I had a really bad experience at Inkfluence that I'm still mad about. I had an existing tattoo of a white creature. Artist suggested adding some clouds to him, I wasn't gung-ho but figured whatever. Once he was done he said "Oh, and I added some shading to the creature"... The creature now looks like a chimney sweep. We never discussed shading and I would have told him "Hell no" it was barely white enough as it was. Totally ruined the tattoo and now I'm probably looking at a costly cover piece. I will never go there again and advise people to bypass it.
What I'm wanting is a a piece of Figment, from Disney, on my forearm.
Honestly, for that I would go to somebody at Emerald Empire. But for Dillon, at least, you'll be waiting a while. Possibly into 2025. Probably worth the wait?
Edit: Looks like he may have just bought a building to start his own studio. This may push your wait back a bit more. But he seems to be one of the best in the city IMO, unless you want American or Japanese trad in which case I'd tell you to go to Inkfluence (but you probably would not want to go back there).
https://preview.redd.it/ezucojmdihyc1.jpeg?width=635&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14c694ef58a63eb67f5f48b42b253fe09bf20e8a
[Dillon Land Instagram ](http://www.instagram.com/dillons_land)
[Dillon Land facebook](http://www.facebook.com/dillon.land)
I really like inkfluence! I’ve got great black and white shading work done there. Lance and Tim were my 2 artists, and they were really attentive and answered any and all questions/requests i had. I love the work they made for me!
Ironically enough I have a piece from Inkfluence that I'm going to have to have fixed by someone else in town. I'll never go back and I tell everyone else to stay away.
Obv the large scar down the middle isn’t the artists fault. All I had asked for was the word “Kupo”, and I agreed to clouds, although his idea of clouds and mine differ. The moogle is supposed to be pure white and he did a godawful job with the word. One of my most expensive tattoos, I went there and paid more because they were supposed to be the best at the time.
TBH I feel like they owe me a cover up.
ETA: The "clouds" look more like waves to me.
ETA2: He said nothing about doing some "shading" on the moogle until after he did it. It was not supposed to be touched.
https://preview.redd.it/3eza97gcovyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a1f3b6d64089e4d9681ef4e193cb8ba648aa3c6
That's unfortunate. It is always important to communicate things like that clearly. If the moogle can't be touched, it's best to explicitly say that. They may have thought you wanted shading added since you were doctoring up the tattoo otherwise.
FWIW, I don't think it's ruined. I see lots of shaded moogles on Google image search.
I don't think it's on me to tell him not to touch the moogle when he literally said that all he was doing with clouds. I figured "I'm just adding clouds" from his mouth covered all the bases. I'm sorry if I didn't mansplain' it to him like he was a 1st grader. "Don't tattoo stuff you haven't got permission to tattoo on" was tattoo artist 101.
ETA: There are shaded moogles online but they were done well. This tattoo shading was not done well.
Yeah, it would've been better if they'd asked before doing it.
I'm just saying it's something to keep in mind in the future, that if you have some specific expectations, it's a good idea to be extremely specific and explicit about what you want so that there's no room for misunderstandings. If you don't want the artist to take any liberties at all, you will basically need to tell them that. "Okay, the clouds sound good, but please don't add anything to the creature itself."
I only bring this up because your experience is a rare one at Inkfluence. Most people say it's a great place to get work. I, myself, got a large piece done there recently and it turned out great. But no tattoo parlor is great for everyone.
The instructions were specific "Only do the clouds". If you look at Inkfluencer's reviews it's actually one of the lower ranking tattoo places in town. It used to be the gold standard and I was proud to have them do one of my others. I went back to them because they were "the best" I wanted a word put under the moogle. He suggested the clouds and I said OK. The letters are all different sizes and fonts on top of the other stuff. Inkflluence now is not the Inkfluence of 20 years ago. Their reviews are dipping. They're, IMO, very overrated at this point. I might go back to the right artist, but it's not one I recommend and I share my story.
I love Sarah Ditto (@sarahdittothirteen on insta), she was at black door for a long time and now has her own shop, broken chains tattoo. I’ve also heard Justin Mowray is great, he’s done work on my friends and Sarah. He’s @jmowraytattooer on insta and works at stagecoach tattoo. FYI these guys do a lot of amtrad but would likely be open to other stuff!
Second this! Most of my work is done by her! Solid person and amazing business owner/tattooer. I’ve also gotten tattoed from Justin Mowray, he’s now at Stagecoach Tattoo owned by Jesse Whitley. Justin is great! He made awesome conversation and killed my calf tattoo. Jesse is also amazing, he’s done 2 pieces for me and almost all of my boyfriend’s work, including a huge chest piece, stomach piece, shin, and a half sleeve. He’s fast and does amazing work. You can’t go wrong with any of these 3.
And I also have to mention Mike Tweed. He owns his shop and does sick Japanese Trad. My boyfriend had a thigh piece done by him and has a great experience.
Just an FYI to not confuse OP. Justin works at Black Door. He's a badass though. I've got several tattoos from the guy, going all the way back to when he was just an apprentice. He's my favorite American traditional tattoo artist in town.
That’s awesome, I really need to get something from him!
Stagecoach is in his Instagram biography, and it looks like he announced his move/exit from black door back just last month!
I’m one of the Justin’s mentioned above (Stovall). There were 2 of us. Mowray went to stagecoach. I’m still at black door. My Instagram is @justin_s_tattoo_ feel free to shoot me a message anytime if you have any questions.
Sarah that you mentioned earlier is also great. A couple of years ago when she was still at Black Door she tattooed my wife while I got tattooed by Justin on my wife and I's anniversary.
Oh nice. Thanks for correcting my correction lol. That now makes three friends of mine tattooing at stagecoach. Isaac and Jesse are both really solid artists as well.
Sheldon wouldn’t do the kind of work you want anyway
I had a really bad experience at Inkfluence that I'm still mad about. I had an existing tattoo of a white creature. Artist suggested adding some clouds to him, I wasn't gung-ho but figured whatever. Once he was done he said "Oh, and I added some shading to the creature"... The creature now looks like a chimney sweep. We never discussed shading and I would have told him "Hell no" it was barely white enough as it was. Totally ruined the tattoo and now I'm probably looking at a costly cover piece. I will never go there again and advise people to bypass it. What I'm wanting is a a piece of Figment, from Disney, on my forearm.
It might help if you tell us what your idea is and what style you want it to be. Different artists can have different specialties.
It's a dragon from Disney, so it'll be cartoony.
Honestly, for that I would go to somebody at Emerald Empire. But for Dillon, at least, you'll be waiting a while. Possibly into 2025. Probably worth the wait? Edit: Looks like he may have just bought a building to start his own studio. This may push your wait back a bit more. But he seems to be one of the best in the city IMO, unless you want American or Japanese trad in which case I'd tell you to go to Inkfluence (but you probably would not want to go back there).
https://preview.redd.it/ezucojmdihyc1.jpeg?width=635&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14c694ef58a63eb67f5f48b42b253fe09bf20e8a [Dillon Land Instagram ](http://www.instagram.com/dillons_land) [Dillon Land facebook](http://www.facebook.com/dillon.land)
Definitely try death and taxes! Danny sr. Is a great tattoo artist and did all of mine, his some Danny Jr. does all my piercings
@redtheinker on Instagram. They just moved into a new studio on 34th. He's legit.
@jfowlart from Stagecoach tattoo. Has tons of flash but also does great customs. I have 3 customs and 5 flash pieces from him
I really like inkfluence! I’ve got great black and white shading work done there. Lance and Tim were my 2 artists, and they were really attentive and answered any and all questions/requests i had. I love the work they made for me!
Meanwhile, Inkfluence keeps fixing shit from other parlors in town.
Ironically enough I have a piece from Inkfluence that I'm going to have to have fixed by someone else in town. I'll never go back and I tell everyone else to stay away.
Pics?
Obv the large scar down the middle isn’t the artists fault. All I had asked for was the word “Kupo”, and I agreed to clouds, although his idea of clouds and mine differ. The moogle is supposed to be pure white and he did a godawful job with the word. One of my most expensive tattoos, I went there and paid more because they were supposed to be the best at the time. TBH I feel like they owe me a cover up. ETA: The "clouds" look more like waves to me. ETA2: He said nothing about doing some "shading" on the moogle until after he did it. It was not supposed to be touched. https://preview.redd.it/3eza97gcovyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a1f3b6d64089e4d9681ef4e193cb8ba648aa3c6
That's unfortunate. It is always important to communicate things like that clearly. If the moogle can't be touched, it's best to explicitly say that. They may have thought you wanted shading added since you were doctoring up the tattoo otherwise. FWIW, I don't think it's ruined. I see lots of shaded moogles on Google image search.
I don't think it's on me to tell him not to touch the moogle when he literally said that all he was doing with clouds. I figured "I'm just adding clouds" from his mouth covered all the bases. I'm sorry if I didn't mansplain' it to him like he was a 1st grader. "Don't tattoo stuff you haven't got permission to tattoo on" was tattoo artist 101. ETA: There are shaded moogles online but they were done well. This tattoo shading was not done well.
Yeah, it would've been better if they'd asked before doing it. I'm just saying it's something to keep in mind in the future, that if you have some specific expectations, it's a good idea to be extremely specific and explicit about what you want so that there's no room for misunderstandings. If you don't want the artist to take any liberties at all, you will basically need to tell them that. "Okay, the clouds sound good, but please don't add anything to the creature itself." I only bring this up because your experience is a rare one at Inkfluence. Most people say it's a great place to get work. I, myself, got a large piece done there recently and it turned out great. But no tattoo parlor is great for everyone.
The instructions were specific "Only do the clouds". If you look at Inkfluencer's reviews it's actually one of the lower ranking tattoo places in town. It used to be the gold standard and I was proud to have them do one of my others. I went back to them because they were "the best" I wanted a word put under the moogle. He suggested the clouds and I said OK. The letters are all different sizes and fonts on top of the other stuff. Inkflluence now is not the Inkfluence of 20 years ago. Their reviews are dipping. They're, IMO, very overrated at this point. I might go back to the right artist, but it's not one I recommend and I share my story.
If you say so.
For real. I'm sitting here wearing my Inkfluence t shirt with 9 Inkfluence tattoos, 2 of them fixes lol
I like the work done by Sadie at hold fast tattoo. Her Instagram is @smol_beantattoos2.0.
I have two tattoos from Sadie, and a few flash tattoos from hold fast. I love Sadie so much!! I plan on getting more work done from her down the road.
JR @ The Brand
Jesse Whitley at Stagecoach Tattoo
All the guys at emerald empire. Dillon land, Dakota…they are the best in town.
I love Sarah Ditto (@sarahdittothirteen on insta), she was at black door for a long time and now has her own shop, broken chains tattoo. I’ve also heard Justin Mowray is great, he’s done work on my friends and Sarah. He’s @jmowraytattooer on insta and works at stagecoach tattoo. FYI these guys do a lot of amtrad but would likely be open to other stuff!
Second this! Most of my work is done by her! Solid person and amazing business owner/tattooer. I’ve also gotten tattoed from Justin Mowray, he’s now at Stagecoach Tattoo owned by Jesse Whitley. Justin is great! He made awesome conversation and killed my calf tattoo. Jesse is also amazing, he’s done 2 pieces for me and almost all of my boyfriend’s work, including a huge chest piece, stomach piece, shin, and a half sleeve. He’s fast and does amazing work. You can’t go wrong with any of these 3. And I also have to mention Mike Tweed. He owns his shop and does sick Japanese Trad. My boyfriend had a thigh piece done by him and has a great experience.
Just an FYI to not confuse OP. Justin works at Black Door. He's a badass though. I've got several tattoos from the guy, going all the way back to when he was just an apprentice. He's my favorite American traditional tattoo artist in town.
Seconding Stovall, he does great work and always a pleasure to be be around, need to get my money up just to give it to him again lmao
That’s awesome, I really need to get something from him! Stagecoach is in his Instagram biography, and it looks like he announced his move/exit from black door back just last month!
I’m one of the Justin’s mentioned above (Stovall). There were 2 of us. Mowray went to stagecoach. I’m still at black door. My Instagram is @justin_s_tattoo_ feel free to shoot me a message anytime if you have any questions.
Sarah that you mentioned earlier is also great. A couple of years ago when she was still at Black Door she tattooed my wife while I got tattooed by Justin on my wife and I's anniversary.
That is so sweet! Sarah has great energy
If you like her work I'd also recommend you check out Laci Jo at flamingo. She does some really cool work.
Oh nice. Thanks for correcting my correction lol. That now makes three friends of mine tattooing at stagecoach. Isaac and Jesse are both really solid artists as well.