Note: This most specifically relates to my experience with the tattoo artist Mike. Others may have different experiences with different artists. First, I am pretty tattooed. I have been to many differ... Read More
Note: This most specifically relates to my experience with the tattoo artist Mike. Others may have different experiences with different artists. First, I am pretty tattooed. I have been to many different artists over a 20 year period. Some were great, some not, some customer focused, some very difficult. So, I would consider myself a solid judge of what should be a good experience. I would not say my experience here was horrendous, but I wouldn't come back and wouldn't personally recommend it to anyone else. From a shop perspective, I will say that the art up is pretty cool and has a nice old school feeling. But, one thing I will say about the shop is that it is very open and exposed. So, for someone getting a tattoo in a delicate area or someone who likes privacy at all will NOT get it here. I personally prefer a little more privacy as I am sitting there shirtless than for every person walking by to know my business. There was a woman laying down quite exposed getting her lower back tattooed as well and I was sort of empathizing for her as well. Again, personal preference, but I like some discreetness personally. It is in a little strip mall complex so there is a decent amount of random foot traffic to the restaurants and shops there. I started following the shop and the artist Mike Hudgins on Instagram so I could see some of their work. I messaged Mike and said I'd like to come in and meet him. He told me he was working Friday from 12-7 or something. I purposely worked from home to come in in the afternoon only to be told he wasn't there, he had personal errands. They made a consultation appointment for me on Sunday. Ok, no huge deal, but not the best start. Maybe he could have recommended a consultation appt originally?On Sunday, I show up for the consultation appt to meet Mike. We literally spent about 3-5 minutes chatting. I really want to build out a larger chest piece and want to be sure we are aligned. I wanted to start with two doves, but in a very specific style. He was very dismissive like "yep got it" and "I have to go finish up a drawing for my next appt". I was like "but do you understand what I'm looking for?" and I got a very dismissive "yep" with a request for a deposit. I was like "so for future plans..." and he says "well, let's just start with the doves." "ummmm ok." I am not at all confident but hoping when I go back in 2 weeks he has something interesting kicked off. On appointment day, I show up to find that he basically just printed off some dove clipart from a Google image search. I say "this is not what I had in mind. I explained the style of dove that I wanted." He says "well I haven't seen it like that before" and literally goes to the computer to do another Google image search. I'm thinking "right, but you are an artist, don't you draw tattoos as well? Or only use Google image search?" I am close to walking out the door, screw my deposit. But, I say let me see them, and hold them up. So, I do that. They look ok. I say lets get it done. I tell him I really don't want them too heavily shaded, they're doves so they should be light. "Yep, got it." "ummm ok."At this point I am laying there and very nervous but trying to talk to him and the other people there. We get along ok so I'm hopeful this will turn out alright. There were a couple things which were bothersome. First, it was only a couple hour tattoo, do you really need a smoke break in the middle?Second, I'm sorry, but when an artist is tattooing something PERMANENT on my body, perhaps they could be left alone? Anytime someone called or came in with questions, the shop manager woman would come to Mike to ask him a question. Maybe we could ask the 18 year old kid coming in asking the typical walk in "how much is a tattoo?" question to come back later or someone else could handle the answer? It is a huge pet peeve of mine as this is my time and my body they are permanently marking. Finally the tattoo is all done. It is very dark (remember when I asked for it to be light?). He even tries to assure me it will lighten up once it settles in. Yeah, sure. It is a little oddly aligned the way he drew in the olive branches. I am not super stoked but think it is ok. Later I noticed there is a lot of ink bleeding outside of the lines, but I don't totally blame the artist on that. Sometimes it can happen and it was not from a blowout.They ask for a follow up appt to do more work as I want to build out my chest and I want to talk about what to do next, he says "well come back for an appt and we can freehand some stuff." I make the appt but later decide to cancel it because I didn't want to work with him again. I call to cancel saying I had other obligations and was told "Mike will give you a call" with a bit of an attitude. That never happened and that's perfectly fine. I wish the shop good luck and no ill will, but I will take my business elsewhere and felt obligated to share my experience. Read Less