I really took the time to think this review after getting some work done at evil genius by Donavan. What brought me to him was clearly his ability to tattoo. He has done some very great tattoos. Clearly very talented.
I had went there for a cover up, my exciting tattoo was 2.5inches by 4inches. It had greys, black, blue... I knew covering it up would of been hard. Donavan said not to worry because he was very good at cover ups. My replacement tattoo was going to be a winged man breaking free from chains. I didn’t want anything too big, maximum from the shoulder to my elbow, kinda like a half sleeve. He said not a problem and we booked a date to get started. (He never talked about a price at this point) I should of asked for a estimate.
The day of my appointment we got everything ready. Everything is super clean and professional. However, to my surprise he didn’t have anything sketched out for me... he simply had some google image photos of random angels and so on. I got worried but trusted him since a lot of his work was amazing stuff. He began with sketching my skin with a black marker and then started tattooing in different areas. He said the tattoo might be a little bigger because of the wings would be spreading out.
Once the tattooing started I felt like he was going pretty far in the back area, close to the spine.. the damn thing went from my mid back to my shoulder... even his coworker walked in at some point and said oh.. that’s a big wing... The other part of the tattoo was an area of dark black shading along the armpit and down the tricep. The third and last tattooed area was basically just black over my old tattoo with white lines that he said was going to be rain. (Not my idea of a good cover up) I told him the tattoo was too big, my max was a half sleeve. He said don’t worry it’ll be sick. So I said ok since the tattoo was already there... On my way out I paid him around $600 and asked him how much will this tattoo be? He said over $7000!!
I got home and kept looking at it. The other wing was going to be completly along my clavical and my chest. I wanted a half sleeve..not a back chest and half sleeve.
I feel like he didn’t put the work in to plan out what I wanted. Instead he followed what he thought would look good. I feel like doing a larger piece on me would bring him more money. But from what I saw he seemed to be busy? So I don’t get it. I wish he would of at least sketched something out for me... even more so with a $7000 tattoo.
I went to 3 other tattoo shops in town to figure out my options. 2 shops told me that they fixed peices that Donavan started. Those clients had similar experences to mine. Meaning he free hands it and goes with it without having something sketched out. This is why those clients weren’t happy and ended up going elsewhere. This freehand thing might work for some but it’s hit and miss in my opinion.
Currently I’m going on my 4th laser removal to fade some of it out to be able to get another tattoo done. I’m really hoping that we can completly get rid of the back wing by next year. For the other areas I’m lookong at over a year before I MIGHT be able to cover it up. Now I have this weird looking tattoo that I’m embarrassed of. Not a great experience, plus I had to pay for it...