The ONLY reason this place is getting a star is because of Jimbo!!
The months-long saga began back in early May 2022. I and 2 friends wanted to get mostly matching friend tattoos. We had heard nice things about Black Raven Studio and loved that it was woman-owned and wanted to support them.
After we had looked at the artist's work we decided that Sappy (Alison) would likely be the best fit for our design. We reached out and shared our idea and talked about potential dates, the length of time the tattoos would take, and the cost of the tattoos. Sappy told us that the length of time and cost would depend on where the tattoo was and how well we sat. Understandable, so we told her specifics (size, location, etc.) She was still unable to provide us with a price and instead asked us our budget, which she NEVER confirmed was acceptable or not.
Mind you - this conversation is happening over weeks as Sappy would sometimes take DAYS to respond even after reading messages. Once we waited an entire week for a response. During this time one person dropped out so we switched up our designs and gave updated specifics (size, location, etc.) and she still would not give us an estimate for price or time.
We finally picked out a date with Sappy as she had given us a few to choose from and we expressed our interest and picked a block of time. My friend then put down our deposit and we heard nothing from Sappy or anyone at the shop. My friend then texted Sappy and said she put the deposit down and just wanted to confirm it was received. Sappy's response to the entire situation was so unprofessional and rude. She told us that we shouldn't have put the money down since she didn't know when we were getting tattooed (we have texts that discuss the date), and what we were getting tattooed (again, we have texts discussing the designs, size, placement, etc.). Then she told us that date was no longer available due to an event. Why would you not text someone you've been discussing a particular date with to let them know it's no longer available...? Mind you this happened over the course of a few days, where she told us the date was available, we expressed interest in the date and told her we'd like it, then put the deposit down.
After that, she said normally she'd make someone repay the deposit since there was no agreement on the date, even though we had discussed it and told her we were interested in that date and that time. At this, we were both pretty upset, but Sappy did agree to use our already submitted deposit and find another date and told us she would send us her schedule...about a week later we finally got it and picked a date and got it set up with her.
The day before my friend texts Sappy to confirm we're still on and all set. Sappy confirms but does mention she has a client before us that is getting a sleeve and she might go a bit over. Shit happens sometimes things take longer not a huge deal.
Then TWO HOURS before our appointment my friend got a text from Sappy saying the person that was getting the sleeve was only supposed to do line work, but he wanted full color done. Instead of Sappy telling her client that she had other appointments she texted us and asked if we would mind being tattooed by someone else at the shop and told us the sleeve guy now wanted it colored. Again, we had this appointment scheduled for over a month. Nowhere in her text message did she say anything like, if you're not comfortable going with someone else we'll figure something out.
She never came out to us when we got there to say hello, sorry, etc. We saw her once and she completely ignored us. Also, she posted a vid of the sleeve that night...all line work NO color.
We did end up seeing Jimbo. He was really funny and created a nice atmosphere. My only real complaint about him was he didn't quote us for the tatts just asked what Alison quoted us, which if you remember, she only asked about our budgets and never gave us a quote, so that's what we gave him and he went somewhere in the middle. Neither of our tattoos were very detailed or complicated and both took just under an hour there's no reason he shouldn't have taken that into consideration after finishing. The bandage skin that goes over the tattoos was also not placed correctly for either of us causing one to leak and one to bubble up and peel after only a day and we were told to leave them on for 5 days.
I would NOT recommend this place! Run the other way! read more
