rodney at Ace is the man. Good luck getting an appointment. Immortal Images is good too, as is the place across the street from them.
There are many more too... Charlotte has a lot of good artists. Stop people you see with good ink and ask them who did their work.
Good luck. You sound committed, but my advice would be NOT to get a tattoo. Take that 1500 and buy some T Bills or invest in some stock with a decent dividend...