Redditor aodiviroqjf is a woman who spontaneously got matching tattoos with her husband and sister-in-law to commemorate a special occasion.
Unfortunately, the experience was tainted because of an unprofessional tattoo artist.
After facing criticism from friends for taking action, the Original Poster (OP) visited the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subReddit and asked:
“AITA for telling a tattoo artist he was making me uncomfortable and leaving a bad review?”
The OP wrote:
“Yesterday for my sister-in-law’s birthday, my husband her and I all got matching tattoos. It was pretty spontaneous so unfortunately I wasn’t dressed super appropriately to get a tattoo where I did.”
“I was wearing a bodysuit and a long skirt, nothing revealing but still, not the best to get a tattoo on my thigh.”
“I go last, and the after learning where I wanted my tattoo, the artist immediately calls my husband into the room, yelling loudly for him to come in because he’s about to have his wife half naked (I wasn’t, my skirt on the side I was getting my tattoo on was tucked into my bodysuit.”
“It was definitely nothing inappropriate or nothing was showing. He kept making jokes about how he didn’t trust himself and was just being all around a little misogynistic.”
“My husband didn’t stop him because he knew I could handle it and honestly I like defending myself, especially when a man is being misogynistic.”
“I told him to stop making jokes because he was making me uncomfortable, he apologized and then started making comments to my husband about how much of a hard a** I was, and I’m sure I kept him on his toes, and made a pretty creepy joke about our sex life.”
“I once again told him that was really inappropriate and made me super uncomfortable, and he told me to lighten up and take a joke, then made a comment about how since I had a tattoo on my a** (which was partially visible due to the position he was tattooing me in) he was surprised at how much of a prude I was being.”
“At this point I decided to write a negative review about the artist himself, because I thought it was really rude that he kept making comments after I told him I was uncomfortable.”
“Well, he found my Instagram because I follow the tattoo shop (I love the shop in general) and told me it was really sh**ty of me to write a negative review when he was just making jokes, and that the review will negatively reflect the shop.”
“I told him to not do actions where people will feel the need to call him out on their shops Google reviews.”
“When I asked my friends their opinions, they told me I was harsh and leaving a review on the Google page was a little much, when I should have talked to the shop manager.”
“Am I the a**hole/ did I overreact?”
Strangers on the internet were asked to declare one of the following:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
Many of the Redditors sided with the OP as NTA and said the tattoo artist’s behavior was inexcusable.
“Absolutely NTA. As a woman, I would want to know if an artist I was considering to do work on me was going to be a misogynistic a** the entire time… so I could take my money elsewhere.”
“You are definitely not the first client he has treated this way. Leaving a google review was the right thing to do so other customers know the experience you had and hopefully the public shaming will make him change his behavior.”
“Talking to the manager likely wouldn’t stop him from behaving like that anyway.” – m_whar
“OP, if you were getting the tattoo on your thigh, there’s nothing you could have worn that would be ‘appropriate.’ If you were wearing pants, you would have had to take them off.”
“The job of a tattoo artist involves a lot of physical contact. The customer deserves to feel comfortable, especially since tattoos can sometimes take hours or days or complete. This guy was an a**.” – AnyConstellation
“NTA, you gave him the chance to correct his behavior and he didn’t, so he’s paying the consequences.”
“As a woman I would be glad for a review like that so I know to avoid him if I were to go to the shop.” – zookeeperpaige
“He wasn’t ‘just making jokes’ if it was just a joke it shouldn’t be a hardship to stop when asked. He was making you uncomfortable for his own enjoyment, which is sh**ty customer service and should 100% be in a google review.”
“Telling women that protest their ‘jokes’ that they are a prude or have no sense of humor is the classic way of trying to prevent women from protecting themselves from sexual harrassment.”
“Unfortunately for this dude it doesn’t really work as well when you are doing a service for someone as in a social setting.” – Music_withRocks_In
“She gave him two chances! She had to correct his behavior twice and he still didn’t get the message to knock it off and be a professional.”
“To OP: NTA at all. You’re 100% right to leave a review like that. That shop more than likely has had more than one instance of situations similar to yours if the artist was so comfortable dismissing the multiple requests from his client to act respectfully.”
“People need to know this information so that they are aware and hopefully choose to get tattooed somewhere else.” – Antiquated_Elvish
“Honestly, OP, thank you. Good for you for standing up for yourself and good for you for writing that review. I’ll never be in the market for a tattoo but if I were, this is the exact kind of thing i would want to know.”
“Not so I can go all cancel culture and boycott but because now that I have more information about a potential artist, someone I should trust and feel respected by, I know that that particular one is a creep and now I know that he is not someone I want to hire.”
“And it’s entirely his fault. What a creep. NTA and thank you.” – basilobs
Overall, Redditors believed the tattoo artist was out of line, and they appreciated the OP for leaving a negative review to alert potential customers about him.