Worst tattoo experience I could imagine; but Valarie did excellent artwork; with extremely high technical skills.
The first issue was communication. I had a long email exchange with someone from the shop when I was emailing Valarie's email address. We discussed the design and they said the only option was a full-day booking. I was okay with that since I was looking to get a higher detail tattoo and I knew it would potentially be a lot of work.
When I arrived it was pretty clear she hadn't even read the email chain. I think the only thing she was aware of was the position of the tattoo. Additionally it was clear fairly quickly that she DID take half-day bookings since she asked if the booking was for a full or a half day. This should have been of more concern since half day wasn't even an option when I was emailing her email account, but I figured it might just be a miscommunication.
Things descended downhill from there. We started around 1330. I was occasionally breathing through the tattoo as it was turning out to be more painful than most of my others (back of neck; the others were full sleeve, eyelids, and lips), and she just kept seeming more and more annoyed with me, but didn't say anything.
At about 1430, she just said "Short Break," and stopped, got up, and said "Ten Minutes." She went over to the desk person and said something in a slavic language and stepped away. While we were taking her ~ 30 minute or so lunch break the desk attendant came over and asked me to pay then as they might not be able to take my payment (because they would be out) if the tattoo ran late. As a result I had to pay for the full day, and provide a tip before knowing what the experience was actually going to be like.
As soon as we started working again the pain was immensely more intense due to the adrenaline crash from her lunch break. A few minutes in when I was groaning and making quiet, but audible, reactions to the pain she commented that "I will stop if you can't be quiet," and "is the tattoo too much for you;" keep in mind she already had my money. It felt like she was trying to get me to quit so she could get the day's pay for an hour of work and leave me with an unfinished piece that she could blame on me. I started weeping from the mental distress, mandatory silence, cold treatment, objectification, and dissociated so ironically I couldn't feel the physical pain as much.
After another 45 minutes of this she offered to use a numbing solution. So here we are, 90 minutes of tattooing and about 30 minutes of break time in, with clearly many opportunities to have just used the solution to make the tattoo *mostly painless* and *ensure I could stay quiet if that's what she needed to work,* that she finally bothered to offer it; not for my comfort, but so she didn't have to hear me whimpering anymore.
After another 45 minutes of work we were nearly done, the numbing had worn off, but my adrenaline was up, I was wincing a bit and reacting a normal amount to the pain, but ot wasn't as bad as my dislocated rib from sitting at attention for an hour (I have hEDS). She declared another break, didn't put the numbing cream on (it burns, and the new cream didn't) and sat for a while.
After another 15 or so minutes she came back, of course the adrenaline crash hit again, and she got upset that I made a sound from being tattooed. She said it was almost done, that we could stop now, or I could be quiet and we could finish the drop shadow. I didn't want to leave it unfinished so I stuck it out, now more seething KNOWING she took that break with full knowledge that I would be in extreme pain for the last 15 minutes of the tattoo, KNOWING she could have used the numbing cream, but not, just seemingly to hurt me as much as possible and get me to leave with unfinished work.
Her technical skills, artistry, and knowledge are top notch; her ability to actually work with a client and her empathy are non-existent. For $3000 a day (or in this case $1,000/hr) I expect a welcoming, caring, and compassionate person with skills and an excitement to be there working on their projects. Instead I got the same treatment I would expect from a prison guard or cop. read more
