The front desk lady was incredibly sweet, attentive, and welcoming, and the shop itself is beautiful. Unfortunately, our experience with the artist Thad was extremely disappointing and unprofessional.
My husband has never gotten a tattoo before, and from the beginning there were issues with communication and professionalism. The tattoo stencil was made extremely large, which was never discussed with us beforehand. There was no conversation about sizing beyond the placement being around 3 inches across, the size of text was never discussed. I felt like the size was simply chosen for us without our input.
When the stencil was placed, it also looked off-center to me. I spent a minute looking at it carefully, and instead of being understanding, Thad repeatedly insisted it was straight and told me that "if I have to stare that hard then I'm finding reasons to be mad at it," which felt dismissive and gaslighting.
I then politely asked if the stencil could be repositioned, which is a completely reasonable request for something permanent. He responded very rudely and condescendingly with, "I'd rather not." I explained that we were paying a lot of money for this and that it was going to be on my husband permanently, and only then did he reluctantly agree.
After repositioning it, it still looked slightly crooked to me. At that point, instead of trying to work with us professionally, he immediately said that if we didn't like it he would just refund the deposit. I then asked my husband if he liked it and was sure because I was trying to make sure he was happy with something permanent on his body. Instead of handling the situation professionally, Thad rudely and forcefully pushed giving our money back and ending the appointment altogether, which made the interaction feel hostile and uncomfortable.
I've been tattooed by many artists in multiple states and have never once had an artist refuse to reposition a stencil or act inconvenienced by a client wanting placement adjusted. Even if he personally believed it was straight, the professional thing to do would have been to cooperate respectfully and help make the client comfortable.
Again, the shop itself is gorgeous and the front desk woman was wonderful, but our experience with this artist was unnecessarily hostile, dismissive, and uncomfortable. read more