Bullied by the Tattoo Man

Welp folks, I had big plans to post all about my brand new (pun intended) tattoo tonight. I have been looking forward to this fateful day for a long time. I have been thinking of nothing other than this tattoo ALL WEEK! And then, I met the Big Bad Tattoo Bully Man.

I showed up for my appointment very excited but very nervous. I wasn't nervous that I would regret this tattoo...I am 100% certain this is what I want. I was nervous because this is my first tattoo and I was out of my element. I didn't know how I would be perceived, I wanted to be sure I asked all the right questions, and I wanted to feel like I could state exactly what I want and not feel bad about it. In hindsight, I was nervous for all the right reasons.

All my tattoo artist knew about this tattoo is generally where I wanted it (my shoulder blade) and the lyric I wanted, "hold on to who you love." He drew up a general idea and it wasn't what I had pictured, and that's fine. I kindly showed him a few pictures of tattoos I was inspired by. And then it all went downhill. I should note, when he showed me what he drew up, he said, "There's only one "o" in this "to", right?" ARE YA FRICKEN KIDDING ME?! I should have walked out right there.

"Well, that's fine, but it looks like generic computer font," was his passive aggressive response. He went back to his dungeon and came back with something different. At this point, Kevin arrived for moral support. It was very close to what I had in mind, but still not 100%. We decided to go ahead and see how it looks on my body and then go from there. I wanted a slight curve, the tattoo man suggested it go straight across. I explained I wanted it to look very feminine and delicate, nothing too crazy. We tried it 3 or 4 different ways on my body, but he wasn't understanding what I was wanting. Who knows, maybe I wasn't using the right tattoo lingo? Apparently my verbal descriptions and the two pictures I brought in was not enough to appease this man.

It was clear he was becoming frustrated, annoyed, and most of all, inconvenienced. He was very passive aggressive and short with me. I began to feel very uncomfortable, and bad even, that I wasn't happy with what he was showing me. This is exactly what I was nervous about--being made to feel uncomfortable or stupid for not 100% loving what the guy drew up. But then I looked to my moral support, and I could tell he was questioning it, too. I am so glad Kevin was there. He did a good job of not giving me his opinions as to influence me away from what I wanted, but he was honest when I needed him to be.

Then I started to think that maybe I was just being too picky. Maybe I needed to be a big girl and just DO IT! I liked the positioning, the size was good, I liked the font. I was already 100% sure of WHAT I wanted, it's just a matter of putting it all together. Let's do this! Here is the final mock-up he did:

So, I hesitantly go on the table and got all positioned to be inked.

Then, I started to panic.

WHAT AM I DOING?! This is NOT exactly what I wanted. I looked at Kevin, and I saw it in his face. It's good enough, but good enough is not something that I want on my body forever. So I said, "Question. Is there any way you can show me one more font? I'm just not 100% on this one and I want something to compare it to." And then the bully got angry. "Well, I can draw something else, but I don't know what difference it will make."

And then I looked at Kevin. "You know, you don't have to do this today, we can come back another time" is what Kevin said at the exact moment I was thinking it.

Then the man replied, "Well I'm going to have to charge you for the work I did already." Ohhhh, ok, well in that case, of course I'll let you and all your negativity half-ass a tattoo that will be on my body forever for the sake of not having to pay a small fee for the "work" you've done thus far. Go ahead!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I told him that today wasn't going to be the day (as I was laying on the table all ready to go, talk about ridiculous), and I'd live with the writing on my body for the night and make an appointment to come back another time. I think he was tired of us and said, "Eh, whatever, it's fine, I trust you'll come back."

SCREW THAT! After we left, I got more and more shook up about how blatantly rude this man was to me and how terrible of an experience it was. Kevin was very angry about how I was treated (although he stopped short of kicking his butt...probably a good call, this man was huge and hairy). I called Tonia on the way home and cried to her about it and she made me feel better and made me feel like I wasn't just being a baby (THANKS, TA!) I'm glad I didn't go through with it. I would have been happy with the tattoo but I don't want to remember that experience when I see it. This is Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra (who I LOVE!). Unfortunately, the tattoo man could have been his [evil] twin.

Maybe the worst part of this is how excited I was about it. I was so stinkin' excited to be getting my tattoo TONIGHT, and in the end, I came away with nothing but a terrible experience. The next step is finding someone I'm comfortable with. Kevin's sister Heather had nothing but good things to say about her tattoo artist in Cedar Falls, so I think I may go that route.

All in all it was a disappointing experience and definitely not what I had in mind. This was definitely not the post I had in mind, but I'm glad I had enough sense to recognize when something wasn't feeling right. I came home and went on an angry run, and luckily mom sent me homemade Oreos so those are also helping me out right now, too (counterproductive, I know.) Hopefully this will be the last tattoo post I do sans tattoo :)