I've thought long and hard before leaving this review but it's been 2 months since I got this…read moretattoo and at this point I'm embarrassed to go sleeveless because of how much I dislike it, and the experience itself was also bad. I scheduled my appointment a week in advance. I sent the artist a picture of a statue that I wanted tattooed on me, as well as two additional pictures (one picture that was even of the artist's own work) of the style I wanted it tattooed in. Artist told me that he required a $100 deposit (half for the tattoo, half for the design/draw/prep time). I sent in my deposit then was told based off of the info I provided, that the cost of the tattoo would be $250 - $400, but would likely be on the lower side. I was expecting to pay around $350-$400 for this tattoo in total before tip.
When I showed up for my appointment, I was told the artist had just driven overnight from out of state because a family member had just passed and so he needed 15 minutes to charge his iPad. Fifteen minutes ended up being almost an hour and a half. Once the iPad was finally charged, I found out he still hadn't made the stencil for my tattoo and needed another "15 minutes" so by the time he was finished with that, I had been there for almost 2.5 hours before we finally sat down and started.
During the appointment, it seemed like the artist had not looked closely at all to the reference image I provided, because part of what is now permanently on my body does not match what was in the photo or on the stencil.
-On the statue, there is a year. The year is 1893. My tattoo says 1898.
-The statue is wearing an armored breastplate with an embellished design. Artist misinterpreted it and just went ahead with what I guess he thought he saw, so I didn't realize til after that I now have nipples in my design. I work in a corporate setting, so now my tattoo is inappropriate at work.
Since this appointment was booked in advance, I would have expected the artist to have had a design ready for us to go over, but it's clear it was rushed during the time after the artist's iPad was charging and when we finally sat down. I've only ever seen good reviews for this artist, so I trusted that he knew what he was looking at, or would at least question me on the parts he wasn't sure on/weren't clear in the picture, but that didn't happen.
The tattoo itself also has other issues. There's an outline around the design that the artist suggested doing at the beginning then didn't seem to want to do by the end, and the depth/thickness of the line is inconsistent so now that part definitely has to be redone. There's also one spot where it's clear the artist's hand drifted during the outline so it looks like someone drew outside the lines of the design.
Another issue with the experience is that during the session, another artist was feeding my artist gummies while he was tattooing me, and several of the artists in the shop were vaping inside. There was one point where my artist took a hit in the middle of my tattoo, then dropped something on the floor, picked it up, and then resumed tattooing me without washing his hands or even just changing gloves. I've got 7 tattoos now and I've never had an artist use a vape in the shop, let alone DURING the tattoo. He didn't even ask if I was okay with being around that. Hint: I'm not.
My last issue is that the price ended up being higher than what the artist quoted me when we scheduled the appointment. It was not communicated to me throughout the process to expect a higher price than what was quoted, especially since I chose the smallest size of the 3 sizes the artist presented. I ended up paying $400 day of (high end of the estimate when the artist told me to expect the low end), in addition to the $100 deposit, so this was a $500 tattoo + tip. So at 10:30 PM I go to pay and the artist let me know that he doesn't accept card and would only take cash/Venmo. He did not communicate that at any point during the process and it is not anywhere on his social media or the shop's website.
I'll admit that some of this is on me for not trusting my gut and not speaking up, but ultimately it's the professional tattoo artist's job to know whether or not they are in the right state of mind to be putting something permanent on someone's body, and it's clear to me that this artist was not and proceeded to anyways. I tried so hard to give him the benefit of the doubt and be kind, but I would have respected this artist a lot more if they had just been honest and rescheduled rather than tattooing me while being physically and emotionally exhausted, because it shows in the work. This was my first time going to this artist/shop, and it will be my last.
