I never intended to leave a bad review--I was honestly scared to do so--but after sharing my experience with others, they encouraged me to warn people, which in hindsight, I know I would've appreciated a warning myself, so here it is.
I can't speak for the other artist at this shop--their work looks awesome--but I specifically went to Oscar because he was recommended for the style I wanted. My first tattoo with him started great--the first half was AMAZING. But the second half? Completely botched. I let it slide because the first part was so good, and at least the other half people wouldn't see as much based on its location.
Since Oscar specializes in realism, I provided real photos of a lake scene for him to replicate. Unfortunately, the result wasn't even close to realistic. I later had another artist, who actually specializes in realism, cover it up. While Oscar's portrait work is incredible, his skills seem limited to existing photos of people and creatures--when it comes to scenery or original compositions, the quality just isn't there. I always wondered why he never posted any of my tattoos, but now I get it.
At this point, every tattoo he's done on me has either been covered up or will need to be removed and redone. The biggest issue was my sleeve, which had problems even before the machine started. I pointed out three stencil mistakes, but he assured me they were fine. I didn't want to be "difficult"--especially after he told me I was his most difficult client--so I went on to trust the bad stencil/him. To this day that's my one life regret. The result was bad linework and sizing issues that I had flagged before it was permanent.
Despite my concerns, I kept coming back (my mistake) and even tipped him (also my mistake), which sent the message that I was okay with the work when I really wasn't. When I finally returned for touch-ups--because his tattoos definitely needed them--he ended up making one tattoo worse to the point that it now requires removal. On top of that, he charged me for the session, even though he had previously confirmed touch-ups were free. If additional work required payment, that should have been communicated beforehand.
I don't know if the issue was personal or just his artistic limitations, but I strongly do not recommend Oscar unless you're getting a straight-up portrait. His portrait work is undeniably amazing--I just wish I had received that level of quality for my tattoos.
If you do go to him, stand your ground. I wish I had been more firm--it would have saved me thousands of dollars on the bad tattoos themselves, the cover-ups, and eventually painful removals that I've been dreading (currently looking for removal recs if anyone has any). read more