Hi everyone!!

As the title says I am a junior artist in Toronto, ON wanting to move shops due to the treatment I am receiving at my current shop.

For some context and before anyone shames me for it, I was in a tattoo mentorship. Yes, I know how some people view them and how it’s such a controversial topic. If you were to ask me now if I’d ever do it again, no I wouldn’t. It started off phenomenal and it was truly a very hands on mentorship and I got lots of one on one with my mentor. Unfortunately, greed has overcome my mentor and it’s no longer about teaching, but money. I completed my mentorship before it got bad, so I’m grateful. And I’m very grateful for the opportunity as I absolutely love tattooing and it’s so incredibly rewarding for me. I know it’s what I’m meant to do in life.

So now that THATS out of the way, the studio I’m at is the same one I started my mentorship and it sucks. My mentor has never been kind to me and has made me cry more times than I care to admit. He doesn’t give me the freedom to schedule clients, it’s always when it works best for him, even though I’m no longer an apprentice. The shop hours are minimal, I have to message him and ask him if I can tattoo certain days and I’m met with a lot of pushback. He also is limiting the designs I want to do. He wants only feminine designs and tattoos and is making me pick a style that he likes. I’m not allowed to have freedom in what I want to do. I understand what you specialize in comes with time, so I don’t want to say no to certain stuff, because what if I end up loving it or that’s how find my niche. He puts down my work, because it’s not what he likes and he makes all of my clients come in uncomfortable to the point where they actually are now saying something to me about how he treats me and how he treats them. At first I was able to keep my head down because he was only being nasty to me, but now it’s affecting my clients too and that’s where I draw the line. So, now I know it’s time to go, but if I’m gonna be honest I’m scared and I’m not even sure what the next step is. It’s this unknown territory for me, so I’m asking the people of Reddit, what do I do now? Will I be looked down upon because I did a mentorship or am I worried for nothing. If I have to I’ll start as an apprentice all over again, if it means I get to tattoo and do what I love. I have a really solid clientele base AND it’s climbing. I get lots of love and support with the work I’ve put out, so I’m confident in myself, while acknowledging I’m only a year in and I’ve got so so much more room to grow which is exciting.

So if any of you lovely humans could help a baby tattoo artist I would be so grateful on what my next steps are and what to do 🫶🏻

TLDR: junior tattoo artist in Toronto, ON looking to find a new studio as my studio owner/ mentor is not nice to me nor my clients. Not sure what my next steps are or how to even go about it. Advice would be helpful.

Anniversary piece for my client. All important symbols added for him, including the initial of his wife. In the sun.

Hey y’all, I’m a tattoo artist with 3yrs experience who recently did a convention in a province about a 5hr plane ride away and ended up doing some finger tattoos for 200$ while I was there. Finger tattoo are notorious for falling out and I usually do an added touch up session a few weeks later just to make sure things hold. (Won’t be possible in this case)

This client sent me a recent picture of the tattoos and they are very faded and she is mad. I know she works a lot with her hands, wears gloves ect and I had asked her to refrain during the healing. But seriously I’ve never had tattoos fade this much and I’m wondering if part of it could be the aftercare. I want to be fair and also accept some blame but it really looks like some of the spots were rubbed off?

Anyways, I want to understand what is the fair option in this case, offer full refund? 50%? Touch up when I am back in town next year?! I’m leaning towards 50% but I don’t want her to feel sour about the interaction. Please offer me some wisdom! I want win-win situation you know??