About Hampton Roads tattoo shops. (and in reguard to leg portrait)

Hey... I just wanted to give some info real quick about the experience I've had getting tattooed in Hampton Roads. There are several real good artist in Hampton Roads, and I live in NC, so when I started gettig seriously tattooed I traveled up north. For the leg piece that your talking about, there is only one artist that REALLY comes to mind. In fact, I'd choose him for the Jimi Hendrix piece over just about anybody. His name is Dave Heydn, his website is www.iamtattoos.com Dave is an old school guy, meaning he's been tattooing for a long time, but the quality of his work is nothing short of incredible. He is very creative and has a way of drawing ideas out of you, he has drew up some pretty incredible work for me right on the spot. He has won plenty of awards, been featured in tattoo magazines, works conventions.....but all in all he stays pretty low key. He does his own thing and isnt into the hollywood side of tattooing. With that being said, he does charge $160 an hour, but its well worth it. I just left his shop last night. Dave is one of those guys who really puts emotion into pieces he likes, and he loves music, he plays it loud while tattooing and sings it. If you wanted a really cool piece, go in there with the picture that you want of Jimi, bring a Jimi cd with you, and let him add his own twist to the background and colors. The emotion you'll get from the tattoo will be specatular. At Blue Horseshoe tattoo there are some good artist like Dave Lukeson, Gaberel Cece, and Carl Fuchs. Dave probably does the best portrait work, but his portraits really doesnt stray far away from the picture. Meaning, they dont have anymore emotion than the picture does. If you want a direct copy, you might want to look into him. Gaberel has his own style, and his work can be found on this website. He bangs out some creative stuff as well. Carl is an excellent all around tattoo artist who can bang out some really clean and bright traditional stuff, and does real sick lettering. The guys at BlueHorseshoe probably work a little bit faster and charge less $$$....but for first pick I would definitely recommend Dave Hedyn at www.iamtattoos.com I can see him listening to Jimi while drawing and tattooing, getting crazy inspired and doing the piece better than just about anybody. Davids shop is in Hampton and its SUPER clean and very upscale. Dana Helmuth in Maryland has some of the best traditional Japanese work I've ever seen (luckily I rock a whole sleeve of it). The guy who works with him, Cooper, has some really cool traditional American stuff. There ya go....... Hope this helps. Go check out Dave at IAmTattoos