I'm writing a story and need to know how long a professional, certified tattooist would recommend waiting between linework and shading. I already have a tattoo, but mine's all line work and no shading, so I wouldn't know.
If it makes a difference, my character's getting a humanoid figure done on his forearm.

And to anyone who answers with help - thanks in advance!

I think it depends to some extent on the size of the tattoo. Both of mine have some shading, that was done at the same time as the linework; they are both quite small, though, so the shaded portions can be measured in millimeters.

Same with me. For both of mine, the line work and shading were done during the same session. Mine are medium sized, I guess. One goes from my shoulder blade to half way down my arm (a t-shirt sleeve is long enough to cover it), it's line work and color and shading. The one on my leg is a black & gray dragon. Took maybe a few hours for each of them. Unless you are getting a full sleeve or giant back piece, I think this is fairly standard. Not a tattoo expert though.

Should have read your post better, a humanoid figure on someone's forearm would only take 3-5 hours at the most. Depending on how much detail was added. That size one could be done all at once.

Same with me, I had mine done all in one sitting, but the majority of my piece is a Celtic knot, so lots of lines and very little shading. When he was shading in the body of the thistle, though, I was ready for the thing to be over. It hurt like the dickens. It took about an hour and the whole thing is about the size of my hand.

My boyfriend has a half-sleeve that has a lot of linework and a lot of shading. I know the linework was done first and the whole thing from start to finish took several sittings of 3-4 hours. Does that help? I can probably get more details.

Edited to add: It's a humanoid figure on the upper arm, but there is a lot of stuff going on around the central figure that probably took a lot of time as well.

That's why I said it would depend on how much detail was put in there. You could have a simple humanoid figure with no added background around it that would take only a few hours. But if you wanted that humanoid figure to be photo realistic and/or you added a complex background behind it, then it would likely take at least a couple of sittings.

Thanks guys, this has been very helpful.

And for those of you wondering, no the charicter's tattoo is not going to be photorealistic. My plan is it's going to be a cartoon devil about 4-5 inches long on the inside of his forearm.

Good luck with your story writing. Any chance of a stray wolf showing up in there somewhere?

Not in this story, really. Though I do have a short story that I self published that revolves around a girl who's cursed to be a werewolf, if that's close enough. (And no, it's ~not~ some Twilight fanfic bull. Its an actual historical fantasy story.)

That works for me.

I got my 3rd tattoo, a Stegosaurus, done on my leg last month. It took 3 hours, 1 hour to do the outline and 2 hours to do the colours and shading, which is a mix different greens, reds and browns. The other colours on my design include black, white, blue and orange.