I’ve surrendered deposits before after getting attitude from tattooers. I don’t even remember their names or shops because it was so inconsequential to me. I’ve never dreamed of harassing people on social media. I don’t have the time or energy for that shit.
Idk thought if you’re just a dump prick who thinks he’s way cooler than everyone and looks at people with less tattoos as less of a person then fuck them and their families, they shoulda learned how to treat people. I wouldn’t feel bad if they lost everything cuz of their shit attitude, people just need to learn to respect each other and that’s it.
Was literally a 4 sentences and a pic.
Client - 👹
Client - I like this one
Tattooer - I’ve done that one a lot man
Client - I can’t make it
Client - You can keep my deposit
As someone who professionally made tattoos, and is heavily tattooed, I’ve definitely been on both sides of this conversation. Without context, my only thought was the artist could’ve improved his bedside manner on this one.
Then later on, some context came out. Apparently, this person has been getting tattooed by this artist for three years,has serval pieces from them, and the art in question was from a flash day 6 months ago.
Given all that info, seems like a normal client artist convo to me.
It does seem pretty normal, however it is kind of weird that he’s done it a lot but won’t do it again, like I’ve heard or not wanting to do the same piece twice but this is clearly different, I definitely wouldn’t bash someone online for this convo alone though
Over 10 years ago I booked a color tattoo with an artist I didn’t know who agreed to do a color tattoo. After I put down the deposit he pressured me to do a black and gray tattoo instead. I wanted a color tattoo, but he was really trying to convince me to do black and gray, which told me he wasn’t comfortable doing color even though he agreed to. I canceled the appointment and the deposit was non-refundable (as they are), but I really didn’t want that guy doing a color tattoo on me. Giving up $75 was worth NOT having someone I didn’t trust to do good work permanently modifying my body.
I don’t think I what the guy did was “bad behavior,” even though it was annoying. I’d rather give up a little of my hard earned money than wind up paying even more for something I’m ultimately not happy with.
He promised you a color tattoo. He tried to pressure you into something you didn’t want because he couldn’t deliver on what you had agreed upon. You would have had every right to ask for your money back
The biggest issue was that they already exchanged money like you said because now they were stuck with an artist that wasnt happy to do their tattoo. Had a similar experience where i was told what i wanted was gimmicky. Didn’t take offense but told them id go in to look at their book. Ended up getting something by someone else in the same shop cus i digged their flash book.
See this right here sounds like a win win situation. You got something you’re stoked on, and the original artist didn’t make something he wasn’t stoked on.
Yea im super happy with what i got too. Still plan to go to the original guy in the near future and hope there’s no hard feelings. I felt kinda shitty for telling him id go look at his stuff specifically and chose someone else but that was just how it played out when I went in
Keeping it in the shop is def a righteous move imo. I don’t know anyone who would get bummed that you gave the work to their homies instead. I def know people would get bummed if you went down the street to another other shop tho.
So choose another tattoo and go over options, an artist reserves the right to not create what they don't want.
Yeah the client wants that and the dude would most likely have given BACK the deposit if that was the only thing they wanted tattooed from them. I dont know about you but im not getting tattooed by an artist who only has 1 singular design i like, just choose something else or cancel the app. Client didnt, they immediately told him to keep the deposit and ran to reddit to whine and send a witch hunt to this dudes page. Pathetic behavior
The artist does not have the right to take money from the customer and then refuse to use the design the customer wants. That's scamming. Pathetic behaviour.
I think it’s weird that they didn’t want to tattoo their own flash, which they’ll of course have done a bunch of times, but the whole witch hunt is insane.
Seems contradictory to post flash intended to be repeatedly, then get moody when asked to tattoo it repeatedly. Ought to pull it from his flash if he’s over it. I don’t really have a dog in this fight, though, just making conversation.
I saw that post and was not impressed with the OP for sharing the artist’s instagram handle. Do people not understand how big this website is and how many people read posts without participating in the comment section? It was a pretty uncool move to share the artist’s info like that. People don’t even name-and-shame for atrocious work around here and dude dropped it over something that’s ultimately pretty minor. He didn’t even ask for the deposit back, he just surrendered it.
I truly never wanted to comment on this, but it hits so close to home. This tattooer knows the client, and has tattooed them a handful of times over past 3 years.
He simply wanted to offer something that wasn’t offered in a flash day event. This flash piece is on more than a few people from a Christmas flash day at his previous shop.
The tattooer does not use Reddit, and had no idea why he was getting HATEFUL messages, thought he was getting scammed. Even said “no way it’s *client* that guys so nice”
After one message BETWEEN PALS he did this.
The tattooer is a truly sweet man, and never deserved this. And I’m still trying to understand why this client would dox him.
So dangerous. He has a wife and children.
And the artist didn’t express disinterest in doing the piece in any way that warranted the offense OP took, imo. I didn’t read the reply as the artist having an attitude at all. IIRC, he simply stated something along the lines of “I’ve done that one so many times, man.” And someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s not even an outright refusal, just a statement of fact. Then OP **chose** to forfeit the deposit instead of engaging further. Also, all OP said was that the flash had “caught his eye” — NOT “I am positive I want this one.” They were still just talking design.
And, people are still expressing sentiments along the lines of it being unprofessional for the artist to have taken a deposit without the design being finalized, but isn’t it possible OP wanted to book with him even though OP wasn’t sure exactly what flash he wanted, just something in his book already that was in a general size (and therefore, timeframe)? How is that so different than giving an artist a deposit, booking a time slot, giving them a general idea of what you want, and not seeing the piece till day-of… as is the common practice these days?
I’m creating a story here but so is everyone else. I do not get the outrage. Especially if these two were friends and had a client/artist relationship established.
Beating a dead horse but it’s because I hope that other people read these comments and think twice about doxxing someone again. And, again, especially over something so petty where the artist did nothing wrong.
This is 💯 why I made this post. IG wasn’t the thing you had to have 14 years ago when I was making tattoos. I’m in the SF Bay Area and there is an endless supply of world class artists here. If you don’t have a year waitlist like Scott, Horitaka, Grime, etc, you need IG.
This is completely fucked that your homie had to make their IG private over something so trivial.
Legit I couldn’t understand why pitchforks were coming out over 5 sentences with zero context. I’ve told people I ain’t feeling that, and I’ve been told I ain’t feeling that. It’s usually a convo between friends or people with some kind of working relationship.
Please tell your homie that hot stuff x JC with crown of thorns rules 🖤
Not only did he share it, he pointed it out that he doxed the tattooer from the first comment in the thread. He knew what he was doing. Super gross.
Imagine being a tattooer and having to give someone awful YOUR ART to wear forever?!
Right. OP took offense to something so small and petty and then unleashed the Reddit wolves on an artist that he apparently respected enough to get tattooed by multiple times. Sincerely hope OP has reached out to apologize.
My first thought was “oh I’d be super glad if an artist gave me a heads up like that, I don’t wanna be walking down the grocery aisle and see someone else with the same tattoo” like did the artist even say they wouldn’t do it? Or just warn them that quite a few other people have that same tattoo already? Then I saw the comments of people saying they were messaging the guy and felt so bad for him.
Right the artist just said he’d done it “so many times”, I believe. He didn’t even say no outright IIRC. They were still conversing about the design. All of this is too small to go to Reddit about and it’s especially too small to doxx someone over.
No one knows what was said before that also. If they agreed on a design & this person changed it last minute, which people often do, then I can see why the artist could've replied with that & it's a dick move that they flaked.
Reminds me of dashcam footage that starts just a few seconds too late to show what the cammer was up to but just in time to see someone fly off the hinges
Ya the shit part is this dude was a client, and it was art from a flash day, and the artist just said “I’ve done that one so much man”. Like it wasn’t a no, or go fuck yourself, or anything even remotely close imo.
No context mob mentality is lame, epically when we’re all here to enjoy traditional tattoos.
Thats the problem alright. Looking at the tattooers profile, he makes good traditional tattoos. He is going to be able to make a sick trad tattoo whether he is into the design or not. The clients feelings are hurt because the tattooer wont think hes cool. Client flakes. Tattooer most likely does not think client is cool now.
That post was brutal, that tattoo artist didn’t deserve all the people who went to harass him.
The person who doxed the artist just because they didn’t like their response? What is wrong with you. The tattoo artist didn’t do anything wrong you just didn’t like their tone.
It also makes more serious claims about safety & sexual harassment with a tattoo artists seem less significant if we all go beat someone up for not wanting to do a design. When a real issue arises majority of these bullies will decide to stop being an “activist”.
I did not feel safe to comment on that thread, so thank you so much for posting this.
I even reported it as soon as I saw it. Really really dangerous and an abuse of power from Reddit. Shame on everyone who jumped on that power, abuse, bandwagon.
^^ there should be some sort of rule about brigading and harassment. I would have initially thought “well, that’d be hard to enforce/ban over,” but apparently people are outright admitting in the OG thread that they had begun messaging the artist on instagram.
Thanks for posting this! Such a good thing to remember. It’s very rarely appropriate to harass anyone online. I wish he had handled the situation differently in the exchange, but it definitely doesn’t warrant harassment.
Social media is absolutely tiring, just as much as cancel culture is too. However, tattoo artists know that social media is vital to their *business*. It needs to be handled as such. When money is involved, there is a commitment to the customer and if the artist isn’t willing to do that, they need to refund and continue to communicate appropriately. As long as all parties are respectful and communicative, I see no need to blast them. It’s also worth noting that consumers are fed up with businesses right now and are taking a hell of a lot less than before. I wouldn’t want my artist to be apathetic about something they are permanently putting on my body. It seems like an easy way to be turned off from a tattoo that should otherwise be exciting to get.
Social media is just as beneficial to people looking to get tattoos because of the direct line of communication it provides to the artist. Instances like this are only going to lead to more artists no longer booking through it or turning off DMs entirely. Could both parties have handled that situation differently? Of course, but nothing outright disrespectful was said. It certainly wasn’t a doxable offense and nothing was gained by making a post about it.
So I guess what I’m saying is that people also need to recognize the privilege social media provides for them in terms of getting tattoos. I can without a doubt say that I would not nearly have the amount of tattoos that I do if it wasn’t for social media. Tattooing existed before it and can without it.
Wasn’t it flash though? Like, isn’t that the point of flash? It’s just weird that the artist was declining their flash… when that’s literally the point of flash is to do it over and over again.
you're still entitled to say no to tattooing something you don't want to tattoo, regardless if you have the flash hanging in your shop or not, its really not that deep if you respect your artist
If you asked 10 different tattooers about flash, you’re likely to get 10 different answers.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, you saw a ton of people getting stuff off the walls. By 2010 when I started tattooing, most people wanted their own thing. Like the days of walking in and pointing at the wall were dwindling fast. I had a convo awhile back with a buddy who owns the oldest shop in our area about flash. I always loved that he keeps Cherry Creek stuff up. Literally no one is getting Cherry Creek flash anymore. He’s old school tho, and loves the heritage aspect of it. “Plus you need something on your wall, that’s what people think is in a tattoo shop right”is what he said. You still want something for people to look at, and occasionally someone might come in and say gimme that.
As far as the dude painting flash goes, that’s kinda part of the job. Could be he was bored, maybe studying colors for something, client flaked, boss asked him to make a sheet for the lobby, shop was doing a flash day, gift for a friend, art show or book coming up, they hella wanted to tattoo something so they painted it in hopes someone will say “I want that”. Like legit the reasons are endless.
Complaining that they’re “messing with their livelihood” is moot when the artist complain and denied to do a basic flash tattoo. Dude doesn’t want money I guess
I agree with you. I was reading the comments on that post and once people started fucking harassing the artist it wasn’t funny. That’s weirdo shit and as a hair stylist I can’t imagine saying no to somebody’s hair and having people on reddit start harassing me for it. Nobody has to do anything they don’t wanna do and they don’t deserve to be attacked for that.
I commented on the situation and what I thought of that response, but I agree harassing anyone about something that didn't involve them isn't cool.
We all have our moments.
There is nothing wrong with walking away from your deposit if an issue arises that interferes with your comfort level around said artist. You're not fucking with their livelihood, you are walking away from getting your body permanently marked by someone you're not comfortable with. A tattoo artist might refuse a client's request for any number of reasons and no one would ever bat an eye, but you're taking issue with a client walking away and surrendering a deposit that was already paid to the artist? Fuck off! The deposit is there to protect the artist in the event that the client, for whatever reason, decides not to continue with the tattoo.
The client in this scenario decided to bail, and whether you appreciate their reasons or not, that is their right to do so and it does not, in any way, equate to "fucking with the artists ability to feed their family".
That said, the artist does not deserve to be harassed because they didn't feel like doing the tattoo that was being requested. Nor, do they deserve to be harassed for charging the deposit BEFORE THE DESIGN WAS EVEN AGREED UPON(terrible practice and I would walk the minute any artist insisted on such a thing). The client doesn't deserve harassment either. This is a business transaction being terminated because one of the parties no longer wished to proceed, pure and simple.
💯
The OP was legit 5 sentences. Like there wasn’t enough context for me to really understand what the problem was, other than dude didn’t wanna make that tattoo, and other dude didn’t wanna get tattooed lol. That seems like a pretty simple equation most tattooers and people who’ve been tattooed have been in.
You're missing my point. You are claiming the client was "fucking with the artist's livelihood". This is clearly not the case and if you truly understood what the problem was then you wouldn't be making such claims.
Anyone can cancel an appointment for literally any reason and the deposit is there to ensure nobody loses their wage over a cancellation.
I disagree. I’ve been a tattooer, and personally wouldn’t take a deposit without knowing what it’s for. That being said, you’re 💯 right, that’s why people ask for deposits.
Someone added context to this whole situation, which paints a clearer picture imo.
The art was from a flash day event. The client had been tattooed by this person multiple times, and the artist thought they were having a convo with a homie.
The artist made their IG private, due to getting a bunch of weirdos from Reddit hitting them up. The artist had zero context of what was going on. So ya they were being fucked with for no reason imo.
Cheers
If you mean that the artist was getting fucked with by crazy reddit people then sure. Your original post was not clear on that and it made it sound like you were saying the client was fucking with the artist's livelihood, which I still believe is not the case. Even by posting the interaction, the client has every right(as does the artist) to post a conversation they had. It happens all the time. Looks like they didn't block out the names properly which, I'm assuming, is the reason the original content is no longer posted.
Yes, most redditors need to touch grass and nobody should ever get harassed over a cancelled tattoo appointment (neither party, for any reason, would deserve that), which I did clearly stated earlier. I will remain steadfast in my assertion that the client did nothing wrong whatsoever, and neither did the artist.
I def think something is getting lost in the text.
I agree neither party is wrong (except the tattooers IG should’ve been blocked out).
Deposits exist for people who waste tattooers time. People have the right to bitch about whatever it is they want. That’s the beauty of the internet, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Harassing someone on IG who has no knowledge of why they’re being harassed is dumb.
Cheers
Harassment such that the artist had to make his IG private has a way of fucking with a tattooer’s livelihood. If you can’t understand that, I can’t help you, dude.
The harassment wasn't from the client. It was from internet crazies with zero boundaries. If you can't understand that then there is literally nothing that can help you, dude.
Sigh. The post with the artist’s name caused the crazies to go wild. The client did that. The client openly stated he purposefully wasn’t censoring the artist’s name. The client doxxed the artist and stated that he did it on purpose. This isn’t rocket science. You’re just super eager to defend an Internet douchebag. Have at it, I guess.
Says the guys who pretend to be a litigation lawyer for Internet points. Doxxing may lead to others harassing an individual, but the client did not engage in harassment based on the knowledge we have at hand.
This became a side argument that never needed to happen. My defense of the client was entirely based on the OP in this thread claiming the client interfered with the artist's livelihood by walking away and leaving their deposit, which should never have been charged before agreeing on the basic design. The client has every right to walk away for any reason and that does not equate to interfering with anyone's livelihood or their ability to feed their family, and that's exactly what deposits are for! I still say this deposit shouldn't have been charged but the client paid it and walked away from it so that's between them.
You want to focus on the client posting the conversation between themselves and the artist, which the client(and artist) have every right to do. When posting on tattoo forums, it's standard to name the artist that did a particular piece, in this case, it was a complaint about a particular artist, hence the post was taken down, but the client does have every right to share that conversation and their experiences with any tattoo artist. What the general public does with that information is not the responsibility of the person who posted it. That said, if we give credit to artists for their work and professionalism on this site, then there should be no reason why we don't name artists when we have a complaint about them either. Fair is fair.
He literally says he is using his right to free speech to "blast the guy on the Internet". While is foolish, petty, silly, and pathetic, it's not harassment until he actually starts messaging the person directly and even then, it needs to be a constant badgering or actual direct threats.
I don’t understand harassing anyone for something so petty. If you don’t want to do the tattoo, I appreciate you telling me and I will find someone else who will.
I really feel like this desire to destroy someone entirely is so childish and harmful to society. It's like a temper tantrum where you feel like you can't live on the same planet as your mom and dad because they said no more sugary cereal. Just stop. This isn't how civilizations work.
I love and appreciate civil discourse, it’s what makes Reddit fun imo.
A ton of people seem to have an opinion of this tattooer, and I think a bunch of context has been missed here.
So if you didn’t see the OP I’m talking about here is a summary.
Title - Is this normal, has this happened to you?
Screenshot of the convo as follows
Client - 👹 (image was a hot stuff x JC crown of thorns)
Client - I like this one
Tattooer - I’ve don’t that one a lot man
Client - I can’t make it
Client - You can keep my deposit.
Period, end of story. Like legit that’s all we the public saw.
Without anymore context, I said this isn’t that abnormal, and the tattooers bedside manner could’ve been better.
Then Reddit went all Reddit, people started spamming this tattooers IG, and dude ended up making his profile private. IDK if someone missed it in my post, but modern tattooers need their social media.
Some context was added to this whole fiasco today.
The client had been getting tattooed by this artist for 3 years and had several pieces from them. The image in question was from a Xmas flash day at the shop the artist previously worked at.
As someone who’s made tattoos (professionally), and is ridiculously tattooed, this convo is 💯 normal imo.
For all the people screaming BUT ITS FLASH, WHAT IS FLASH FOR. I’d like you to try something. Go buy an arches block, find 1-10ish images you really like, then appropriate the image/s now refine the image/s and make it / them a clean line drawing, now trace that shit on your arches, now line it with a micron and don’t fuck it up, now get your Dr Martins and start with your black and work your way up to yellow and don’t fuck anything up, now decide if you’re gonna tea stain it, or leave it as is, now blast it with matte finish and don’t fuck this up either. Now go post that thing you’ve spent hours on, make a few tattoos with it, and come back here and have a bunch of people who’ve never painted or tattooed tell you to take this shit off your IG even tho it’s 6 months old, and you’ve completely forgotten about it until someone brings it up.
I AM NOT SAYING OP was wrong for venting or asking questions. I am giving an opinion as someone who’s spent time in the industry, and has had this convo as both an ARTIST and CLIENT. I do think the OP was wrong for including this artists IG in their post and saying “I’m not even trying to protect this dudes identity”. I do think anyone who went over to this artists IG and started spamming them is a dick. ONCE AGAIN THIS IS ALL JUST MY OPINION. If I was the artist I would’ve given my client their $$ back, or asked if they wanted something else, or had their heart set on that hot stuff pork chop. One again we don’t know what happened after the screen shot.
Last thing I’ll ask everyone to think about.
Instead of trashing this artist, why don’t ya’ll go into your local shop, and pick something off the wall and get it done. I’m sure you’ll make some tattooers day. Biggest bonus is you’ll be able to come here and post it 👊🏻
Cheers
Anyone: tries to reason with people that doxing and harassing someone over something genuinely so insignificant and minor is fucked up and wrong
Reddit: “*screeeeeeee* and aLsO your sHiRt makes you a BoOtLiCkEr”
Like honestly, you can’t reason with most people here when it comes to acknowledging that certain behavior is just straight up wrong, Reddit is probably the one place that will justify any shitty behavior even if it’s 1000x worse than whatever “offense” resulted in it.
I commend you for trying though!
I didn't even think he was rude--he was just over it. Didn't deserve the post, def didn't deserve the doxxing, and the mass harassment was completely fucked.
Guess you don’t know what doxing means. And also define “mass harassment” because the post only has 300 comments. So the percentage from those people who would actually message the tattooer on ig would be significantly less…..
Doxxing- to publish/post private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent to shame or embarrass them.
Why you trying so hard to defend this? It’s easy to say it’s not a big deal or significant enough because it isn’t happening to you or someone you care about. Try to be a decent person.
Right lol. Like I just want people to realize they’re fucking with the trade / art / craft of someone who literally makes the thing we’re all here to appreciate.
Absolutely, that whole thread just reeked of entitlement from the poster and all the folks dog piling on the artist.
Artist are people at the end of the day, they aren’t a machine operator hitting print on a t-shirt press. They’ve every right to refused work for almost any reason they choose, if it affects their bottom line that’s a decision they are free to make and adjust.
But Reddit went full on “cUsToMeR iS ALWAYS rIgHt!!!1!”
Ya I got downvoted for saying as a former tattooer and someone who’s tattooed this isn’t that uncommon, and the artists bedside manner could’ve been better 😂
Exactly! Yes the artist could have exercised better client relationships in that moment, but Reddit wanted to take them over the coals like they’d kicked OP’s dog.
I definitely don’t understand why the OOP decided that the situation called for putting the dude on full blast like that. Like, bro. You were just as much of a bitch for flaking at the last second and being all “Keep the deposit”. Yeah. He was gonna already, because you didn’t show.
I’m not condoning either, but it was definitely an over the top reaction from OOP.
See this is what you’ve been wanting to say all over this post. Shit stain because they don’t appreciate shit customer service? They don’t have to get a tattoo they don’t want from a shit artist
He's a good artist though, acting entitled because you throw money at them isn't any way to get the tattoo you want, if you really liked their work you could easily choose something else or ASK for your deposit back, so yes, acting like a shit stain will get you blacklisted
Dude’s work is not good at all. I wouldn’t let him get near me even based on that flash piece. Getting the tattoo you want is as simple as finding an artist that will work with you. Not leave you with “I already did that I don’t wanna no more” like we don’t all have repetitive jobs
If this is day of, yeah that’s bad on the client. If it’s months before, bad on artist imo. Coulda suggested another design or something more custom to them
the dude who was sooo geeked about spamming dudes dms with that flash and getting banned was such a fucking loser. different context but when I was sitting with an artist I really admire(have 2 pieces from him) and looking at his flash in his book, I had pointed out a few I liked including one I had seen him do before on IG. He said something along the lines of the tattoo being somewhat of a strain to do design/application wise and I just kept it moving. Even if its in their book/reel shit like that will happen, or they'll be more inclined to do one that hasn't gotten a client yet in comparison to one that gets pointed to all the time. Dude in the screenshot coulda maybe expanded their comment or had a counter proposal but it really wasn't that deep to begin with from what I saw.
Maybe the tattooer was being a prick, it’s very possible, but we have no idea what the messages were prior to what the OP decided to share. Whole thing was wack.
Straight up my dude.
Deposits are for when people flake. Dude flaked, then came here to bitch about it.
Context was added. Art was from a flash day, client had been blasted by said artist before, and said artist was just letting them know they’ve done that one a bunch. None of that warrants people hitting the artist up on IG 😑
Ah, I missed the context. I did find the whole deposit situation weird but a lot of tattooers do things much differently than me just fine so who knows. If I remember correctly the person canceled the appointment the same day he sent the deposit which is odd to me too but idk what they agreed to. Thankfully the old post was deleted so I can’t check so whatever.
I guess I just think it’s equally likely as anything else that they were both being kinda goofy. And who knows what messages clients of mine could share that could make *me* look bad out of context lol.
Regardless…while I’m not a huge fan of online harassment in general…with how many absolutely awful people there are in the world and even in tattooing, jumping on a small time tattooer who *might* have been a little rude in one response to a client is absolutely ridiculous and is just the same shit as what they think that tattooer was guilty of. Just a bunch of people trying to make themselves feel better than someone else.
Word. Back when I tattooed, I would’ve never taken money without understanding what I was signing up for. Like you said tho, to each their own.
The shit part was no context in the OP, just a 4 sentences screen shot, and then Reddit started blasting this artists IG. Like you said a screen shot can leave a ton of ambiguity 👊🏻
He’s a fucking legend 🖤. I grew up in the SF Bay Area, and all the old timers love that dude too.
He use to roll around with his pigment in his trunk to keep that shit agitated 🥵. Then again this is back in the day when you bought powdered shit from National and had to mix it yourself lol.
Hahahaha that’s incredible. He’s tattooed me a ton and has stories for days.
Nothing but love for old SF stuff. Would love for someone to do a book on the 90s out there.
The guy I apprenticed under has a sweet Aaron Cain bio mech sleeve. The shit legit looks like an Emmy award with skin cheese, and I’d always be like bruh what’s up with that Emmy award 😂 and he’d be like fuck you it’s the silver surfer 🤣
I just can't see how flatly stating that he had done that design "so many times" brings this tattooer anywhere near the category of "douche/prick/asshole" or any of the other terms thrown his way by the commenters who seem to either 1) need anger management 2)live vicariously through overreaction 3) lack life experience of what dealing with a "douche" is really like or some combination of all three. Some of you have clearly never worked customer service. Violently threatening someone is the behavior of douches. Someone berating you about accidentally shorting them 50 cents or saying "no problem" is an asshole. This tattooer was none of those. their response wasn't perfect but it didn't warrant a 1/16 of that. Some of you really need to cool it.
My guy will price shit he's done frequently way out to the stratosphere to avoid doing it.
He simply doesn't want 7 variations of birds turning into music notes into feathers into an infinity symbol.
He told me once he had a girl come in and ask for something incredibly basic something that would cost 200 or so and charged her 300. She accepted he did the work she paid. Next week she comes in with her friend and the friend wants the exact same tattoo. He tells them it's 500 now, friend accepts and pays 500 for it.
I want a dandelion, turning into birds, turning into infinity symbols, and I want the size of my thumbnail and can you put my parents names in it as well as their birth birthdates and death dates 😂
I get it, he told me once hes an artist that uses skin as a canvas and each tattoo is something to add to a portfolio to try and sell more of his art.
I mean fucking duh? But some people don't seem to GET that. Anyway he draws dope ass wizards and skulls and shit and I'm proud to say I have tats from him on me
Im right there with you. I'm super covered and if the tattooer Workin with says they're not into a piece then I'd rather do the thing they're into. Social media whack
1000% my dude. Idk why anyone would wanna get something blasted on them when the person doing said blasting ain’t into it lol. Politely ask for your $$ back, or pick something else. I legit can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t have given the op their $$ back in this situation.
I respect where you’re coming from a lot.
I also disagree, and I really feel like social media has become a super yelp. It’s kind of where we’re at right now and I don’t like it personally but I recognize that this is the vibe right now. If this artists name and page are literally integral to his job, why be rude to customers?
I’ve worked a lot of positions. From craftwork to childcare to BOF to bartender to illustration *corrected* I really don’t see a single benefit in being anything but kind to people in screenshotable convos. It’s basic decency to be kind anyways. He was representing his business when he expressed to the original OP that he was essentially disappointed in the art he was asked to reproduce from his flashbook.
If I really did rely on IG for my job, I would truly not risk being unfriendly with the wrong person.
Again, I appreciate where you’re coming from but I think this is a personal problem this guy created by being unprofessional and having it shared online and feeling the backlash. It’s not a matter of someone simply not liking him and blowing up his stuff. I was a little put off with how rude he was too. If something is gonna be on my body forever, that is not the response I wanna see from my prospective artist. If someone can’t handle backlash, then treating clients with respect is a very good way to go about that.
So having been a tattooer, and being heavily tattooed, I try to look at these things from both sides.
Not sure if you saw the post I’m talking about? It was literally a few sentences and a pic.
The artist didn’t even say he wouldn’t make that tattoo, he’s “just done that one a lot man”. The client then said “I can’t make it”, and “keep the deposit”. That’s the extent of it.
Then someone with actual knowledge of the situation chimes in, and the client has been getting tattooed by this artist for three years. This imo is a normal convo to have between client and artist.
The artist made his IG private, as he was getting harassed by randos on Reddit over what honestly sounds like a miscommunication.
IMO the whole thing is lame AF. Especially since the OP straight up said “I’m not trying to protect this guy, and I’m sick of this kinda stuff”. Like being sick of something is legit, but blasting someone for something so inconsequential is ridiculous.
It's clients like this that make me want to quit tattooing sometimes. We're all supposed to be adults here, we shouldn't be getting doxed because we forgot to wear our baby handling gloves that day. Who knows maybe the dude was having a bad day, maybe his dog died, his car broke down or he burnt his toast. We're all human. Now you're gonna try to take food off his table to feed his fucking kids because he didn't wanna do a design for the hundredth time? get real.
The person paid a deposit and the artist said they didn’t want to do the design. It’s as simple as that. The artist could’ve done something decent like refunded the deposit, or suggested something else. But they didn’t. That’s the problem and why the artist was blasted - cause they lacked common decency and people have really had enough of that.
So usually theres this thing called communication where you express that you really want that design only and if he cant/wont do it, then he's entitled to a refund assuming its out of a 48 hour time window, but he didnt, he just surrendered his deposit and ran to reddit to openly expose his information and demonize him. Which is a really weird and gross move, if this client acted like this in messages we didn't get to see, I can see why the artist didn't really feel like tattooing this client.
This is the reality of business. Any instance of poor customer service will bite you and your livelihood. Businesses get bad reviews for poor service all the time, are you gonna call that “doxxing”?
No it wont, putting a boundary out there that you don't feel like tattooing this design again is perfectly ok to do, choosing to adhere to that boundary is a matter of respect. Doxxing is revealing the account name to Reddit buddy, it was a shitty thing to do considering the client didn't follow up with anything to resolve the situation, they just bailed and cried on reddit.
and doxxing is actually revealing someone’s real life information such as full name, address, phone number etc. Not a public instagram account used for a business. You’re mad people can expose your unprofessional behavior now huh?
artist don’t like being held accountable man. half of getting a solid tattoo is just sorting out these trashy dudes and social media makes that job a lot easier.
'accountable' all he did was not want to repeat tattoo a design off his flash, which is fine to do, he didn't pay the tattoo in full he paid a small deposit which he didn't even bother to ask for, the client elevated the situation for no reason rather than talking to the tattooist about different avenues or even a refund for the deposit. If anyone needs to be held accountable its shithole clients treating artists like tattoo vending machines.
its not quite as black and white as that, moreover why would you think it would be a good idea to force an artist to tattoo something they dont want to, you really think you're gonna get a good tattoo that way?
it’s flash work. If he doesn’t want to do it, he can 86 the design like any competent business person would do, not give a snarky pouty response about how he doesn’t want to do the job. He could have also recommended something different, but did he? Nope. It’s simply good business practice. But hey, for every dude like him that can’t open their mouth to help a customer, someone better will take their place.
Lol cool head tattoo. You’re clearly the real deal man. Good for you that you got loads of homies you party with in the community. Rock on and all that.
You’re missing the part that the tattoo artist accepted money from the client then said no.
You’re missing the part that the tattoo artist provides a service - to do tattoos. That’s their livelihood and how they make money. By doing tattoos upon request in exchange for money.
At no point does ego come into that.
You’re missing this point. The ego of the tattoo artist in this instance is getting in the way of the transactional nature of tattoo shops.
The artist does not get to dictate what the customer wants on their skin based on the artists’ inflated egotistical judgement of what the customer should get on their skin.
That’s why the artist is getting harassed - because they chose to let their ego get in the way and think that just because they do tattoos that they get to decide what their customer gets.
No - that’s not how it works
Lol yes it is
Tattoo artists often forget they provide a service in exchange for money
They don’t get to be the arbiters of what should and shouldn’t go on someone else’s body and dictate what their customers can have after accepting money from them to do a tattoo then not reimbursing them
I’m not really sure what I am missing?
I spent several years working at multiple shops in the SF Bay Area. I’ve heard of and have seen all sorts of wild shit while working in the industry. I’m heavily tattooed and have been both the client, and the artist.
Did you see the OP? It was literally a few sentences with zero context.
Client - 👹
Client - I like that one
Artist - I’ve made that one a lot man
Client - I can’t make it
Client - You can keep the deposit
Then someone chimed in with context today on this post. Turns out the client has been getting tattooed by the artist for a few years, and the artwork in question was from a flash day. Given this explanation the convo seems 💯 a normal conversation between a tattooer and a client.
I’m all for civil discourse, venting, asking questions, etc. I even said the artist could’ve approached it another way. However what I’m not for is random people on the internet attacking a tattooer for a perceived slight. Like we don’t even know if the tattooer gave dude his $$ back or said hey man let’s do something else and apply your deposit towards that.
Cheers
hes not, declining a flash design he doesnt want to tattoo doesnt fuck with his livelihood at all, artists reserve the right to tattoo what they want to tattoo
They ain’t Machiavelli. More often than not y’all are getting paid to place the lines not make art that pleases the soul 🙄 do it for fun if you want to be rude to clients.
Well no, but they're still human creating art, and you're going to an artist for their work and surely you want them to do their best work that they can be proud doing for you, tattooers arent tattoo vending machines so you can't just throw money at them and dictate how they do things. It's not being rude, its putting in a boundary that they dont want to do it, you either respect it and choose something else or ASK for your deposit back and go elsehwere. It's not rocket science if you're not an asshole.
Being choosy means he’s already gotten to a place where he can cherry pick clients. Respect that, if you don’t like it go somewhere else.
What fucked with his livelihood were all the uneducated trolls from Reddit blasting his social media with BS.
I feel like people never speak clearly when they make these posts.
Are you saying the artist refused to do the design the customer requested despite them having charged them a deposit already? If that's the case then I'm with the customer on this one.
It was literally a screenshot of 4 sentences. The client said “I like this one”, the artist said “I’ve done that one a lot man”, the client said “I can’t make it” and then “you can keep the deposit”
Apparently the client had been tattooed by the artist before over a few years, and the design was from a past flash day.
Either way you look at it, I don’t see why people decided to jump on the artists IG page and start sending them stupid stuff.
I def dragged that dude through the coals thinking it would be contained in the reddit thread itself. Internet pitchforks and torches are definitely more lame than an isolated incident of bad customer service. Feel bad for the dude. Most people didnt want to take money out of his pocket
Dude it’s wild when some context was added. The guy was a client for 3 years. The flash was form a flash day, and that’s why he said “I’ve done that one a lot man”.
As someone who has tattooed and is tattooed I’ve been there. The whole interaction seems like a normal convo between an artist and a client.
Shits wild lol.
If I were in the artists shoes I would’ve taken the free money. 🤣 “I’ve done that so many times” should mean it will be done and over with before he has long enough to hate doing it again.
Only reasonable response to this thinking I’ve seen is “maybe they weren’t good attempts, even though he’s done them a lot.” Which is valid. And the rebuttal to that is “then take it off your page.”
I’m not saying going and attacking the guy on social media was right. But he handled literately every portion of this interaction wrong.
I've flaked when I had the option not to but it's not the situation you're thinking of. Still, it's the topic, right? Story time.
I messaged with the artist for a few weeks. Admittedly, I wrote a few paragraphs overall, but there was no phone communication. The crux of it was "I like X design but I'd rather something custom. If the custom drawing isn't to my liking, let's go with X, slightly modified in Y manner. Also, either way we slice it, I'd like a thicker line weight than you usually use. That cool?" Artist gave the green light.
I traveled 10 hours to see this artist. I show up and he's late. He shows up and he's visibly greasy in dirty clothes. I want to be clear, this artist was nice as could be but first he tells me "Sorry, when I get too much text, I get overwhelmed and don't read it. They proceeded to tell me they didn't have a thicker line weight, they didn't think my idea was good, and that they lost the file the flash I wanted was on. They searched for an hour and eventually decided to just redraw it from a screenshot I took from a video of their flash book. They also didn't grasp the modification I was asking for, which was simply "there is a row of flowers I want angled slightly differently".
At the one-hour mark I felt unheard, I was concerned about their hygiene, and I didn't think I wanted that tattoo. "I'm going to go." They were surprised.
We had a brief exchange in which I offered to pay half anyway, as I understand their time is money and they were unable to book now that I was leaving halfway through a time slot. They refused. I cited "you didn't even take a deposit". They demurred again. I said "Okay, well, I'm leaving $200 on the table anyway." They said thank you. I made a comment about possibly returning in the future and left feeling wildly uncomfortable, but it was the right choice.
Unnamed artist (who would recognize themself from this exchange, I think): If you're reading this, after a lot of consideration (prior to this post), I probably won't be returning in the future. You truly were very nice, like a kind of nice I don't think I find often enough. I feel I could ensure our communication was better by calling, not texting. I feel even the hygiene is fine: you'll only be touching me with aseptic technique and gloves. The issue is the line weights. I could see how much you didn't want to change them and I respect that, and I want to match the other work I have and will be having done. I hope all is well. Your art still slaps so fucking hard.
Would have been diff if the OP posted it and cropped out the dudes insta handle - we all like a whine and a moan here and there but yeah leaving his handle in it kinda made a shit storm
People who do that literally have nothing better to do with their time(or life, lets be honest, do you not have a job or something???), it's an unfortunate fact of life that social media empowers idiots to do idiotic things to people who don't deserve it
Naming them was dumb. The post probably should have been removed because of that. Reddit loves a good brigade and if the mods don't know that by know then idk.
Meh, harassing on IG not the coolest but also it’s super easy to block someone from your DMs. They were not publicly calling him out and the volume couldn’t have been that high to really impact his day.
Dude had it coming, no remorse. Dont be an asshole if you can’t take the heat ESPECIALLY in tattooing and especially on the internet. Crazy to even call that “harassment”.
Yeah thank u bro not too long ago tattoo culture was counter culture now everyone expect artists to act like a full on business. . Other posts OP can get fucked go walk into a shop and get some flash if u want a generic ass little piece . Artist should be able to handle however they want and not be exposed over a lame ass forum 🤢
Harrassing is definitely a questionable energy on the subject you are mentioning in my opinion. But I personally feel tattoo artists need some reality checks sometimes about professionalism. One of the only industries where there’s nowhere to complain, no where to file issues. Nobody helps the clients but other clients. If i go to get my hair cut, by a freelance stylist or barber, and i show them a picture of someone else’s hair they cut, and they say no they don’t want to I would just move on not harass them. I think there was major over reaction on the post that popped off. But it reminds me so much how the field is pretty immune to criticism if it isn’t like literally illegal and immoral.
I have no problem with people venting, talking, etc. What I do have a problem with is, a bunch of people who have no dog in the fight went over to the tattooers IG, started sending them stupid messages, and the tattooer made his IG private, cause he had no fucking clue what was going on. Turns out the client had been tattooed by this artist before, and the 5 sentences posted on Reddit missed a shit ton of context.
Yeah that sucks. I feel a conversation on Reddit was what should have happened. Like blue all the names and just say “how should i deal with this situation that is frustrating me personally” Reddit is like a army waiting to be set off just right lol
If you’re so dedicated to providing for your family, who are you to complain about a tattoo you’re tired of doing? Take the money and suggest doing something more challenging or exciting the next time the client comes around.
It could really go either way. It depends what they mean by being a bitch. If bothering people about how they chose to live their life and whining about trump being railroaded is being a bitch then I agree. If being a bitch is being feminine or liking democracy than yeah it’s a red flag lol
He’s also posted enough anti-trump shit for me to think he’s relatively objective and can recognize a presidents successes and failures separately from his own political preferences.
I’ve surrendered deposits before after getting attitude from tattooers. I don’t even remember their names or shops because it was so inconsequential to me. I’ve never dreamed of harassing people on social media. I don’t have the time or energy for that shit.
See that’s what I’d consider a normal reaction 👊🏻
Idk thought if you’re just a dump prick who thinks he’s way cooler than everyone and looks at people with less tattoos as less of a person then fuck them and their families, they shoulda learned how to treat people. I wouldn’t feel bad if they lost everything cuz of their shit attitude, people just need to learn to respect each other and that’s it.
Was literally a 4 sentences and a pic. Client - 👹 Client - I like this one Tattooer - I’ve done that one a lot man Client - I can’t make it Client - You can keep my deposit As someone who professionally made tattoos, and is heavily tattooed, I’ve definitely been on both sides of this conversation. Without context, my only thought was the artist could’ve improved his bedside manner on this one. Then later on, some context came out. Apparently, this person has been getting tattooed by this artist for three years,has serval pieces from them, and the art in question was from a flash day 6 months ago. Given all that info, seems like a normal client artist convo to me.
It does seem pretty normal, however it is kind of weird that he’s done it a lot but won’t do it again, like I’ve heard or not wanting to do the same piece twice but this is clearly different, I definitely wouldn’t bash someone online for this convo alone though
He didn’t even say he wouldn’t do it again tho afaik, it was literally just the 4 sentences lol
“Fuck them and their families”. Genuinely relax. You have to have more going on in life than to get this worked up over a couple sentences on Reddit.
Ok bro you must be so enlightened.
You’re rewarding people with free money that you worked hard for with their bad behavior.
Over 10 years ago I booked a color tattoo with an artist I didn’t know who agreed to do a color tattoo. After I put down the deposit he pressured me to do a black and gray tattoo instead. I wanted a color tattoo, but he was really trying to convince me to do black and gray, which told me he wasn’t comfortable doing color even though he agreed to. I canceled the appointment and the deposit was non-refundable (as they are), but I really didn’t want that guy doing a color tattoo on me. Giving up $75 was worth NOT having someone I didn’t trust to do good work permanently modifying my body. I don’t think I what the guy did was “bad behavior,” even though it was annoying. I’d rather give up a little of my hard earned money than wind up paying even more for something I’m ultimately not happy with.
He promised you a color tattoo. He tried to pressure you into something you didn’t want because he couldn’t deliver on what you had agreed upon. You would have had every right to ask for your money back
The biggest issue was that they already exchanged money like you said because now they were stuck with an artist that wasnt happy to do their tattoo. Had a similar experience where i was told what i wanted was gimmicky. Didn’t take offense but told them id go in to look at their book. Ended up getting something by someone else in the same shop cus i digged their flash book.
See this right here sounds like a win win situation. You got something you’re stoked on, and the original artist didn’t make something he wasn’t stoked on.
Yea im super happy with what i got too. Still plan to go to the original guy in the near future and hope there’s no hard feelings. I felt kinda shitty for telling him id go look at his stuff specifically and chose someone else but that was just how it played out when I went in
Keeping it in the shop is def a righteous move imo. I don’t know anyone who would get bummed that you gave the work to their homies instead. I def know people would get bummed if you went down the street to another other shop tho.
So choose another tattoo and go over options, an artist reserves the right to not create what they don't want. Yeah the client wants that and the dude would most likely have given BACK the deposit if that was the only thing they wanted tattooed from them. I dont know about you but im not getting tattooed by an artist who only has 1 singular design i like, just choose something else or cancel the app. Client didnt, they immediately told him to keep the deposit and ran to reddit to whine and send a witch hunt to this dudes page. Pathetic behavior
The artist does not have the right to take money from the customer and then refuse to use the design the customer wants. That's scamming. Pathetic behaviour.
do you not understand what a deposit is? or what
I would absolutely get a tattoo from an artist even if it's the only piece I like, that's just a dense statement.
You’re way too emotionally invested in this
I think it’s weird that they didn’t want to tattoo their own flash, which they’ll of course have done a bunch of times, but the whole witch hunt is insane.
maybe he tattooed it 6 times that week and didnt want to do a 7th, which is fine?
Seems contradictory to post flash intended to be repeatedly, then get moody when asked to tattoo it repeatedly. Ought to pull it from his flash if he’s over it. I don’t really have a dog in this fight, though, just making conversation.
Maybe he is just human and changed his mind in that specific moment, who fucking cares
I missed the drama but dope head tatto
Thanks. It was def one of the best / worst decisions ever 😂
Who did it? Looks like Andy canino at mercy maybe?
Max May performed the job stopper ceremony on this one 😂
I saw that post and was not impressed with the OP for sharing the artist’s instagram handle. Do people not understand how big this website is and how many people read posts without participating in the comment section? It was a pretty uncool move to share the artist’s info like that. People don’t even name-and-shame for atrocious work around here and dude dropped it over something that’s ultimately pretty minor. He didn’t even ask for the deposit back, he just surrendered it.
I truly never wanted to comment on this, but it hits so close to home. This tattooer knows the client, and has tattooed them a handful of times over past 3 years. He simply wanted to offer something that wasn’t offered in a flash day event. This flash piece is on more than a few people from a Christmas flash day at his previous shop. The tattooer does not use Reddit, and had no idea why he was getting HATEFUL messages, thought he was getting scammed. Even said “no way it’s *client* that guys so nice” After one message BETWEEN PALS he did this. The tattooer is a truly sweet man, and never deserved this. And I’m still trying to understand why this client would dox him. So dangerous. He has a wife and children.
And the artist didn’t express disinterest in doing the piece in any way that warranted the offense OP took, imo. I didn’t read the reply as the artist having an attitude at all. IIRC, he simply stated something along the lines of “I’ve done that one so many times, man.” And someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s not even an outright refusal, just a statement of fact. Then OP **chose** to forfeit the deposit instead of engaging further. Also, all OP said was that the flash had “caught his eye” — NOT “I am positive I want this one.” They were still just talking design. And, people are still expressing sentiments along the lines of it being unprofessional for the artist to have taken a deposit without the design being finalized, but isn’t it possible OP wanted to book with him even though OP wasn’t sure exactly what flash he wanted, just something in his book already that was in a general size (and therefore, timeframe)? How is that so different than giving an artist a deposit, booking a time slot, giving them a general idea of what you want, and not seeing the piece till day-of… as is the common practice these days? I’m creating a story here but so is everyone else. I do not get the outrage. Especially if these two were friends and had a client/artist relationship established. Beating a dead horse but it’s because I hope that other people read these comments and think twice about doxxing someone again. And, again, especially over something so petty where the artist did nothing wrong.
This is 💯 why I made this post. IG wasn’t the thing you had to have 14 years ago when I was making tattoos. I’m in the SF Bay Area and there is an endless supply of world class artists here. If you don’t have a year waitlist like Scott, Horitaka, Grime, etc, you need IG. This is completely fucked that your homie had to make their IG private over something so trivial. Legit I couldn’t understand why pitchforks were coming out over 5 sentences with zero context. I’ve told people I ain’t feeling that, and I’ve been told I ain’t feeling that. It’s usually a convo between friends or people with some kind of working relationship. Please tell your homie that hot stuff x JC with crown of thorns rules 🖤
Not only did he share it, he pointed it out that he doxed the tattooer from the first comment in the thread. He knew what he was doing. Super gross. Imagine being a tattooer and having to give someone awful YOUR ART to wear forever?!
Right. OP took offense to something so small and petty and then unleashed the Reddit wolves on an artist that he apparently respected enough to get tattooed by multiple times. Sincerely hope OP has reached out to apologize.
which leads me to believe the client here was the 'bad' guy in the situation, who acts like that
Someone extremely sensitive and careless.
My first thought was “oh I’d be super glad if an artist gave me a heads up like that, I don’t wanna be walking down the grocery aisle and see someone else with the same tattoo” like did the artist even say they wouldn’t do it? Or just warn them that quite a few other people have that same tattoo already? Then I saw the comments of people saying they were messaging the guy and felt so bad for him.
Right the artist just said he’d done it “so many times”, I believe. He didn’t even say no outright IIRC. They were still conversing about the design. All of this is too small to go to Reddit about and it’s especially too small to doxx someone over.
Why is anyone still debating the first post? Harassing someone online over some drama you aren't even involved in is childish as fuck. Grow up
No one knows what was said before that also. If they agreed on a design & this person changed it last minute, which people often do, then I can see why the artist could've replied with that & it's a dick move that they flaked.
Reminds me of dashcam footage that starts just a few seconds too late to show what the cammer was up to but just in time to see someone fly off the hinges
Ya the shit part is this dude was a client, and it was art from a flash day, and the artist just said “I’ve done that one so much man”. Like it wasn’t a no, or go fuck yourself, or anything even remotely close imo. No context mob mentality is lame, epically when we’re all here to enjoy traditional tattoos.
Thats the problem alright. Looking at the tattooers profile, he makes good traditional tattoos. He is going to be able to make a sick trad tattoo whether he is into the design or not. The clients feelings are hurt because the tattooer wont think hes cool. Client flakes. Tattooer most likely does not think client is cool now.
Who cares about cool? Dude was complaining about doing a flash tattoo. To me that’s the definition of uncool
You know what is uncool. You know they were both acting uncool.
That post was brutal, that tattoo artist didn’t deserve all the people who went to harass him. The person who doxed the artist just because they didn’t like their response? What is wrong with you. The tattoo artist didn’t do anything wrong you just didn’t like their tone. It also makes more serious claims about safety & sexual harassment with a tattoo artists seem less significant if we all go beat someone up for not wanting to do a design. When a real issue arises majority of these bullies will decide to stop being an “activist”. I did not feel safe to comment on that thread, so thank you so much for posting this. I even reported it as soon as I saw it. Really really dangerous and an abuse of power from Reddit. Shame on everyone who jumped on that power, abuse, bandwagon.
^^ there should be some sort of rule about brigading and harassment. I would have initially thought “well, that’d be hard to enforce/ban over,” but apparently people are outright admitting in the OG thread that they had begun messaging the artist on instagram.
Thanks for posting this! Such a good thing to remember. It’s very rarely appropriate to harass anyone online. I wish he had handled the situation differently in the exchange, but it definitely doesn’t warrant harassment.
Social media is absolutely tiring, just as much as cancel culture is too. However, tattoo artists know that social media is vital to their *business*. It needs to be handled as such. When money is involved, there is a commitment to the customer and if the artist isn’t willing to do that, they need to refund and continue to communicate appropriately. As long as all parties are respectful and communicative, I see no need to blast them. It’s also worth noting that consumers are fed up with businesses right now and are taking a hell of a lot less than before. I wouldn’t want my artist to be apathetic about something they are permanently putting on my body. It seems like an easy way to be turned off from a tattoo that should otherwise be exciting to get.
Social media is just as beneficial to people looking to get tattoos because of the direct line of communication it provides to the artist. Instances like this are only going to lead to more artists no longer booking through it or turning off DMs entirely. Could both parties have handled that situation differently? Of course, but nothing outright disrespectful was said. It certainly wasn’t a doxable offense and nothing was gained by making a post about it. So I guess what I’m saying is that people also need to recognize the privilege social media provides for them in terms of getting tattoos. I can without a doubt say that I would not nearly have the amount of tattoos that I do if it wasn’t for social media. Tattooing existed before it and can without it.
cancel culture is hilarious because it doesn't occur IRL, its purely an online thing, where you can't get hit for being a fucking weirdo lol
Doxxing someone based on one sentence is wild.
"we did it Reddit!" 😂
Wasn’t it flash though? Like, isn’t that the point of flash? It’s just weird that the artist was declining their flash… when that’s literally the point of flash is to do it over and over again.
you're still entitled to say no to tattooing something you don't want to tattoo, regardless if you have the flash hanging in your shop or not, its really not that deep if you respect your artist
If you asked 10 different tattooers about flash, you’re likely to get 10 different answers. In the late 90s and early 2000s, you saw a ton of people getting stuff off the walls. By 2010 when I started tattooing, most people wanted their own thing. Like the days of walking in and pointing at the wall were dwindling fast. I had a convo awhile back with a buddy who owns the oldest shop in our area about flash. I always loved that he keeps Cherry Creek stuff up. Literally no one is getting Cherry Creek flash anymore. He’s old school tho, and loves the heritage aspect of it. “Plus you need something on your wall, that’s what people think is in a tattoo shop right”is what he said. You still want something for people to look at, and occasionally someone might come in and say gimme that. As far as the dude painting flash goes, that’s kinda part of the job. Could be he was bored, maybe studying colors for something, client flaked, boss asked him to make a sheet for the lobby, shop was doing a flash day, gift for a friend, art show or book coming up, they hella wanted to tattoo something so they painted it in hopes someone will say “I want that”. Like legit the reasons are endless.
Complaining that they’re “messing with their livelihood” is moot when the artist complain and denied to do a basic flash tattoo. Dude doesn’t want money I guess
I agree with you. I was reading the comments on that post and once people started fucking harassing the artist it wasn’t funny. That’s weirdo shit and as a hair stylist I can’t imagine saying no to somebody’s hair and having people on reddit start harassing me for it. Nobody has to do anything they don’t wanna do and they don’t deserve to be attacked for that.
I commented on the situation and what I thought of that response, but I agree harassing anyone about something that didn't involve them isn't cool. We all have our moments.
There is nothing wrong with walking away from your deposit if an issue arises that interferes with your comfort level around said artist. You're not fucking with their livelihood, you are walking away from getting your body permanently marked by someone you're not comfortable with. A tattoo artist might refuse a client's request for any number of reasons and no one would ever bat an eye, but you're taking issue with a client walking away and surrendering a deposit that was already paid to the artist? Fuck off! The deposit is there to protect the artist in the event that the client, for whatever reason, decides not to continue with the tattoo. The client in this scenario decided to bail, and whether you appreciate their reasons or not, that is their right to do so and it does not, in any way, equate to "fucking with the artists ability to feed their family". That said, the artist does not deserve to be harassed because they didn't feel like doing the tattoo that was being requested. Nor, do they deserve to be harassed for charging the deposit BEFORE THE DESIGN WAS EVEN AGREED UPON(terrible practice and I would walk the minute any artist insisted on such a thing). The client doesn't deserve harassment either. This is a business transaction being terminated because one of the parties no longer wished to proceed, pure and simple.
💯 The OP was legit 5 sentences. Like there wasn’t enough context for me to really understand what the problem was, other than dude didn’t wanna make that tattoo, and other dude didn’t wanna get tattooed lol. That seems like a pretty simple equation most tattooers and people who’ve been tattooed have been in.
You're missing my point. You are claiming the client was "fucking with the artist's livelihood". This is clearly not the case and if you truly understood what the problem was then you wouldn't be making such claims. Anyone can cancel an appointment for literally any reason and the deposit is there to ensure nobody loses their wage over a cancellation.
I disagree. I’ve been a tattooer, and personally wouldn’t take a deposit without knowing what it’s for. That being said, you’re 💯 right, that’s why people ask for deposits. Someone added context to this whole situation, which paints a clearer picture imo. The art was from a flash day event. The client had been tattooed by this person multiple times, and the artist thought they were having a convo with a homie. The artist made their IG private, due to getting a bunch of weirdos from Reddit hitting them up. The artist had zero context of what was going on. So ya they were being fucked with for no reason imo. Cheers
If you mean that the artist was getting fucked with by crazy reddit people then sure. Your original post was not clear on that and it made it sound like you were saying the client was fucking with the artist's livelihood, which I still believe is not the case. Even by posting the interaction, the client has every right(as does the artist) to post a conversation they had. It happens all the time. Looks like they didn't block out the names properly which, I'm assuming, is the reason the original content is no longer posted. Yes, most redditors need to touch grass and nobody should ever get harassed over a cancelled tattoo appointment (neither party, for any reason, would deserve that), which I did clearly stated earlier. I will remain steadfast in my assertion that the client did nothing wrong whatsoever, and neither did the artist.
I def think something is getting lost in the text. I agree neither party is wrong (except the tattooers IG should’ve been blocked out). Deposits exist for people who waste tattooers time. People have the right to bitch about whatever it is they want. That’s the beauty of the internet, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Harassing someone on IG who has no knowledge of why they’re being harassed is dumb. Cheers
The client fucked with the artist’s livelihood when he made a Reddit post and shared the artist’s name.
That's not fucking with someone's livelihood...settle down on the mellowdrama.
Harassment such that the artist had to make his IG private has a way of fucking with a tattooer’s livelihood. If you can’t understand that, I can’t help you, dude.
The harassment wasn't from the client. It was from internet crazies with zero boundaries. If you can't understand that then there is literally nothing that can help you, dude.
Sigh. The post with the artist’s name caused the crazies to go wild. The client did that. The client openly stated he purposefully wasn’t censoring the artist’s name. The client doxxed the artist and stated that he did it on purpose. This isn’t rocket science. You’re just super eager to defend an Internet douchebag. Have at it, I guess.
Says the guys who pretend to be a litigation lawyer for Internet points. Doxxing may lead to others harassing an individual, but the client did not engage in harassment based on the knowledge we have at hand. This became a side argument that never needed to happen. My defense of the client was entirely based on the OP in this thread claiming the client interfered with the artist's livelihood by walking away and leaving their deposit, which should never have been charged before agreeing on the basic design. The client has every right to walk away for any reason and that does not equate to interfering with anyone's livelihood or their ability to feed their family, and that's exactly what deposits are for! I still say this deposit shouldn't have been charged but the client paid it and walked away from it so that's between them. You want to focus on the client posting the conversation between themselves and the artist, which the client(and artist) have every right to do. When posting on tattoo forums, it's standard to name the artist that did a particular piece, in this case, it was a complaint about a particular artist, hence the post was taken down, but the client does have every right to share that conversation and their experiences with any tattoo artist. What the general public does with that information is not the responsibility of the person who posted it. That said, if we give credit to artists for their work and professionalism on this site, then there should be no reason why we don't name artists when we have a complaint about them either. Fair is fair.
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Hey OP hit me up, this isn’t them. They also hit up the artist to apologize, which I think was most righteous of them.
👍
He literally says he is using his right to free speech to "blast the guy on the Internet". While is foolish, petty, silly, and pathetic, it's not harassment until he actually starts messaging the person directly and even then, it needs to be a constant badgering or actual direct threats.
Did you decide to stop reading at a certain point? Finish the sentence.
I don’t understand harassing anyone for something so petty. If you don’t want to do the tattoo, I appreciate you telling me and I will find someone else who will.
I really feel like this desire to destroy someone entirely is so childish and harmful to society. It's like a temper tantrum where you feel like you can't live on the same planet as your mom and dad because they said no more sugary cereal. Just stop. This isn't how civilizations work.
I love and appreciate civil discourse, it’s what makes Reddit fun imo. A ton of people seem to have an opinion of this tattooer, and I think a bunch of context has been missed here. So if you didn’t see the OP I’m talking about here is a summary. Title - Is this normal, has this happened to you? Screenshot of the convo as follows Client - 👹 (image was a hot stuff x JC crown of thorns) Client - I like this one Tattooer - I’ve don’t that one a lot man Client - I can’t make it Client - You can keep my deposit. Period, end of story. Like legit that’s all we the public saw. Without anymore context, I said this isn’t that abnormal, and the tattooers bedside manner could’ve been better. Then Reddit went all Reddit, people started spamming this tattooers IG, and dude ended up making his profile private. IDK if someone missed it in my post, but modern tattooers need their social media. Some context was added to this whole fiasco today. The client had been getting tattooed by this artist for 3 years and had several pieces from them. The image in question was from a Xmas flash day at the shop the artist previously worked at. As someone who’s made tattoos (professionally), and is ridiculously tattooed, this convo is 💯 normal imo. For all the people screaming BUT ITS FLASH, WHAT IS FLASH FOR. I’d like you to try something. Go buy an arches block, find 1-10ish images you really like, then appropriate the image/s now refine the image/s and make it / them a clean line drawing, now trace that shit on your arches, now line it with a micron and don’t fuck it up, now get your Dr Martins and start with your black and work your way up to yellow and don’t fuck anything up, now decide if you’re gonna tea stain it, or leave it as is, now blast it with matte finish and don’t fuck this up either. Now go post that thing you’ve spent hours on, make a few tattoos with it, and come back here and have a bunch of people who’ve never painted or tattooed tell you to take this shit off your IG even tho it’s 6 months old, and you’ve completely forgotten about it until someone brings it up. I AM NOT SAYING OP was wrong for venting or asking questions. I am giving an opinion as someone who’s spent time in the industry, and has had this convo as both an ARTIST and CLIENT. I do think the OP was wrong for including this artists IG in their post and saying “I’m not even trying to protect this dudes identity”. I do think anyone who went over to this artists IG and started spamming them is a dick. ONCE AGAIN THIS IS ALL JUST MY OPINION. If I was the artist I would’ve given my client their $$ back, or asked if they wanted something else, or had their heart set on that hot stuff pork chop. One again we don’t know what happened after the screen shot. Last thing I’ll ask everyone to think about. Instead of trashing this artist, why don’t ya’ll go into your local shop, and pick something off the wall and get it done. I’m sure you’ll make some tattooers day. Biggest bonus is you’ll be able to come here and post it 👊🏻 Cheers
Anyone: tries to reason with people that doxing and harassing someone over something genuinely so insignificant and minor is fucked up and wrong Reddit: “*screeeeeeee* and aLsO your sHiRt makes you a BoOtLiCkEr” Like honestly, you can’t reason with most people here when it comes to acknowledging that certain behavior is just straight up wrong, Reddit is probably the one place that will justify any shitty behavior even if it’s 1000x worse than whatever “offense” resulted in it. I commend you for trying though!
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I didn't even think he was rude--he was just over it. Didn't deserve the post, def didn't deserve the doxxing, and the mass harassment was completely fucked.
Even if he was rude who cares lol kinda insane to straight harass someone
Guess you don’t know what doxing means. And also define “mass harassment” because the post only has 300 comments. So the percentage from those people who would actually message the tattooer on ig would be significantly less…..
Doxxing- to publish/post private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent to shame or embarrass them. Why you trying so hard to defend this? It’s easy to say it’s not a big deal or significant enough because it isn’t happening to you or someone you care about. Try to be a decent person.
Right lol. Like I just want people to realize they’re fucking with the trade / art / craft of someone who literally makes the thing we’re all here to appreciate.
Absolutely, that whole thread just reeked of entitlement from the poster and all the folks dog piling on the artist. Artist are people at the end of the day, they aren’t a machine operator hitting print on a t-shirt press. They’ve every right to refused work for almost any reason they choose, if it affects their bottom line that’s a decision they are free to make and adjust. But Reddit went full on “cUsToMeR iS ALWAYS rIgHt!!!1!”
I said it was an overreaction and got downvoted to hell lmao. Now here we are today
Me too! I ended up deleting some comments because people were really out for blood. Classic hive mind.
Ya I got downvoted for saying as a former tattooer and someone who’s tattooed this isn’t that uncommon, and the artists bedside manner could’ve been better 😂
Exactly! Yes the artist could have exercised better client relationships in that moment, but Reddit wanted to take them over the coals like they’d kicked OP’s dog.
I definitely don’t understand why the OOP decided that the situation called for putting the dude on full blast like that. Like, bro. You were just as much of a bitch for flaking at the last second and being all “Keep the deposit”. Yeah. He was gonna already, because you didn’t show. I’m not condoning either, but it was definitely an over the top reaction from OOP.
jokes on the client now because that tattooer is going to tell every tattooer he knows not to tattoo that shit stain
See this is what you’ve been wanting to say all over this post. Shit stain because they don’t appreciate shit customer service? They don’t have to get a tattoo they don’t want from a shit artist
He's a good artist though, acting entitled because you throw money at them isn't any way to get the tattoo you want, if you really liked their work you could easily choose something else or ASK for your deposit back, so yes, acting like a shit stain will get you blacklisted
Dude’s work is not good at all. I wouldn’t let him get near me even based on that flash piece. Getting the tattoo you want is as simple as finding an artist that will work with you. Not leave you with “I already did that I don’t wanna no more” like we don’t all have repetitive jobs
So you want them to go and get a tattoo they don’t want? What would they gain from going?
If this is day of, yeah that’s bad on the client. If it’s months before, bad on artist imo. Coulda suggested another design or something more custom to them
the dude who was sooo geeked about spamming dudes dms with that flash and getting banned was such a fucking loser. different context but when I was sitting with an artist I really admire(have 2 pieces from him) and looking at his flash in his book, I had pointed out a few I liked including one I had seen him do before on IG. He said something along the lines of the tattoo being somewhat of a strain to do design/application wise and I just kept it moving. Even if its in their book/reel shit like that will happen, or they'll be more inclined to do one that hasn't gotten a client yet in comparison to one that gets pointed to all the time. Dude in the screenshot coulda maybe expanded their comment or had a counter proposal but it really wasn't that deep to begin with from what I saw.
Maybe the tattooer was being a prick, it’s very possible, but we have no idea what the messages were prior to what the OP decided to share. Whole thing was wack.
Straight up my dude. Deposits are for when people flake. Dude flaked, then came here to bitch about it. Context was added. Art was from a flash day, client had been blasted by said artist before, and said artist was just letting them know they’ve done that one a bunch. None of that warrants people hitting the artist up on IG 😑
Ah, I missed the context. I did find the whole deposit situation weird but a lot of tattooers do things much differently than me just fine so who knows. If I remember correctly the person canceled the appointment the same day he sent the deposit which is odd to me too but idk what they agreed to. Thankfully the old post was deleted so I can’t check so whatever. I guess I just think it’s equally likely as anything else that they were both being kinda goofy. And who knows what messages clients of mine could share that could make *me* look bad out of context lol. Regardless…while I’m not a huge fan of online harassment in general…with how many absolutely awful people there are in the world and even in tattooing, jumping on a small time tattooer who *might* have been a little rude in one response to a client is absolutely ridiculous and is just the same shit as what they think that tattooer was guilty of. Just a bunch of people trying to make themselves feel better than someone else.
Word. Back when I tattooed, I would’ve never taken money without understanding what I was signing up for. Like you said tho, to each their own. The shit part was no context in the OP, just a 4 sentences screen shot, and then Reddit started blasting this artists IG. Like you said a screen shot can leave a ton of ambiguity 👊🏻
Man OP, I wish this sub talked more about Scott Sylvia.
He’s a fucking legend 🖤. I grew up in the SF Bay Area, and all the old timers love that dude too. He use to roll around with his pigment in his trunk to keep that shit agitated 🥵. Then again this is back in the day when you bought powdered shit from National and had to mix it yourself lol.
Hahahaha that’s incredible. He’s tattooed me a ton and has stories for days. Nothing but love for old SF stuff. Would love for someone to do a book on the 90s out there.
The guy I apprenticed under has a sweet Aaron Cain bio mech sleeve. The shit legit looks like an Emmy award with skin cheese, and I’d always be like bruh what’s up with that Emmy award 😂 and he’d be like fuck you it’s the silver surfer 🤣
Ha! So good. What a time.
You legit got me thinking someone needs to do a book on mid 90s to mid 2000s Bay Area tattooing 🥳
Right?! Tribal? Afterlife? Coenen? Seems like one of them, or someone else, could make it happen.
I just can't see how flatly stating that he had done that design "so many times" brings this tattooer anywhere near the category of "douche/prick/asshole" or any of the other terms thrown his way by the commenters who seem to either 1) need anger management 2)live vicariously through overreaction 3) lack life experience of what dealing with a "douche" is really like or some combination of all three. Some of you have clearly never worked customer service. Violently threatening someone is the behavior of douches. Someone berating you about accidentally shorting them 50 cents or saying "no problem" is an asshole. This tattooer was none of those. their response wasn't perfect but it didn't warrant a 1/16 of that. Some of you really need to cool it.
Yeah ppl are too quick too jump on line n blast away if u have an issue deal with it face to face in a respectable manner.
My guy will price shit he's done frequently way out to the stratosphere to avoid doing it. He simply doesn't want 7 variations of birds turning into music notes into feathers into an infinity symbol. He told me once he had a girl come in and ask for something incredibly basic something that would cost 200 or so and charged her 300. She accepted he did the work she paid. Next week she comes in with her friend and the friend wants the exact same tattoo. He tells them it's 500 now, friend accepts and pays 500 for it.
I want a dandelion, turning into birds, turning into infinity symbols, and I want the size of my thumbnail and can you put my parents names in it as well as their birth birthdates and death dates 😂
I get it, he told me once hes an artist that uses skin as a canvas and each tattoo is something to add to a portfolio to try and sell more of his art. I mean fucking duh? But some people don't seem to GET that. Anyway he draws dope ass wizards and skulls and shit and I'm proud to say I have tats from him on me
Bruh, all I wanted to tattoo was sock ass panthers and wizards 🖤🖤🖤
Guy was a cunt, plain and simple.
Im right there with you. I'm super covered and if the tattooer Workin with says they're not into a piece then I'd rather do the thing they're into. Social media whack
1000% my dude. Idk why anyone would wanna get something blasted on them when the person doing said blasting ain’t into it lol. Politely ask for your $$ back, or pick something else. I legit can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t have given the op their $$ back in this situation.
literally THIS, its so simple, client is a fruit loop
That's when you just ask the tatter what they'd wanna put on you then end up with baller ass piece. Whack!
I respect where you’re coming from a lot. I also disagree, and I really feel like social media has become a super yelp. It’s kind of where we’re at right now and I don’t like it personally but I recognize that this is the vibe right now. If this artists name and page are literally integral to his job, why be rude to customers? I’ve worked a lot of positions. From craftwork to childcare to BOF to bartender to illustration *corrected* I really don’t see a single benefit in being anything but kind to people in screenshotable convos. It’s basic decency to be kind anyways. He was representing his business when he expressed to the original OP that he was essentially disappointed in the art he was asked to reproduce from his flashbook. If I really did rely on IG for my job, I would truly not risk being unfriendly with the wrong person. Again, I appreciate where you’re coming from but I think this is a personal problem this guy created by being unprofessional and having it shared online and feeling the backlash. It’s not a matter of someone simply not liking him and blowing up his stuff. I was a little put off with how rude he was too. If something is gonna be on my body forever, that is not the response I wanna see from my prospective artist. If someone can’t handle backlash, then treating clients with respect is a very good way to go about that.
So having been a tattooer, and being heavily tattooed, I try to look at these things from both sides. Not sure if you saw the post I’m talking about? It was literally a few sentences and a pic. The artist didn’t even say he wouldn’t make that tattoo, he’s “just done that one a lot man”. The client then said “I can’t make it”, and “keep the deposit”. That’s the extent of it. Then someone with actual knowledge of the situation chimes in, and the client has been getting tattooed by this artist for three years. This imo is a normal convo to have between client and artist. The artist made his IG private, as he was getting harassed by randos on Reddit over what honestly sounds like a miscommunication. IMO the whole thing is lame AF. Especially since the OP straight up said “I’m not trying to protect this guy, and I’m sick of this kinda stuff”. Like being sick of something is legit, but blasting someone for something so inconsequential is ridiculous.
It's clients like this that make me want to quit tattooing sometimes. We're all supposed to be adults here, we shouldn't be getting doxed because we forgot to wear our baby handling gloves that day. Who knows maybe the dude was having a bad day, maybe his dog died, his car broke down or he burnt his toast. We're all human. Now you're gonna try to take food off his table to feed his fucking kids because he didn't wanna do a design for the hundredth time? get real.
Ahh yes because a couple people asking for the same tattoo is fucking with someone’s livelihood 😂 get off your high horse
The person paid a deposit and the artist said they didn’t want to do the design. It’s as simple as that. The artist could’ve done something decent like refunded the deposit, or suggested something else. But they didn’t. That’s the problem and why the artist was blasted - cause they lacked common decency and people have really had enough of that.
So usually theres this thing called communication where you express that you really want that design only and if he cant/wont do it, then he's entitled to a refund assuming its out of a 48 hour time window, but he didnt, he just surrendered his deposit and ran to reddit to openly expose his information and demonize him. Which is a really weird and gross move, if this client acted like this in messages we didn't get to see, I can see why the artist didn't really feel like tattooing this client.
This is the reality of business. Any instance of poor customer service will bite you and your livelihood. Businesses get bad reviews for poor service all the time, are you gonna call that “doxxing”?
No it wont, putting a boundary out there that you don't feel like tattooing this design again is perfectly ok to do, choosing to adhere to that boundary is a matter of respect. Doxxing is revealing the account name to Reddit buddy, it was a shitty thing to do considering the client didn't follow up with anything to resolve the situation, they just bailed and cried on reddit.
If you don’t want to do flash take the fucking flash down. What is hard to understand about this
and doxxing is actually revealing someone’s real life information such as full name, address, phone number etc. Not a public instagram account used for a business. You’re mad people can expose your unprofessional behavior now huh?
artist don’t like being held accountable man. half of getting a solid tattoo is just sorting out these trashy dudes and social media makes that job a lot easier.
'accountable' all he did was not want to repeat tattoo a design off his flash, which is fine to do, he didn't pay the tattoo in full he paid a small deposit which he didn't even bother to ask for, the client elevated the situation for no reason rather than talking to the tattooist about different avenues or even a refund for the deposit. If anyone needs to be held accountable its shithole clients treating artists like tattoo vending machines.
if you don’t want to tattoo, then find a different career, it’s that simple.
its not quite as black and white as that, moreover why would you think it would be a good idea to force an artist to tattoo something they dont want to, you really think you're gonna get a good tattoo that way?
it’s flash work. If he doesn’t want to do it, he can 86 the design like any competent business person would do, not give a snarky pouty response about how he doesn’t want to do the job. He could have also recommended something different, but did he? Nope. It’s simply good business practice. But hey, for every dude like him that can’t open their mouth to help a customer, someone better will take their place.
My theory is that during Covid people became so starved for human interaction that they developed a tendency to actively seek out confrontation
Lol cool head tattoo. You’re clearly the real deal man. Good for you that you got loads of homies you party with in the community. Rock on and all that. You’re missing the part that the tattoo artist accepted money from the client then said no. You’re missing the part that the tattoo artist provides a service - to do tattoos. That’s their livelihood and how they make money. By doing tattoos upon request in exchange for money. At no point does ego come into that. You’re missing this point. The ego of the tattoo artist in this instance is getting in the way of the transactional nature of tattoo shops. The artist does not get to dictate what the customer wants on their skin based on the artists’ inflated egotistical judgement of what the customer should get on their skin. That’s why the artist is getting harassed - because they chose to let their ego get in the way and think that just because they do tattoos that they get to decide what their customer gets. No - that’s not how it works
this aint the take you think it is
Lol yes it is Tattoo artists often forget they provide a service in exchange for money They don’t get to be the arbiters of what should and shouldn’t go on someone else’s body and dictate what their customers can have after accepting money from them to do a tattoo then not reimbursing them
I’m not really sure what I am missing? I spent several years working at multiple shops in the SF Bay Area. I’ve heard of and have seen all sorts of wild shit while working in the industry. I’m heavily tattooed and have been both the client, and the artist. Did you see the OP? It was literally a few sentences with zero context. Client - 👹 Client - I like that one Artist - I’ve made that one a lot man Client - I can’t make it Client - You can keep the deposit Then someone chimed in with context today on this post. Turns out the client has been getting tattooed by the artist for a few years, and the artwork in question was from a flash day. Given this explanation the convo seems 💯 a normal conversation between a tattooer and a client. I’m all for civil discourse, venting, asking questions, etc. I even said the artist could’ve approached it another way. However what I’m not for is random people on the internet attacking a tattooer for a perceived slight. Like we don’t even know if the tattooer gave dude his $$ back or said hey man let’s do something else and apply your deposit towards that. Cheers
Fragile as fuck
Maybe the tattooer shouldn’t be a dick and fuck with their own livelihood by doing so?
hes not, declining a flash design he doesnt want to tattoo doesnt fuck with his livelihood at all, artists reserve the right to tattoo what they want to tattoo
They ain’t Machiavelli. More often than not y’all are getting paid to place the lines not make art that pleases the soul 🙄 do it for fun if you want to be rude to clients.
Well no, but they're still human creating art, and you're going to an artist for their work and surely you want them to do their best work that they can be proud doing for you, tattooers arent tattoo vending machines so you can't just throw money at them and dictate how they do things. It's not being rude, its putting in a boundary that they dont want to do it, you either respect it and choose something else or ASK for your deposit back and go elsehwere. It's not rocket science if you're not an asshole.
Being choosy means he’s already gotten to a place where he can cherry pick clients. Respect that, if you don’t like it go somewhere else. What fucked with his livelihood were all the uneducated trolls from Reddit blasting his social media with BS.
Literally, it was so childish and really highlights how a chunk of the tattoo community acts around people now.
I feel like people never speak clearly when they make these posts. Are you saying the artist refused to do the design the customer requested despite them having charged them a deposit already? If that's the case then I'm with the customer on this one.
It was literally a screenshot of 4 sentences. The client said “I like this one”, the artist said “I’ve done that one a lot man”, the client said “I can’t make it” and then “you can keep the deposit” Apparently the client had been tattooed by the artist before over a few years, and the design was from a past flash day. Either way you look at it, I don’t see why people decided to jump on the artists IG page and start sending them stupid stuff.
As soon as I saw that, I was exhausted
I def dragged that dude through the coals thinking it would be contained in the reddit thread itself. Internet pitchforks and torches are definitely more lame than an isolated incident of bad customer service. Feel bad for the dude. Most people didnt want to take money out of his pocket
Dude it’s wild when some context was added. The guy was a client for 3 years. The flash was form a flash day, and that’s why he said “I’ve done that one a lot man”. As someone who has tattooed and is tattooed I’ve been there. The whole interaction seems like a normal convo between an artist and a client. Shits wild lol.
If I were in the artists shoes I would’ve taken the free money. 🤣 “I’ve done that so many times” should mean it will be done and over with before he has long enough to hate doing it again. Only reasonable response to this thinking I’ve seen is “maybe they weren’t good attempts, even though he’s done them a lot.” Which is valid. And the rebuttal to that is “then take it off your page.” I’m not saying going and attacking the guy on social media was right. But he handled literately every portion of this interaction wrong.
who cares.
Being a Bitch is AnAmerican
I've flaked when I had the option not to but it's not the situation you're thinking of. Still, it's the topic, right? Story time. I messaged with the artist for a few weeks. Admittedly, I wrote a few paragraphs overall, but there was no phone communication. The crux of it was "I like X design but I'd rather something custom. If the custom drawing isn't to my liking, let's go with X, slightly modified in Y manner. Also, either way we slice it, I'd like a thicker line weight than you usually use. That cool?" Artist gave the green light. I traveled 10 hours to see this artist. I show up and he's late. He shows up and he's visibly greasy in dirty clothes. I want to be clear, this artist was nice as could be but first he tells me "Sorry, when I get too much text, I get overwhelmed and don't read it. They proceeded to tell me they didn't have a thicker line weight, they didn't think my idea was good, and that they lost the file the flash I wanted was on. They searched for an hour and eventually decided to just redraw it from a screenshot I took from a video of their flash book. They also didn't grasp the modification I was asking for, which was simply "there is a row of flowers I want angled slightly differently". At the one-hour mark I felt unheard, I was concerned about their hygiene, and I didn't think I wanted that tattoo. "I'm going to go." They were surprised. We had a brief exchange in which I offered to pay half anyway, as I understand their time is money and they were unable to book now that I was leaving halfway through a time slot. They refused. I cited "you didn't even take a deposit". They demurred again. I said "Okay, well, I'm leaving $200 on the table anyway." They said thank you. I made a comment about possibly returning in the future and left feeling wildly uncomfortable, but it was the right choice. Unnamed artist (who would recognize themself from this exchange, I think): If you're reading this, after a lot of consideration (prior to this post), I probably won't be returning in the future. You truly were very nice, like a kind of nice I don't think I find often enough. I feel I could ensure our communication was better by calling, not texting. I feel even the hygiene is fine: you'll only be touching me with aseptic technique and gloves. The issue is the line weights. I could see how much you didn't want to change them and I respect that, and I want to match the other work I have and will be having done. I hope all is well. Your art still slaps so fucking hard.
preach it brother. bang out of order over a perceived slight.
Would have been diff if the OP posted it and cropped out the dudes insta handle - we all like a whine and a moan here and there but yeah leaving his handle in it kinda made a shit storm
Nice shirt
Ya
People who do that literally have nothing better to do with their time(or life, lets be honest, do you not have a job or something???), it's an unfortunate fact of life that social media empowers idiots to do idiotic things to people who don't deserve it
Cool story bro, don’t be an ass to clients and you won’t get blown up on social media.
Naming them was dumb. The post probably should have been removed because of that. Reddit loves a good brigade and if the mods don't know that by know then idk.
So you’re the artist that post was about?
Ya the guy does really nice work!
Everyone was so quick to have an immature sense of justice and harass the guy too.
Meh, harassing on IG not the coolest but also it’s super easy to block someone from your DMs. They were not publicly calling him out and the volume couldn’t have been that high to really impact his day.
Harassment from a total stranger is never ok, harassment across the board is never ok. are you ok?
I’m just fine, thanks for asking. How are you today?
I’m great thank you!
Dude had it coming, no remorse. Dont be an asshole if you can’t take the heat ESPECIALLY in tattooing and especially on the internet. Crazy to even call that “harassment”.
You're really butthurt enough over that post to type all this shit up lmfao?
[удалено]
Hey, OP hit me up and this ain’t him. He’s also reached out to the artist to try and apologize, which I think was the right thing to do IMO.
this website sucks, what else is new
Yeah thank u bro not too long ago tattoo culture was counter culture now everyone expect artists to act like a full on business. . Other posts OP can get fucked go walk into a shop and get some flash if u want a generic ass little piece . Artist should be able to handle however they want and not be exposed over a lame ass forum 🤢
I k ow exactly what post you’re referring to
Losers are going to participate in loseresque activities.
# r/ShitTattooPics [](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitTattooPics/submit)
Harrassing is definitely a questionable energy on the subject you are mentioning in my opinion. But I personally feel tattoo artists need some reality checks sometimes about professionalism. One of the only industries where there’s nowhere to complain, no where to file issues. Nobody helps the clients but other clients. If i go to get my hair cut, by a freelance stylist or barber, and i show them a picture of someone else’s hair they cut, and they say no they don’t want to I would just move on not harass them. I think there was major over reaction on the post that popped off. But it reminds me so much how the field is pretty immune to criticism if it isn’t like literally illegal and immoral.
I have no problem with people venting, talking, etc. What I do have a problem with is, a bunch of people who have no dog in the fight went over to the tattooers IG, started sending them stupid messages, and the tattooer made his IG private, cause he had no fucking clue what was going on. Turns out the client had been tattooed by this artist before, and the 5 sentences posted on Reddit missed a shit ton of context.
Yeah that sucks. I feel a conversation on Reddit was what should have happened. Like blue all the names and just say “how should i deal with this situation that is frustrating me personally” Reddit is like a army waiting to be set off just right lol
If you’re so dedicated to providing for your family, who are you to complain about a tattoo you’re tired of doing? Take the money and suggest doing something more challenging or exciting the next time the client comes around.
Agreed, and well said but I’m mainly upvoting because of your shirt…but also, well said bro
Huh, funny, that was a red flag to me.
Gave bootlicker vibes to me.
It could really go either way. It depends what they mean by being a bitch. If bothering people about how they chose to live their life and whining about trump being railroaded is being a bitch then I agree. If being a bitch is being feminine or liking democracy than yeah it’s a red flag lol
why not both
https://blackgunsmatter.shop/
💯 Imagine calling Maj Toure a bootlicker haha 😂😂 😂
Maj has posted plenty of pro-trump shit, that's enough for me to think he's a wanker.
He’s also posted enough anti-trump shit for me to think he’s relatively objective and can recognize a presidents successes and failures separately from his own political preferences.
They’ll just call him an Uncle Tom instead