This is an honest review of my experience after getting my tattoo broken down into varying categories. My tattoo artist was Phil. I received a black and grey tattoo by him and must say I'm quite disappointed and I'll explain why,
Price- I believe very pricey, paid 550 flat without tip for roughly 3 hours of work was a little less.
Drawing- You must schedule an appointment first and once your appointment comes up you go and end up sitting there for roughly an hour while they draw it on that day while you wait. Generally my belief is that the artist has something drawn up for you when you come, you have an image there for you upon your arrival, you make your critiques, they are fixed and then you get tatted. That is not how my experience worked. Very pressured into making you decide within moments if you want it tattooed or not.
Artist- I'll start off my saying I would not recommend Phil to anyone. He is very difficult to work with and not open minded. Several times I asked him to fix things or add things and he was flat out like "no" or made some reasoning on why he did the thing he did. He doesn't seem to understand that this is YOUR tattoo and not his and it is on YOUR body. Communication with him is a nightmare, I barely got to talk to him before my appointment, he doesn't answer his emails or voicemail and the only way you can really reach him is to just show up when he is working. I called about 4-5 times before actually getting him to call me back. I can't speak for other artists there, but my experience was horrible with him, so out of 5 stars he would get a 0.
Artwork/tattoo- The tattoo itself isn't bad, the shading is slightly scratchy (up close you can see the lines made to use the shading, it doesn't blend). There are some lines that don't go fully to other lines or the border. There are a couple of hiccups that are noticeable, but you really have to inspect it closely. I am pleased with the image, but there were a couple of areas I wanted fixed to call back and find out that he blatantly said he would not fix them because these were "nit picks", which I find kind of unbelievable as I believe an artist should want there best work out there. These fixes wouldn't have been big either or taken a lot of time, and for how much i tipped him I thought he would have appreciated it and taken the time to make me happy...but no. Like i said in my artist review this guy does not care about you. He is not professional in my opinion and I would not recommend.
Overall- After reading all the great reviews out there I did believe this was the number one spot to go to in CT. However, my experience would say otherwise. I can't speak for the shop itself so that would be unfair of me to say I would never go there again, but I definitely WOULD NOT recommend Phil. Stay away from this dude unless you don't care what he puts on your skin. He is not personable at all and I feel getting a tattoo should be a fun experience that the artist is as charismatic as you are in regards to your tattoo. read more