Tat2fiend

I wanted a couple of small heart outlines tattooed on my inner elbows, but most shops have $100 minimums and I just couldn't stomach paying $100 for such tiny pieces and I figured they'd be pretty hard for a tattoo artist to mess up, even one who wasn't top ranked. I was checking Yelp/calling shops non-stop. I finally called Tat2fiend and when I described what I wanted, Dave said he would do it for $40. Perfect!

When I arrived he was a little confused because when I called and said I wanted "two small heart tattoos", he thought I meant there were two of us getting matching heart tattoos and that's why he quoted $40, because he meant $40 each. He informed me the shop minimum was $50 so I was like whatever. $10 more. Go for it.

He was a very nice man, but the shop was a little different than I'm used to. And that's my fault. I'm used to places that have $100 minimums; they have a $50 minimum. This is a tattoo shop; I'm used to something more along the lines of a tattoo *boutique* (douchebag alert). Anyway, he was singing along with Journey the entire time he did my tattoo and it was amusing. He did get me a couple times quite painfully and I started bleeding more than I ever have before during a tattoo (I have several), but I didn't think anything of it. He finished. I paid him. The end.

After coming home and inspecting closer, I noticed the lines were a little janky but figured maybe it was the swelling or newness or something. They have since healed nicely, but the spots where he essentially got a little stabby with my skin have pretty much blown out and are blurry along the edges. The rest of the lines are a bit wobbly and one of the circular parts of the heart isn't even with the other; it's squared a bit.

Overall they're fine and look normal to the casual audience, but when you really inspect them you can see these flaws (and I'm OCD). I'm bummed, but not pissed by any means. I learned my lesson. I wanted these particular hearts on that particular day but didn't want to spend a lot for them because they were such simple and small tattoos. Thankfully, knowing that I was taking a risk with a shop I wasn't used to, I purposely decided to only do outlines instead of fully filled hearts. I figured if the artist messed them up I could just have one of my artists fix and fill them as part of another appointment for a larger piece. And, yeah, that's eventually what I'm going to do.

In the meantime, they're definitely passable tattoos and not very visible anyway. And it's not like I regularly have people with their eyes six inches away from my elbows. However I will be asking another artist to fix them and I won't be back. Sorry.

LOLOL, so i've been getting some pretty pissed off messages on Yelp the past two weeks..apparently my raw and honest reviews are not to peoples liking.

Well, screw you.

Not you though. :)

Okay, so about Tat2fiend. Yayyyy I like them! I had been researching for a week to find a piercer that I felt comfortable with to pierce a part of my body I'd rather not mention lol..it was fast, easy, inexpensive. The piercer was cool enough to talk to me about his own piercing experience, and was very fast and thorough.

I'd highly recommend, and will be back again in the next 10 years when I get my next piercing. :)

Chad had been doing my tattoos since I got to California. He's always reasonable with the price, does AMAZING work, and is a pretty cool dude! He's done three for me so far (if my sleeve can even really count as ont) and I look forward to seeing him every time I go! Tom is also AWESOME, I just have to stay loyal to Chad. But amazing work all around. And they're both pretty old school, which I definetly appreciate.