Update: Toby and Nisha had their attorney send me a very aggressive and threatening letter in an attempt to bully me into removing my review.
I made the terrible decision to be tattooed by Toby. I went in to start on a full sleeve, although it wasn't technically a full sleeve but a 3/4 sleeve. I have a tattoo on my upper arm that takes up half of my upper arm. During my 1st appointment we discussed that we are going to keep and incorporate that one. At my 1st appointment Toby told me that it would take 3 sessions since it wouldn't be an actual full sleeve. I paid for a full day session. He told me at my 1st appt that the stop time will be once I tap out. Our first session he ended early and said that his kids were sick. He specifically told me that our next session won't be the same. He also said our next session wouldn't take as long to get started. I went back in for my 2nd session yesterday at 10am. He showed up late like he did for our 1st appt. It wasn't until about 11am that he started drawing on me. It took him about 4 hours to draw on me. Keep in mind we haven't even started on my upper arm. He was drawing on my lower arm. Finally by 3pm we get started tattooing. The table wasn't working properly so he had to reset up a new one. Then some random person walks in looking for a tattoo. He stopped tattooing me to go chat with the person. Then throughout my entire session he purposely inflicts maximum pain. He seems to think that I don't have any large or decent pieces. I have my entire back done. I also have portraits and pieces on my legs. I have good quality work in those areas. I only mentioned to him that I wanted my back covered up, but because I don't like it anymore and don't have those beliefs anymore. It's not due to the quality. The tattoos that he was starting to cover on my arm are much older tattoos that I got when I was younger. Based off of that I suppose he thinks I don't know any better. My ex is also a tattoo artist so I understand needle groupings, heavy hands vs light hands, dry wipe vs wet wipe etc. Throughout my entire session he never finished a single area. He jumps from area to area throughout the entire process. He would randomly jump from my wrist, elbow, side of arm, just all over the place. He opens up the area and works on it for a while, then moves to another area for like 20min or so, then moves back to the area he opened up. He inflicts serious pain. I hinted to him several times that each time you do that it hurts much worse. He never listened and continued to do it. I told him from the start that I wanted to work in a particular area first. He didn't listen. He is super heavy handed intentionally. He dry wipes with a paper towel the whole time. He inflicts maximum pain to attempt to get you to tap early. At the very start of our 2nd session after the marker was drawn on, I flat out asked him will you be able to finish this today to which he yes. By about 10pm he said we should call it a night. I literally only had maybe 1/2 of a half sleeve. There was so much work to complete still. I told him no I want to keep going. He didn't want to but I was persistent. So we get back to tattooing. I asked him flat out why did you tell me that we would have this finished today if that isn't the case. He said well there are a lot of factors like the way a client takes pain. I told him he put me in a ton of pain but I never once stopped him so what do you mean. I told him I feel lied to, taken advantage of, and just how unhappy I was by this and that I won't be continuing with him. I was planning on getting 2 full sleeves, full chest piece, and a cover up on my entire back. I told him you literally told me that for a full day session that it means we stop once I tap out. He got extremely combative. He said that in the fine print says he only tattoos 7 hrs max. I said why did you lie to me then? He ended up calling me an asshole and threatened to stop my work mid session to leave it. He said it's his right to do so. I said that I'd leave a review about this and he said that's "thats fine, I don't give a f". I'm not sure if he ended up texting his family or people or what. But suddenly around midnight all his people showed up at the tattoo studio I guess to try to intimidate me. I paid $ 3,225 in total and I don't have a completed half sleeve. I don't even have a single section of my arm that is complete due to him jumping around constantly. Literally not even one single area of this "half sleeve" is completed. During our argument he scoffed at me and was the mentality of how dare you .. but he admitted flat out a full sleeve is 5 grand. I said okay and I've paid over 3 grand now and I don't even have a completed half sleeve. He refuses to take accountability. He is a very selfish mentality, a liar, and he will gaslight you the entire time. He pretends to be a nice person but he is absolutely not. He takes advantage of people and rips them off. read more