One Shot Tattoo

KATIE GRAY does great work and is a sweet heart. I was heartbroken by the loss of my grandmother and simultaneous girl troubles and katie not only did a bad ass tattoo, she listened so well i felt i had a therapist at my side. She is a bad ass artist and I DO RECCOMMEND KATIE GRAY AS A TATTOO ARTIST. CUZ she is one bad mamma jamma. She also touched up the tattoo for free sometime later and made it look like new. If you want a REAL DOWN ASS TATTOO ARTIST who knows what she is doing and can work with you from start to finish, design to exectution. I SAY KATIE is your girl!

I got my first tattoo here. Katie did my tattoo. She made me feel comfortable. She was sweet. I just walked in and I only waited 5-10 mins while she drew out my picture and got the area set up. I was done within the hour. Definitely will be coming back for more.

This review is one part for the shop and mostly for Joe Paul. I don't review on Yelp often (I'm one of those who take but don't give, I'm that bad!) and when I review something, either because it is so great or it is unbearably terrible. One Shot Tattoo and Joe Paul obvious belong to the first category.

A few forewords for the background: I got my first tattoo yesterday, I was a rookie, intimidated diving head first into a tattoo shop, and worst off, I wasn't really sure what I wanted,  nor was I able to explain it clearly to Joe in the first 20 minutes (???). I was a one star customer (or even negative one star .... sighed!).

The shop is clean, nice and bright with people full of tattoos in it. I sat quietly at the bench and tried not to get in the way of other people. Joe later explained to me the process by which they keep everything cleaned and sanitized. It cleared my last worries away - so 4 stars for the shop.

Joe, having a one star customer like me, demonstrated his 5 star qualities. He is friendly, extremely patient (though he might have been screaming inside because of me),  and took his time to come up with 3 different sketches until I got a sketch that I absolutely love. I am so grateful I didn't hightail 10 minutes into mumbling and trying to explain what I wanted to him (although the thought had crossed my mind at least 3 times!).

The whole tattoo process was not half as bad as I expected, although admittedly, right before he started the machine, I just wanted to hold his hand and say: Please tell me I'm gonna be OK! Glad I didn't do that, ha ha, because the pain was just like I got scrapes on my skin for 30 minutes. So he was working on the needles and inks, while I was watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on my iPad. Did I say I even loved how the stencil looked on my skin, and Joe was very careful and methodical to make sure the tattoo is center and symmetrical on my arm? And of course, he explained the after care to me very thoroughly.

After everything is done, he even walked me to the Muni stop and showed me which line to get on. Thank you for being so nice and again, SO PATIENT!

The result is I have a beautiful tattoo that I LOVE and my 4 year old daughter LOVES (she said, quote: "I love your tattoo, Mommy! When I grow up, I'll get a tattoo that says: I love Princess Tiana!" - and I was like: What ??? What about Mommy??? Ha ha). And right now I look at it every 5 minutes as it lies so stylishly on my arm! Hooray for Joe again!

THE END!