I'm writing to warn people of the disfigurements that I have recently subjected my body to at the hands of a totally unskilled artist.
At A Glance Author Bob er roo Contact Bob er roo@bme.anon When A week ago Location manchester I've wanted a tattoo just below my waistline for years now ever since I began my interest in the punk music scene. I've had many piercings, around fourteen in total and stretched my ears up well over a year ago now to what I think are a cute size 6, but until around a week ago I've gone without any tattoos.
My long term boyfriend and I recently got engaged and I thought what better way to celebrate than to get a permanent reminder of our future vows to each other, so I spent much time deciding on how exactly to do so, without using the old cliché of names. The final idea that my mind rested upon was a simple design that incorporated two small skull and cross bones, that had a pink bow and a blue dickey bow, in the middle of this was a heart and flames. Cute and simple.
My biggest mistake here was after I had drawn up my plans to a standard I was happy with (I'm a graphic designer by nature and have perfection running through my veins) I showed them to a friend who is known for "doing tattoos", now I just wanted an opinion on the designs in question to find if they would be suitable to ink, but "my friend" reassured me that he could do the tattoos no problem for a lot less than I could get them done at any tattoo parlour and to a high quality, so I left him the designs and the next day he called me to say he could fit me in.
I'd never been to this guys "studio" before, but as quickly I can describe it to you it was a living room with over spilling ashtrays and cats walking around on the floor. He told me he'd had to modify my designs a little, which I was unsure about as he'd told me they were perfect the day before. I lay down on the couch and he put the transfers on, unsuccessfully. Then wiped them off and tried again, they were still off line. The third time he managed to get the designs somewhere near where I wanted them.
I lay back on his couch while he finished his cig, and thought god I'm going to regret this, but at the same time I thought my designs were so simple there was no chance anyone could get them wrong, how wrong I was, I wasn't bothered at all by the tattooing itself, but a little more concerned over what my "artist" said once he had begun. "You know I've never done a small tattoo before" also followed up a few minutes later by "Uhm.. What am I doing now" there was black ink that he obviously could see through all over the design and when he actually stopped and did wipe this away, the transfer outline went with it too, so from what I could see/ tell he was working free hand without any guide at all.
After around an hour of him uhming and ahhing I was left sat on his couch with him putting his coat on telling me it was all over and he was off to a dentists appointment. I fell sick because I didn't want to look down at my stomach, not because of getting tattooed! I finally put my coat on paid him my £20 and left, running to the bus stop. I got home and couldn't bear to look, and when I did it was worse than I could have ever imagined.
There were mistakes everywhere, in fact he'd totally forgotten one of the ends of the bone on two sides, there was a U.F.L (Unidentified Flying Line) cascading off over one of the skull faces, double lining everywhere and the colouring on the heart was just a compete joke.
For a few days I kept the false hope up that it was just looking bad because it had just been done, but in reality I knew I'd disfigured myself for life. Luckily I met up with one of my close friends recently who works in a reputable studio for a man who's done some of the most amazing cover up work I've ever seen and she was able to book me in for a few weeks time after I've visited and decided with the artist what exactly is going to cover up my "disfigurement" as he calls it!
I wanted to tell my story as, I know many people now who've come to me and said "Yher, my friend did mine too and I had to have a cover up" if the people aren't licensed/ in a reputable studio you don't know what your going to end up with, no matter how good the original work looks like they show you, please ask to see some actual photos of work they've done on other people because although my bad tattoo's easy enough to cover up, some people could be stuck with a lot worse for a lot longer, in fact, forever.