tattoo etiquette

I've had the drawing and idea for my first tattoo in my head for about 5 years. I'm now wanting to move that idea into reality so am searching for a local artist - I have the drawing from an out of town artist. I read somewhere that it's bad etiquette to take a tattoo artist another artist's drawing. Before I go insulting anyone what are the thoughts on this? Surely I don't need to have the local artist I choose design something that I already have? Also, I think I've narrowed down the local artist but if anyone has recommendations in Vancouver, BC, I'm open to hearing them. I'd appreciate the thoughts of experience. Thanks.

it's not "bad etiquette" to bring in a design from another artist, tattoos are for the person getting them, you can get whatever YOU want, i recommend dutchman tattoo, actually in new westminster, or any sacred heart location in vancouver

It is your pergortive to have any tattoo artist you want take an image(from anywhere) and have them tattoo it on your body. Thats the bottom line, its your body. It IS very bad form to intentionally have one artist draw up a design if you are planning to have another artist do the work. So you can have any tattoo artist work on you anytime, just dont be sneaky and make sure your intentions are honest. That said, the best custom tattoos are original ideas (based on reference material, but drawn custom from a great tattoo artist. So you have an artist whose style you enjoy and would work well with your ideas traslate your ideas (bring other drawings for reference) into a unique tattoo. When getting photorealistic tattoos, bring in a bunch of reference photos for the artist to peek through and pick the one that strikes them the most (ie, bring the artist a half dozen to dozen photos of the bird you want, your grandmother, Mt Rushmore, etc and let the artist pick the image (or combine your images) that will tattoo the best.