Mikey Ralph

poppies have to be one of my favorite flowers to tattoo I think these came out awesome

Ok funny story about this tattoo it only took two sittings but I get a text from who I think is the client and he’s like “hey I know we aren’t done yet but I’ve noticed there are a bunch of lines that aren’t connected and are jumping in spots and I know we have shading to do and stuff but I would like to address the problem areas first” I had just spent 5 or 6 hours with him and it seemed like a 180 from the person that left from that first appointment, I thought about explaining what was going on and the process of using water and grey lines to commit the stencil to the skin but I chose to respond “relax it’s not finished your tattoo will be perfect when we are finished” to which he only responded by liking my text so I kept thinking about how I would kindly address his concerns in person to put him at ease before we started his second sitting so I just jump right into my spiel explaining how I tattoo when he shows up and he immediately bows his head in shame and he’s like yeah I know I’m sorry it wasn’t me who sent that text and I only realized it was even sent at all to you right before I got here because I was going to let you know I was on my way… turns out his gf sent the text while he was in the bathroom then buried it by sending a couple other texts afterwards! He’s a genuinely nice guy and I hope he can laugh about it now but at the time I went from being on the defensive to almost being embarrassed for him in a split second. We have a follow up sitting in early May just to make sure I keep my word to his girlfriend lol but I’m already happy with the way it’s turned out and I’m guessing the lack of texts criticizing the results means that she’s happy with them too

The end

Doing cover ups on tattoos where the black is super heavy is tricky ideally there would’ve been some laser lightening of the original tattoo pre cover up but the laser removal industry in the DMV has become a racket charging a fortune and not seeing any difference in the tattoo til your 8th or 9th visit is crazy especially knowing you could get better results in one sitting if they weren’t trying to milk you for every penny they can possibly get. S**t I’m ranting anyway without the laser It’s inevitable there’s going to be heavy black in places it shouldn’t really be is all I’m saying. And I think it came out pretty cool. Ok. Bye.