New Member, Between a rock and hard place

[adiabatic]

Hi everyone, I'm new here - I rushed and found a tattoo studio where I currently live in Moldova (for school) and the artist I chose had some pretty good tattoos in his portfolio I thought.

So I decided to do a large tattoo from my shoulder to anterior elbow and we did about 8 hours today on it. Currently I'm panicking because i'm having second thoughts about the quality of the work and not sure how to proceed.  

I payed 50% deposit, and today at the shop the owner was like "no man just pay the rest when you come in next time for the second session" and after I left he calls me on my cell and asks to come pick up the rest of the money from me because he needs it for the website he's making or some craziness like that. The place is busy and looks like a legit shop in the center of town... but please if you could take a look and tell me what you think.... they know i'm going to bulgaria in 2 weeks on vacation and this is what they left me with...

 

the top part of the tattoo, the face is fine with me...but the flowers look like shit and with a shirt on it just looks strange doesn't fit my arm size... there is that empty space there and...I'm considering approaching another artist I found at another studio that is didn't know about and I believe is much better...

This is my fault because I rushed into it, and thought it would turn out great...but I'm not sure anymore that it will.

anyways sorry for the long post but please any advice would be great thanks.

[irishowl]

You can def save that. But you need to go to a different artist. I don't know what you should do about the deposit you already made, but I think you should just stop where you are now, and do some research.  Find a better artist and discuss with them what happened. Hopefully they can talk to you about what they can do to make it better. The last thing I would advise doing is going back to continue. 

[adiabatic]

thank you very much for you advice...
Could you please tell me what about this design is wrong? for 8 hours of work is this like totally not acceptable?

I found a different artist and emailed him already and waiting on a response... I'm so wrecked right now because I can't believe I'm this dumb.

[irishowl]

Youre gonna be alright haha, I've seen so much worse. My family has a lot of tattoos, and I've seen a lot more that are worse than this. The skull looks a bit crooked and the lines for the fan seem a bit jagged as well. From what I see of the face, it isn't bad like you said, but if you continued to work with the man/woman who did this before, it probably would turn ugly. Like I said, it's not completely life ruining and terrible, but it would probably be something you would regret years down the line if you continued with the previous artist, and that would suck! Just take your time. 

[adiabatic]

thanks! I appreciate you.

[irishowl]

No problem! :) 

[DJDeepFried]

I think it's impossible to tell without seeing the artist's other work. Sort of like judging a finished painting based on a rough sketch. I will say that the line work looks a little thin. I like bolder lines. But again he might be planning to go back in and layer it. Did you like what he had in his portfolio? Composition and placement looks okay to me but is he going to leave all that blank space or put in background?

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[oboogie]

@irishowl, you don't have any tattoos yet, do you?

[Synesthesia]

I think this thing's a mess, man. For one thing, your whole deposit situation and him calling you for the rest of the money is really weird and doesn't indicate he's a professional. This guy's lines look shaky and not confident, and exceptionally thin. He has an okay eye for composition, I like how the flowers go into your elbow, although I wonder what he was planning on doing for the empty spot on your inner bicep (background? nothing?). His shading looks amateurish. If you're going for realism, his approach is too bold, if you were going for something more "cartoony," he isn't being bold enough.

I'm afraid it'll end up being a really weak tattoo overall if you continue with this guy. I think if you change artists now and have a better guy finish it for you, it could turn out really nice. I think you have the framework for a nice tattoo but someone else needs to take over. Do you have any portfolio pictures from the current artist and the guy you're planning on going to? Do they have Facebook, Instagram, etc?

Your arm isn't ruined, it could definitely be a lot worse.

[kblood]

I think you better follow your gut! It has potential to be a great piece but this guy doesn't seem like he knows how to go about this. There are too many mistakes that can be fixed up, but you don't want him making any more mess ups!

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[bongsau]

8 hours for just that? 

Nice that he took a 50% deposit than insisted on the rest of the money up front...

sounds sketchy.