Woman Says Her Tattoo Artist ‘Lied’ Online After Spelling Her Tattoo Wrong — ‘You’re Trying To Get Sympathy For Something That Didn’t Happen’
There was a lot more to the story that she was leaving out.
Natalia Lebedinskaia / Shutterstock A tearful tattoo artist went online to share her experience with a client who allegedly became livid after she misspelled a tattoo. Initially, many people supported the tattoo artist, pointing out the fact that everyone makes mistakes and should be given grace from time to time.
However, the client responded to the artist’s video and told a much different version of the story.
The tattoo artist said that a client blew up at her after she misspelled her tattoo despite double-checking beforehand to make sure that it was correct.
The tattoo artist, Spriggs, who has since made her TikTok account private, posted a video detailing a recent mishap with a client.
According to an emotional Spriggs, she and the client, who goes by lai lai on TikTok, both looked over the tattoo stencil and double-checked to ensure that the spelling was correct before she began.
However, after lai lai paid for the tattoo, she noticed it was misspelled.
“What do you mean? We both looked at it,” Spriggs said she told lai lai. “She’s [expletive] pissed, and she’s calling me a dumb [expletive],” she added tearfully.
However, when lai lai came across Spriggs’ video, she decided to respond and call her out on her lies.
Lai lai said that the tattoo artist was not concentrating on her work.
Lai lai responded that even though Spriggs had checked the correct spelling of the tattoo, she did not seem in the right headspace to work on clients that particular day.
She claimed that she would have been more than happy to rebook her appointment with Spriggs when she was feeling more up to it.
Still, lai lai took accountability for not looking over the stencil thoroughly before allowing Spriggs to tattoo her.
“I never said that it wasn’t partially my fault,” lai lai said. "I understand that I need to look at the tattoo I’m getting more than a few times … and I trusted her enough to know how to [expletive] spell words, so that’s my mistake.”
Lumen Photos / Shutterstock
However, she argued that as a tattoo artist, Spriggs should have triple-checked the spelling to make sure it was correct before permanently inking it on her body. “It takes two to tango,” she said.
According to lai lai, she also never cursed at Spriggs as she claimed. “Why are you sitting here shedding these little crocodile tears trying to get sympathy for something that didn’t even happen?”
She also asserted that Spriggs messaged her and sent back half of the money she paid — and she has the text messages to prove it.
At the end of the video, lai lai revealed the botched art, which reads, “love concours all” instead of “love conquers all.”
She also noted that Spriggs admitted to misspelling a “couple” of tattoos and that lai lai was not the first mishap.
After hearing both sides of the story, most people sided with lai lai and bashed Spriggs for leaving out crucial details.
“When she said she misspelled tattoos A COUPLE TIMES I knew it wasn’t your fault,” one TikTok user commented.
“It’s their job to be upfront, like, hey, I’m not good at spelling, let’s look together. It’s okay to be honest,” another user noted.
Proper spelling reflects positively on the tattoo artist's professionalism and attention to detail, and clients are more likely to trust artists who demonstrate competence.
Before placing any permanent ink on a person’s body, you should double, triple, and even quadruple-check that it is exactly as they want it.
Even more importantly, if you happen to make a mistake, do not put yourself on blast on social media sobbing about it and blaming the client instead of reaching out to them personally.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.