Third experience here and I will NEVER come back. You shouldn't either!!
When you come in - the gal at the front (Nikki) will ask you what you want, you send her the picture, describe what you want and she talks to the artist for you. Okay, whatever.
First experience was fine - got my walk-in tattoo (simple quote) and was on my way and some friend got their walk-in tats too. Second time I came with some friends and watched them get some some simple walk-in tats. I watched one get a quote that was miss-spaced and crooked. She's now stuck with miss-spaced letters for life. Yicks - but she loved it so why ruin the moment.
Anyway - made myself a tattoo appointment with Brian, provided photos, spoke with the artist in detail about what I wanted and he argued with me that "it's my art that has to walk around and if it'll look bad in 10 years I won't do it." Sir... it's my body. I'm telling you what I'm paying you to create on MY body that I have to live with every day. My request wasn't hard - it was pretty dang simple. Now that we got that out of the way, my appointment is set, sweet.
I arrive for the day/time of my appointment ON. TIME. What is my artist doing? Taking an entire three group walk-in group. I'm assured it'll be "just a few minutes." I wait AN HOUR AND A HALF past my scheduled time. It's well past dinner time and I'm gettin pretty hangry having to sit around and not be given a time frame so I can run errands or you know - anything besides sit and do nothing.
The artist comes up to me after some bugging from the receptionist gal. Artist sits next to me with the photos I provided the week prior. He HASN'T EVEN DRAWN UP A SKETCH. I go over what I want AGAIN. Yes, I made an appointment a week in advance and this artist hasn't even drawn up an idea. I have NEVER had an experience like this with ANY artist. He continues to argue with me about my idea and what HIS vision is for the tattoo. He argues with me about needle size. Well, sir, this is my fourth tattoo and I'm well aware of how small you can make lines and still have them last. I sit - hungry, annoyed and absolutely LIVID for the sole stubborn purpose of seeing what this guy is going to attempt to draw up in 30 minutes. If you are tracking we are now TWO hours last my SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT. Three groups of people have literally had their walk-in tats and left at this point.
Now I don't know who Brian thinks he is or why he thinks he can waste people's time. If you are worried about no-shows then take a deposit. I take the artwork I put on my body seriously and so should you. You single handedly took more time out of my day to sit and wait on YOU than it would have taken you to have the decency to call, text, give me a heads up you were worried about me coming or at least sketched a drawing. Your time isn't worth more than mine and I shouldn't be sitting around waiting for something you had a week to do. I got the inkling that Brian prefers to make his money off random walkins... sure, it's cheap quick money to trace something someone found on the interwebs. I digress....
While Nikki tells people, "Brian and Rich are good. We don't just want your money, we want you to come back." My experiences really say otherwise.
So... you want to know how this ends? He brings me some half ass drawing that I'm certain I drew better than in the THIRD GRADE. Like complete ZERO effort. Zero attempt to draw it to my vision. It looked like some half ass attempt to trace. I let him know how it's not at all what I wanted.He says (huffing), "It's not that I can't do it, it's that I don't want to." You you kidding me?! You are an artist. I give you an idea and you bring it to life. Your job as an artist isn't to just trace and give up. You've disgraced yourself and your shop. You've wasted my time inside of telling me a week ago you didn't want to do it. You didn't agree with a really simple job that if you did right would've come with a generous tip. Instead of being honest, you pull the lazy card.
I ended up wasting two and a half hours of MY day on someone who clearly from the beginning was not interested in my business. You have single handedly lost the business of three regulars in Killeen, I will tell every person I know in Killeen and I hope this review loses more.
If you ever want to point out a good artist - they are willing to have drawing sessions with you and on their own time, take deposits for their time slots, communicate regularly, offer touch ups 2 weeks past first ink to check their art and make sure YOU are happy. That IS NOT the experience from this shop. read more