Horror/dark realism. People are giving you wrong answers.

My shop, we don't charge to draw something up, but there's more to it than that. Here is what the artist "should" do.

The artist should consult with you in what you want, watch the video if that's what you want to present, or look at pictures if you have them. Reference isn't a bad thing. The artist should be able to give you an estimate of how long something like this will take, depending on the detail, shading and their style. Some artists can pull this off in 8hrs, where some maybe 20hrs. Artists charge by the hour, and can give a rough estimate. At this point, you can decide if the price is something outrageous, or something you want to proceeded with. You should be able to set up sessions to spread out payment too instead of having to come out of pocket x amount of dollars.

We set up an appointment and take a fee that goes towards the cost of your tattoo. If you don't show up, the deposit is non refundable. Now with this, the "drawing", isn't going to be a detailed piece of artwork that you will look at and see great detail. The drawing is generally lines for reference, areas to follow while tattooing. So no, paying for this isn't extra.

Some artists only want to put their signature style in a tattoo. Some only want to do original work. Not many respected artists will take a image of a tattoo, and just copy it (outside of basic flash designs).

And no, weight gain in a sleeve is going to make no difference. Gaining, loosing, doesn't matter.

Hope this helps.