^Word of mouth is the way to go. Do not necessarily trust photo books in the shop. I know of one situation where a tattoo artist had a book of photos sitting in his waiting room. When someone pointed out that one of the pics was a tat done by someone else, he said he never claimed they were pics of his own work.
That’s it. (Duh me) You’d think that being a Deadwood fan, I’d recognize corset lacing. 
Well there’s design, and then there’s execution. Really good tattoo artists sell sheets of flash to other artists, so you’ll see the same good designs in several shops. If the artist draws something specifically for you, it will likely never end up in a book of flash.
I imagine since he said “photos” he meant a photo album of tattoo work on display in the parlor, which is (or should be) a portfolio of the artist’s work that people can peruse. The idea is you can a) see if they have talent and b) see if they work in the style you’re seeking for your piece. At the shop I go to there are four portfolios on display, one for each artist. Once you flip through the first two or three you can clearly tell they’re very different bodies of work (pun, as always, intended) and that if you want realism, for instance, you should see Bonnie Jean, and for celtic work see Kat, etc. For a tattoo artist to display photographs of tattoos in a binder on his counter that are not his work, and not clearly labled as such, well… the guy is a slimebag.
Agreed. There’re portfolios (usually at each artists’ station), and then there’s “flash sheets”, those big books up front or on the wall with pictures of hearts and butterflies you can pick from if [del]you’re an idiot[/del]…[del]you don’t know what you want[/del]…you don’t do a custom piece. Flash is generally color photocopies of ink and pencil drawings, though, not photographs. Using photographs would say “portfolio” to me, and I’d expect it all to be one artist’s work. That guy was a slimeball.
Yeah, I’ve seen the portfolios as well, and noted that some of the photos had the artist’s work circled to distinguish it from someone else’s work on the same skin.
If I saw something I liked and was told “That’s not my work,” I’d want to know why it was in the artist’s portfolio.
Just wanted to add one I saw tonight… a friend of a friend’s ex-boyfriend ( I think that’s how it went) had his face done, similar to the Anatomy one MrJackboots mentioned. He said he wanted to get half of his entire body done and be the most tattooed man in PA. Quite dedicated, apparently…