Tattoo Client Exposes Safe Space Tattoo Studio...
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2024
- Hello my darlings
In todays video we take a look at a viral tattoo TikTok by someone called Jessica who documented her experience of going to a very popular tattoo studio in Texas, U.S.A .
While at Lilac Tattoo Studio Jessica who herself is a tattoo artist noticed a handful of red flags and decided to leave then proceeded to make a TikTok to make awareness to warn others as she knew it was a very popular studio. Jessica's TikTok then went viral and many other customers of Lilac Tattoo Studio come forward saying they have had similar experiences...
Jessica's TikTok: bit.ly/4e5lSEB
Native Hope: bit.ly/3ySFyeI
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I never got a tattoo, but I do have experience with one studio.
I had an appointment to get a tattoo, deposit payed etc, but a week before I found out I was pregnant. So I went in to tell them I had to cancel because of this. Usually they only give back deposits in form of gift cards for their shop, but they said since babies are expensive, they'll make an exception and hand me the money in cash.
It's been 6 years and I'll go back this year to get 2 tattoos as symbols for my kids now.
That's amazing. Tattoos artists when they care about their clients really go above and beyond.
Really decent of them. Reminds me of the time i bought a bucket of silica litter for my diabetic cat as a broke college student. My cat passed before i had the chance to use the litter. They gave me a refund despite company policy. Super kind of them
"im a very small business, it's just me" "there are 35 girls working under me" girl what. that's not a 1 person business. thats a 36 people business
Yah, I caught that too. I still think it's wonderful she apologized and her shop is 100% worth giving grace, but she's got a lot of employees and a creative director. The owner is not as alone as she thinks she is. 😅
I think small business is a relative statement here. You may think of small business as one or two people but others may view it as anything that's not a corporation.
@@ariajam5221 In the general business world, you’re totally right, but in the tattoo world Lilac’s employee count is shockingly huge. Shops I’ve known of that had less than half the number of tattooers/piercers have struggled with customer service and high turnover for employees. There really is a threshold for how much you can scale up tattooing to maximize profit and it almost always involves hiring on more and more tattooers at the expense of craftsmanship and customer experience. I get the feeling that Lilac is dancing on that line. They even have a job application page on their website, for goodness sake!
@@ariajam5221 i mean, i think it dpends on the industry. that's very large business for a tattoo shop, most of those have less than 10 people.
@ariajam5221 yes but she literally said "it's just me". That's not ambiguous
The website was showing the US but MMIW is also a big problem in Canada. Something which definitely needs more awareness all around. Truly unacceptable.
I’ve heard this is also a problem in Australia as well… just horrific global violence…
It certainly is and they do too well at covering it up (the Canadian government)
Exactly. And since Canada is still a part of the commonwealth, I think the UK needs to know more about MMIW and residential schools.
I’m a white person who grew up and lives in Canada in a large city. Until I moved to a rural part of my province for work, near a reserve, I had no idea how bad it was here. I went on a deep dive of the history of MMIW and the treatment of indigenous people in Canada. Especially the Highway of Tears and the 60’s Scoop. It broke my heart. I had learned none of this in school. I’ve heard the education in school is better now but it’s not talked about enough at all.
And central-South America! MMIW included the indigenous women all the way down there too!!
Love you educating about the injustice that Indigenous Natives face alongside the warning video. We're taught nothing about this in the UK, but it's still ongoing and the more people that know, the more everyone can lift Indigenous voices when they call for justice.
I feel the same! So happy to hear her spread awareness about Indigenous issues, specifically involving missing women. #nomorestolensisters
I live in Nebraska in the US and just an hour to the border of South Dakota which is where several reservations are so we hear a lot about missing indigenous women. My aunt and uncle worked on Porcupine reservation as a librarian and counselor and that’s where I spent my college spring break years ago as I was getting my social work degree and was in a Native American social work class, I wrote a paper on the similarities between Catholicism and Native American spirituality. My uncle had been a Jesuit priest prior to leaving priesthood so being immersed in it all was a tremendous learning experience.
@@GrlyPrincessI live in Nebraska in the US so we often hear about the missing indigenous women and it’s just awful
Literally not enough education about indigenous people of Canada in Canadian schools either. Only until very recently has there been acknowledgement towards the genocide forced upon the indigenous people. And it’s still no where near enough ❤
Not _entirely_ true, parts of Native history are covered in the 'American Conflict' GCSE topic. Its just not mandatory learning, and far from enough imo, but it is there
Her being marked as a no show was probably a blessing in disguise and thankfully gave her that last little bump to get up and leave. I haven’t gotten a tattoo in years and a big part of that is how rude/pretentious some artists can be. It’s sad that on one hand I was thinking “this sounds par for the course” with a lot of studios. On the other hand, if this sort of treatment is really standing out like a sore thumb it makes me hopeful that the tattoo space is changing for the better
Glad she had the chance to rethink the tattoo and listened to her gut
Thisss!!! I said out loud holy shit thankfully they crossed her name out!!
Yeah, I'm glad she decided not to get one. It would have just been a reminder of how much of a let down the experience was, even if the tattoo itself turned out nice
@@impposter560 True! And I absolutely love your pfp! 🥹🕷️🖤 it looks maybe felt? but still so cute!
Edit okay I think it’s real after looking again and lol I’m so sorry I look insane rn but I love eight legged friends loll
@@emergencyasmr The more legs, the better the friend! Its just a pic I found on the web (ha) of a little peacock spider, they're extremely cute and they dance!
@@impposter560 Yes I love the peacock jumpers! Such a diverse species but all are so adorable! Spiders are my favorite animals so I’m always elated to see another person appreciate them because they’re so often misunderstood!
Hot take: what the clients described was kinda crappy and not great, but definitely not the worst I've heard - not even close. Seems like there are too many people working there and maybe that's part of the problem. But the owner stepping up and taking responsibility, being (seemingly) sincere and actively wanting to do better, that shows integrity and I'm rooting for them.
I genuinely hope that the owner hires some managers and keeps doing well, she's just spreading herself too thin currently.
Other problems will arise if she doesn't let go of some of the reins to people she has hand-picked and trained for a bit to manage.
@B.Harper7 definitely. This studio has a lot of potential but needs better management. These issues will probably worsen if she doesn't consider hiring new managers.
I was also confused why the safe space thing was emphasized so much. Like yea they were messy but that's so far from taking anything away from (women's and lgbtq) safety it was simply kind of unprofessional.
@@luisabendt8614 I get where you're coming from, but I think if you're specifically going to advertise your business as a safe space, you're not just selling a service, you're selling an experience. Lgbtq+ folks and women are constantly having to check the vibes to try to avoid dangerous situations, so it's important for safe spaces to be places where you *feel* safe, emotionally as well as physically. They should be places where you can trust the staff, let your guard down, and relax for once.
Also, while they didn't say anything about being a safe space for neurodiverse/disabled folk specifically, I don't think you should be able to call yourself a safe space if you're not making an effort to be accessible to disabled folks, and customer service is a huge part of that. For example, socially anxious people can find new experiences extremely difficult to handle, and if this was someone's first experience trying to get a tattoo, it could be enough for them to never want to try again.
I get your take but they chose to hire so many artists for a profit and didn't think of the repercussions, time and responsibility that takes. If you can't manage that basic thing in a tattoo shop - you shouldn't be running one.
This is why I beg studio owners to invest actual money into receptionists and managers. Many receptionists are either just overworked apprentices or extremely low paid young people without experience or training. The desk sets the whole vibe for the shop and peoples initial experiences and most shops are not paying enough to keep good people in the role
Or not a receptionist at all. Many people that sit upfront are used as receptionist by people coming in when their job is something else its just that they sit up front
After 15 years in customer service, I agree completely. I’m a tattooed lady, but also a professional- nothing in this situation was handled even close to professionally.
Agree 100%, if you’ve got 3 dozen people working in two diff locations, you need shop managers at minimum.
Bravo to the Lilac Studio owner's response. Best example of a real apology that I think I've seen.
Yes, she really did seem sincere. I do wonder if perhaps she hit the nail on the head that she was taking on too much. That was a lot of artists to have working for you, and in just 2 locations. It only takes a couple of bad apples to start turning the whole batch sour, too. Honestly, that wide shot with so many stations...it could have been a tattoo convention, or something. It's wild to me. I guess perhaps they don't all work full time, though? The studio my niece goes to/works at has 4 artists, an apprentice and a piercer (my niece). And even that felt overwhelming to me. Lol. I guess my point is, if you have 2 locations, it can already be hard to keep your finger on the pulse/the vibe, especially if based mostly out of one of those..but add into that some 30+ people working... A bad vibe can get out of hand really fast.
I have witnessed first hand that it only takes leaving one bully/toxic person unchecked to ruin not just your work force, but sometimes your business. Especially if you have a smaller team. Toxic people either drag everyone down to their level, ruin the vibe so people who are the targets of the toxicity (or decent people immune to being sucked into it)...just don't want to come to go to work anymore..so they either quit or they keep showing up but when they are there they have lost all joy for the job. A toxic cloud can have an especially big impact in a creative industry like this, I feel...or any business where it is built on people having a relaxing and enjoyable time (my own experiences were centred on working at a cinema - should have been a dream summer job with free snacks like popcorn & hotdogs, and first viewings of new movies for free before general release, but turned out to be the worst). And ultimately, either everyone but the toxic cloud quits, everyone becomes part of the cloud and the work place is miserable for everyone, orrrr you have to finally deal with it and sack the toxic ring leader(s) and risk losing their hanger-ons too....and that's if it isn't too late and you lost all your customers too.
Anyway, I genuinely hope she can deal with the rot before it really gets a hold. She did mention some of her staff denied some complaints (I assume of the general responses and not just the OPs), which makes me think they are not able to take responsibility in the same way as the owner has. Idk if training can help with that though. I think she either should look at breaking things up into smaller teams, or she needs a better management structure & customer service training for everyone.
@hawkeyescoffee6399 It feels a little reminiscent of all the Watcher criticisms tbh. Just too many staff members, stations, space, etc. There's no real reason imo for the space to be that big aside from to host a lot of artists, which is evidently not something the owner is fully equipped to deal with while actually maintaining high standards across all aspects of tattooing. With the owner's dedication and the clear skill all of these artists have, I feel like it could be so much better if it was just on a smaller scale (which would help any issues to be more quickly and easily addressed), or at least if the owner had more of a management team than she currently seems to. With the number of artists, surely she could have one 'senior member' or something always on site just to oversee things, or get a smaller studio with less massive amounts of space to fill, and just have artists alternate days more if providing a variety of styles is that critical.
It seems like there's all the building blocks of a great tattoo studio, there's just way too MUCH of it for one person to possibly manage, even with the best intentions
@@hawkeyescoffee6399 I LOVE reading comments like yours here. This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of conversation lol, but I still wanted to express this thought I guess. You worded your opinion and personal experience beautifully and it was a pleasure to read. I think good majority of online comments are usually short and formulated to get the most engagement and likes at a quick glance, but comments like this actually further the discussion in a way that shows we care more about the real issue rather than drama for the sake of drama. It also shows that Treacle Tatts herself has done a really good job of building a community that feels heard and sees value in investing time to have these meaningful discussions, instead of being reactionary if that makes sense. Anyways, keep being a wonderful voice on the internet and thank you for sharing!!
Owner sounded both sincere and overwhelmed. It’s a lot of work for one person to manage/oversee. Hopefully part of the go-forward changes will be getting some management support to help, especially since she can’t be in two places at once. I’m all for giving a second chance. At minimum supporting fort worth location, since sounds like the issues were with the Dallas location.
I agree. 35 employees/contractors and two locations is no longer a “very small” business and it can be easy to miss when it’s time to start hiring a manager to share the responsibility of being the eyes and ears in the shop and correcting problematic behaviors. Terrible to have to learn this lesson so publicly, but I hope she has the chance to reorganize and realize her vision because we need genuine safe spaces for women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ and I would hate to see “Safe Spaces” reduced to a marketing gimmick.
I was thinking the same thing, like ur only 1 person..
@@Wasabineko why would you hire that many people if you couldn't handle it and allow that to get so out of hand - this person is clearly not vetting their artists and it just screams irresponsibility and greed to me. It's not an industry where mistakes are acceptable - look at how much TikTok drama we've had just this year because of negligence and bad practise just in 2024. I work in a fairly big shop that does walk ins and we have 11 people and it takes both the boss and a full time manager to keep everything running smoothly. 35 is insanity without management. Why are you hiring 30+ people who rely on your space to make a living if you are preaching you are just one person?
Ugh it’s so refreshing to see tattoo artists/studios taking accountability for their mistakes! Makes all the difference
I was actually talking about the whole complex around bad tattoo experiences with a friend of mine recently. He had a less than ideal experience with an artist once. The piece is BEAUTIFUL but it's his least favourite tattoo because it reminds him of the negative expirience he had with the artist.
It doesn't matter how good your work is, if you act shitty towards your clients they WILL remember
Yep, my tattoo that looks the best was my worst experience so it’s my least favourite 😕
DFW stands for Dallas-Fort Worth. It’s two cities in Texas that are very close to each other to the point that they’ve practically merged (they’re connected by like 30 miles of suburbs) and are often referred to collectively, especially when talking about the general area. The local airport is literally Dallas Fort Worth International with DFW as the airport code.
Something I’ve been wondering is: is “the Metroplex” a word that mostly just us Texans use to refer to DFW, or if I went to, say, St. Louis, would they know what someone meant by “the Metroplex”?
@@Annie_Annie__ southerner, not texan, have never heard the term metroplex but love that it is apparently a casual term somewhere. Sounds so futuristic
@@Annie_Annie__we say “Denver-metro area” to mean the same thing about our frontage suburbs surrounding Denver. But I’ve never heard metroplex.
@@Cashhhhew “The Metroplex” specifically refers to Dallas-Fort Worth and all the surrounding towns and communities.
I’ve always grown up hearing DFW being called that. And as a kid I remember commercials saying things like “the Metroplex’s number one Ford dealership!” or “the best Italian food in the Metroplex!”
I’ve never lived in DFW, but I have a ton of family up there and I spent a lot of summers up there as a kid. (I say “up” there because I’m from south Texas. Almost everywhere in America is “up” to me, lol)
@@Annie_Annie__ grew up in the south but I’ve never heard the term Metroplex before so based on that and the other comments it really does seem to be a Texas thing.
i appreciate the fact that you always take time to spread awareness and also educate yourself. you’re using your platform for so much good!
🥹❤️
I have 3 tattoos from Lilac in Dallas. The first time I went was during a flash thing. That was all good. I went back and like Jessica had to wait like 4 hours. They did call me and I got the tattoo. The same artist did the second tattoo as well. She was super sweet. I adore her. She has since moved to another state. The third tattoo I got there was not a great experience. I had a consultation and a scheduled appointment. When I arrived for the appointment the artist weren’t there. I waited like an hour for them to show up. They weren’t prepared at all. They didn’t have ink and they told me the other artists wouldn’t give it to them. They got some from the owner. After starting the tattoo the tattoo machine died as it was a wireless machine. So I had to wait some more. The tattoo technically isn’t finished. It was supposed to have some color around it but I never went back for that because the artist wasn’t professional.
And yes, the women at the front desk are short with people.
Also, DFW stands for Dallas/Ft. Worth.
4 hour wait for a walk-in, when there were artists just chilling on their phone? That was the first red flag.
Who else gets a serotonin boost when you hear, "Hello my darlings?!?" EDIT: I was just at Crimecon in Nashville last weekend. I went to the MMIW panel (Gabby Petito (sp?) family was also there to help throw their support behind the cause - helping to bring more exposure to it). Anyway, I think one of the most shocking stats was 4 out of 5 indigenous women are abused. It is an issue complicated by the fact that reservations often have their own underfunded and under staffed departments and the FBI doesn't lend much support. I cried most of the panel... I went because my bestie is indigenous and was abused, so I was proud of her for attending. I encourage everyone to look more into it to see how you can help, donate or educate!
🥹🫶🏻
I agree with you about everything. Also, Lauren makes me feel like I have a sister who is waking me up every morning. I love her with all of my heart🇬🇧💖💖💖💖💖😍😍😍😍😍😍🇬🇧
Lauren I would love to meet you someday if you ever decide to visit upstate New York (which is where I live). I love you always and forever🇬🇧💖💖💖💖💖💖😘😘😘😘😘😘🇬🇧
There's a big issue with jurisdiction between reservations and non-rez land. For example: city cops theoretically cannot enforce loa laws on reservation land, rez cops can't enforce reservation law on city land, the FBI can get involved but usually won't.
So if a Native woman disappears, the city cops will say it's a rez problem whether she had connections off the rez or not. If she disappears off the rez, the reservation police can't really do much off rez to investigate.
It's not like they can't cooperate, but there is also an issue of trust from Nativez and frankly a lack of care for Native people from non-Native law enforcement.
@@marymac3572you hit the nail on the head. The fact that we as citizens (of the USA/canada) just let beaurocratic red tape and pissing matches get in the way of protecting our communities (because even if the reservation is separate, they are still a part of our community as they are our “neighbors”) is abhorrent. It can be a tricky line to walk to respect their autonomy and also enforce laws but the fact that this happens so frequently means that they need support. as non-natives, the native populations don’t need us to talk over them or take charge, but they do need us to give them a megaphone so they can speak loudly! (I am not a native person so some of my terms may not be how the first-nation people you know refer to themselves, I only know a few and this is how they referred to themselves as. I do understand though that a single part of the group cannot speak for the whole group so If someone who is native finds it offensive I will change the wording :-))
As an indigenous woman In the state where native Americans were moved and forced to many years ago, thank you for explaining MMIW movement and taking the time to learn and teach :)))
As an Ojibwe woman thank you so speaking and spreading awareness about MMIW sometimes it feels like the community is the only ones speaking on it and no one listens to us half the time anyways
I'm also ojibwe and just before I was born my cousin Sara went missing walking from her mom's to her cousins house, about 3 miles away (about 1983). When my family reported it they got told "Indian kids run away". My dad, who was a Detroit cop, contacted them and again they said it was normal for Indian kids to run away, said she probably ran off with a boy. She was 12.
Sara was never found. Her mother is dead now and so is my father.
If I ever get my courage up to get a tattoo, I would 100% fly down to Louisiana and have Jessica give me one. She seems so kind.
I just got my first tattoo from her! She’s so amazing! And her work is so good!
same here!!
Having worked as a manager and at times been a terrible one and at times been a good one, this sounds like a management issue to me. It seems like the employees are not happy and that is reflected in their terrible attitude at work. I don't think this is a "training" issue. You can't "train" people to treat people well. That's just good people skills 101. Typically, if people aren't treating people well and being professional, they are either a: unqualified for the job or b: unhappy at their job. Again, not a training issue (I worked in training as well). I'm not blaming the woman that is the main manager who came on, she did seem sincere, but I think some of the things she mentioned are missing the mark - like "being more innovative". You don't need that! You just need to provide a great service that people want to come back to or will spread, by word of mouth their great experience with your shop. Also, it was a huge red flag to me that one of the co-owners (?), was all like, "who was it, who is it that treated you badly, we'll deal with it" - that sounds like punishment (which *sometimes is needed) - but to me, the overall vibe looks like very unhappy and very uninvested employees. THAT is the problem that needs to be fixed and that may need an outside consultant to come in and look at the dynamic between management and employees and see what is REALLY going on. The people could be underpaid and overworked, they could have shitty hours, it could be a number of things. That's my 2 cents from over 25 years of management.
Interesting 👍
i paused the vid to read the comments and see if anyone pointed this out bc this was my exact thought too
Can relate. My old boss used to be angry with me because I didn’t ‘look happy’ when I was working. He wasn’t upset that I wasn’t happy - he just didn’t like the message it sent to others about the department. Well, maybe if I was treated like a human, I’d look happier. Couldn’t say that, of course, but I definitely thought it lol
@@WildHeart7777 Absolutely. 🙌🏽 Sorry you weren't treated well by your boss.
I have a thing where sometimes, if I am standing to get my stencil on, I get extremely dizzy/anxious and start to pass out. My artists know this and do what they can to accommodate me, even if it means lying me down or sitting me down, but we make absolutely sure that it looks good before starting the process. But those other red flags? Yikes. It’s already intimidating for so many people to go into a tattoo parlor, customer service should be top tier. Environment is everything. I’m glad nothing went severely wrong, it truly feels like this studio got popular REALLY fast, there’s SO MANY tattooers working, and not everyone is great at public interaction. I’m also wondering if they do get some comments in bad faith because there are definitely people online who want to see safe space places go down, or are sexist/bigoted. That being said, I think a second chance is warranted. The owner did everything Ariel DeJesus did not and even though mistakes are never going to NOT happen, the owner impressed me with their accountability and mature response.
Roses 😃 love your content ❤
I agree with that these things should not happen, but I think it all comes down to bad management and people being overworked. The wait times were ridiculous and it sounded like people were stressed. As you said, I think they deserve a second chance, but they need to be restructuring their way of working.
That number of tattoo artists feels odd..... I have literally never seen that on ANY studio's account. I wonder if this is a new type of business model?
ETA, I'm speaking of US studios. This size shop is definitely not the norm
There are some huge studios in Melbourne Australia. Some are converted warehouses with heaps of space.
I agree. I haven't even seen that many at a shop near me that has 3 locations.
Some of those were piercers, not just tattoo artists, but it's still a lot. It reminds me of a body art big box store.
It's basically an assembly line for tattoos.
Jessicas "omg I made this, these hands created this" clip is very relatable. When I am depressed and feel worthless I create art. It makes me feel like I can do something.
Thats so lovely. I always end up beeting myself up because it doesnt look the way I want lol. You have a better putlook than me 😂
@@cynicallemonade1792that’s an artist. I can never put down my red pen when it comes to my manuscripts
@@missybuchanan9631 Thanks. It's hard not to be overly critical of youself. I don't write any more because I decided I was terrible at it lol.
Seeing how big the studio seems and how many artists there are (plus all the assistants/recept people) it probably is hard for one owner to look after everything and everyone. Bad behaviour and bad-faith actors can become more common or slip through without notice, IMO best option is to hire more managers or downsize.
@DeathsinkTV This!!!!!
This was something that was going to happen, they need to be so greatly that it happened with 1.a tattoo artist and 2. a graceful human who said hey, don't go attack them, wtf?
They are mismanaging their money If they are relandscaping the front of the tattoo studio, before they are hiring a district manager for daily fires to put out, AND a regional manager who is the owner's go-to.
You don't have THAT many people trying to be juggled by one person???
This business is in a tough spot. I think they’ll wind up downsizing whether they want to or not. Either keep a smaller number of employees that one owner can reasonably manage or institute the type of management structure that artists aren’t exactly known for loving.
If they're backed up to a four hour wait time for walk-ins, this is a management problem, not just bad customer service. I bet everyone in that studio was feeling like a chicken with their heads cut off. The first thing to go when stress kicks in and morale gets low is the quality of customer service. I'm glad Jessica made her video though, because maybe they'll actually be able to address the issues. Maybe cut off walk ins once the wait time exceeds an hour, because while it's great that these artists seem to have a lot of work, they might be taking way too much on between juggling walk ins and scheduled appointments. And make sure there are company standards for customer service. Everyone should know how to greet customers and how to identify when someone waiting hasn't been spoken to in a while.
The wait time was not great but I think the bigger issue was marking her as a no show when she was right in front of them
This is one of the better shops being 'exposed' at least no one's doing anything illegal and everything seems clean just need better management skills and maybe less artists
the moral of the story is as much as one may love ideas you always have to be critical about how they are implementer in real life. great video on an important but overlooked topic
I went to Jessica for my first tattoo recently since she was within an hour drive from me, she is amazing! She’s so sweet, works fast, and her work is STUNNING!
When the video started I was like damn! You look SO GOOD.
🥹❤️ you’re too kind!! Ty!!
@@treacletatts Agreed- you look so cute!!!
IKR?!? My first thought! She looks stunning!
im loving the tan
It’s true. That look is stunning on you
My shop had an artist from Lilac who started at around the same time as me. She had a HUGE amount of hustle, like, I was a little in awe of how much energy she had for side projects, like an organization that does fundraising for LGBT youths. However, she apparently lied about both her skill level and how much experience she had. A lot of people were unhappy with her work and were coming back to get their tattoos fixed by the owner or another, more experienced artist. We gave her a lot of chances because she really was a decent person and seemed to mesh well with all of us, but she ended up being too much of a liability and was dragging down the shop's reputation. She's still tattooing in the area at a different shop, and I am very happy to have seen her grow and improve by leaps and bounds since she left. At least, her Instagram shows some improvement. The fact that Lilac let her finish her apprenticeship at the level of the work she was putting out is kind of appalling.
Was it the owner that apprenticed her?
@@emilybodnar171 I don't remember, but I would assume so
@@mackennzie9 Maybe she wasn’t as busy then, but man, the owner seems spread way too thin to be properly devoting time to an apprentice.
Ummmm 35 people under her and 2 shops? Without an assistant? Girl no. Either have less employees or hire assistants and managers. That just sounds to me like I'm trying to make all the money I can for as long as I can and I can't let go of any control and/or authority. Yeah that's a big 🚩 for me. My artist has been a private studio owner for years and just now hired a 2nd artist and has an apprentice. He just opened up a larger studio to bring 1 or 2 more artists on. Going from 0 to 60 as a business owner without support is a mess waiting to happen.
Many companies hate hiring assistants as its only money out on their books. Due to Missunderstanding of the cost of business , and a desire to view their money as hourly. Leads to issues like this. They aren’t investing in the business by hiring staff, as they rather just get as much money now
Was going to get a tattoo by a pretty well known artist in my country, also claims his studio has safe space vibes. Few days before I was supposed to go in he went on an Instagram rant about parents needing to keep children home and public spaces should be for adults. I don't have children but someone showing so much hatred for a vulnerable group of people scared me. I cancelled, lost my deposit etc. Fast forward a bunch of months and his ex gf came out with allegations of assault against him. Lot's of safe spaces are only that for people they deem worthy.
That last line is so true! Especially with the studio in the video branding itself as 'female only' or something along those lines, that just sets off so many warning bells in my head. 'Female only' places like parlors, cafes, etc always, ALWAYS stink of transphobia, & more often than not you will hear so many horror stories about these 'safe spaces' only being safe for people deemed feminine enough. Similarly with spaces labeled she+ or women/nonbinary spaces that will viciously attack any enby person that isn't feminine enough by their standards
That last line hits hard and I want to add that it's not only men or straight people who perpetuate this dynamic. It's everywhere.
As someone in the industry- I genuinely do not envy shop owners. Tattoo artists are an eccentric bunch. Sometimes, the money can go to an artists' head, and as a result a lot of artists do behave in a somewhat grumpy and entitled way. Almost all tattoo artists are contractors, not employees, and the owner has very little ability to influence their behavior, beyond letting them go. Most tattoo shops (especially huge ones with lots of junior artists, like this one) are very often hotbeds of drama as a result.
I think that shop owners who declare that their shops are intrinsically safe because she are women-operated sometimes set themselves up for situations like this, because everyone, regardless of gender, is capable of making these mistakes. I do think that it's very difficult to curate a shop environment with this many artists, as there's just no way to keep tabs (or even basic familiarity) with everyone. So, while I agree that the experiences sound annoying and bad, they are pretty typical of a gigantic street shop like this, which is what it sounds like the shop really is. Hopefully the experience gets some of the staff and artists to be a little more aware of their attitudes and how they can negatively affect their business!
Question whats the money? I always figured they were around the 150k yearly
Petition to make “The artist that gave no f**ks !” Title of the new James Bond film! 🤣
LOL!!! Now that’s a bond film I’d watch 😂
That sounds like a good film ngl lol. And I’m not a fan of James Bond at all lol 😂😂
The owner seems like a really genuine person. The problem is her business model. She's running an assembly line in two different locations, and she doesn't have enough oversight and quality control. Her best artists need to be promoted to location managers, and given a huge raise. No more walk ins, make it appointment only. You never lose customers by raising the quality of your services. A serious customer will love you for it, and will be the one who keeps coming back.
"i hope you're sitting comfortably" i'm literally face to the glass on a train rn
Glaring issue for me was when the Mgr mentioned something about being the only one running the place, managing 30 employees, and there on a daily basis, and if not there/elsewhere for the company. This location lacks sufficient management, there should be 2-3 others in a managerial and Supervisory role. How the hell do you even book a holiday as Mgr?? That and the fact that you don't just treat a customer rudely so comfortably your first time, in front of other staff members too. These are signs that staff have treated customers like this before.
I’m just a small business.
Has 36 artists under her and 2 locations with a massive online media presence…. Mkay…
Technically it is a small business as small is below 500 employees, some define it as 20-350. But it technically shes correct. However due to the ability to have independent standard alone businesses of 1 (due to platforms like ebay and esty: that cover a lot of the administration and logistics) our perspective has gone down of what a “small business” is. -love a business nerd
@@karinalumen9722I feel that. However, (as a discourse analysis nerd such as myself) I believe that when the word “small business” is used in given context is to claim the identity of a vulnerable entity. Which the person in question does not effectively project, as she mostly appear as a person with resources (media exposure, personal cash flow, personal lifestyle and interpersonal behaviour). So when I say “small business, mkay”, yes, while it’s true that you could be a small business up to 500 employees as you mention; my “mkay” is a critique of the discourage practices adopted in order to appear vulnerable when in fact she is not, as the “small business” label tends to be associated with a particular set of dynamics which we (as customers) perceive as of quality, but at the mercy of sudden fluctuations in customs and culture.
Hope I made my thought clearer 😅
Minneapolis Minnesota is the urban home to a large population of Indigenous People, many of whom are not doing well despite the organized programs and services available…
We have seen a rising awareness of the “abuses, disappearances, and murders” of women and girls within the Indigenous community, but not much has actually improved through the political lip service and head-patting. “There, there…you’ve had a tough life… We hear you and sympathize… (As if: “Now please go away. We’re busy; you’ve had your time.”)
Watch out for yourselves and each other!! Lift up a Sister, a Brother, a Person!! Don’t let “official” entities and individuals off the hook if they have the capacity to improve lives, but tacitly turn their heads and go on their way as if ignoring trash on the concrete of a street corner bus bench!
Thank you for helping bring this appalling ongoing modern genocide to a wider audience!
To everyone out there saying it’s refreshing how they take accountability… they won’t. They may publicly apologize, they may pretend things are getting better, but this has been an ongoing problem in this studio for YEARS. Before now, the owner would lash out at clients who gave poor reviews. They’ve accused people of homophobia and racism when they complain about the problems in this studio. The ONLY reason they’re acting this way now is because of the publicity.
I was dead set on getting more tattoos here, but after my experience three years ago, I will never go back.
PPS DFW is Dallas/Ft Worth. They’re sister cities.
Oh damn, i just wrote a comment somewhat defending the studio, not knowing that there was more behind the scenes, glad i saw your comment, i will delete mine 😭🙏🏻
Yes! And to the people complaining about the business being “flamed” because of one bad treatment of one customer, no business is entitled to a good review.
She has 39 people working there and she's the only one in charge? She needs a manager and more organisation.
The studio seems to have handled this the best way possible. I don;t know what else they could do. At this point it feels like a little dogpiling.
I know I'm late to this video, but I feel the same way. Why is this shop being held to higher standards than others?
@@mirrepoix Pot/kettle much? I'm not being inflammatory. I just saw this video for the first time today, and I have a right to feel uncomfortable with the situation. Terrible customer service is RAMPANT in the industry. Where's this same energy for other shops? And while there were some comments saying the owner handled it well, there were also a ton of comments chiming in with negative opinions. If you're so pressed about my opinion, just move on.
When I went there, the artist was super nice except for the fact she stepped out to smoke weed for 30 minutes and left me sitting there not knowing where she went.... A friend of mine went and the artist was an hour late and noticeably drunk.
It's not that I am against weed but I am against my artist getting high while they are doing my tattoo. I mean. If they smiled a little and they are used to smoking maybe that's different but I've seen people online constantly "vaping" during appointment and they shouldn't be intoxicated while doing a permanent tattoo
If my artist would come back after a break smelling of weed I would just leave. Dont be intoxicated doing permanent alterations to peoples bodys please.
What kind of person does permanent art on someone’s body while intoxicated? That’s messed up.
every shop i've been to will send you home without a tattoo if you're intoxicated, let alone allowing their artists to work in that state. if you want to get high, more power to you, but do that off the clock.
idk i think its very weird how everything is social media-based right now. i wouldve prefered if the tiktoker had mentioned that she had tried to contact the tattoo shop through their email first so they could know abt her bad experience and in the case of them ignoring her or replying poorly, then i think it would be ok to expose them on tiktok. not saying she did anything wrong, i just personally would be more mindful when dealing with a small business.
I swear my last artist was more excited about my tattoo, than I was 😂 and I was almost in tears with the happiness.
I clicked on this video so fast because I got tattooed there a few years ago. The wait is terrible, I was there literally all day and didn’t get seen until the sun was going down. I was a walk in and I had other walk ins get seen before me. I checked in with reception multiple times to ask about the wait and they had lost my paperwork. I still got a tattoo and I liked my tattoo artist but it’s such a defeating situation. Of all places I expected more.
I had a full stop because I'm a tattoo artist and my studio is also named "artemis tattoo colective" except its in a completely different country
I am currently bored waiting while my car is getting detailed and I got this lovely notification from your lovely self!! Thank you!
tbh I think the best way to go about situations like these is this: if you have been treated badly and have experienced bad customer service, firstly, direct your criticism to the people in charge. See what they have to say about it. If there's no 'sorry' or no understanding in general, you have a solid argument to reach out on instagram or tiktok to prevent others from having the same experience. But spreading red flags and then acting surprised about people sending hate messages to the tattoo artists - I'm sorry, but we should all know by now how the internet works and that this can be the result of sharing criticism in that way...
Totally agree. This should have been a phone call or email to the owner. Going straight to social media over some not great customer service and putting on a stencil while sitting was an overreaction IMO. Also the way she portrayed “this is supposed to be to be a safe place”, did I miss something because what made it not a safe place?
Agreed. Unfortunately people on the internet are CRAZY
If you have a business that serves the public people will and have every right to talk about their own experiences with that business customers shouldn’t have to reach out to management every time just because people on the internet will use someone else’s experience as a excuse to send hate
@@hieithefox I can agree there too, they shouldn’t have to reach out to management every time BUT if you run to post on social media at every inconvenience rather than approach it like an adult and communicate with that business for a solution what is the goal? To just whine online, maybe get some internet attention? One can possibly improve things for future customers by suggesting change and bringing issues to light that management and owners might not see.
It’s not the responsibility of the customer so of course they don’t have to do that but when you take time out of your day to complain online vs taking a moment to provide constructive feedback you’re spending more energy on it and personally I think people should spend their energy positively.
If you have communicated and the business hasn’t addressed it or outright hasn’t fixed it then or even made it worse I’m all for calling them out but I think we all know how ugly social media can get so it’s not far off to say “hey before I publicly call this business out do they deserve the attention this might attract?”
@@SewFloSewing that's what confused me too. Bad customer service isn't really taking away from safe space for LGBTIQ+(sorry if i mixed that up or forgot someone) and does not change that there are just women employed
This is actually the studio that my regular artist is at and I feel so bad that this artist on TikTok experienced so much negligence. I’ve been for both walk-ins and appointments but have only used my artist from the beginning and she’s always been kind, considerate, and extremely precise but I do know that since the owner has recently expanded to a second location, they’ve had a significant influx of both new artists and receptionists which makes me wonder if the recent hiring process might have been less stringent on them than it had been in the past when they first started and had a more consistent/tighter-knit base of employees. All that to say that by all means take this individual’s account into consideration if thinking about going but also know that there are talented and professional artists there as well. I think if anything it reiterates that for better or for worse we live in a time that encourages as much research as you can get on an artist/studio before walking in.
I'd be interested in seeing what happens with this going forward. Owner seems genuine, but might have to seriously reeducate/ fire some staff to turn the ship around
Ohhh I got this notification! Time for lunch, thanks for the company.
You look amazing ♡
Have a great lunch 😁❤️
They have a full female staff, but who owns it? There was a (SMALL) female staffed shop in my US city, but it seemed like they had high turnover of their most popular artists. When I went (great experience, btw) it was a slower time, and I overheard a little gossip about the owner who was actually a man and apparently complete sh*t at running/maintaining the shop.... Definitely take time to look beyond the shiny image that some shops portray! (The artists/staff there were absolutely lovely, it's just sad to hear them having a bad experience and departing for other shops because of poor management)
Dominique owns it, she’s the one making the response tiktok from the studio
DFW is Dallas/Fort Worth.
Watching stuff like this reminds me of how lucky I've been to have had nothing but professional sessions. I only get tattooed by one person, and he's the co-owner of the shop - he takes tattooing seriously. I've never had to make a decision about whether it was a good idea to get tattooed after seeing any behavior there. Frankly, this stuff would make tattoos too stressful to get. 😕
You look 🔥 as always! I hope you're feeling well! 😊
Thank you 😂 I know nothing about American town / city lingo!!
At my shop we have fired people who were rude to clients and because of them it’s incredibly hard to earn those clients trust back
The owner said something extremely important. People have to communicate, always in the best way possible, what is happening. These last few years I have learned that if you don't say what is wrong, people keep repeating the mistakes to a level where they become unbearable to even be around. The fear of becoming a Karen is what stops a lot of people but if all those people who have had bad experiences with the studio in the past had communicated what was happening from the beginning, the owner would have taken action a long time ago and it wouldn't have escalated to the point of "exposing them".
It’s not “exposing” them to make a honest review of a bad experience. A business is responsible for its employees and actions, it never should have been happening to begin with and it’s not the customer’s responsibility to take care of the business. The customers pay for a service (putting the tattoo on them) and a product (the art itself) and the business is responsible for giving that to them in a timely, polite and professional manner, if they do not then they will get bad reviews. That’s just how it works. The customer is not responsible for protecting a business.
Unrelated to the topic, but just wanted to say how much of a comfort your videos are to me. Today's been one of the worst days I've had in a while - like seriously terrible - but having your voice in the background has helped me calm down a bit lol. You just give off the most comforting energy
Indigenous people get treated like we don't belong no matter where we go. They only apologized to not lose business.
I’m so sorry my love ❤️
@@treacletatts Ahéhee' (Thank you) for speaking for the stolen sisters that are not heard , the awareness is needed ❤️
At a tattoo convention the artist crossed my name off the waitlist without calling me that it was my turn, so i hadto wait another hour, i just didnt tip him 🤷♀️ and went on my way
I had forgotten what a genuine apology sounds like - hope she does the growth & probably pruning or policy/training changes!
Thank you so much for helping to increase awareness about MMIW 🧡🧡🧡
Pijn precies 😊🥹🥹🥹😂😊😊😊😊😊😍
That owner needs to know that effort doesn’t equal results. If she is always doing something for the shop and this is still happening you might need some support.
soon to be tattooed girl old here, just wanted to say i LOVE your videos and they have been huge in inspiring me to get inked. i also love how informative your videos are since i have no idea what to expect from a tattoo artist yet, so to see these red flags that i had no idea about is SO useful. 😅
Woo! Great timing for a TreacleTatts video. I just finished cleaning the bathrooms so I am done for the day
The lack of enthusiasm and customer service with walk-ins is something I've had happen with three of my tattoos. My first tattoo was a walk-in, and the guy that did it was nicknamed asshole. All the artists in the shop called him that, and he lived up to it. He didn't help me with placement, didn't give me any care instructions, didn't tell me the price beforehand, and was extremely rude and touchy while actually tattooing me. I was freshly 18, so I didn't understand that this was not normal until I talked to my friends about it later.
Also if you're looking for a studio in Dallas I recomend Mother's House. I was there the other day for their pride flash tattoo sale and they were so nice and welcoming. They also have a coffee shop in the studio.
wow recommended really sent this to me fresh! perfect for a break from studying
To play the devil's advocate, it catches me as odd that a tattoo artist would go to a fairly unknown studio in their area instead of a known one, one that a friend works at, a referred one, or maybe their own studio. I get missing the latter because maybe her co-workers pissed her off. Still, it catches me as a red flag that she went to a competitor studio and picked them apart. I've never been to either of their studios or been tattooed in Texas in general, but I don't get her reason for going to a walk-in place without looking into it and being willing to wait four hours for a little walk-in tattoo. Meh. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm definitely a prick, but nothing about her scenario makes much sense to me.
Jessica doesn't live or work in the same area as the tattoo shop being talked about. She was there from out of town and had been seeing good things about them online, so it seemed like a place worth trying out. It's really not that deep.
Okay, my thoughts on this: the studio was quick to give a response to the critisism, they sincerely apologized and they even offered a hefty discount for a future tattoo. That, along with the owner's personal response in the video clearly shows they are taking this seriously and improving things. Yes, give them a second chance.
I think, even though the original video by the client (was it Jessica?) was valid and probably needed to be made to improve Lilac's performance, posting it online that the studio offered her a $200 discount for making the complaint probably was an inspiration for both actual complaints and possibly some fake ones by people also hoping for a huge discount. I'm not saying Jessica shouldn't have posted the follow-up, but I know how the interwebs work, and I bet there are plenty of people who don't mind exaggerating their troubles a little in hopes of a discount.
I think, if I lived anywhere near these studios, after seeing the owner's video, I might give them a visit. She seems genuine, and I hope nothing but the best for her business. The studio hasn't done anything cancel worthy, and they'll probably have a serious talk about improving their service with the staff. This is a great example of how one takes accountability, and I think it needs to be awarded. If we aren't going to forgive businesses (run by human beings) for their errors, even when they apologize, we need to look into our mirrors.
34:41 "I'm a very small business, it's just me" GIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL! That doesn't fly when you have over 35 employees.
Actually it does fly as it means she has to manahe 35 employees all on her own. And all of the faults of that storytime just looks like signs of a place being overworked and poorly managed.
Of course that means she'll have to do something about that since these are issues for sure, but what she said there does hold up, it does explain things. But now she has to fix em
@@laurentcathery273 I don't get what you mean. 35 employees is NOT a small business. A small business would be just her doing the tattoos in her own little studio in an apartment. Not her 35+ employees across 2 huge studios. All business owners handle their organization "on their own". Even the owner of Amazone does. If she can't handle it, she should've sold it. I feel no sympathy for her. The video she posted just came of as "I have seen all the apology videos online, I know how to handle this. Now feel sorry for me for not being able to handle wiping my own shit."
@@RinsDesk uhm jeff bezos does not handle the organisation of amazon at all, im pretty sure he has an entire team hired for that lol. Also i wasnt defending her at all nor empathising? I was just saying that in my eyes, you can still call it a small business if its 35 employees. Like i said multiple times that she was bad at it and needs to find a way to fix the mess she caused, idk how thats me empathising with her lol?
Your rudeness and false way of viewing how amazon as a brand works aside, i do think i was wrong in my reply tho. I was comparing her business to the business world as a whole where 35 employees is quite frankly not much, but in the tattoo business world it is a lot and unusual so you are right she isnt really a small business when we take it into account that she is in the tattoo industry
@@laurentcathery273 Uh. Do you think Jeff Bezos is sitting at home rolling his thumbs? No. He's running that team. He's the one responsible for the team and what they are doing. I'm sorry, but you apparently don't know how businesses work. You can call me rude, if you want. But you're the one with false views.
@@RinsDesk you do realise jeff bezos owns more than amazon, the selling platform, right? He also owns twitch, prime video, zapos, whole foods, audible, the washington post and way more. You sincerly believe he manages the team of all these on his own?
Of course he doesnt. What he does is investments, not management. It means he buys brands and campanies, puts some money in them, and then cashes in profit that the company makes. If the company fails, all he loses is pretty much what he originally invested in it and thats it.
Jeff bezos is also like the worst exemple as he is known to rarely make public statements or do marketting apparences or interviews, unlike other ceos.
Quite literally, jeff bezos doesnt do much but simply buying stuff and landing his money.
Did I miss something? It sounded like she didn't try to first resolve this issue privately with the salon, before putting the salon on blast on social media. Anybody else get the same feeling?
Yes exactly. Only having a slightly weird interaction with the receptionist is a pretty ridiculous reason to flame the entire business. Smh.
It's a on going problem with multiple people who had a similar problem. It is good that she talked publicly about it to remain people just because something is advertised as something doesn't mean it is true, especially now a days with social media. She didn't put them on blast as you said, which seems a little overdramatic to me. All she did was give her own experience (it seems like multiple people had similar bad experiences). It's possible that she helped save this business because it put the issues to the forefront and in the face of the owner, who now can address it. Sometimes people need hard lessons to learn and grow, and this was the hard lesson they needed to be able to actually do something about it because as I said before multiple people had similar bad experiences and nothing was being done about it.
@@viceb7 Did you watch whole the video? It was more than one awkward experience with the receptionist.
If a business is rude and treats you poorly you should speak out. A business is not entitled to private, gentle explanations. This person had a bad experience and made a public review. If everyone contacted a business directly every time someone had an issue and no one ever made reviews, no one would know what places are good and which ones are bad. Customers are not responsible for the businesses feelings/reputation.
Omg I’m screaming I’ve had a tattoo and my nips done there, just now starting video. I loved them they were wonderful! ETA- Very sweet, great vibes, did placement correctly for both nips and tattoo. Talked during both of them about what I was up to in the area. I felt like both the piercer and artist were excited to be there and do the service.
Just because a business advertises it's a safe space, whatever the hell that means, doesn't mean it is. It's profitable right now to say you're woman owned or black owned or gay friendly, honestly, when businesses advertise in this way, I tend to stay away from them.
They need to scale back their operations. 35 employees is too many.
I know literally no one asked, but I've been binging your videos and while you have always been beautiful, the glow up in your latest videos tells me you've found a gorgeous style that simultaneously suits you and absolutely slays and I had to say it
Thank you 🥹🩷
As an artist that works around the dfw area, I swear I’ve had a client or two come in and complain about that studio 😭
This is the first video of yours that I have seen. Well done! I also LOVE all the cute decor in your room 😍
Ty 😃❤️
"i have a very small business it's just me" ...she has 35 people across two different tattoo studios, that's not a small business. her tattoo artists clearly don't care enough, but they need to step up so that she's not handling every single thing on her own. that being said, i don't think the apology was genuine and i don't think they deserve a second chance. it's more than likely that for every person who waited to voice their poor experience, one or two people DID contact the studio about their bad experience (because it's basically IMPOSSIBLE for 100s of people to have a bad experience and they all keep quiet about it), meaning that they knew about their poor customer service and didn't do anything about it until someone blew up on tiktok because they decided to speak out. no single place of business has a 100% rating, so for this to never have been a problem before is statistically impossible.
also, it seems like all the social media posts are of their Fort Worth location and not the one that Jessica went to in Dallas so there might be a chance that they already knew something was amiss with the customer satisfaction at the Dallas location, but that's just my two cents on it
I agree if you listen to the "apology" it almost sounds like she's saying "She didn't communicate with us well enough there needed to be better communication" just a straight "yeah they f'ed up should not have treated a customer this way and we had a meeting about it I apologize we will fix this" would have been great but when you ramble on with excuses of oh poor me it's not sincere
i live in town in the UK that has one of the most famous/infamous safe space tattoo studios. my experience there gave me a real bad taste in my mouth about so called “safe space” studio. as a disabled queer person i’m so passionate about safe spaces so it absolutely sucks this keeps happening.
i’m a heavily tattooed person so i think i have a better idea what is a good or bad tattoo experience, so the thought of people who have little to no tattoos thinking these shitty experiences are normal is so sad
General rule of thumb - if an area has been colonized, the colonizers are STILL to this day ignoring indigenous communities and many of them do not acknowledge the atrocities they have committed in the past. The US often gets a bad rep because we are more likely to acknowledge the issues we have (but we still have a lot of work to do and are no where near up to standard). Very very similar issues exist in countries like Canada and Australia. They just don't acknowledge them.
I remember a few years ago everyone on the internet was SHOCKED to learn about those Christian boarding schools in the US and Canada that stole indigenous kids to make then... Well not indigenous. I also knew a LOT of children died there and that there was these mass graves of children.
I was pretty confused... I learned about that in school. But these schools were in Canada so everyone was... Shocked.... For some reason? Sometimes I get slapped in the face with how privlaged I was to get a rather decent education
What do you mean by colonisers? No people alive in any of those countries were the ones that colonised the country, they’re just people who were born there and are living their lives.
I am not sure that the initial video needed to be made, especially since Jessica most likely has a large following. I think it would have been better if she just contacted the studio to let them know about her poor customer service experience. I also don't know how anything she listed as red flags would indicate that this isn't a safe space for LGBTQIA+ individuals. Just because the vibe of a place is a bit negative and not welcoming overall and customer service is bad, doesn't mean it isn't a safe space. It would be different if they seemed unwelcoming to specific groups of people, but it didn't seem like Jessica felt she or anyone else was being treated unfairly based on anything specific about themselves, but more like the people there were rude so they treated everyone that way. Also, all of the comments were so vague that it sounds more like people just piling on rather than real serious complaints. Most of the people didn't elaborate, and that makes me think that perhaps they just didn't like the prices or the tattoo quality (which can happen anywhere) and decided to complain about it. Especially the person talking about their friends' experience and then calling the owner a b-word. That story honestly made it feel like there was a misunderstanding and then they either expected a discount or felt that the price was too high and so decided to talk some crap. Also, it is a game of telephone when you are describing someone else's experience that you heard about. Throw on top of that the fact that they decided it would be OK to call her a b-word? C'mon now. A lot of people seemed to just say they had a "bad" experience but didn't say what about it made it bad. Something that made your experience bad might be something that made someone else's experience good. I feel like if it was really something awful, wouldn't they have shared that? If all you say is that your experience was bad, how can the studio improve or share their perspective on the situation? Also, tattoos sometimes heal horribly, was it because of something specific that the artist did or was it just one of those things where you have a poor reaction or don't take care of your tattoo while it is healing? They didn't say it got infected, they didn't say that they contacted the artist and the artist blew them off, so that makes me think it wasn't necessarily something that the artist did or didn't do. To me, this seems like a lot of issues with managing the location, communication, and hiring people whose vibes and attitudes don't align with the goals of the studio. I guess I am just used to your videos with legit HUGE scandals and unsanitary conditions and all that, so rude staff and poor customer service are not making me clutch my pearls. If anything, the way the studio and owner and the marketing person handled everything makes me want to go and check them out. The Dallas Location has 4.3 stars on Google (out of 479 reviews) and 3.3 stars on Yelp (out of 34 reviews) and the Fort Worth location has 4.4 stars on Google (out of 77 reviews) and 5 stars on Yelp (out of 5 reviews). In this instance I would be more likely to assume the Google ones are more accurate since there are more reviews on there overall so it can balance out better. Also, people tend to be more likely to complain about a bad experience than go out of their way to write a review for a good experience, so I would say most of their customers are either somewhere in the middle or happy with their experience overall. I feel like this is a drama that didn't need to happen. For me, a red flag puts me on high alert so listing every negative thing as a red flag gives me the impression that this place is doing something dangerous or sketchy and I must avoid at all costs to protect myself. These are more like strikes to me (yes I am in the US). Strike One: vibes were off from what their IG shows; Strike Two: they were standoffish and rude; Strike Three: they marked me as a no show and let other people go ahead of me and didn't even apologize! And I was OUT of there (baseball puns). The only technical thing mentioned was that she saw one person putting a stencil on the client while they were both sitting down. Perhaps that client or artist has difficulty standing up or that artist realized that they can be more accurate while sitting down? Jessica may be correct that they are doing it incorrectly, but as she is still new to tattooing and I would assume apprenticed at one studio with one or more people who were probably all using similar techniques and methods, perhaps it is too early for her to criticize other people while they work when she doesn't know their situation and hasn't had enough experience to be an expert on the subject (and even among experts there are going to be things on which they disagree). I think she had a bad experience while she was there (and I certainly don't blame her, the customer service was dreadful) and that was on top of an already bad day and she decided to be spicy about it rather than contact the studio privately. I don't think she realized it would blow up like this and I really appreciate that she made the follow-up video about it. She is talented and seems pretty awesome, so I am probably going to go follow her now.
To me, if all the staff have attitudes like that it’s the employer that’s the problem.
People have gotten too comfortable posting about every little thing. It would be one thing if she contacted the owner and they were rude so she then takes it to social media but this seemed completely unnecessary. Not sure why she’s surprised the artists got hate, it’s sadly how social media works.
I love the sound of the nails clicking together ❤
Hi Lauren, Can you please cover the situation with Ink & Water in Toronto? Apparently the owners fled the country without paying people
That number of tattoo artists feels odd..... I have literally never seen that on ANY studio's account. I wonder if thks is a new type of business model?
They also offer piercing services
Yeah, I'm wary now of the woman-owned small business accs on social media. I was looking for a piercing studio last minute last month because the studio I booked didn't get back to me with a confirmation. I needed one in the area of where I was going to meet my friends later in the day so I went looking on facebook, tiktok, and instagram. I found one on facebook that just gave me bad vibes. It was a woman owned piercing studio and the owner just gave birth and stuff it was cute but as I scrolled I got so many red flags. I inquired before I saw the red flags so I just said I'll think about popping by (i never plan to go there ever.). Firstly, she had a post with this MASSIVE jar full of USED NEEDLES as like a memory thing and I was just so grossed out because that is a BIOHAZARD. Then I saw pictures of her work and they're pretty average but one post really got to me, she did 9 piercings total on both ears. I feel bad cause the guy won't be able to sleep.
I think putting the shop on blast on her instagram when the “red flag” weren’t even that bad is disrespectful. The shop sounds lovely and how the responded was commendable.
Things happen, even great shops have bad days as an tattoo apprentice she should realize that.
Also placing a stencil while someone is sitting is fine, as long as the skin is not stretched. She doesn’t know if the client has mobility issues or something that makes standing up for periods hard. And she had nothing do to with that apportionment so i’m not sure why she’s judging so hard
it seemed like the worst thing they did was be on the phone while talking to her and accidentally mark her as a no show.
I absolutely agree 👍
Sounds like Lilac Studios needs to pull back on quantity and focus more on quality. But the owner does seems to sincerely care and like she does want to make things right. I can respect everything she said in her response. Also.. Thank you for including the MMIW info in here. Thank you thank thank you!!! ❤
More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women, or 84.3 percent, have experienced violence in their lifetime. THATS 1.2 TIMES MORE LIKELY than other non native women. Its time for change. Its BEEN TIME. ❤Love your videos lady!!! ❤
Seeing people with experiences like this makes me so sad. It makes me realize that my tattoo shop is a whole different vibe than most. Im excited for every client that walks in our doors. So glad she did what she needed to do!!!
i’m a native person. thank you for highlighting us. it’s socially acceptable to be racist to us and justify genocide against us and not bothering to learn about us. thank you so much. it truly means the world to us. to be humanized. thank you ❤
There was a very good movie that came out in 2017 called Wind River. It was made to bring awareness to the amount of indigenous women raped and murdered. It mentions that many have not been documented.😢
The owner kept looping back to how stretched thin she is, that is when you hire a manager thats focus is the little details. She grew too quick and couldn't sustain it the same.
Theres a pretty big studio I've been to in a city near me and even they dont have that many artists appointment scheduling must be a nightmare
stories like this make me so glad that i have a friend who owns a tattoo studio with a few other artists. ive only started getting tattoos last year but ive always wanted some. but I dont know how much longer i would have waited to get them if i had to go to someone i dont even know...idk that would be so hard to trust someone you just found on instagram with your first tattoo when you just dont know what is 'normal' and whats not.
I really love to see a person or brand being called out and then taking accountability. I don't think everyone needs to be cancelled. I hope they can learn and improve from this situation.
Ahhhh another video of urs let’s goooo!! So excited to watch 🥰✨
Ehhh... sorry, but it doesn't take 6 months to incorporate good customer service. If someone doesn't understand the old saying of "treat others how you want to be treated" then they have no business working with the public. Also, there are programs specifically made to help a business handle appointments. They can auto send texts about the appointment, even providing an option to send an apology for a delay. Sure, its impersonal, but it's the bare minimum.
DFW stands for Dallas-Fort Worth. I’m from Dallas and my cousin got her tattoo done here and we had a great experience. I can’t speak to all of the artists there but we didn’t have any issues at all. I think you might have a better experience if you go to a specific artist rather than doing a walkin. Even though you should get good experience no matter what.
I think some of the video clips you showed from IG are from the other location. The one Jessica went to was much smaller. I wonder if theres a major culture difference between the two?
Getting a tattoo can be such an anxious experience. My first tattoo was at a small business with two artists. Two of my friends were getting tattoos as well, one of which was a bigger one. We were in the studio for almost entire afternoon. The owner offered us tea and chatted with us while we were waiting, asking lot of questions about career and such. The artist doing my tattoo was an older gentleman and is a lifelong artist. He kept talking to me about art in order to ease the experience. Although the tattoo didn't turn out perfect as I wanted, it was a great experience overall.