So today is my 24th birthday, and my best friend and I have a tradition of getting tattoos on my birthday. I originally had an appointment set with another artist in another shop for months, and an hour before it, I got canceled on due to an emergency. I asked around and one of my friends told me about a great artist, Gabriel and told me he worked at Marlin's. We headed over and despite the ridiculous and tiny parking lot, I felt a great vibe from the place when I walked in. There were a bunch of artists there and were all smiling and welcoming. I legit opened with: "Hey, I don't have an appointment, but I just got canceled on my birthday and was wondering if anyone would help". They were more than willing, showing me their work etc. I asked about Gabriel but they said he didn't work there anymore. No big deal, I thought, and decided to be open-minded and look at the people who were there. I was drawn to the fist girl's work, Moony (aka Juliet) because it was really cutesy work. I had never had a female artist before either, so I was really excited. (Mind you, I have a lot of my body covered, I have two half sleeves and a full leg sleeve amongst other pieces. So this is not my first rodeo.)
I can admit my big mistake was not asking for a price up front, but no price was brought up at all either. (I did explain that my original artist was going to do an entire half torso stencil for $150, though). Anyways, we finally decided on a 2inx3in simple tattoo of a triceratops. The entire tattoo took less than an hour, perhaps about 40 minutes. We had excellent conversation and talked about the struggles of being a female in male dominated industries (I work in technology) and she had a very light hand. After my tattoo, I ask her the price, and she looked me straight in the eye and said "$200 for yours". I was in shock. (Not to mention she charged my friend $400 for another small tattoo) I seriously paused and waited about ten seconds assuming she was going to follow with: "Just Kidding!" Nope, she said: "we have an ATM in anything" (atm was broken btw, I ended up using cash app)
I didn't cause a scene or haggle because I am a composed person and seriously believe in karma. I think she knows very well she ripped us off! I don't expect special treatment although I've had plenty of hookups with tattoos before, I am dating a tattoo artist and have been in the tattoo scene for a long time and have lived in Miami for 12 years, so I know what a fair price is! This tattoo is worth about $50-$80 (I would have even accepted $100 or maybe even $150 as something reasonable because I understand supplies etc are expensive.
Looking back, there were red flags. The neighborhood was sketchy and you can't directly open the door, you have to ring a door bell and have them put a code in every time you open the door (I'm assuming because of unsafe neighborhood). And though I should have been smarter and brought it up before, she should have talked price wayyy before she hit my skin with the ink.
I hope the $600 (+ tips) she robbed from two nice and hard-working lower middle class millennials helps her out with whatever, but she could have easily made plenty of more money in the long term with a decent price. Because I ALWAYS recommend my artists to people and show off my tattoos on my various instagrams with big followings, Yelp reviews, and word of mouth.
I guess it makes sense that there were no customers in the shop before we got there, the entire time we were getting tattooed, or when we left! Zero! (Now that I think about it, I've NEVER been getting a tattoo done by an artist who wasn't lowkey stressing for time because they had a bunch of people lined up!) I'm guessing the other yelp reviews featuring 5 stars and claiming a decent price are either fake or she just decided today was the day to ripoff these strangers!
Oh and by the way, they had multiple signs claiming you get a free shirt if you check in on social media platforms, which me and my friend did, and they said they didn't have any shirts to give us. And none of the other artists dared looked at us, all turned away, when we were paying or saying goodbye, I'm guessing to control their shame or about to burst into laughter after scamming us! I'm sure Moony will enjoy the multiple very nice photos I took of her and her work that airdropped to her phone. They have a paid, in-shop photographer but I'm glad after taking all that money from me they also got some free photography and social media posts (before i deleted them, of course!)
I will NOT be recommending Marlin's Tattoo Shop or Moony/Juliet to absolutely anyone EVER. And I will make sure to warn everyone about their prices because THEY SURE WON'T! read more