Bear's Den Tattoo Studio

I remember when I first got my tattoo at Bears Den it was 1998. I wanted a dragon tattoo and found a cool one with a spiked ball on the end of his tail and he was winged and another that had a blue color with a glowing orb in his right palm. So when the guy walked in he was a big biker looking dude the first thing came to mind was "Holy shit I'm gonna die". It didn't hurt and it looked awesome jump 8yrs later and the same guy was at Wal-Mart shopping he saw my arm and said "I remember that tattoo and you" he told me he was Bear the owner. I then told him that I sent several people to him and ask for him only he does excellent work. So if you want a good job done ask for Bear.

I didn't end up getting tattooed here. I walked in and the front desk guy was really nice and he handed me over to James. I got the feeling that he didn't want to do my tattoo. He didn't smile once, I had to ask his name because he didn't introduce himself, and he just seemed disinterested. This left me with no confidence that I would get a good tattoo. Still, I hadn't yet decided not to get it there. He told me to email some reference photos because I didn't have any on hand and I did, but I got no response, thereby solidifying the feeling of disinterest on his part.

My first tatoo done there was impressive so was the second. So when I wanted to get another tattoo done, naturally I went back to Bear's Den.  Big mistake!  The artist was a new hire--that should have been my clue to RUN!  I had a rather large tribal dragon done on my back.  During the entire process, the artist didn't seem too confident.   John and Bear came back to "check in" several times--again another clue that Ishould have gotten up and just RAN!  Upon first sight, the work looked like a typical new tat.  I didn't have any reason at that point to feel anything other than satisfied and proud of my new work.

I followed the after care instructions as  I know the importance of doing that so that your work heals well.   Long story short--the dragon did not  and inspite of repeated visits to have it corrected, there was NO resolution.  Bear did mention that he could fix it by outlining my tribal dragon in PINK!!!  Seriously?  Pink?  I was surprised since I had such great respect for him and his work.  

Repeatedly I was told that it wasn't done healing come back--hey I don't live around the corner so just coming back was not a natural option but I did as I was asked 3 different times over a period of several months.  My last visit, I was told to email a picture of my back so that it could be zoomed in on to see where the black ink didn't take---really??  The way that I felt at this  point was that the owner and staff were NOT trying to work with me.  Did I mention that they fired the new hire???  Interesting, huh?  My skin was overworked causing it to be raised and the black ink has grey spots--its a mess and I'm embarrased to show it.  Its so bad that I've considered having it lasered OFF!!  Not something I really want to do but feel I have NO choice!

I was very disappointed since this was not my first tattoo nor was it the first tat that I had done there.  I had been please up until this point. I've given up on this studio and would sadly not recommend it to anyone.