maboo

Update: I am scheduled for an all day appt tomorrow, and the guy doesn't even have a design done yet. So I am contacting the owner today, and going to ask him for a cash refund on the $300 something dollars, or if he wants to take over the project. I am done with the original artist.

el twe, I am. He did mention "Ill knock a few dollars off cause of all the breaks". So he did seem aware of the issue before I said something. Maybe he had something personal going on, and was having a real hard time with it. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the situation, since his apology seemed very legit. He even said in the email that he did bring it up to the shop owner so everyone knows the situation. I wouldn't go public (Yelp, Facebook Reviews, etc) until I at least gave them the opportunity to correct it. That would probably guarantee that I wouldn't get a credit/money back! I do understand that it was a bad experience with that one artist, and not all artist at that shop are that way, and would have just considered changing artist had the manager be willing to work with me.

Just heard back from the guy, and he admitted to screwed up the time,and credited my account for $220. He apologized profusely.

This shoulder tat was extremely painful. I have 50% of my back tattooed (a different artist) and it didn't come close to how bad parts of this tattoo hurt. When he was finally done, rung up the tally, I thought it was a bit high, but hit the "customary" 15% and left. It wasn't until I was home and started to really think, that it bothered me. Also, I think it was so painful because how slow he was making progress and touching back areas he hit over an hour ago. I am not sure I want to keep him. I may go to the owner, and ask him if he wants to design and finish the sleeve.

It was 645PM when we stopped, maybe he thought it was 845PM...

He made the comment "I took some time off to make up for all the breaks". But I don't see where... So he does know that he took excessive breaks.

If you take the $125/hr x 5.75 hours is $718.75. So yes, he charged for his lunch break too.

Looks like a little infection that is healing up. It may pull some color out, and will probably need a touch up.

Hey guys (and gals)! I have several back tattoos and started a tattoo sleeve, and have some questions around the "By the hour". I met the artist about 3 weeks ago to go over a sleeve design, and we set an appointment time. I paid $125 (one hour time) for him to design the tattoo which would be credited at the end balance. My appt was at 1PM, and I showed up 15 minutes early. The artist was already there so he was on time too. The artist took about an hour to "prepare his station" and make the purple template for the shoulder piece. The tattoo process started about 2PM, and within 20 minutes he starts asking other artist about lunch. Lunch was ordered, and by 3PM he stopped for 30 minutes to eat lunch, and we got back to the session at ~3:30. Which after he took ~15 minute break every 45 minutes to go smoke. we wrapped up with the shoulder around 645PM. My question, is it typical for an artist to take an hour to prep his station? and the client pays for this time? Also breaks every 45 minutes for 15 minutes and a 30 minute lunch is client billable too? His hourly rate is $125, and I was charged $705 for the session, I did leave an additional 15% tip. Total time was 1PM-6:45pm (5.75 hours) If you take out the excessive? prep time, the 30 minute lunch, and at least a hour for smoke breaks, I only see a max of 4 hours of actual work time. 4 hours @ $125 is $500. I feel I was overcharged by $200 at least. I do like his work, and want to continue with him, but don't feel I should be paying for all his smoke breaks and what I feel is excessive prep time. How should I handle this? TIA for any help!