Volunteer: how to help keep this guide accurate

This page sets out the ways to help the guide stay accurate, and the routes that exist for a concern about a studio or a licensed practitioner. Each one can be used now, without waiting on anyone.

Helping a page stay accurate

This guide does not publish an address for messages and does not take them yet, and the site has no form to receive one. The ways to help below need no message at all.

Check any figure against its source. Each page names the source beside a figure. Open that source and read the sentence around the number, because a figure lifted out of its context can mislead.
Ask a studio directly before you book. Ask about its license, how its set-up is cleaned and what it quotes for your piece. A studio can answer those questions for itself, which this guide cannot do for any studio.
Take a concern about a licensed practitioner or a studio's hygiene to the state. New Hampshire regulates tattooing under RSA Chapter 314-A, Body Art, which requires a license to tattoo (314-A:2). The office that handles licensing under it is the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. Write down what you saw or were told, with the studio's name and the date.

Nobody is recruited, paid or given a title for this work, and nobody writes for the site on anyone's behalf.

What a tattoo session looks like in a working studio

A stock clip of a tattoo being done in a working studio, shown for the setting. It shows no named artist and no particular piece of work.

Checking a figure against its source

Start with the page and find the figure, and the source named beside it. Read the sentence the figure sits in, then the part of the source that states it.

A sterile tattoo station with gloves, disposable needles and a tray laid out — A sterile set-up with gloves, single-use needles and a tray. Ask an artist to show it to you before they begin.

Put the sentence from the page beside the passage in the source. If they disagree, note the words that differ and the place in the source where it says otherwise.

A woman in a colourful dress with a healed tattoo on her shoulder — A stock photograph of healed skin. It is not a client of this guide, and it shows what healed work looks like.

Last, decide where the question belongs. A question about a particular studio goes to the studio, asked before you book. A concern about a licensed practitioner or a studio's hygiene goes to the state route set out above.

Questions about booking, studios and this guide

Can I ask this guide for the best shop in a town?

No. The guide does not rank tattoo shops or list them by town. It answers questions about styles, placements and what to ask an artist.

Should I check with a studio before I book?

Yes. Ask about its license, how its set-up is cleaned and what it quotes for your piece, and ask for the quote in writing if you can. This guide cannot answer those questions for any studio.

What if my concern is about a particular artist?

For a licensed practitioner or a studio's hygiene, use the state route under RSA Chapter 314-A described above. Write down what the artist did or said, and where and when. This guide does not publish claims about a named person that it cannot check.

A smiling woman in her thirties looking at a healed floral tattoo on her forearm in a dark studio — Generated for this guide to illustrate a healed floral tattoo. The woman is not a real client, and the piece is not any artist's work.

Which concern goes where

Four kinds of concern, what to check first, and where each one goes
Kind of concern	What to check first	Where it goes
A figure or sentence on a page	The page, the sentence as written and the source named beside the figure	Check that source yourself, since a page changes only when its source supports the change
A licensed practitioner or a studio's hygiene	What you saw or were told, with the studio's name and the date	The state route under RSA Chapter 314-A, through the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification
Booking a particular studio	Your questions on license, set-up and the quote	The studio itself, asked before you book
A question the guide has not answered	The question and the decision it affects	The style helper on the resources page, or the community FAQ
The table lists routes that exist. None of them is a promise of a reply, and a page changes only when its source supports the change.

What a question should leave out

Rankings of shops

The guide does not rank shops or list them by town, so a request for a ranking is not something it can answer.

Medical history

Describe the placement, the design and how the skin healed. The guide is not a clinician, so a condition belongs with a doctor.

Prices stated as fact

Give the quote you were given, with the studio and the date, rather than a figure you think is typical.

Claims you cannot support

If the only support is that someone told you, say so. This guide treats it as a report, not a fact.

Open the style helper