the real world? A dollar bill area worth of ink takes 4 hours, we make it take 2. If you think about it, it would have to be something reasonable like that so they dont get too bored.

Im sure it might make it easier on the artist as well. They could go as far as to go talk to their local tat shop and get estimates on what projects take what amount of time.

Then all you have to do is post em on this topic..

By Sidd at Jul 19, 2003 12:24 AM

This is probably already taken care of. My thought would be to have it take longer the more text you have. *shrugs*

By Stonemonk at Jan 2, 2004 10:53 AM

I'm with Stone on this...

Even with future tech, i can see it taking a while... too long MOO time. NO ONE... and I mean NO ONE will want to sit for 2 hours and wait to get a tattoo... it could be interesting RP... but what are you going to do?

I'd say make it a formula that gives a base time on how many characters in the tattoo itself. Say, every 5 characters is another 2 seconds. Or something. Figure in the skill of the tattoist to reduce that, with a minimum cap on how long it can take.

By Lucifer at Jan 2, 2004 11:12 AM

I'm going to close this topic because tattoo guns have been in the game for a while, and they do take a variable amount of time depending on how long the tattoo is.

-Kevlar

By Kevlar at Jan 2, 2004 11:13 AM

Tattooing seems to be coded at this point, and from my experience it may follow a code similar to what Lucifer suggested. But regardless, its here. :Pfleurtygirl

By Aikao at Jan 2, 2004 11:15 AM

-	Ameliorative	13m
-	QueenZombean	15s
-	Napoleon	5m
-	BigLammo	2m	youtu.be/NZR4EeTkRqk
-	zxq	1m
-	Ralph	1h
a	Mench	25s	Doing a bit of everything.
And 23 more hiding and/or disguised

Tattooing: how long should it take? what do you think is reasonable?

Tattooing: how long should it take?
what do you think is reasonable?