Tattoo Union — Local services in Chicago

I have had two tattoos done at Tattoo Union and both times the experience has been not a pleasant one. I found them on instagram and booked my appointment with Master Fong after being impressed by his work. I paid my deposit and was told my appointment was held. Right before my appointment I was told that they double booked my spot and I was asked if I would be willing to change appointment slots. I agreed upon a different date and the first appointment went super well. The tattoo was looking great and I was excited to come back. Now my second appointment also had to be moved, and driving from Wisconsin, it was a little tough getting my appointments moved on me all of the time. Out of the 5 total appointments I had at least 4 of them moved once.

Now onto the second appointment. I asked for a mainly black samurai with bits of color, and I was told originally it was going to be two appointments. 7 hours into this appointment I now have much of my arm colored. It looked awesome so I wasn’t upset about it, but here’s the kicker. We agreed on 2200 total, and I paid 1300 the first session, and now they were asking for another 1300. I told them that is much more than we agreed upon, and they said they made a mistake and thought that I didn’t have a budget. Instead of saying “oh it’s our fault we forgot you had a budget” they coerced me to agree to a new price and wouldn’t honor our written agreement. They comped the last session, but then again, it wasn’t really free because I had already paid 400-600 more dollars than we agreed upon.

My second tattoo went much the same way except I was never shown a design beforehand and this time there were no pricing issues. However, I asked them to fill in my bicep to complete a half sleeve tattoo (first tattoo was shoulder and second one was bicep). After the first appointment, I noticed the placement was off and my bicep tattoo now extends beyond the original so it is not a coherent half sleeve. I mentioned this in the second appointment and asked if he could fill in the back of my arm to match it cause I was very clear I that I wanted a cohesive half sleeve. Once again, money became an issue and he seemed offended that I asked him to do that for free though it was what we agreed upon originally. Helen came over at this point and told me that he made it bigger so I could get extra detail, which is nice, but that is not what I requested. And when I have paid them a total of over 4000 dollars for just my upper arm, I figured they would have been nicer, especially after I decided to come back and give them another chance after my first experience.

Overall, the only reason this is two stars and not one is because master fong is an insanely talented artist, but the service there is not great. Even though his work is great, I won’t be returning because the process is stressful.

Here are the tattoos I have that I am super happy with.

Thought i would edit to add more. Even though the process of getting the tattoos was stressful, I could not be happier with what I have. As I said, Fong is crazy talented and a great tattooer, and he turned my ideas into reality. However, on the backend, it was stressful. I would have wanted to know all of this before going so I felt it was my...

I am not one to write up reviews but I felt the need to after thinking about it for a long time. Since it’s a tattoo that is permanently on my body I think about it quite a lot. I got my tattoo done in May and had made an appointment about two weeks in advance. My friend was in town from college visiting and we had a small window to get our tattoos done. We scheduled our appointment put down a deposit thinking everything would go great. When we came into the shop it was pretty clear that they had forgotten our appointments. At the time everyone they had available was already tattooing. My friend and I had two very simple designs to draw up mine was a flower and hers was a Texas longhorn outline. My tattoo was a little bit bigger may be 3 x 5“ but hers is only 2 x 4. After he spent about two hours drawing up our tattoos the clients they had in the chairs were still not finished being tattooed. ( I got to know those two clients who dropped 1500 last minute! We were pushed back for a more expensive tattoo…) With our appointments at seven I remember taking my birth control in the lobby at 9 o’clock… still no tatty. Finally he was finished drawing my friends price estimate was about $200 and mine was 400. I tried to tell the guy that I thought this was unreasonable and he didn’t want to listen. I said it was fine but was unable to tip since this was way above the price I was thinking. My tattoo took about two hours which is totally fine since it is a absolutely beautiful piece. But for a very simple outline the price was way overly high. I’ve had several tattoos done since then even better quality for way cheaper. While I adore my tattoo, it was not worth the obnoxious wait and the pain my bank account suffered. I could have gotten the same thing somewhere else and not have been forgotten! You are putting permanent art on people’s bodies. Be kind to them. They are giving you their time and money as well. Your service is not one sided. Have integrity with your appointments and give prices that match your quality of work. I will be sticking with any of the four shops within 10 miles of my home lol. Don’t make the trip and spend the bucks here. I PROMISE you not worth it! I had no bit of fun here. My pretty tattoo has been muddled by the awful experience. Appreciate your customers or you’ll end...

Never go to this tattoo shop ever. I went here yesterday for the $30 special Friday the 13th tattoos. I walked in and I waited about an hour and a half for my tattoo I waited patiently I was polite I did not rush any of the artist. I started my tattoo and I could tell that my tattoo artist was nervous and was not comfortable with doing my tattoo. Not only that he had extreme body odor. On a purely aesthetic bases The tattoo itself is warped and horrible. All the petals are misshapen, some of them end in a point and some of them are rounded, the top pedal is so small it doesn't match the bottom pedal. The shading is too dark. When I first saw the tattoo I was completely upset and told the tattoo artist that there needed to be a cover-up. Some master artists started my cover-up and then I looked at it again and I was completely dissatisfied. I told him that I wanted to go home and that I was not happy with the tattoo. He kept insisting that I needed to go sit down so he could finish it but I said I was no longer comfortable for him to touch my skin. He was smirking and laughing the whole time and I asked him if he thought it was funny that I have a horrible tattoo on my body for the rest of my life. He thenBecame extremely aggressive and started yelling at me and I just said I was going to go home and I no longer wanted to be in this tattoo shop. I called back today and spoke to Helen the manager. I've never received such a rude conversation in my life. As a hairstylist I understand that people make mistakes but when a customer is dissatisfied and is looking for a refund and you refuse them and then try to blame them and say that since it was a special they should be satisfied with what they got is completely absurd. She herself said that Alex the artist who tattooed me was not comfortable and only had two years of experience and was in an apprenticeship. So if he was uncomfortable why did he do my tattoo. She kept cutting me off and was extremely rude and I told her that she was being crazy so then she started yelling at me asking me where I work and then I have a hear someone in the background telling them to tell them where my addresses and they were threatening me on the phone. Save your money and never ever go to this place ever worst tattoo...