It really pains me to write this review, but it would be irresponsible of me not to share my experience. I came here for my first tattoo. My idea was very simple, but I actually spent a lot of time looking through the portfolios of many different artists. I just wanted two straight lines like old fashioned stocking seams, with a bat at the top instead of a bow.
My criteria was just finding someone whose overall artistic style I like, and who has clean line work. That's how I decided on Katie Gray. It was a bonus to be supporting a female tattoo artist.
Since it's a tattoo that would be going behind me, I brought two friends to help me ensure that the placement was centered. That was the full extent of them participating in the session. This tattoo isn't one that I can spot out the placement myself just from looking in a mirror. I know it's frowned upon to bring guests when you're getting a tattoo, but I only had one friend sit with me while the other stayed out of the way in the waiting area. The shop was empty that day. We were respectful and quiet. We didn't even chat because we all felt so unwelcome.
During the stencil design and placement, I didn't feel like she really listened to me. I could tell she just wanted to rush through it and get it over with. I should have listened to my gut that it was a bad idea, but I really thought that she'd do a decent job even if she didn't like the tattoo. I already paid the deposit and I was in the shop, so I stuck it out.
The placement took several tries to get right, and we could all tell that it was really starting to annoy Katie. You could just feel the tension in the air. A tattoo is something permanent that goes on your body, so you have every right to be critical of placement. She was very impatient. She had every opportunity to refuse to do it, but she didn't. She kept my deposit and continued with the session. If she had a bad attitude but did a good job with the tattoo, I'd keep my mouth shut and let it slide. However, I kind of get the feeling she took out her frustration on my skin and dug the tattoo machine in extra hard just because she was annoyed with me.
We finished the tattoo in silence, which is fine with me. It hurt really really bad though, way more than what it should have. I actually have a really high pain tolerance. Don't get me wrong. It's a bunch of needles scratching you, so I was definitely expecting it to hurt. Since it was my first tattoo, I just thought it was normal and I pushed through. You know the talk of endorphins kicking in after the initial rush of pain? This did not happen. I felt pain for the whole hour that I was getting tattooed. When it was done, I was very relieved. She didn't clean me up very well. My skin was really inky but I had no prior experience to compare it to.
I paid for my tattoo in cash, thanked her, and left a tip.
The healing was an absolute nightmare. It hurt so bad that I couldn't even walk without my legs wanting to give out from under me. This pain persisted for 2 weeks. Fortunately, I work from home most of the time so I was able to let my legs rest. By week 3, the skin surrounding the tattoos was still very red and irritated. It wasn't infected though, and I followed the aftercare to a T. I really babied the tattoos, especially since I was in constant pain.
When the tattoo was finally starting to show more healing, it was very obvious that the tattoo was botched. The line on one leg showed a lot of spots where there are blowouts. There was also some blowout on the other leg, but not as severe. If you don't know what a blowout is, that is when the ink gets blurred and it bleeds into the surrounding tissue, causing the line to look fuzzy and uneven. This happens when your tattoo artist is too heavy handed and the ink goes into the skin too deep. The design portion was also asymmetrical.
My tattoo is healed, but it definitely did not heal well. Not only are the lines uneven and blown out, my skin also built up scar tissue due to the heavy hand of my tattoo artist. The upper thighs healed fine, but the tattoo on the lower legs are permanently raised. You can feel the tattoo if you run your fingers over the skin.
I've since then gone to another tattoo shop and I got a tattoo on my inner bicep, in a 3 hr session. That's supposed to be a sensitive area but I truly felt very little pain. The healing also went really well and was virtually pain free, unlike my first tattoo. Now that I have a baseline experience to compare One Shot to, I realize everything that went wrong. The new tattoo artist I saw looked at a photo from when my tattoo was healing, and he could tell from the redness alone how much it must have hurt. He said that the artist "must have really dug in deep." He has fixed my tattoo but my experience at One Shot was awful. It doesn't look like what I originally wanted but we had to work with the mess I already had. I can't in good conscience recommend this shop or Katie Gray. read more