I have a beautiful tattoo on my right forearm done by Uncle Josh. I told him what I had in mind and he drew it up in front of me exactly what I had wanted he's very creative and easy going and over all provides a great experience. I would get more work done by him he is a great artist and very diverse in his work.
Review Source:This shop was recommended to me by a friend with a number of tattoos. I don't know what exactly he experienced there, or what he thinks is "normal" at a tattoo shop, but this shop is NOT run professionally. I would NEVER go here again.
I'm a heavily tattooed lady who has gotten work done all over the country, and has helped behind the counter in the past. I know how shops (should be) run and have empathy for the way artists work. I had a very specific idea in mind for a new tattoo I wanted, and had drawn up the sketch of what I wanted. After scrutinizing the artists' portfolios, I decided to get my work done by the owner - I knew this meant more of a wait and a higher price tag, but I was willing to pay for his skills and experience. This was a very emotionally significant piece to me, and I wanted the best of the best. I spoke with him, gave him my drawing, and he said it was "cool" and agreed to do it. I left my drawing with him so he could make a stencil from it, put down a deposit, and made an appointment SIX WEEKS out, which is not unusual for a prominent tattoo artist - but this point will be important later in my story. I took 4 days off work as well, one for my tattoo, 3 for healing (my work involves me dipping my arms in water a lot, and the tattoo was going to be on my forearm, so I didn't want to damage it during healing). This was no small feat, as me getting even one day off work a week required at least two months advance notice, and even then was not guaranteed.
On the day of my appointment, I was awoken by a call from the tattoo shop. It was the owner, with whom I had the appointment. He asked if we could push back my appointment by a couple hours, because his earlier appointment was running over time. I was a bit annoyed, because I was supposed to be working merch at a local concert later that night and the later appointment would risk me being late to that - but I had already waited six weeks and needed to get it done THAT DAY, so I begrudgingly agreed.
I showed up for my "new" appointment time, and everyone was very nice when I showed up "Oh hey Hi how are ya what's up!" and all that. But then the owner told me that the tattoo which had pushed my appointment back already, was going to be running even LATER than he had told me earlier, so he seriously - I'm not joking - told me to "just pick one of the other guys here, and he'll do it for you". I had SPECIFICALLY made an appointment, with deposit, with the owner because I wanted HIM to do it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice - I wasn't going to be able to reschedule for a different day at this point.
So, I hurriedly flipped through the portfolios of the other artists who were working in the shop that day. I selected the one guy who seemed like he'd be up to snuff. He proceeded to draw up a stencil based on my sketch (apparently, it had just been sitting in a folder for six weeks and nobody had drawn a stencil from it, which, at ANY other shop, SHOULD have been done before I even showed up for my appointment). To my horror, it was a grim skeleton of my original design. When I asked him why he took so many of the details out, he gave me a distracted answer like "uhm uh I just think it'll like, look too muddy". I think he just didn't want to be bothered with using multiple needles to get the varying thicknesses I wanted.
All this took even more time, so the inking didn't even begin until nearly 5 hours after my original appointment was supposed to start (needless to say, I had to bail on the obligations I had later that night because of all this). I know things happen and plans change, but for the owner to biff his schedule so bad, and to just assume I could change my schedule at his whim and had no plans after my appointment was highly insulting.
Adding insult to injury, I was pretty disappointed with my results. The tattoo is a sword with axes and lightning-bolt type designs around it. The sword, which should be straight lines down the sides, varies in thickness and the lines are wobbly in parts. I remember watching the artist work and seeing his hand waver more than a few times, and my heart sank. The design was supposed to be more realism-based, with crisp lines and jagged edges, but it turned out bubbly and cartoonish. The artist was lazy and rude. I can't even remember his name, I was so underwhelmed with my experience.
This was almost 2 years ago and I'm still angry every time I look at my arm. I never even received an apology from the owner. If you actually give a crap about your body art, and don't enjoy being jerked around by incompetent people, go somewhere else.