Liquid Amber Tattoo & Art Collective — Attraction in Vancouver

An uncomfortable tattoo experience and I’m not talking about the needles.

My artist was Angel and he got the face wrong on my tattoo of vi off arcane so I mentioned it to him asking if he could change the face to the drawing and he told me that HE likes it multiple times and that he wants his artistry to show as well. The face is so beautiful so I didn’t want it changed like he was trying to do. Despite my concerns he told me it looks good so he asked me what to change. I had to tell him to make the eyebrows more straight to match the drawing and he said eyebrows move. I told him the lips are different and I asked him to change it to be less round and more straight. He wasn’t happy that I wanted the drawing to be edited. After several exchanges between us he told me he’s not a printer. But he eventually went back and redid it to my liking and not his. He came back with this big printout ready for the stencil and I had to tell him the size I wanted was way smaller and again he got annoyed and told me that’s not what we talked about. So I mentioned that I sent an email the day of our consultation describing the size I was looking for and that I got a reply from the receptionist telling me she passed the email along and told him and he said yes to it. I told him I could show him the email and he said okay. I did and he said that he didn’t get the message.

At this point I really don’t want my tattoo with this guy, I’m not feeling it at all and his behaviour left me feeling so bad but I put $400 deposit on it and I don’t want to lose that money but the policy says I will. I’m also so excited for this tattoo for weeks. My mistake is not telling the receptionist my artist and I are having major conflicts and asking for a change in artist or something because the face didn’t match the drawing still but at this point he’s already upset w me telling him to change the face to the drawing multiple times and the size so i just move forward with the changes he made.

The whole session we don’t talk to each other except when he asked me to pull out the pic on my phone so he can do the make up. He’s laughing with the artist beside us about his new couch that won’t fit into the door of his apt and I’m happy his mood is better for the actual tattooing.

Soooo when it’s all over it’s looks pretty good and the hairs really nice but when I get home I look closely and see he did the lips how he originally wanted it and not the changes we made!!!! I’m so upset with this because now it’s on MY body forever not his body. Now I’m looking at a cover up when this tattoo is healed because this tattoo reminds me of the horrible experience and the face of idk who because it’s not the face of the character i really wanted. The next morning I notice the face is smearing due to the healing and it looks way better like that, so maybe I just need another artist to put a lot of hair in front of the face instead of a full cover up. I feel ashamed I let this happen I shouldve stuck up for myself more despite his angry attitude towards me. I want to note I got a tattoo here about 4 yrs ago with the owner and the whole process was amazing and the tattoo is so beautiful and that’s why I went back but choose Angel as the artist this time because he specializes in anime and video game characters so i mistakenly assumed he would get the face right for that. Also another artist beside us was doing a wonderful job on his client with a scorpion tattoo on the leg and they both were having a good time. Also, My artist named Angel told me he’d send the drawings days before the tattoo and never did. My excitement overlooked that and I trusted we could pull it off the same day. Watch out for Angel if you don’t like what he draws for your body, because he doesn’t care about your opinion, I felt like I had to force him to change the drawing to the pics I sent him, our interactions left my hands shaking and my heart pounding. He loves his drawings despite it’s not...

I adore this shop. Ive gotten many tattoos from here before over many years. I absolutely love the other artists and friendly staffing.

The problem is not with the staffing themselves but a guest artist named Genevieve Caron who regularly has a guest spot there. She was extremely rude and unprofessional towards me due to her own fault of giving out her number to her clients. She had not told her clients to not give out her number to others. A friend proceeded to give me her number under the impression that it was okay because she had not specified otherwise. She asked me not to text the number and to DM/ Email her. I understood her reasoning behind it and I replied and said that it was my apologies and I do not have social media (due to mental health) so I was unaware of the email. At that point, she was rude about the fact that I do not have social media and proceeded to suggest that I get a g mail because it is free and tell me to "get with the times and use it". I proceeded to apologize once again and stated that there was no need to be rude. She then proceeded to say to me " DO YOU TEXT YOUR DENTISTS WHEN THEY ARE ON VACATION? no? I believe you're the rude one. I said fair well good sir stop texting me." I am extremely disappointed in the reaction I got from her. It could have all been avoided if she had specified to her clients not to give out her personal information and the way that the situation was dealt with on her part. I am a completely understanding person which is why I understand how it could be frustrating if people are texting your personal cell phone while away or at work, but due to her own fault of not specifying to her clients not to give out her information, she received a text from me as i was unaware of her boundaries. A simple " Hi, I do not reply to text messages about my work please email / dm me instead, thank you and have a great day" would have been the way not too loose a customer whom wanted to finish an entire tattoo sleeve, roughly 20-30 hours worth of work.

The reason I am addressing this issue is that I will not support a tattoo shop that allows a rude and unprofessional human to be a guest artist there if they are treating potential clients like that due to their own lack of communication skills. No one deserves to be talked to like that no matter what.

Attached is a photo of the conversation. (number has been blurred to respect her...

Awful experience with Miranda Boire, which I'm so sad about. A serious lack of care, empathy, communication, attention to detail. I ended up with a tattoo I did not want despite us being so clear on the plan from the start. She did her own thing without letting me know or asking me, which I now have to live with forever. She also gave me an infection TWICE, which she was incredibly defensive about and tried to blame me for poor aftercare, or that I must be immune compromised or nutrient deficient, or her coworker must have not sterilized the station before her, etc. All things considered, I have strong reason to believe it was due to inadequate disinfecting on her part. I have to mention that she had a powerful odour coming off of her, and I wouldn't be surprised if whatever was causing that was a contributing factor in the infections. Her work is also patchy, which she tried to blame me for possibly having an overactive liver (???), and also excused it by saying hand tattoos just heal patchy. To be fair, none of my tattoos (including the ones on my hands) from other artists have ever gotten infected or healed patchy or faded. It's been just over a week from our last appointment and her lines are already falling out. It also took her an ungodly amount of time to do this tattoo, which cost me an ungodly amount of money. Other tattoo artists have agreed that the time spent on this tattoo is "crazy". She sure rushed through the complimentary touch up though, and I can see where the needle slipped and little areas that need to be fixed. Despite the hours and weeks that have gone into it, the lack of care in the detail is seriously disappointing. When I asked her a question about the detail, she again got very defensive. Previously she was responsive by email but now that she's taken my money and doesn't need to see me anymore she's MIA. I would be remiss to not warn you that she doesn't follow along to a photo, it "just comes out of [her] brain" as she says (scary), so if you're looking for true realism and genuine effort, look elsewhere. She also will not tell you that she's going to blast your skin with greywash and leave you with a dark blob for 8 weeks that will heal to a muddy grey mess with no gradient to be found. This has caused me a lot of stress and my self esteem as taken a hit. Leaving this here for closure and to hopefully help someone...