I was originally very excited to get a piece done by an artist whom I will not name from this shop. It took forever to reach this artist. I filled out a form on the Loveless Tattoo website for a consultation, and waited quite a while before hearing back from the artist's assistant via email. This assistant was hard to reach, and struggled to ever get the artist to contact me directly. I was planning on driving up from 8 hours away from the US. I gave the artist plenty of freedom to design something they wanted, as I simply wanted something nice-looking to appreciate. This should be a blessing for an artist with such talent. They were uncomfortable with this freedom, but during a video chat wrote me down for a future date (or so I thought) and told me to come up with more of a loose idea first and get back to them after thinking about it some more. I almost immediately got back with a concept, and for the next month heard almost nothing other than a couple of vague questions. The week prior to the appointment I tried anxiously to contact them to see if the appointment was even happening. They called me 3 nights before I was planning on arriving, and said they had already booked someone else for the same day, and claimed they had no record of confirming my date. I also had "never paid a deposit" that was never asked for. I received no remorse for the horrible lack of communication, and for that I chose to back out altogether. I proceeded to tell the artist why I was upset with the situation and was countered with several unacceptable excuses, each one contradicting the last. This is no way to run a business. Communication is everything and it is unbelievable that the blame was shifted on me for simply trying to get ahold of them. Glad I discovered all of this unprofessionalism before having them permanently put something on my body. I will also add that I was immediately blocked from this user's instagram, which seems entirely immature.
Update: I understand it is not directly the shop's fault for my experience, and I feel bad that my negative review effects the shop and the other resident artists there. That being said, the shop is responsible for picking and choosing who works out of it, and all artists should be held to high standards of professionalism, not simply just artistic talent. Someone who cannot manage their own schedule, especially even with the help from an assistant, should not have the privileges of working in such a place.