Thanks for the recommendations. I had not seen Travis before...pretty good stuff. His color blending is really good. He's one of the better artists I've seen in Arkansas. I will look into him a little further.
I have looked at Caleb, and I think he's generally okay, but his stuff hits me as a little dark and muddy.
As for what I'm looking for...traditional gypsy/lady head but customized to resemble my wife. I need a good, solid traditional artist with great, bright coloring, but that has the portrait skill to get a solid likeness in the tattoo. Make sense? My first choices would be Valerie Vargas on the traditional side and Liz Cook on the realism side.