New London Ink — Local services in New London

Super bummed with my overall experience with Stephanie.

First session was supposed to fix a tattoo I didn’t like (cost me $100 deposit for consult time, 2 weeks out to schedule the appointment, an additional hour of back and forth on the actual design and $120 for ten lines of work to ‘fix’ it — promises during the consult didn’t match what she was going to do that day at all). Given how kind Stephanie was (she said she was in a funk that day) and how exicted she was about my future projects, I decided to book another appointment with her and ‘roll my deposit’ over. The second appointment was almost a month out from the original tattoo (busy lady I understand).

The day of the second (third?) appointment, I am a little late (17 mins), which I informed her of, and when I showed up the drawing I gave her almost two months ago was barely drawn out, with one section with more worked than others. Her reasoning behind it was, I will improvise and adjust the rest on the spot, which is not the way I roll…

With slight frustration and hesitance, I asked her to rework it so the outline would at least match what I wanted. During that time, she did, but also decided to play secretary (which is on my $$$ time), running around to other tattoos artists to try to schedule walk-ins instead of focusing on the task at hand.

After spending an hour attempting to make the design work, she decides to walk out for a cig. When she returned I told her thank you but no thank you, I just walked out. I asked her to keep the deposit for her time. 4 hours and $220 later, I have ten lines of work on my body from the touch-up session and a sour taste in my mouth about New London Ink.

When you get people to give you deposits, ask them to send you photos and references, it should be your responsibility as a tattoo artist to be ready for the appointment and reassure your clients that what they want is what they will get.

Will not be returning or...

I love New London Ink, and have been going here exclusively for 3+ years now, specifically Stephanie! Although all the staff is incredible and friendly (especially Victoria hehe), Stephanie is my girl! 3 years ago I walked in and said “I trust you, give me a leg sleeve”, and every session I come in, she surprises me with what we’re doing next. (The length it’s taken us to work on my leg is totally my decision, tolerance and money lol). But anyways, she blows me out of the water every time. Any time I add on random things or ask for changes, she’s quick to accept. I remember one time I asked her to change the stencil placement multiple times and apologized and she replied “don’t ever be sorry, I’ll sit here and re-stencil you all day until you’re comfortable and happy. It’s your body”, and that was reassurance I really appreciated. She takes the time to truly know you, and uses that info to help you. Not only has it helped her pick her selections for my leg, but also she knows my tolerance and my body cues. She knows when I need a break before I even verbalize it. She also remembers personal things. She remembers my birthday, my family, and clapped loud for me throughout life victories. She is an incredible, incredible, INCREDIBLE, artist, professional, and friend. I will continue to speak very highly about her and refer all my family and friends to her until the end of time. She is truly the best, I promise you are in good hands...

Our family had an excellent experience with John. He was personable and professional and gave us a very positive tattoo experience. We had general ideas for our tattoos that were not fully completed, and he helped us fine tune our designs to be exactly what we wanted. We could tell that John takes each tattoo very seriously and understands that the little things matter for such a permanent decision. John was patient and helpful as we asked for dozens of different revisions adjustments to our designs. Despite us wanting relatively simple tattoos, John sat with us for about an hour at the start of our appointment and hand-drew many different versions of our designs so we could see how different options would look. If you have a general theme or idea that you want to work with but need an artist to bring it to life, we recommend John as the artist for you. If you are in the area, you should definitely consider working with John while he is here in the United States for a...