Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/26/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I originally reached out to the business because I had seen their work and wanted a big tattoo piece done professionally. They assigned me to a poor artist who completely botched my entire hip. I reached out to the owner who informed me she was a bad artist to begin with and I should've never went to her, which I wasn't aware of because when I messaged the business the artist's page was full of work completed by the owner (also, was untold of this until I went to get it fixed) I spent $650 on the tattoo originally, and sat through 6-7 hours of work during which the owner walked in serveral times and even helped the artist complete the original tattoo while proceeding to tell her what a great job she was doing. (the lines looked crooked, like a child had drawn them) When I reached out to the tattoo page to fix my tattoo originally, they assigned me to the same artist who proceeded to make the tattoo look even worse. Then, when I reached out again to have it fixed I was charged $200 by the owner who proceeded to not tell me anything he was doing, hit on his apprentices infront of me who he was teaching at the time, and was completely unprofessional. He shaded in parts of my tattoo that were originally fine and made them look like black blobs. I expressed to him I was upset with how it turned out and that I wished he had told me what he was doing, and he comtinued to claim he could fix it by adding white to the tattoo which I've reached out several times about and have had no response. This is unacceptable service. I now have a tattoo that I spent $850 on that I will have to spend thousands to get removed due to this business's lack of care for their customers. 

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2022

  Client should follow up with artist to settle issue to satisfaction.  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/29/2022

  The original artist has the original tattoo design, as the artist classified as an independent contractor during their time of occupancy within our establishment. This artist created the design on their **** and not one that is owned by our company, so it is impossible for the company to have documentation of the design that was made by the artist. Under this tax classification, the artist takes clients at their own will and discretion, on their own time, and they make their own prices. The client reached out to the company's ******** page, and the original artist, Carla, chose to schedule and service the client at their own discretion. The artists use our company social media pages as a marketing outlet to keep their schedules booked and interested clients from waiting out for months. This is very common in many tattoo shops amongst our area. The client was given the artists ********* handles to check out their work before they came in for their tattoo appointment, she was sent a confirmation message and proceeded to come in for the tattoo. Upon receiving the tattoo originally after the first session, the client expressed that they loved the tattoo, but just needed to fix a few areas. The client proceeded to see the original artist for a touch up and consented to this on paperwork. A few months afterwards, the client reached out to the manager to express distress about the original artists work. The original artist who is responsible for the work, no longer resided in our establishment for us to express concern to her for the work that was done on her end. Instead of attempting to locate the original artist and prolonging the situation with a possibility of the original artist not complying, the owner offered a rework session in hopes to make the client feel more at ease about what had happened. The client offered to pay for the rework session, in which the owner was compliant and scheduled her session. The owner normally charges around $500 starting to rework tattoos from other artists, but proceeded to discount her in hopes to resolve the situation. This payment also included a final session of white inks, in which the client and the owner unfortunately have yet to schedule. If the original artist was still at our establishment, she would have been made the one responsible to complete the work until the client was satisfied. However, she was unavailable at our establishment and the owner attempted to take responsibility in which he saw fit.  The owner looked at the original reference photos that were sent by the client initially on the company page and compared it to what she had received from the original artist, and set up his station and worked on the client for numerous hours without her expressing any type of concern. The client sat for 3 hours+ for this rework of the tattoo, in which the tattoo now looks like the original reference photos that were sent by the client to our business page, as this was the only reference the owner had. If the client had expressed concerned about not having the original design from the original artist, the owner would have advised her to not have the service done if she was not comfortable with the lack of the original design reference from the original artist. However, she proceeded to receive services for the rework session and signed consent forms for the service she received from the owner and did not express concern.  In that time, she was more than welcome to address her concerns about anything that was being "changed" or what type of reference he was using at the time she was being serviced, however she did not and proceeded to finish the service appointment to its entirety. The owner takes multiple breaks in between service appointments for the clients comfortability, in between these breaks the client walked around and looked in the mirrors, used the bathroom and was able to visibly see the tattoo in between each break to express any concern, she did not. These concerns were not addressed during the last service appointment, which appeared to be in April of this year. She stated her gratitude with a ******** post that thanked the Owner, for fixing her tattoo. I have a witness who had also seen this post, before she decided to delete it some time after. She stated her concerns about the darkness of the tattoo to the owner, and in which he stated that he would have her coming back in for the "whites" session that would need to be done separately so that the dimension within the tattoo upholds and is completed, which was also told to her upon finishing the service appointment with the owner in May. This is something that the owner does with many of his clients, so it is not uncommon for clients to not have a "finished" piece upon their first session. Tattoos can take multiple sessions to complete, especially while attempting to fix a design that is beneath it and contains scar tissue. She attempted to follow up in September by messaging him on ********, which he unfortunately had mislooked as he always gets messages from many clients. In the message, she stated that she was looking to follow up about when she could come in for the last session which she was fine with waiting a few more months out. Upon him not returning a message, she then proceeded to reach out to BBB for a response. In hopes to resolve the situation sooner, as the Owner was only under the impression she was just upset because she did not get a date for the final session, the Manager of the business attempted to reach out to schedule the last session. Upon messaging, the client was very upset and was not compliant with scheduling the final session. She insisted that the business refunded her, which our business does not refund customers as the time slots, labor and supplies have already been used and needs to be accounted for. The business also did not receive 100% profit for her services from the original artist, and therefore cannot account for 100% of the profits for the services received. This needs to be addressed with the original artist as they received commission from this service as a independent contractor. As for the previous payment, our business no longer uses ******* for payments received for services. The manager may have received the payment on ******* for the original service performed by the original artist, but the manager had reimbursed the artist in cash that same night for what the artist had claimed was the total price of the service. The client did not bring cash to pay directly or a card for the ****** card reader, so unfortunately the artist was not paid directly in front of the client for confirmation of their commission for the services performed. This was a mistake on our end, and since July 2022 our employees have been switched to a W2 payroll so that wages are tracked accordingly, and workers in our establishment can be held accountable as employees.  As for the nicotine, she could have blatanly stated during the time that she was not comfortable with having someone vape around them, he would have happily went into another room or outside. She did not express any concern about this, as this could have been resolved easily if communicated. The Owner stated that she even asked him if she could "hit" his vape, so this irrelevant comment is invalid.  The screenshots attached will show the clients demeanor, and that they were happy with the work that was done by the owner, until he unfortunately did not respond in a timely manner in September. As for now demanding a refund, this is something that could have been stated after the first consented session and brought to the original artists concern for reimbursement.  After a year later and consenting to 2 other sessions and signing consent paperwork for these services, a refund is not going to be issued to the client at this time when the work has been done and consented to.   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/05/2022

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 
  The business actually informed me that the artist was not an independent contractor at the time the original artist did the work. They recently switched over to that classification so the response the business has provided does not apply. Also, I never once contacted the artist directly, my communication was done through the shop's business page itself, for a tattoo business to consider their artists independent contractors the artist has to set their prices, schedule, provide supplies, and communicate directly with their clients themselves. The shops own supplies was used for my tattoo, the shops owner also worked on the original work using his own machine and ink, and the tattoo was done under his partial supervision. My issue is not just with the original work done by the artist as I have already previously stated. My issue is also with the retouch that was done by the owner to correct the work done by the original artist which was done in a highly unprofessional manner. The tattoo does not match my reference photos whatsoever which I have also provided. I expressed that I did not want ANY black or grey shading done on the roses, there was nothing I wanted fixed with the roses on my tattoo, and I was happy with that aspect of the original tattoo just for it to be ruined without my knowledge. I was not informed of more than half of the changes made to my tattoo. I have expressed that to the owner and his fiancé as well. The face of the dragon that was used in the original stencil isn't even the same as you can clearly see in the photos I have provided.  My issue is that I spent $850 on a tattoo that I am now getting removed because of how unhappy I am with the results that were all due to the shop owner's negligence. He walked in at several points during the original artist's work to "help" her and even worked on the original tattoo himself that day. If the original artist was the only one who worked on it on the first day I came in to get the work done, I wouldn't have an issue but the owner worked on it as well.  My other issue is the shop's lack of professionalism. It is illegal in New York State to use nicotine devices indoors at public places because it is a fire and saftety hazard, and I don't appreciate their lack of sympathy for their customers when work is done incorrectly by them and their artists.   As per their message, I have frequently expressed my feelings towards the tattoo and their attempts to "fix" my issue have only made it worse. I am very displeased with this unacceptable service.  
  
  Regards,  
  
  ***** *****