I got my tattoo from Genghis, and unfortunately, his response to a problem has pushed my review from what could have been fives stars down to two. I was told that the simple design I brought in (text in another language with a different, runic, alphabet) would be scanned and scaled up -- so when I confirmed that it was good I was only looking at size, and not accuracy. It was a bit smaller than I'd thought, but it had already been (I thought) traced onto transfer paper, so it didn't seem worth making him redo it for a few millimetres. I got my tattoo, paid, and tipped.
However, when I looked at it more closely the next day (after removing the bandage) I could see that there were several subtle differences between what I had written and what was on my arm. Most were stylistic, but two turned letters into other either a similar letter or a non-letter that was ambiguously balanced between three others, resulting in spelling mistakes permanently tattooed onto my arm. My design does not look like it was scanned and traced, it looks like it was copied free-hand.
When I went in I was not angry. I waited until he was finished with other clients. I made sure to keep my voice quiet and not broadcast the conversation to his coworkers. I made clear that I was not angry -- rather I was disappointed, and I wanted to make sure that he understood the importance of letting people know if he was going to free-hand copy something in a language and alphabet he doesn't know so that they can check it for accuracy.
He insisted that he traced it from my original, but frankly, if he did, then it was a very rushed and unprofessional tracing job (a 45-degree angle does not become a 90-degree angle when someone is being careful). He proceeded to tell me repeatedly that the mistakes were insignificant (even though I had let him know that they'd resulted in different letters and my tattoo is misspelled). All I needed to walk away satisfied was an acknowledgment that he would be more careful with other people's tattoos in the future. Even an "I'm sorry you're not happy with it" if he was paranoid about me suing him or something if he admitted fault would have been nice. But no -- I was apparently wrong to be disappointed that my tattoo has spelling mistakes because they're not a big deal. And not scaling it up enough to allow him to be accurate is also my fault, even though he chose how much to scale it up.
Everything else about the tattoo is fine: the lines are nice and thin, it's healing well, and he was very friendly and professional up until I pointed out that he'd made an error. If he'd acknowledged the error and I thought he was unlikely to do it again, I wouldn't be writing this review -- as it is, I don't recommend going to him if your design contains elements that require accuracy, or if you do go to him, then look over the transfer drawing very carefully, and don't be afraid to ask him to redo it if anything is off. Someone who can't acknowledge that they've made an error is likely to repeat it. read more
