US tipping culture needs to die and it needs to at least stay in the US. Ridiculous. Tattoo artists set their own price for crying out loud. wtf. Fuck off.
I got a decent sized leg tattoo from a guy who did a small piece on my wrist. He charged me a bit over $200 for the wrist, and I didn't tip then because I didn't realize it was a thing for the tattoo industry. There was no issue at the time, and I made an appointment for the leg piece. For that he quoted $1100, which was great a price for what I wanted. A little cheaper than I expected, but not by a lot. I paid $500 deposit, and brought $600 to the final appointment (2-day process).
When I didn't tip that last appointment day, things got frosty. I was so thrown for a loop that I panicked, and said I forgot his tip at home and I would have my (now-ex) husband drop it off later. Sent my husband back the next day with $300 cash and an apology. Husband came back with his own appointment for ink, so it couldn't have gone bad.
Buuuut the next time I reached out to the artist for another piece, I got ghosted. Still have lingering shame from the whole situation. I certainly wasn't trying to stiff my artist, and I sincerely wish he had just quoted $1400-1500 from the get-go.
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u/Sloeberjong 7h ago
US tipping culture needs to die and it needs to at least stay in the US. Ridiculous. Tattoo artists set their own price for crying out loud. wtf. Fuck off.