[ziddoap]

As someone with most of my body covered, two things I would say:

1) Sometimes I just don't really know what I want. I have an area X big and most of my body is in the style of Y. AI lets me iterate hundreds of design ideas quickly. My artist books a few months out minimum. It's hard to iterate.

2) References really streamline the process. I absolutely agree that my tattoo artist is an artist, so I don't go to them and say "I want this exact thing". However, most of my (and my artists) most enjoyable tattoos have been when I come with solid references and say "this, but put your touch on it" or "here's two ideas, can you combine them into something cool?".

[sparklethunder]

I have a lot of my body covered too. In the beginning my tattoos were chosen/designed with a lot more care for ~meaning~ but nowadays all I care about is that the artist is "good" and has a style I like. Beyond that I don't need AI slop to figure out what to get on my body.

[ziddoap]

>all I care about is that the artist is "good" and has a style I like.

Same!

>Beyond that I don't need AI slop

I don't share the same hatred of AI. If something is cool looking, it's cool. I bring it to my artist as a reference and we work something out. I don't really care about the provenance.