Short North Tattoo

I've never gotten a tattoo before, so after asking around, and talking to sweetie about the whole thing, I checked out Yelp, of course.  This place was in my top three, and we moseyed in on a Friday evening.  They weren't too busy, and Alison did a great job of translating our ideas into drawings.  Then she walked me through the whole process, and I walked out without shedding any tears or blood (okay, a little blood.)  The tattoo looks great and is healing well.  Sweetie's is just perfect too.  

The place is clean, the staff is welcoming and full of amazing artists, and prices are reasonable.  I don't have anything to compare it too so I hesitate to give it five stars ("as good as it gets,") but I am very happy with my experience.

Several people referred me to Brett.

So let me sum up the first two visits - first - getting the appointment, talking the design.

The second? Outline. So painful outline. Brett said he is fast and brutal - and he had a half-sleeve done in under sixty-minutes. I was bruised and sore - but I fucking love the outline (including the touch-up he did for a previous tattoo to fix a date).

The third - coming up, the coloring.

Brett has been awesome and friendly, and the rest of the staff has been cool and friendly - more so than other parlors I've been to.

I have several more planned - and if their staff is up for it, they'll be the ones I stick with.

With an ego-maniac, prima-dona for an owner, I wouldn't recommend it. I went to Brett Prince because he is a talented artist and soon learned that he is also an accomplished A-hole! Where shall I begin!? He would not let me see his sketches until the day of the tattoo appointment and assured me if I wanted to change the design there would be no problem, but when i actually did want to make a small change he immediately bristled and became indignant that I "had had a month to look this over!", this was not true, since I saw it for the 1st time at that moment. He seemed offended that I wanted the image to be my vision and not his, he refused to make the changes I asked for and the conversation quickly escalated to an argument for his lack of communication skills.

He immediately raised his voice and was talking over me. I could see that he was unstable and so i spoke with him as diplomatic as possible, but it's hard communicating with someone with such an enormous ego. He insulted me several times, his language littered with profanity, and called me unprofessional, accused me of being an "emotionally unstable woman" and acted as though I were judging him for being covered in tattoos (clearly I wasn't since I wanted him to tattoo me). Ironically, in his rant he shouted that he was "known for his customer service skills" and that he "wouldn't have two tattoo shops if that was not true" (the 2nd is now out of business). He rounded off this soliloquy with another nod, to his own superior skills as a tattoo master stating that he was now at "a place in his career where he could be choosy about his customers" and that I was "already a bigger pain in the ass than people with entire back pieces" (I guess I should just be honored he "chose" my body for his art, and shut up?) He then told me he wouldn't tattoo me and stated that he would be keeping my $100 deposit.

In the end I am grateful for that interaction, because I would NEVER want the hand of such a person to etch anything permanently on my skin! Especially considering that the tattoo I had chosen, was to symbolize the interconnectedness of humankind (I would rather not be connected to him). I offer this story for your consideration because, for me getting a tattoo is a spiritual experience and should be focused on the customer and not an exercise in the ego of a narcissistic artist.