Tattoo Artist Told He Should Have Said 'No' To Client Who Got Her Boyfriend's Face Tattooed On Her Neck
Should tattoo artists take their client's choices into their own hands? Or should they let them live with the consequences of their actions?
TikTok A recent viral video has people debating the moral codes that tattoo artists have — or should have — when it comes to requests for tattoos that they probably should have said no to.
A young couple who look like they were merely in their teens, walked went into the tattoo parlor with a purpose, and now that entire internet is not only coming down on them but the tattoo artist as well for saying yes and doing a shoddy job with the tattoo.
The tattoo artist should have said no to tattooing the girl’s boyfriend’s face on her neck.
Under the TikTok account “@damonteray,” the teen who goes by AJ (according to his YouTube page) posted about the time he and his girlfriend went to the tattoo parlor to get her a tattoo… Of his face… On her neck.
The text overlaid in the video reads “My girlfriend getting my face tatted,” while the music playing is actually an original rap song by AJ himself, titled “R.O.D.,” which stands for “Ride Or Die” and even features his girlfriend, Jayda.
While at the tattoo shop, the tattoo artist goes through the motion of applying the stencil to the place where she wanted the tattoo — the base of her neck — before actually getting into doing the work. The tattoo was supposed to be based on a photo provided by AJ himself, but the final product looks a little… different than the original.
At some point, while Jayda was struggling through the pain, AJ shows off his own tattoo that he got of her name right above his eyebrow. After everything was all said and done, she claimed that she liked the tattoo, so all’s well that ends well. Right?
It seems like the pair have a lot of love for each other, but is that enough to warrant a young woman getting a tattoo of her boyfriend’s face? Well, when Twitter and TikTok weighed in, the results were a resounding “no.”
People think tattoo artists should say no more often to bad tattoo requests.
One viral tweet on Twitter from a man named Ray Anderson reads, “We need to talk about ethical and socially responsible tattooing and why it’s important to say no to these kids.”
Anderson points out that Jayda still has braces in her mouth — a procedure that’s known to commonly occur when children’s teeth are still growing. “That’s a baby,” he says, referring to her age with some slight exaggeration.
His point is that she’s entirely too young to be making this kind of decision, even at 18, which is the minimum legal age for anyone to get a tattoo.
“I say this as someone who put a decade into this. You CAN and SHOULD be saying NO, and any shop that demands that you ‘do everything’ is not a shop you need to work at,” he says.
Anderson also takes a shot at the tattoo artist for not understanding his own “depth,” seeing as the tattoo came out very…inaccurate, and calls the whole thing “a huge mess all around.”
A huge mess is right, seeing as Jayda and the tattoo artist he refers to as “Soo Sprayed,” both deleted their accounts as a result of the backlash they received for the video. Despite that, AJ seems to be taking the criticism in strides, not really caring about what everyone else is saying and expressing his pride in the tattoos they’ve gotten for each other.
There’s an argument to be made that this was their choice, and their bodies as well, and that the tattoo artist shouldn’t be made liable for what others might deem as poor decision-making, we just hope that they’re aware of how permanent tattoos are and are sure of the consequences.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.