GET WHAT YOU GET
We host multiple GWYG days throughout the year. All tattoo designs range from $100-$400. Be sure to check our INSTAGRAM for any upcoming GWYG flash days. (Tattoos pictured on right are all from our Dec. '15 event)
We released and sold out of our first GWYG Vol. 1 book in 2015 and have continued to release new volumes since. You can find our latest edition, Vol. 4,. in our MERCH SHOP. All of our artists contribute multiple pages of flash for the books. Clients are welcome to get tattoos from any of the available books at anytime!
A BRIEF HISTORY
In 2009, we started doing Get What You Get tattoo events at Idle Hand during the Lower Haight Art Walks. A client had gifted us a gumball machine and instead of just letting this sit in our shop, we thought it would be fun to fill it with line drawings and do them at random. You put in a quarter and whatever comes out is what you get tattooed. The idea was to give cool tattoos that we'd all enjoy doing for a lower cost than a typical day. Everyone puts in new designs and whichever tattooer becomes available does the next tattoo in line. After this became popular, we expanded the idea to include a “Get What You Want” option, and began creating sheets of flash that we enjoyed tattooing on our clients.
The credit for the idea must be given to our good friend Justin Shaw at Faith Tattoo in Santa Rosa, CA. In 2004 Justin started doing them as an alternative to Friday the 13th tattoo specials. "We just had a cigar box and told our good clients about it. Then it just spread like wild fire. We were doing a couple a day for awhile. We still do them when folks ask. Once in a while we will do an event, but we always just kinda did it like the password at a speakeasy. Initially it was all original stuff, like dick monsters and pussy flowers but folks weren't biting at that so much, so then we just drew fun stuff we wanted to do and mixed in old timey flash, cause that's what we wanted to improve on at that time."