Voodoo Monkey Tattoo

This review earns two stars, only because the artist apologized to me over the phone when I told him why I was no longer his customer.

I am not new to the tattooing process, and since the artist of my first piece had moved, one of my friends recommended "Voodoo Charlie" (Geoff) at Voodoo Monkey Tattoo. He seemed nice enough, and everything was fine until the process actually started.

From the get-go, communication was poor at best. He applied the drawing to my leg, and I realized that I was unhappy with the placement of one (large) flower. Instead of offering to redesign it, he assured me that it would be fine, and that I was just being "neurotic" about it. My first mistake was not walking out as soon as that insult left his mouth.

This poor communication also extended to matters of payment. Before he started, we had agreed on a price of $250. My first tattoo, which is fairly decent sized, had cost me about that much and had taken three and a half hours to complete. I was naive enough to believe that that's how much this tattoo would cost me also. It wasn't until "Voodoo" actually started inking lines into my skin, that he told me it would take more than one session, at a cost of $250 per session! When I said something about it, he should have stopped right there and offered to redesign something that was more in my price range. Instead, he just kept going. My second mistake was not stopping him.

During our second (and final) session, I asked him to work on a specific area, so the tattoo could look more complete. Instead, he decided to do whatever he wanted (again, no communication) and now my new artist has to work with this random blue splotch just because he "figured he'd start on the background" before I had a chance to realize what he was doing.

The end-all was his inappropriate nature. This man is more than fifteen years my senior, and I was not comfortable being alone with him in the shop. All he can talk about for hours on end is allegories to sex. Although not severe enough to constitute any form of harassment, the ways in which "Voodoo Charlie" talked to me and touched me put me in an extremely uncomfortable situation. I hated every second of it. Even when I flat-out said something to him about it, he got back on the subject no more than five minutes later.

When I went to go pick up my drawing after our final conversation, "Voodoo" was on the phone. He practically shoved my drawing at me, and wouldn't acknowledge me with any more than a thumbs up. My impression of him as a professional was partially riding on this final interaction, and that was just the icing on this terrible cake.

If you're looking for a tattoo artist that is professional and will make sure you're 100% happy every step of the way, then this is not the shop for you.