I booked a tattoo with an employee of North Coast Body Mod, Rick (Bacon) Maccartney, after sending…read morehim the design I wanted. I had designed my own tat, since I have a degree in art, and gave him an extra example, blown-up, of a band symbol I had incorporated into the design, so he could understand the detail, since it was only around 1.5" tall in the design.
Bacon had been working at this shop since it was on Munson, years back, and I had seen his work on Instagram, so I was confident he could do a good job. The design was a very simple, 8" design, with a total of 3 colors, not including the black line work.
When I came in for the work, he showed me a modified version of what I wanted. Although, since he hadn't changed the main elements, I wasn't particularly upset. Although, he had not incorporated the markings into the design that I wanted, he assured me that he wanted to avoid black bleeding into the colored areas, so he would add them in a second session.
2 hours later, when he finished this session, he placed the tegaderm over the work and told me to look in the mirror. When I looked, ink and blood under the tegaderm obscured much of the details, but I did bring up that he hadn't outlined the moon and he told me he didn't like outlining elements like moons.
I told him because I'm so fair - milky white, really, the yellow of the moon appeared to blend in with the color of my skin and I need it outlined. I also brought up the fact that the main element was a flat, light greenish yellow and it was supposed to be ombre, from dark green to light, as per our discussion. There were other elements that he didn't put into the tattoo, also.
He told me not to worry - that he plans on completing the tattoo at the next session. He told me when the tattoo was healed in a month, just call and set up an appointment for the finish work.
I waited the 7 days to remove the tegaderm that I was instructed, and washed off the dried blood and ink, and was very surprised by the tattoo. The main element - a 4" Luna Moth, was the same color as the body of the moth. It really wasn't even light green, but a darker shade of yellow. As I thought back to that day, I remember him opening his ink drawer that was almost empty, and digging around. I didn't think much of it, assuming he just placed the ink he intended to use in the top drawer. But now, I suspect he was low on colors. Also, the Moth was supposed to have a red border, but he used a thick, 14 -15 gage liner to do the whole outline, which should should have been done with a .08 gage liner, so now the linework just bleeds into the red border, making it look like a thick black line. Thinking about this now, I'm guessing he was low on needles, too!
I tried to stay calm, thinking that my skin was still peeling and sort of scabby, and maybe needed a few weeks to see the end results. I called the number on Bacon's card, which was North Coast Body Mod's number, and left a message asking to set up an appointment with Bacon, to get the work finished. Over the course of the next 2 months, I called around a total of 6 more times, leaving a request for a call back.
At this point, I have no other explanation other than Bacon is ghosting me.
Now that the Tattoo is healed, it looks like a kindergarten crayon drawing. So much wrong on so many levels. Even the corona around the moon has uneven rays and the geometric background triangle that is supposed to meet at the pyramid within the moon is not complete. From the main subject, it's single use of color, and missing design elements, like the twinkling stars that are either missing or poorly drawn, the whole thing is just so poorly constructed, it's ridiculous!
Luckily, I have a great Tattoo artist, Shawn Skale, at Cardinal Ink, who's going to fix it for me.
But I'll be taking NCBM, owner, Richard Kish, and Rick Maccartney to Small Claims court to get my money back and any pain and suffering the court allows.
Do yourself a favor - never deal with these clowns if you know what's good for you!
