This Freddy Krueger portrait is the result of a twelve hour (!) sitting conducted by Will at the Cardinal Tattoo booth during the Full Moon Tattoo and Horror Festival held Easter weekend at the Airport Marriott. See below for the breakdown of the awards won by Cardinal Tattoo at the show!
So you've decided to get your first tattoo. On your hand. Great.
But sorry, no. Not at Cardinal Tattoo. Not ever.
Unless you already have one of those done. Or you've already covered a large amount of your body with tattoo. Or you can prove to us that you're independently wealthy. Or a felon.
Here's why: There’s this thing called gainful employment and if you get your hands, neck, or face tattooed you can pretty much forget about it. Think about your dream job: great pay, benefits, lots of vacation time, totally awesomesauce. One problem, you can't have any visible tattoos. Life ruined. If you're rich this isn't an issue because rich people don't have to live by regular people rules and if you're a felon, well, you're already screwed, what's one more bad decision right?
People that are heavily tattooed are different. They've had time to adjust to the way society treats them and they've made peace with or at least learned how to maneuver in a culture that still doesn't accept them. In short, they've earned it. You? You're 19 and think you know better than someone who's been tattooing professionally for almost as long as you've been alive. You don't know what life has to offer and the hard road that you're paving for yourself because you don't want to listen to what those who have been through it are telling you.
So we're going to clear things up for you. If you want your hands, neck, or face tattooed and you don't meet the above criteria don't even bother. We'll tell you once what a bad idea it is, nicely, and if you insist you'll be asked to leave. Nicely. (We're always nice, until it's time to not be nice anymore. Thanks Patrick Swayze!)
Another important thing to remember about getting those impossible-to-hide tattoos prematurely: It doesn't speed you to the front of the 'We got a badass here' line. Quite the opposite, it makes you look like an ignorant jabroni, a poser, a jerk, a dipshit, moron or a tool, a dumbass or fuck stick, etc., etc., etc. So don't embarrass yourself. Tattoos are permanent and time should be invested into collecting them before you go all Al Pacino and jump in the deep end of the social reject pool with both feet by getting your throat or face done. I don't care what you saw on Pinterest, it's not cool.
But, if you're a tattooed badass (a real one) and you're ready to take the next step in your tattoo career, Cardinal Tattoo is the place for you!
Cardinal Tattoo will not be offering piercing until after 4pm on Thursday, June 13th.
As a matter of fact, we are toying with the idea of limiting our hours for piercing to a four-hour window: Either 3-7pm or 4-8pm. This will allow us to become more efficient at serving both our piercing customers as well as our tattoo clients.
For the past four years, Cardinal Tattoo has offered piercing services as a walk-in only service. Since we have become the only piercing establishment in Gallatin our piercing business has grown significantly, sometimes creating significantly long wait times to get pierced (more than 30 minutes). In order to alleviate this issue, we are instituting an abbreviated window of time to get a piercing and we will being accepting appointments for piercings in 10 or 15-minute windows of time. We would appreciate our customers’ opinion on this matter and will take every reasonable measure to make this transition a smooth one for everyone.
This will allow all of our piercing customers to receive prompt service and avoid protracted wait times. We will continue to revise the way we do business to better serve you! Log on to Cardinaltattoo.com for updates!
So many people come to Cardinal Tattoo to get black and grey portraits that sometime our proficiency in color realism goes overlooked. Will has long been regarded as one of the better realism tattoo artists in the area, and by area, we mean Middle Tennessee. His black and grey work has won awards across the country and as the photo above can attest, his color work's not too bad either. The only problem is, his portrait work tends to overshadow his color realism because people simply don't know what he can do. In the photo of these two roses, the bottom rose is healed and about a month old and the top rose and blue background are freshly done. If you or someone you know are interested in color photorealism, stop by Cardinal Tattoo on the historic square in Gallatin and speak with Will. He's expressed interest in balancing out the color-to-black and grey ratio of his recent work.
Will knocked out this Wednesday Addams portrait as part of a larger session at Cardinal Tattoo. The sheer fact that this is only half of the work that got done this day is a testament to Will’s unyielding work ethic. In a world where premier artists can be difficult to contact or book an appointment with, often taking long vacations or traveling frequently, Will books seven days a week, his books are never closed, and you can book with him simply by calling Cardinal Tattoo a 615 527-7102 and leaving your deposit over the phone. He charges a flat rate of $800 per day and only does one tattoo a day so he doesn’t have to split his focus between multiple clients in a single day.
Let’s repeat that in simpler terms: Will charges significantly less than the industry standard for artists of his caliber simply because he loves tattooing. He believes that everyone should be able to get good tattoos and that means keeping prices manageable and working a lot. He possesses an acute understanding of the finiteness of his career as a tattooer and spends most of his waking hours being the best he can be at what he does. Maybe they’ll write that on his tombstone one day.
This isn’t the first Leatherface that’s been done at Cardinal Tattoo and we hope it won’t be the last! Horror portraits have been a staple of Will’s portfolio since the beginning. We all share a deep affinity for horror movies and we eagerly await the release of the second part of Stephen King’s IT this fall. If you’re like us, you can’t get enough. It’s with that in mind that we request: More horror portraits please!
Geralt, of the Witcher video game series, is reportedly being portrayed in an upcoming Netflix series starring Henry Cavill, whom some of you will recognize as the most recent movie Superman. The creators of the game have said they love the show and Netflix has reportedly already approved the filming of a second season even thought the first has yet to be released. If all of this is true, fans of The Witcher are certainly in for a treat.
This particular portrait is quite large, and since it’s on a side we elected to choose the better part of valor and live to fight another day. Stay tuned to cardinaltattoo.com for updates on this stunning Witcher portrait tattoo!
These photos are the healed shots of the skull tattoo posted on this website during the third week of April (scroll down to see it). Now, a few weeks later, we are proud to display this healed work. We encourage not only our customers, but all tattoo aficionados to examine not only the fresh work of the artist they are considering being tattooed by, but especially the healed work. Lots of good looking fresh tattoo out there end up looking less than stellar once they’ve healed, and that’s what you’re going to be walking around with for the rest of your life. Don’t leave the life-long quality of your tattoo work to chance, stick with the proven methods and results of the artists at Cardinal Tattoo, you’ll be glad you did!
A parent’s love of a child is widely recognized as the benchmark for familial attachment. Realism is considered the height of modern tattooing by many, and Cardinal Tattoo has been regarded as THE place to go when getting a realistic or portrait tattoo anywhere in Sumner county or the North of Nashville area. So it is fitting then that a parent would get a portrait of their child, an outward representation of the love they will forever hold.
If you are considering getting a tattoo to honor a loved one, please contact Cardinal Tattoo, on the Historic Gallatin Square, seven days a week between noon and 10pm, by calling 615 527-7102 or visiting the shop at 110 North Water Avenue. You can also email us at info@cardinaltattoo.com
Wow. This one’s a doozy! Sex is such an important part of people’s lives, from sexual identity and preference, to the more nuanced aspects of practicing the act itself. Sex appeal is used in advertising the world over as an almost universal language. Like tattoo, sexual expression is a deeply intimate and personal thing, so it’s fitting that someone would choose to exhibit such a thing on their body permanently. It’s certainly not something everyone would do, or even every tattooed person, but we at Cardinal Tattoo will not discriminate against someone based on their sexual preferences.
Art is sometimes challenging, and we respect that not everyone will embrace the subject matter of this piece, which is why we chose to post it here. Like it or not, none can question the exquisite detail or jaw-dropping intensity of such a piece, which is truly Not Safe For Work!
This lil’ guy was just too cute not to post!
We know it’s strong language, but COME ON! It’s Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter movie series, arguably the most despicable character in any movie ever. We hate her, everyone should. Imelda Staunton, the actress who played her has been quoted as saying ‘I think she’s a bloody monster.’ I mean YEESH, that’s pretty bad. If you don’t know who she is, we can’t be friends, and you can’t be friends with Patrick, who has this tattoo as part of an entire Harry Potter leg sleeve!
Hey, we had to do some villains too.
If you want a Dolores Umbridge tattoo, just call….someone else. Seriously, we’re not doing another one of these things, we just did it because we like Patrick since he’s really nice and all and he’s been getting tattooed by Will for a long time and it’s a part of this whole leg sleeve, but if you want one you’re probably a pretty messed up individual and should seek some help. #mentalhealthawareness
it’s no big secret that if you do tattoos, you probably like doing skulls. There’s something about skulls that draws people to them, and repulses others strongly. The beauty of the humanity under our skin and the fear of the mortality that skulls represent to many are where two of the rawest reactions to skulls come from. People will travel around the world to visit famous tombs or cemeteries. The catacombs in France were the setting of the recent horror film ‘As Above, So Below’, and many of us have heard of the church of bones in Poland, or Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic (if you haven’t, look them up, they’re cool.) Even our rituals of burial and cremation serve to both celebrate life and revere death.
As far as tattoo goes, Skulls and grim reapers traditionally have been performed as a way to ward off death or maybe alleviate a fear of one’s own mortality. While it probably doesn’t do either of those things, it certainly looks cool! If you’re interested in getting a skull tattoo, or maybe your next skull tattoo, visit Cardinal Tattoo on the Historic Gallatin, TN square or call 615 527-7102 seven days a week, between noon and 10pm to schedule an appointment. We look forward to seeing you!
It’s no big secret that the artists at Cardinal Tattoo love their customers. We understand that nothing we do here would be possible without them. The requests and trust placed on us as artists serve to drive us, to challenge us, and give us an outlet in an art form we adore. it would be difficult to find another occupation and lifestyle that so closely integrates the artist and their canvas.
It is with this in mind that Cardinal Tattoo has begun a new program designed to give back to the people who mean so much to us: our clients. Every month, Cardinal Tattoo will hold a drawing to win tickets to a show, whether it be music, a play, monster trucks, or some other entertainment venue, if you have been tattooed at Cardinal Tattoo in the last month, you have been entered in the drawing! Our first winners were drawn earlier this month: Jessica Ashley and Tasha Turner will be joining a couple of our artists to see their old favorites Dave Matthews Band. Of course we called and made sure they were fans, we wouldn’t want to drag someone to a show they didn’t want to see!
We hope this, coupled with the free tattoos that Will does each month simply for the love of the art, will serve as a small token of appreciation for our dedicated clientele. We love you and we know none of this would be possible without you. You’re the best!
Hercules, the fabled half-god, strongest-man-in-the-world. The OG He-man. Performed in just under ten hours on a client who came all the way from Memphis to Gallatin, TN to insure they got the best possible result. His next session will incorporate the famous Hydra.
Every business has to deal with varying degrees of customer satisfaction, it’s a fact of life when working in a service industry. We at Cardinal Tattoo are quite proud of our record of satisfied customers and our business is supported largely by a growing number of repeat, if not downright habitual, customers. But it’s not always so.
Let’s start with the easy ones: Some people have completely unrealistic expectations with regard to how tattoos are priced and how long it takes to produce high level work. Some people expect to be able to speak to their artist any time, day or night, via personal social media accounts or cell phones. Some people are generally disrespectful of our time and our lives. These people are easy to dismiss as being unreasonable. If you think we’re being rude by pointing this out, stop reading now, you’re one of those people and we’d rather not do business with you. For the rest of you, read on and enjoy learning how you might successfully address filing a complaint in any service industry, including Cardinal Tattoo.
First, how not to do it.
1. Don’t, after having a less-than-ideal experience, immediately go online and attack the business.
2. Don’t, in your public online post, lie.
3. Don’t assume that the only reason you didn’t get things your way is because the business/world/universe is against you. It may have a lot to do with your attitude.
4. Don’t assume that the business would be unwilling or unable to work with you to your satisfaction.
Now, for some things you should do:
1. Speak up, if something isn’t right or the way you want it, let someone who works at the establishment know, or ask why that’s the way it’s being done. Good customer service would dictate that your question or comment will be answered or explained to your satisfaction. If it isn’t, ask for clarity. However, once the situation has been explained, don’t assume that everything has to be changed just for you. At Cardinal Tattoo we have dealt with a significant number of individuals with this sort of entitlement mentality, where they seem to disregard policies in place to protect ourselves and our clients from harm. Yep, people have actually left negative reviews about us for following health department rules. No joke.
2. Contact your artist through proper channels. You wouldn’t look up the local Mickie D’s manager’s personal account on Facebook and tell him how they got your order wrong, right? Well, don’t do that to your tattoo artist either. Cardinal Tattoo is open seven days a week from noon to 10pm, our phone number is posted frequently on this website and can be found with a simple internet search (615 527-7102), if you need to speak with your artist, simply email the shop at info@cardinaltattoo.com, call during business hours, call after business hours and leave a detailed message for us to call you back, or better yet, visit the shop and speak with that artist directly. Messages regarding business sent through personal channels are inappropriate and will not be answered. Once again, if you think this is rude, Cardinal Tattoo is not the place for you. You guessed it, we’ve had a number of people leave negative reviews about our business because we wouldn’t answer business-related questions through personal social media accounts, even AFTER we asked people not to do that and redirected them to the business contact information.
3. Tell the truth. Even if it’s not what we want to hear, it’s better than lying and we’ll respect that. Good relationships cannot be built on lies. If you lie to us, show’s over.
4. Cardinal Tattoo has a policy against doing further business with individuals who have posted negative comments or reviews online. Doing so will end any further communication from us. This is because doing so undermines the process by deliberately trying to harm our business, once someone does that they are forfeiting any possibility of reconciliation.
5. Talk to Will. We know, his knuckles drag the ground sometimes and he has a neck so thick it looks like he could gargle peanut butter, but this business is his entire life. He literally cares about it like you care about your next breath. He has a bit of a reputation for being a jerk, earned purely because he doesn’t take crap, not because he isn’t fair. Beyond that, he is polite, kind, generous to a fault, and open to reason. One of his greatest flaws is also one of the best things about him: his candor. Will once told a woman to her face that the reason he didn’t want to tattoo her was because he felt she wasn’t mentally stable. Should’ve seen the look on her face! But he meant it, and he was right, a real loop-de-loop, that one. He has also offered to cover-up or finish tattoos for free (done by artists who no longer work for Cardinal Tattoo); Given up his portion of the tattoo price as a discount for someone he indirectly inconvenienced; got to work early or stayed late to make getting tattooed easier for someone with a tricky schedule, etc., etc.
6. Say you’re sorry. We know this may seem a bit counter-intuitive to some of you (those in the ‘the customer is always right’ brigade), but if you find yourself on the wrong side of some of our policies or maybe you let your freak flag fly a little too early in the conversation we have a policy- everyone gets a second chance. In order to get that chance you have to be reasonable though, and you have to say you’re sorry. We’ve had people run their mouths online just to come in a few weeks later and apologize, they still get tattooed at Cardinal to this day. One woman cursed Will out in front of a room full of people and her son threatened him with violence. She said she was sorry, he welcomed her back. We’ve had people who no-call, no-showed for an appointment try to reschedule, only to find out they have to pay in full for their appointment to do so, swear at us and hang up the phone only to call a couple weeks later, pay for their appointment, and get a super-sweet tattoo. It’s nothing personal, really. Don’t make it that way.
The policies and procedures at Cardinal Tattoo were developed through years of training and experience to protect the artists and clients of Cardinal Tattoo. These policies are discussed at length throughout this website and every client has to sign paperwork stating they understand and agree to the shop rules. Even knowing this we have people violate that agreement on a weekly basis. If anyone reading this disagrees with any portion of what they have read thus far, you don’t get it, or you are just plain needy, please go somewhere else. We simply don’t have the time to deal with people who can’t or won’t understand why these policies are necessary. Thank you for your time.
Will did this massive realistic skull on Johnathan at Cardinal Tattoo in about 9 hours. If attention to detail is what you’re looking for, with a finished tattoo that heals well and quickly, with minimal discomfort and maximum satisfaction, you owe it to yourself to check out the artists at Cardinal Tattoo! We are open from noon to 10pm seven days a week on the historic Gallatin Square about 30 minutes North of Nashville. Call 615 527-7102 with any questions you haven’t found the answers to on this website, or email us at info@cardinaltattoo.com (no inquiries regarding price will be entertained via telephone or email).
They say imitation is the sincerest from of flattery. But cheap imitation is just that: Cheap. In the last two years, two new tattoo shops have opened right on top of Cardinal Tattoo (one directly next door) in an attempt to capitalize on our success, as if being close to us will somehow rub off on them. All it’s done is lead the lamb to slaughter baby. If you want to compete with us, just let us know and we’ll take a little time off from cleaning our trophies, traveling the world going to different conventions, and hob-nobbing with the rich and famous to show you how it’s done! WOO!
Cardinal Tattoo has put the work in building the biggest and best group of customers, throwing the best parties , and doing the best tattoos and piercings in Sumner County just to be challenged by a bunch of pretenders to the throne? Brother, you got another thing comin’! WOO!
It’s true what they say, ‘to be the man, you gotta beat the man’ and while tattooing isn’t a competition, Cardinal Tattoo has the best artists, prices, and customer service there is! We have the tattoo awards to back it up! We participate in the greater industry by attending tattoo conventions and or bossman teaches seminars and mentors artists from across the country (he’s even been gracious enough to teach our wanna-be’s a thing or two).
If you want the best tattoo shop in the county, with the best art at an affordable price, people who stand by their work and do their best, everyday, to satisfy their customers, then you want to get tattooed at Cardinal Tattoo.
If anyone would like to challenge us, we would be happy to document the competition and provide the results on this website. Please consider this an open invitation. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! P.S. Enjoy Wrestlemania this weekend!
If you know us, you know our fearless leader Will. His work speaks for itself and has been the flagship that has taken Cardinal Tattoo to its current heights. His work is in such high demand that he has decided to change the way he charges to accommodate such a broad clientele. His new rates will take effect for all appointments made after July 1st. They are as such:
All day appointments based on an 8-hour day will be $800.
Black and grey portraits, Will’s preferred genre, will be a flat rate of $600, portraits routinely take more than six hours, but Will likes them and we like to keep him happy! Color portraits will be done at the $800 all-day rate.
Smaller-scale work will be done at the rate of $160 per hour.
Existing clients will be ‘grandfathered’ in at the old rate for a limited time and they will take precedence with regard to booking. We strongly encourage any clients who are working on larger-scale work to go ahead and book the necessary appointments to finish what you’ve started in order to take advantage of this policy! We hope to see you soon!