I have been tattooed eight times, the most recently at Tribe.  \n\nI chose Tribe and this particular artist on a recommendation from a friend, as the only parlours I was familiar with were back in California.  \nI had a few sessions with the artist, describing what I wanted and having him send me a way so he could think and draw.  Every time I've been tattooed in the past I was able to just walk in, work with an artist and get tattooed on the same day, so I was pleased with what seemed like the extra care and attention taken by this artist.   \n\nThe day came for my tattoo and he explained that the drawing was a bit rough (strange because he had apparently been working on it for weeks) but he completely understood what I wanted (shading, rather than clearly defined lines) and how I wanted the colours to come out.  He mixed colours and I selected them based on how they looked on my skin, which he told me was a true representation of how it would look in the tattoo.  This was the first time I'd gotten colour so naturally I trusted this would be the case.\n\nI also trusted the roughness of the sketch and that he understood exactly what I wanted, because he showed me an example.  I had never had any occasion not to trust the artistic license of a tattoist.  That was clearly my mistake.  I'd become too trusting with people who were permanently etching images into my skin because they'd all been very talented.  \n\nMy tattoo did not come out as planned or explained.  The colours are not what I was shown and the image is not the shading we discussed.  That was the last time I got a tattoo.  I've been talking about getting it fixed ever since (almost three years) but don't know exactly how I could fix it so I'm holding off.\n\nI don't hate it and I don't really blame the artist, per se.  But, I don't love it, and I love every other tattoo I have.  At the end of the day we clearly misunderstood eachother and it was a valuable lesson to learn.  It's just a shame that I had to learn it when I was getting the biggest tattoo I've ever gotten.