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Girl "falls asleep" at tattoist, comes home with 56 tattoos

Abstract said:
Covering up her own mistake by giving the public the impression that this tattoo artist is unethical and not trustworthy, has potentially cost him a lot of lost revenue, possibly his job, and may lead to this guy getting (even more) crap from people who see him on the street. People were probably already a bit scared of him before, but now he's a guy with a lot of tattoos and piercings, AND he's a monster who tattoos people's faces while they sleep. Just wonderful.
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very good point, it might actually warrant a countersuit.
i've read a long letter from the artist on another website in which he explains (in english ad french) in detail what happened, supported by a witness and by police reports (in flemish, and so much for the "language barrier").

the story is totally bs, but i think eventually he may benefit from the publicity, especially if it will come out, (as i am sure it will, i have seen zero comments in her support), that she just tried to scam him.

i totally believe his side of the story, but that said, i think it was a bit unethical on his side to go ahead with that tattoo on a 18 yrs old who has zero tattoos before. In the case of large and highly visible tattoos on young kids i think the artist should show some restraint, and maybe just send her out with the temporary stenciled drawings for a day, to see if they want to go ahead with it. And I would most definitively take a picture of the stencils and get the written consent to go ahead, especially with facial/hands tattoos.
 
I'm not sure of the specifics, but it is illegal to tattoo your face in some US states, and on the pads of the fingers.;)

I know I could fall asleep getting tattooed, but not on the face.
 
AmbitiousLemon said:
Why would anyone bother getting a tattoo that is hidden away so no one else ever sees it?
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Because a tattoo is meant to be symbolic to the person it is attached to. If you get it just to flaunt it, your doing it for the wrong reasons.

GSMiller said:
Why would anyone want a tat on their face anyway?!
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Because on some people, it looks really nice. (Kat Von D.) However, some people do it to change the way people perseve them. They are generally making a statement about society. Some do it really poorly. (Lil Wayne.)
 
My daughter's youth leader at church had a beautiful arm cuff of stars. Because of pressure by "religious" standards, she had them removed. The doctor totally screwed up her arm, and it looks really disgusting. Now THAT was doing something for the wrong reasons. (She's totally against tattooing now, but my daughter will get her first tattoo on her 18th birthday in September.:p)
 
Sounds to me like someone needs to install cameras in their shop. Protection for everyone. As others have said her story is extremely far fetched, but I do find it odd that he is willing to help pay for the removal. Most businesses are not worried about repeat business or a good reference from someone who is lying about their business ethics. :confused:
 
iBlue said:
Who is to say what the right or wrong reasons are for another person?
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Alright, in my opinion, its for the wrong reasons. Every tattoo should have a meaning. If people see it, cool. If they like it, cool. But I dont think you should get a tattoo for what other people think about it.
 
I'll jump in and say that I've got 5 tattoos and counting, and I have managed to drift off during every single one of them except for one that went directly over my sternum. The other locations are my calf, base of spine, upper arm and lower arm. It actually has nothing to do with tolerating pain - after a while there are significant enough endorphins in your blood stream that the pain actually subsides (for me, this is about 20 minutes in to the tattoo) and simply becomes vibration. For 1-3 hour jobs, it actually gets a little boring, since you're usually in a position where it's difficult to read or watch TV, the artist is focusing on your piece and is therefore not terribly conversant, and the background noise of the studio and the machines turns in to white noise - so, I drift off. It's entirely possible.

That said, as others have pointed out, there are some seriously questionable aspects on both sides of this story:

* A lot of tattoo artists I know simply refuse to do tattoos on the neck or face precisely because they don't want to wind up in a situation like this.

* Any tattoo artist worth their ethical salt would have seriously questioned the placement of facial tattoos as a first-time tattoo on anyone, let alone someone so young (even if 18 is considered the age of consent).

* There's absolutely no way any ethical tattoo artist would work on someone under the influence, nor would any ethical tattoo artist ever work beyond the scope of the agreed upon job. Therefore, if she was under the influence, some of the blame for this goes to the artist, and if he did more than she requested, all of the blame goes to him.

* That said, what sounds like actually happened is she sought out an artist who specializes in facial work, asked for a job that decorated her face with stars, but didn't provide significant guidance as to the quantity or placement, and then was immediately unhappy with the work. In this case, I'd still put part of the blame on the artist for not better educating her as to the consequences of her choice - facial/neck tattoos, no matter how tasteful, are still much more stigmatized than tattoos elsewhere.
 
If I ever got a tattoo I'd get it on the bottom of my foot because the skin is so thick that the ink wears away after a while. :D


I have no problem with tattoos (a lot of people I know have some really neat ones), they're just not for me.
 
Someone giving me a tattoo one time told me a story about turning down a request. The guy wanted the word F*CK YOU in bold Helvetica across his entire forehead. Shaved head, probable gang member I was told. He refused but later heard that he did find someone to do it.

A few months later I was at a local amusement park waiting in line and a guy with a shaved head, fairly menacing looking walked up and there on his forehead was F*CK YOU in two inch letters on his forehead. Was startling. I felt sad for him and his life experiences.

On the other stuff, I don't think a tattoo has to be some long, drawn out, important, life changing connection. If you like the art, if it means something to YOU...so be it. Sometimes I find the "I got this cause my grandpa's greatest love was collecting coffee beans and he loved birds and he was in the navy and I love the ocean tattoos to be illish.
 
Little update on this story.
I live in the town where this story happened (Kortrijk, although most british newspapers use the French name Courtrai, and the BBC even turned it into a brand new name "Cortro", also the girl doesn't speak french but dutch, since it's a flemish town, not that it matters but it shows that almost no reporter bothers to check the information they get anymore... :s)

Anyway, the girl now claims that she must have fainted rather than falling asleep. Other tattoo artists say this is possible because the tattoo went way too deep (2 cm deep on her forehead rather than the usual 3 mm or so) but most people still think she's making it up and that she agreed with the whole thing and only tried to back out when her dad and boyfriend saw it.

She's quite the hype in Belgium for the moment, many people are drawing stars on their faces with magic markers and walking around town like that :)
 
lamadude said:
Little update on this story.
I live in the town where this story happened (Kortrijk, although most british newspapers use the French name Courtrai, and the BBC even turned it into a brand new name "Cortro", also the girl doesn't speak french but dutch, since it's a flemish town, not that it matters but it shows that almost no reporter bothers to check the information they get anymore... :s)

Anyway, the girl now claims that she must have fainted rather than falling asleep. Other tattoo artists say this is possible because the tattoo went way too deep (2 cm deep on her forehead rather than the usual 3 mm or so) but most people still think she's making it up and that she agreed with the whole thing and only tried to back out when her dad and boyfriend saw it.

She's quite the hype in Belgium for the moment, many people are drawing stars on their faces with magic markers and walking around town like that :)
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Thanks for the update (and that's funny about people magic markering up their faces) but there is no possible way it went 2cm deep. That would be into her skull.
 
She looks like low income trailer trash. Who cares?
Like really if you are stupid enough to get tats on your face then obviously you are dumb enough to cook up some BS about falling asleep. Like come on I flipped better lies than that when I was four.
 
arkitect said:
He stuck the needle how deep into her face?

2cm… 20mm?

Jeeeezus, that must have hurt. A lot.

:eek::eek:
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I couldn't believe it either, that's what has been reported though, could be the media exagerating again, even though flemish media isn't quite as out to shock people as the british tabloids.

Many different hospitals in the region here have already offered to remove the tattoos for free, which would normally be a very expensive procedure. But apparantly you can't completely remove it, it will always remain slightly visible.
 
bartelby said:
But not just on appearance.
:p
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If you want to stick to this point, having ignored my apology... I will defend myself, by noting that I judged him by his appearance, on his attitude towards appearances. One should not judge a book by its cover, but it seems fairly reasonable to me that one judge a publisher's attitudes towards designing book covers by the book's cover. :p
 
lamadude said:
Little update on this story.
I live in the town where this story happened (Kortrijk, although most british newspapers use the French name Courtrai, and the BBC even turned it into a brand new name "Cortro", also the girl doesn't speak french but dutch, since it's a flemish town, not that it matters but it shows that almost no reporter bothers to check the information they get anymore... :s)

Anyway, the girl now claims that she must have fainted rather than falling asleep. Other tattoo artists say this is possible because the tattoo went way too deep (2 cm deep on her forehead rather than the usual 3 mm or so) but most people still think she's making it up and that she agreed with the whole thing and only tried to back out when her dad and boyfriend saw it.

She's quite the hype in Belgium for the moment, many people are drawing stars on their faces with magic markers and walking around town like that :)
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the power of macrumors: someone local from everywhere :)
anyways, you (or the papers) have your numbers wrong, and not by little.
i wouldn't argue that the girl in question is not a bit thick-headed (;)), but 2 cm into the forehead would be basically brain surgery and you'd need a drill (and the ink would not even show on the outside :)). Even 3mm is way too deep.
maybe you/they meant 2 mm instead of the usual .3 mm?

anyway, other than the ethical aspect mentioned above, for which i can see the tattooist sharing some responsibility, i think she just making up stuff as she goes in a vain attempt to save face (;))
 
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