To get a Samurai themed ,half sleeve tattoo, I had a budget in my mind which I told Myles from Aurora . He told me that he would give me a good tattoo for the price. Prior to the actual day of starting the tattoo, I sent Myles the design ideas in my mind with a few images from Google.We agreed on one and I said I would trust his judgement to tweak the design and what you saw on the attached image was what he came up with.
I had two sessions, however long they were, as you rely on what time the artist turns up and starts.
My issues started after the first session when it came to booking the next appointments.After the main image was done, I would need couple of 1-2 hr touch-up sessions as he couldn't complete the tattoo. I have attached only some of the whatsapp messages I sent to Myles , which probably totals to 16-17 if not more, showing me trying to book the sessions. If I was someone self-employed and have ongoing appointments with a client, I would probably sit down with the client at the end of the session and book a date for next time there and then. But this is not the case for Myles. It had to be countless messages of me sending and asking for just getting a date. Not bothered with waiting but just to get a date. Eventually when that happens , it was the issue of cancellations due to family emergency or illness or whatever other reasons I heard, like running late . Incase anyone thinking that I am being selfish, to each of those cancellations my responses were around the lines of "family comes first or hope you feel better", just give me another date as soon as possible and actually stick to it this time.
Eventually I got the message mentioning the amount I paid which I thought was the main issue from the beginning. But if I offer an amount and you accept and promise me a finished product, I expect to have it. Not interested in how much percentage you pay to the parlour or how it affects your full time client after my session who has to wait a bit longer. It's simply what you agree on and you deliver !
With each message I sent , I still felt like I was the one bothering Myles with messages. So I had one more touch-up appointment left to finish this tattoo but I gave up. Got fed up with sending countless messages, receiving countless replies saying he will do his diary tonight or this weekend etc which never happened.In the end I sent a final message just to let him know that I am actually done. Done with the tattoo , done with the place. Will try to go and find someone else and pay them to do the finish I want.My final message to Myles was not a reverse psychology either ,to get an appointment. Although he said he would still like to finish his work but never got a follow up anyway. So I am truely done..
As for the tattoo, you can judge yourself from the images.There is no definition to the tattoo compared to the illustration done on his ipad. On the Ipad image you can make out the helmet clearly as a separate piece but not on the actuall tattoo. On a separate image where I circled the red rope, it just sits there on its own , not making any sense. I know that on the illustrated Ipad image, you can clearly make out that it is supposed to be separate ropes holding the chest armour, however as the tattoo on my arm isn't as big and you can't really see the armour, it is just a random piece of rope.Would make more sense not to put it at all. I tried to highlight this issue on my second visit but i think it fell on deaf ears. I also wanted to add a popping red colour to the tattoo, thinking maybe on the flowers but Myles suggested that a shading on the flowers would be nicer and he would make the rope around the neck red instead which once again I left to his judgement and expertise. As you can tell from the photo, you can barely see the red, nevermind popping . He also suggested to put some red on the front of helmet for the next appointment but as I have said already that I am done with this tattoo parlour so that won't be happening either. read more
