First, let me say that I do not mean to put down any Artist's work. I appreciate the skill it takes to create art, especially since I do not possess that skill. Tattoo Artists take things to another level! I take responsibility for this outcome by succumbing to a spur of the moment decision, not doing my due diligence and not supplying adequate inspiration material.
May 2022, my buddy and I head to the Baltimore Tattoo Convention just to "check things out". Before I know it, my buddy is sitting in a chair getting a Motley Crue Theatre of Pain tattoo. With 3 hours to kill, I made another loop of the Convention floor.
Was now the time? Would today be the day I get my Sasquatch tattoo?
I start checking the Art Book of one of the other Artists at the booth my buddy was. Really good stuff, and even a couple competition trophies. Yes! Today would be the day. The Artist had 1.5 hours before his next appointment. Let's do this,
I provided the inspiration material, a sticker with Sasquatch holding an American Flag, while throwing up the metal devil horns, and an example of how to do the body. Everything I love.
45 mins pass, and the tattoo starts. I am a little concerned at only having 45 mins now... but he gets it done.
He snaps a pix and asks me how it looks... then before I could respond, he says... "ohhh I forgot the hair". What? Ok... 30 seconds later the hair is done. He snaps another pix and asks how it turned out. I say "Great", tipped him and proceeded to walk the Convention floor for another hour.
My buddy finishes he awesome Crue Tattoo and asks how mine turned out. I shuffle him away from the table... As we walked around, I told my story... as he did all he could not roll on the floor laughing at me...
I told my boys it was a life lesson and a story that will be with me forever :)
Well, it was not really what I had envisioned. I won't get it into it all my issues, other than two parts. His idea of adding hair, was all the little lines coming out of the body. That cracked me up and I now understand why it only took him 30 seconds to add.
But the flag is the thing that hurt. It was the one thing I was worried about going into and it was obvious that it caused him issues with the line work. Which he then covered up by going real dark on the Blue and Red. The Stripes... Not straight... Not connected... Uggg,
Well, with no way to really fix it, the decision was made to remove it. The flag... disrespectful in my opinion to the Country. About 9 months ago I started the journey to remove it. The very first made it 100% better, and each visit has targeted different areas. I am about halfway done.
Hopefully, in about 9 more months, and 5 more visits it will be mostly gone or at least enough so that a "cover up" is feasible. More updates to come as we move forward :)