Questions about first tattoo

Hey Guys, My name is Tim. I am 19 years old and I'm a Computer Science student at Stevens Tech in Hoboken, NJ. I'm thinking about getting a tattoo of my family crest. I have wanted to get this on my shoulder since I was 17 but I planned to wait until I was 21 to be sure that I still wanted it. I'm getting pretty anxious and have decided to do some research. The tattoo would be the crest found herer:http://www.houseofnames.com/coatofarms_details.asp?sId=&s=Bridge . It would be about 3x4 inches on my shoulder. I got a quote from a local tatoo parlor and they said somewhere in the range of 300$. Does this sound accurate or is he trying to get me to pay more than normal because this is my first tattoo and I'm new to the scene? Also, is there a difference, meaning-wise, in placement of the tattoo. For example, does a tattoo placed on the left shoulder differ in meaning from one placed on the right shoulder? Thanks for your help, Tim

Hi Tim...As far as the price of $300 thats pretty average I don't think the artist is tryin to screw ya one bit if its decent work....You would pay at least that and probably substantially more at my shop. I commend you on at least trying to wait...Sometimes ya just gotta give in to the urge!!!LOL!!! As far as placement...purely personal preference! Good luck and great tattooing....TAz

Hey Tim, I'm a newly tattooed guy too, had my first one done about a month ago, and can I tell you something interesting I've noticed? When I was kicking around ideas for a design, I was coming up with a bunch of what I consider "small" ideas... I mean like 4x5", whatever, but I went to a guy who was a custom artist, and he basically said "Leave it to me and see what you think" I was not convinced, because I am a designer for a living, but I let it rock. When I went back in to see what he came up with it was like "Holy Shit!" My first thought was, wow, that's WAY bigger than I thought I wanted... it covers the entire upper area of my left arm, but it really looks great. I mean, REALLY looks great. It's more like a natural part of my body, and it sort of follows the curves of my arm, etc. Where I'm going with this, is now I look at smaller tats like that, and they just sort of look slapped on to me. I dunno. Personal preference. If your experience is anything like mine was, you're going to be so amazed how great it looks and you'll be all addicted, and you'll wish you went bigger. So, like if you are scottish for example, how about not only doing the crest, but some tartan behind it as well, or thistle with it, and just really do it up right? You will have it the rest of your life, maybe think about it a little... I know your original question was about price, but just something I was thinking for ya....

On second thought, I just went and looked at it, and now I'd really stand by my advice. That's a cool crest man, you really need to go big with that dude so that you can get some awesome detail out of the boars heads, etc. I'd be proud of that one. Go big, like 6x8". or bigger with more...