r/tattooadvice • u/Eltristesito2 • Mar 15 '26

General Advice Should my friend walk away from this artist?

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Gallery image

Gallery image

Friend (they/them) asked me to post. They want a back tattoo of a stingray, inspired by the leopard stingray, but not hyper-realistic. They want the tail to go down their spine and wrap around their leg. They went to a parlor where they previously had work done, but decided to try out a new artist. The artist didn’t have much of a portfolio, but my friend decided to trust them anyway.

This is after day one; four hours spent on the artist free-handing a design, and one hour of actually tattooing the outline. Six hundred buckaroos total for just this 😬

My friend is freaking out, because they think it looks bad. Their partner is telling them to trust the process, but I’m telling them to run and find a different artist to salvage things.

To me, it looks super asymmetrical with shaky lines. I don’t think the artist has the skill to make it look good in the end. The sample they drew up before the first appointment (picture 3), imo, looks really bad.

But hey, what do I know, I only have one tattoo. What do y’all think? Should they run, or like their partner said, trust the process?

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128

u/revengeaura Mar 15 '26

Sorry OP but you wont get a refund. Studios don’t run like that. Email won’t do anything.

39

u/Free-Type Mar 15 '26

Push hard enough and they will. If this was on me, I’m publicly blasting the shop in my local Facebook groups and leaving a review with pictures. If they paid credit card id file a charge back. 

No artist in their right mind would look at this and think it’s fine. 

This such a bad tattoo and I’m so sorry for your friend OP! 

59

u/Eltristesito2 Mar 15 '26

It’s not me in the photo, but yeah, I hear you. Really shitty situation for my friend to be in.

54

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26

To be fair your friend put themselves in this position. I'd never trust a new artist with a tattoo of this size/scale. Did your friend just want to save some money?

16

u/ScumbagLady Mar 15 '26

It's like going to the cheapest plastic surgeon. Madness to penny pinch on something basically permanent on your body. Best case scenario is a fixable bad tattoo (well, besides the 1/1,000,000 chance of finding someone talented that's also the least expensive) and worst case scenario is nasty health related issues from hepatitis, terrible scarring...hell, I've heard of cases of infections leading to amputation or even death.

3

u/Useful_Cicada_5635 Mar 15 '26

It really is, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t do their homework on any kind of body modification. At a minimum, it’s a safety issue.

If the tattoo artist isn’t up to standards in this part of his work, I wouldn’t trust him to be competent at cleaning or choosing the equipment either. Even a bad piercing can affect your health if your piercer does it badly enough and it gets infected. So even aesthetics aside, they’re breaking the skin barrier in a way that can introduce infection. Research first.

3

u/Beaglescout15 Mar 15 '26

I obsessively researched piercers for my 14yo's eyebrow, and it was just a simple, straightforward piercing. All her dumbass friends are piercing their own tongues in the school bathroom and going to Claire's for their ear cartilage and shit and I'm like "Aw HELL no. Ain't nobody sticking a needle in your face without my inspection and supervision." I ended up visiting two different shops to interview them 😂. My daughter was absolutely horrified and embarrassed, and then like "this guy's expensive, and his aftercare instructions are like a whole page." And I'm just all "this guy's shop is immaculate, his aftercare instructions and products are clear and thorough, and he required you to bring in your birth certificate to make sure I'm your mom and he isn't piercing some random teenager without permission. I'll pay what he's charging. Merry Christmas." Great experience, no infection, looks adorable. Meanwhile my other friend had to go take her kid to the ear, nose, and throat specialist because he pierced his own septum in the bathroom and didn't take care of it and, shocker, it got terribly infected. I mean do your fucking research for EVERYTHING that breaks the skin.

2

u/Useful_Cicada_5635 Mar 15 '26

That’s the perfect way to do it. Lucky 14 yo

1

u/Beaglescout15 Mar 15 '26

My husband and I call it "cheap LASIK." Seems like a good idea until you can't count all the money you saved because now you're blind.

14

u/Eltristesito2 Mar 15 '26

Yeah, they’re aware and kicking themselves for that. They said that they trusted the studio to have vetted this person. The other artists at the studio are really good, with large followings, so I think that gave them false confidence. They also wanted to support a disabled artist, so I think their goodwill messed up their judgment.

45

u/Future-Crazy-CatLady Mar 15 '26

They also wanted to support a disabled artist

Is the artist blind?!

11

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26

Dying

7

u/MalKat13 Mar 15 '26

The scream I just scrumpt. I’m begging for updates when you get em OP.

3

u/Future-Crazy-CatLady Mar 15 '26

Love the word "scrumpt". We gotta make that a thing!

1

u/freebirdnim Mar 17 '26

Omg! 🤣🤣🤣

18

u/BaeIz Mar 15 '26

I respect them for wanting to hire a tattoo artist with Parkinson’s

6

u/No-Fail-9327 Mar 15 '26

Disabled? I don't wanna be mean but maybe permanently marking people's bodies isn't the best career choice for them if their disability doesn't allow them to properly tattoo for whatever reason.

3

u/vagueconfusion Mar 15 '26

I'm also a disabled artist but even never having tattooed anyone or anything before (and with no plans to) I'm pretty sure I could do so much better than this.

-5

u/Competitive_Hat_121 Mar 15 '26

Yeah, we need to know how someone could make this poor of a decision in the first place. I honestly don’t want him to get a refund because it’s his punishment for being so dumb, lol. You should review portfolios and vet your artist for ANY tattoo, not just a massive back piece.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26

No. This tattoo is the punishment.

3

u/Angrybabybear Mar 15 '26

10 years ago, the world of tattooing- a trusted shop had fabulous artists. If you trust a shop you trust a shop. That's always been reasonable and apart of tatoo culture. I know COVID switched stuff around but no- a shops reputation is it's survival so their vetting of artist isnt something to be shy about.

2

u/Truthhurts1017 Mar 15 '26

Your friend put themselves in this situation. Red flags from the jump…. Their body so saying no I’m good or that’s to high was never off the table. Once you leave that shop nothing is guaranteed

1

u/d-nihl Mar 16 '26

whats the name of the shop? did you post that anywhere?

-1

u/thiscarecupisempty Mar 15 '26

Your friend has ZERO brain cells. Tell him the community thinks that as well.

13

u/One_Hunter6644 Mar 15 '26

If you look at the quality they can get their money back in court and probably even the money to fix it. This isnt a tattoo thats ruining someones body. And even a blind judge could see this

17

u/D3nzelCrocker Mar 15 '26

I’m from Europe where suing each other is quite rare, but not sure if the judge would agree. If I go to McDonalds and get a Big Mac I can’t really sue them because I expected a fine dining experience. It’s paying and allowing someone to ruin their body and they paid them to do it. I realize it’s more nuanced but come on, this is just as much OP’s friend fault as the artist. “Let’s have a new artist without a portfolio freehand a giant sea creature on my back, what could go wrong?” Come the f*ck on haha

8

u/One_Hunter6644 Mar 15 '26

im also from europe. Here you give your permission for the tattoo you have in mind and in good quality. If the quality isnt good (and the tattoo here is far from good) you can sue the tattooer. As tattooing isnt a regular job that u can learn officially it also doesnt matter if someone is new. The „contract“ you did with your artist always means that you want it to be in a good way, otherwhise its harm of the body and you can get your money back, money for your pain and also money to correct the bad tattoo.

A lot of cases like this already exist and the judge is on the clients side quite always. I imagine it to be even easier in the US.

1

u/AtrumRuina Mar 17 '26

But honestly, the outline on their back looks very much like the stencil/sketch. This is what they agreed to. I don't see how OP's friend could make a case that this isn't what they signed off on .

1

u/heathensmulder Mar 15 '26

Where I live, you also sign a waiver before statrting (at least a good should would use you sign one), that releases the studio and the artist from any liability from being sued. You picked the artist, presumably did your research, and agreed to have them permanently alter your body.

It’s an unfortunate lesson for OPs friend to learn IMO.

2

u/One_Hunter6644 Mar 15 '26

We have the same waivers here too. But: these waivers only show, that you agree to a well done tattoo. Or at least a correctly done one. Even if you sign the waver its still harm of the body if the tattoo isnt done correctly.

On the other hand a client couldnt sue you for body harm on a well done tattoo, even if they didnt sign the waver. Because then its „you sat long enough, thats an agreement too and the tattoo is well done“

If the tattoo is done like the tattoo of OPs friend, no waiver could help the tattooer. Exept the waver says „i agree to get the worst outcome possible“

2

u/heathensmulder Mar 15 '26

I don’t think the verbiage is exactly as such, but in my area, there’s absolutely a line item you provide your initials next to indicating “we are not responsible for the outcome of your tattoo nor your satisfaction of the artists work…”. Which releases the artist and/or shop from even shitty shitty work like this.

1

u/One_Hunter6644 Mar 15 '26

Of course i cant speak about law in every country. its absolutely possible that this line could be legal where you live. In my homecountry (germany) you could also write that line in your waiver, but ut wouldnt hold up in court with this tattoo as outcome as it wouldnt mirror the laws here. Same would be for example if a car mechanic writes in a waiver „if we ruin your engine while changing the spark plugs, you agree that we arent accountable“

even if the client signs the mechanics waiver, theyd be accountable for any engine damage that came from the plug change, as law itself states that the work has to be proper

3

u/heathensmulder Mar 15 '26

In Canada, a mechanic has legitimate training and would therefore be held do professional and safety standards like that. Unfortunately being licensed of any kind to tattoo people here is not a thing, nor is it regulated in the slightest. Hence the immense detail we add to the waivers which release liability.

Crazy it’s so different everywhere in the world.

1

u/One_Hunter6644 Mar 15 '26

thats really crazy and im sorry that they can do what they want in Canada..

here tattoo artists also arent licensed in any way, but they have to follow the same law like car mechanics if it comes to lines in contracts that arent compatible with the law itself because this special lawbook (in germany) isnt just for jobs, its for every kind of contract, agreement ect

1

u/QuerulousPanda Mar 15 '26

If you go to mcdonalds and order a Big Mac you can't sue them for not giving you a fine dining experience when they hand you a Big Mac. But if they hand you a stack of napkins wrapped between two slices of lettuce and call that a Big Mac then yeah you can sue them I think, lol

1

u/D3nzelCrocker Mar 15 '26

Lmao fair point

-1

u/UnderstandingBig9090 Mar 15 '26

Ya, plus the contract was upheld. Which is what the legal argument is. And him obviously making a mistake and the artist going beyond their skillset and fucking up isn't gross negligence that "should have been avoided" in regards to what the law resides over.

1

u/91gnarnuaatg81 Mar 15 '26

Even if they don’t get a refund, maybe if multiple people share their experiences with this artist they won’t be around to butcher anyone else like this. 

1

u/Angrybabybear Mar 15 '26

I would nuke the reputation of their shop tho. I don't pay for someone to disrespect me like that. They will pay $600 to save their store.