First Tattoo. Looking for Artist, Feedback, etc...

[Indy21]

Hello, I'm searching for an artist to do my first tattoo.

Everything and anything I know about tattoos I've learned from the Internet so please don't flame me if I sound ridiculous, please. =)

I've wanted a tattoo for years now and Ive been sure of what I want for awhile now.

I would like to find a artist that can put a full Lion head on my right bicep. I want it to be a realistic looking piece, i think I've heard of this style being called a 'portrait' tattoo on the internets. Not 100% on that.

I'm not fully prepared to get the piece done right away, I will be saving up what money I can in the coming months, so it may take awhile.

I'm just trying to get a head start on the 'who' and 'where' I may go to have the job done.

I live in Birmingham AL, so Atlanta is not that far of a drive and from what I've seen on the Internet, it seems you guys are a very reputatble place. Not to sure about some of the places locally. I started out looking at cloud9south here downtown but then someone told me they were s&!tty, funny thing was, I thought her tattoos looked like s&!t personally, so wouldn't really use that as a reference.

I put my request out on a few widespread tattoo forums and a few people suggested I see Tom Renshaw for Realistic Wildlife tattoos. So I visited his site and his work is just incredible! I gave him a call and talked with him about what I was going for and he was a real cool guy to talk to over the phone answering all my questions and everything.

The only problem with getting a piece done by Tom is that (A) he's in Michigan so I couldn't even afford to GET to him! And (B) from what it sounded like In our discussion, it probably wouldn't be under $1000 for one of his tattoos, size being a relative factor in price as well.

So, a little disheartened about thinking of ways to come up with money and travel and explaining to the wife this crazy idea I have I decided to look for something more 'local', southeastern area atleast.

Anyways, apologies for my ranting on and on. What artist at All or Nothing would be the best for a portrait, realistic, Lion piece? Or is there somewhere else I should be lookin? *I know that's a dumb question to ask here, hehe.

Looking for:

(1) Reputable Realistic Wildlife Tattooist (<
(2) I want this on my right Bicep, possibly as large as reaching the shoulder a little bit but not low enough to be seen below the elbow.

(3) Black and grey ink.

(4) Some idea of price. I know there are varying factors that can alter price but just give me something close. I really would like to stay within the $500 range if that's even possible for good quality work.

I understand that if you want a great tattoo, that you should be willing to pay whatever for it but I'm not rich and I do have a family to feed my self so can't go broke of silly daddys tattoos, =).

If I can figure out how to do it later tonight I'll try and post up some examples of what Id like from what I've found scouring the Internet for the past year it seems.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Awaiting your knowledgable feedback!