Hi everyone,
I’ve been with the same tattoo artist for about 5 or 6 months at the moment. While he’s a lovely guy he does a few things which annoy me a little but I’m wondering if they are normal in the industry or not?
First problem: When I book a timeslot, I never get the actual time I book if it’s more than an hour. If I book at 2 hour slot, e.g. 3pm-5pm – I will arrive around 2:50 or 2:55 and sign in for my tattoo, but he will THEN start to trace the work onto the carbon paper and he almost always takes about 30-40 minutes to do this, resulting in me paying for 2 hours and only getting about 1 hour 20 minutes of actual tattooing… sometimes he finishes sometimes he doesn’t – I was just wondering if this was normal as my previous tattooists (two) were always ready to go the second I walked in
Second problem: Also relating to the time slot; this has only happened once but really irked me. I stupidly again, for the 3rd time, paid for a 2 hour slot, completely overestimating the amount of time the new piece would take. I came in on time and as usual he took about 30 minutes to trace what I’d given him 2 weeks before. He completed the work with about 35 minutes left to spare of the 2 hour slot, so I asked him if he could recolour a part of another piece I had done a few years ago. While he didn’t explicitly say ‘no I’m not going to be doing that’ he basically just umm’d and ahh’d and finished with ‘it’s probably better if you book a new appointment for it’ (like no shit, for you it is) – so again I had about an hour of tattooing and paid for another hour which absolutely nothing came from.
From now on of course I’m only booking an hour each time even if I think the piece will need more time than that. It just really annoys me that I’ve been going to him for quite a while and he’s still a bit of a dick with the timing stuff.
PS. if it makes a difference, I’ve only signed ONE consent form with him – this studio allows you to have as many tattoos as you want after you’ve signed one form – for my previous tattooists I had to sign a separate form every time.
Thanks for any info on this ! I’d love to hear from actual tattooist but also anyone who suffers this annoying problem as well!
+1.
Also, the artist is the one who should be estimating how long a piece is going to take, not the client.
Now as for running the meter while the tracing is done and so forth, that varies by artist. Some artists only charge you for the time the machine is actually running and others charge you for everything.
Hi
The artist I use will give an idea of how much time for each piece and I tend to pay for 3 hour slots or all in advance (he has done a lot of work on me and sometimes easier to balance my budget upfront so I know it is covered).
That said if there is any time spare at the end he will hand me the change or knock it off the next session. (Always my choice).
He also has the transfer ready so I get full ink time.
My advice is if you really like the artist’s work then you have to tell him about your concerns and that bluntly you feel short changed.
If you don’t want to do that then i would suggest you find a new artist there are enough out there.
Take care
Matthew
Doesn’t happen to me at all…My artist is ready a couple of days before hand with a preliminary drawing and when i show up for my appointment the stencil (if he is using one) is ready to go. He applies it and starts tattooing as soon as i walk in and fill out my forms. I would voice your concerns to him, if he’s a dick about it move on.
This is not how my artist operates either. Maybe its because he schedules me on days that he is not busy but we have never stated how long we would be sitting each time. I book a time to start and we just go until i say ok thats all i can take or have the money for this time. As far as what im paying for in an “hourly time” he “starts billing me” from the time he puts ink to skin till he stops. All prep work, drawing on me or anything else is just him getting ready.
Yeah man I would leave that artist. My guy estimated how long it would take and I just paid for the whole thing up front(by the way never do that it is really stupid) Now, He has put about 8 hours of work in to me which is about what I had paid for and I still have some left to go, but the only thing is now it is difficult to get him to do anything because he obviously doesnt feel like finishing the piece anymore, so… Long story short once i get the work done I wont be seeing him anymore and I have learned my lesson to only get tattooed by the top notch artists. Sorry for rambling, But if I were you I would never go back there again.
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