When Tattoos Fail

Bikeboo

Hi,
I'm quiet heavily tattooed, suffice to say, it's easier say my back and all limbs have at least one inking to date.
Last year I embarked on a half sleeve. It still isn't finished due to ill health and budget.
However, I'm what 'should' be one sitting away from completion. (I though the last sitting would cover it)
I'm not happy with the end product, there's ink leaking, one part is going to be tattooed for the third time!! My tattooist is well reputed, although after asking around, it seems he may be losing his touch. One person said ''what i brought in is not what he did''
There's questionable line work, two parts that do not reflect what I asked for and ink just not staying in. There is some great work too and I do get asked a lot who does my tattoos, for recommendations.
So, my issue is, how do I approach this with my tattooist. I just feel like he's taking the piss at this point and owes me a free sitting for all the re inking and fixing of work not done to a standard I'm happy with.
I thought I had gone in with very clear instructions of what I wanted, but I also allow his input too.
By my own admission I can come across as unclear at times, perhaps this is to do with my lack of knowledge on tattoo terms. That said, I trust my hairdresser and don't think I need industry terms to get the haircut I want. Hair will grow back....my skin will be inked for good.
For example, I think I now know that it's saturation I'm not happy with, he needs to put in more ink, for me to ask this, I feel like I'm telling him how to do his work. I don't want to p..ss him off. I've shown him loads of pictures of what i'm talking about but it's just not happening.
I will be broke if he doesn't get this right soon. I would consider getting the sleeve finished elsewhere, but I know most tattooist won't take on the remains of another tattooist.

So there you have it, if you made it to the end of that post, maybe you might have some insight.
Thanks.

unclebill98

I was/am in a similar situation.

Had a sleeve done inc onto the hand. Sleeve needed multiple touch ups and the hand was done 3 times, still not right. Last touch up session was meant to be for a few hours, next appointment walked in after 45 mins and I was out the door with only an hour done with no wrap up or cream, they had none left. Its absolutely heart breaking for me to look at parts of it but after 57hrs work I really should be done with it.

Parts of the arm will have issues with inking, elbow, edge of hands etc and blow outs do occur on the inner arm etc so it may not all be their fault.

Saying that, I've gone to another tattoo artist and after 1 session with the hand Id say I got 90% ink into the hand and thats 2 1/2 weeks ago and its healed up nicely, one more session on a small bit ad thats the hand sorted.

He will then be re-doing the arm on the sections I've not happy with. This was my only option. No point in arguing with the 1st lad he simply didn't care.

Other artist will take on the work if thats the road you pick but its generally a hush hush experience for cover ups giving the small community that there is here.

Anyhow, thats my experience.

Viva La Gloria

I can't really see how another artist wouldn't want to finish off a sleeve if you're that unhappy with the result so far. I would definitely be taking my business elsewhere - it's your skin, and to be quite honest, it's too important a matter to be 'settling' on if you're not 100% satisfied. That's the way I would look at it anyway, it's not like you can just 'return' the tattoo, this is permanent so you have a right to be pedantic about it!

I got a tattoo from a pretty reputable place and from a decent artist - but what should have taken him 2-3 hours took just over an hour. He had postponed the appointment until the following day, and only informed me when I arrived; I had to rearrange my whole work schedule to come in for it the next day. Even still he was an hour late starting so there was a bottleneck and the next appointment came in and he rushed through it. And the blowout was insane! I was so pissed off in hindsight, I went back to him for a touch up (I know that a lot of people think blowout is always the result of the artist but this isn't the case and I'm not necessarily blamimg him for that) but he was so unprofessional by turning up an hour late and rushing through it. I should have said something about it - I was probably more mad at myself for not doing anything at the time. So I just ended up going somewhere else to have them touch it up for a second time...I've never gone back to the original guy. I know he's done some great work for other people, but he's just not my cup of tea.