What We Do

Tattoo by Design is Eugene’s oldest tattoo shop.  We opened in 1985, and have always been at the same location in downtown Eugene on Lincoln Street.  Our shop has become the kind of place that our customers bring their kids when they turn 18 (it’s illegal to tattoo minors in Oregon), and in fact we’re tattooing people today who were coming in with their folks when they were little kids. 

Bonnie Jean has created a shop that caters to a wide range of people, from head-over-heels tattoo enthusiasts to folks that will probably get just one or two discrete tattoos their whole life.  Either way, our customers know that we care deeply about their tattoos, big and small.

If you’re interested in getting tattoo work from us, the place to start is by coming into the shop, meeting us, perusing our portfolios and checking out our work.  We’re generally open every day, afternoons and evenings, and we do both walk-ins and tattoos by appointment.  If you’re coming from out of town, it’s always a good idea to get to the shop in the early afternoon, in case we have openings; sometimes by the late afternoons we are booked solid for the rest of the day.

People are often curious about pricing their tattoos before they even have a certain design figured out.  It’s hard to price something that hasn’t been chosen or designed yet, but in general, there are some guidelines to how we price things.  Basically, every tattoo is priced by how long it is expected to take, but pricing varies with the experience of the artist and the length of the session – big sessions cost less per hour than small sessions.   The detail, size and placement on the body all affect the pricing, because difficult tattoos take longer.  For the best deals on longer sessions, ask about our Buy-A-Day for one or two people, which is a flat price for a whole day of tattooing with one artist.

We encourage you to visit our  studio even if you’re just curious, or know that your plans for tattoo work are a ways off in the future.  It’s good to get an idea of what you’re going to be doing, maybe even get a concrete plan for your artwork in place, before rushing in to get a tattoo on a whim.  And we encourage you visit all your local shops, to get a feel for how well different tattooists fit your plans.  We have wealth of artwork and resources in the studio itself, including thousands of pages of artwork and many custom designs by our artists, which have never been tattooed yet.

Something a lot of customers don’t realize it that, while you can find lots of designs on the web, a lot of other people are looking at the same designs.  Your small local studio is where you’re going to find unique, custom designs.  Just because a piece of art is in the books or up on the wall in a studio doesn’t mean that the piece has been tattooed before.

Tattoo designs are very personal, regardless of whether you pick from the wide selection we have in our studios, bring in something of your own, or are asking for custom designs. 

We’ve chosen not to put a lot of designs and photos on our website, for the privacy of our customers, and because we don’t want our very personal designs being duplicated all over the world.  We know this happens, because people bring in designs from websites all the time.  While we encourage our customers to let us change those designs and make them their own, how do we trust that all tattooists will have the same respect?

We do have some photos here on our site, because we want you to get the flavor of our work, and see our bright colors and clean linework.  To really get to know our work, please come visit our studios, meet us, and see what a great time we have creating artwork for people from all walks of life, and from all over the world.  Even if you don’t want a tattoo, it’s fun to pop in and watch the magic happen.

Lots of people already have tattoo work which they aren’t happy with.  Sometimes we can freshen up old tattoos, and sometimes we can design cover-ups which make their old tattoo disappear.  However, fixing up and covering up old tattoos is a very special kind of tattoo design, and not all tattoo artists understand how to approach these kind of tattoos.  For example, you can’t just plop any old design over a tattoo you are unhappy with, and expect it to disappear – if you haven’t designed it properly, the old tattoo will come through as a ghost image in your new design.

It takes a unique talent to take an old tattoo and turn it into a new “hey, I never knew you had a tattoo there” kind of tattoo.  If you have old work and you’d like to see what we can do with it, please come into the shop for a consultation.

The most beautiful tattoo doesn't mean much if the tattooist didn't protect your health. We comply with and exceed Oregon tattoo regulations.  Bonnie Jean, owner of Tattoo by Design, puts a priority on safe tattooing, and trains shop artists to the same standards. 

We use Standard Precau­tions to safe-guard your health. These are procedures which we follow to keep bacteria and viruses from transferring between people. All materi­als used for your tattoo are either disposed of immediately after your tattoo, cleaned with EPA-registered High Level Disinfectants (tuberculicidals), or sterilized in an autoclave sterilizer (needles, for example are always sterilized before use, even though we only use them once).   We test our autoclave on a weekly basis in compliance with OSHA regulations.

We are members of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, the first organization in our industry to prioritize edu­ca­ting artists about safe procedures. We also take part in continu­ing education to stay up-to-date on current health inform­ation. A tattoo at our shop is a safe tattoo - count on it!

Tattoo Pre-Licensing Program

Professional tattoo apprenticeships are traditionally two or three years long, though of course many people get into tattooing without much training.  We recommend that all tattooists get professional training, and offer a state-approved program to prepare aspiring tattooists for their licensing exam, and for an entry level position in a tattoo studio.  We typically accept one student a year, and work with our  students one-on-one to provide the best training. Click here for more information on our Tattoo Pre-Licensing Program.