Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to pay full price if I print the same shirts later?

No. We keep the transparencies used to make your screens on-hand, so you get a big discount on the setup on any reorder.

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What is a “flash” layer?

A Flash Layer is when we double print a color on your shirt. If you’re printing light ink on dark shirts, we’ll usually print that light color twice so that the dark fabric doesn’t show through the light ink. This only costs you $.15 per shirt, and will make your shirts look a million times better.

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What is an underprint?

A primer coat. An underprint is a layer of white ink that we lay down under your design when you print on color or black shirts. The underprint gives us a base to print your design on, and makes the colors turn out how you want them to. It costs you the same amount as if you were printing another color on your shirts, but if you’re printing white in your design, we can use that screen for the undercoat (usually in conjunction with a flash print).

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Some shirt printers don’t charge for an underprint? Why do you?

Because it costs us money to print it. In order to give you the best possible price, we run very close to our cost. When we have to pay for something, we have to pass that cost on to you. Many screen printers include the cost of an underlay in their regular pricing even if you don’t need it. We like to only charge you for what you get.

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Why do dark shirts cost more to order?

Because they’re more expensive to buy blank, and it’s harder to print on them. Dark shirts, in general, cost about $1 more even before they’re printed. In addition, we usually have to print extra layers of ink for your design to look good when all is said and done.

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Can Use a picture from my web site on my shirts?

No. Web images are saved at 72 pixels per inch. We need at least 200 pixels per inch to get a decent print. The rule of thumb is that if you print an image out on a good laser printer at the size you want it printed on your shirt, and it looks jagged or ugly, that’s what the final print from us will look like.

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Is there a difference between a bitmapped .tiff and a .bmp file?

Yes. A bitmapped .tiff file is an image that has been scanned as or converted to lineart and saved in the tiff file format. There is either black or white on this image; no gray tones. A .bmp file can contain colors, and are generally very large in size and low in quality. We do not print from .bmp files.

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How can I get my shirts cheaper?

Change your order. So you want cheaper shirts. Here are your choices:

1. print less colors – this will get rid of some of your setup and printing costs. the result is cheaper shirts and a cheaper overall price.
2. use more inexpensive shirts – if you’re not using the cheapest shirts available, and you want to bring your pricing down, ask us to price cheaper shirts for you. This will give you cheaper shirts and a cheaper overall price.
3. print more shirts – if you print enough shirts to get to our next price break, you will potentially save lots of money. This will give you a lower per-shirt price.

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Will you print dirty words on my shirts?

Sure. Nobody has sent us a design yet that we wouldn’t print. This isn’t a challenge, it’s just a fact. We reserve the right to refuse service, but you’d have to get pretty crass before we’d exercise that right.

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Can you do full color shirts?

Yes. They’re expensive though, so get ready to pay quite a bit for ’em. We also have a minimum order of 250 pieces on full-color orders.

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Is there a difference between screen printed shirts and vinyl heat transfer shirts?

Yes. Simply put, silk screened shirts are printed to last, heat transfers are not. That does not mean that vinyl transfer shirts are inferior.

Remember those 1980’s Star Wars shirts with the photos on the chest? The ones that made you sweat in a big, square shape between your nipples? Those were vinyl transfer shirts. Sure, they disintegrated and got too ugly to wear after a couple of months, but they sure were cool while they lasted.

Screen printed shirts, on the other hand, are actually ink printed onto your shirts. And while it may fade or crack a little bit, if you take reasonable care of your shirt, they’ll look great for years to come.

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What is your minimum order?

Six Shirts. Of course, printing six shirts isn’t the most cost-effective way of getting custom t-shirts, so we recommend printing at least a dozen or 24 in order to bring your cost down to something managageable.

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How fast can you get my shirts to me?

The absolute fastest we can print shirts for you is 3 days plus shipping. This assumes that the shirts are available in our Seattle warehouse. Remember though, that you’ll be paying through the nose for the rush (and even more for rush shipping if you need that), so try to premeditate and place your order 2 or 3 weeks before you actually need the shirts.

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What kind of shirts do you print on for your personal projects?

There are a couple of choices. Jerzees 5.6-oz tees are great if you want that tighter, sexy punk rock look. If I want a heavier tee, I go with the Port and Company PC61. They’re usually on sale, so we save money, and they’re heavyweight 6.1-oz tees, so you can compare them weight-wise with the ever-popular Hanes Beefy-T, which is another good choice, but pretty expensive.

Of course, if you’ve got extra money, and you want really nice shirts, ask us about our prices for American Apparel shirts. They’re hands-down my favorite shirts, and they’re US-made, organic ring-spun cotton, and sofffffffft.

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What is your return policy?

If we print your shirts or stickers wrong, we’ll redo them right. If we print your order wrong because of an error on our end, we’ll reprint or replace your order for free. If it becomes a rush job because we messed up for you, we’ll rush the printing as much as we can (faster shipping at your expense). You are responsible for sending the bad shirts or stickers back to us.

If your order is wrong because you didn’t proof the images we sent you, or you picked out the wrong color, brand, size, etc, we’ll work with you to reprint them, but we accept no responsibility for the error.

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What is your refund policy?

If your order is wrong because of an error on our end, send them back and we’ll credit your seatthole account. If they’re wrong because of an error on your end, we do not offer a refund or credit.

If you’d like to cancel your order, you are responsible for whatever work or inventory we’ve put into your job up to that point. You are also responsible for a 5% cancellation fee, which is five percent of your total order.

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Can I Cancel My Order?

Yes! You may cancel your order at any time, but you are responsible for processing fees, restocking costs and any other expenses incurred by us between the time we recieved your pamyent and the cancellation request was recieved.

General cancellation fees are approximately 15% of your payment, but we’ll work with you to keep these costs as low as possible.

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Do you accept credit card payments?

Yes! We can accept your Visa/MasterCard over the phone. You’ll have to pass our stringent card verification process, but if you have the card, and you’re really you, it should be no problem. We can also accept cards via Paypal. If you don’t already have an account, go to paypal.com and sign up. Or you can always fed-ex us a money order. Our Physical address is:

Seatthole Shirts
ATTN: Django
126 Holly St.
Bellingham, WA
98225
360.389.2154

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Can I write you a personal check?

You can, but it will delay your order for up to a week while we wait for it to clear. We recommend sending a money order or using Paypal.

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Can you sew custom tags into my shirts?

No. We do not do custom tags or the sewing for custom tags, but if you know someone with a sewing machine and some time on their hands, you can buy custom tags from our friends at ClothingLabels4U.com.

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Can you PRINT tags onto the inside collar my shirts?

We CAN do it, but it’s pretty expensive and complex. Here’s the deal… Every shirt sold in the US is required to include care instructions, sizes and the country of origin. Because most shirts we get (excluding American-made shirts) are manufactured in a variety of countries, printing a tag on the inside collar can be pretty expensive because you would need a separate screen for each country/size combination.

Plus! often, most ink/fabric combinations will let the ink bleed through the back of the shirt, so you end up with the ghost of a reversed image on the back of your shirt.

All that said, if you still want to do it, we’re happy to give it a shot for you!

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Who is that chick with the boobs on your site?

Her name is Olea. She is available for clothed modeling gigs. She is married too.

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Who designed your logo?

A great artist named James Decker. He is available for hire on your project. Check out his web site at: jamesdecker.com/

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Where did you get your site made?

We did it. What kind of web site designers would we be if we didn’t build our own. Did you know that we offer custom web site designs and tools for your band? We do.

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I’m in Bellingham, how do I get to your office to make a payment or pick up shirts?

Follow these directions. Our pickup and drop off location is The Comics Place, located at 221 W. Holly Street, in the heart of downtown Bellingham. Get a map

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I’m in Seattle, how do I get to your office to pick up shirts?

If you’re in Seattle, email us to find out how you can pick your shirts up directly from our printers.

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Are you guys in a band?

No. Django can hardly play the radio.

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How come I have to order so many stickers at a time?

Setup is expensive. We have a minimum order of 250 stickers for an order because otherwise, it’s just not worth the setup and printing. Trust me, you’ll get rid of 250 stickers faster than you think.

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When does the clock start for my job’s turnaround time?

As soon as we’ve got final artwork and payment in full. We need payment up front and artwork before we can start processing your order. So if you’re in a hurry, make sure you’ve got those two items ready to go so your shirt printing order isn’t delayed.

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How do your price breaks work?

For shirts before printing, your price breaks come in at 24, 72, 501 and 1001 pieces in the same color and style. You can mix sizes.

For printing price breaks, you’re looking at quantities of 24, 72, 144, 251, 501, 1001 of the same screens in the same location. You can change colors for a price, and still keep the price break.

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Will you dropship my shirts to multiple locations?

Yes. We will send your shirts wherever you want. Just keep in mind that shipping them all together will save you some money.

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Do you ship outside of the United States?

No. But we’ll ship anywhere in the United States.

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What does “Seatthole” mean?

Anything you want it to mean. Seriously. It’s not really meant to be derogatory, but if you hate Seattle, I guess it could be. -hole is just a suffix that Django has been using for years and years. For example, check out his macro pictures of body parts

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How do I know that you’re going to print the images where I want them printed?

We will send you a proof with approximate size and placement. Before we submit the final order to our printers, we send you a .gif file for your approval. Then it’s in the hands of the silk screen gods.

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How do I decide what size to print the design on my shirt?

Measure it. We recommend measuring other shirts you have with similar designs. You can also cut out a piece of paper to the size you think you want printed and hold it up to your shirt. For reference: Django is about 6 feet tall, 165 or so pounds and wears a large t-shirt. His nipples are almost exactly nine inches apart.

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Will you print and ship one or two shirts at a time for me as I get orders?

Yes. We’re happy to do this for you, but you’ll be paying insane setup fees. You’re much better off printing 24 shirts and having them shipped straight to you so you can handle the whole thing.