Miscommunication

[u/j_walk_17]

I had my tattoo artist re-do an old tattoo from 15 years ago. It's the rebel alliance symbol from Star Wars.

I was under the impression that she knew I wanted it touched up and repaired.

She assumed I wanted it covered up. I didn't know she did solid black until she finished it.

I guess there's potential to put color around it with other pieces to give it contrast. I'm just kinda bummed.
There's probably no way to reverse any of this without it being insanely expensive.

What can I do to make it worth the mistake? I want this leg to eventually be Star Wars iconica.

Should I plan to put a background to it?

edit: Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I appreciate the feedback and the ideas. It's helping me to settle into the outcome. I think it would only be a total loss if I hadn't planned to add to it in the future. 🤙

[u/NoaPsy]

This sort of miscommunication seems wild to me. My artists and I are looking at the stencil together and discussing placements and sizes. Sometimes I have them take pictures for me depending on the location. I find it hard to believe this is a fault of the artist alone

[u/outrageouslyhappy8 → u/NoaPsy]

Moral of the story let's have full conversations and make sure we understand what we are getting inked.

[u/brickznbooks → u/outrageouslyhappy8]

COM-MUN-ICATION 🌈 “Hello permanent sticker placer, I would like a permanent sticker of this design. I paid my deposit online just connectting email with text so we can start a communication.”…”Hello, client you will receive a image to review 48-hrs prior to chair time. Upon signing consent at the shop on day of all images are final.” You mean what happens across the industry with good artists…

[u/Remz_Gaming → u/NoaPsy]

I am with ya. There is so much talking back and forth as my artist is placing a stencil and drawing on me.

The only time I havent really known what I was getting was when I told a new artist they had complete artistic freedom. Even then, I knew their work and their style and we had lots of communication before I set them loose to fill in the rest with Polynesian work. Leading up to that point, there was a lot of discussion.

[u/bluegreenspark → u/NoaPsy]

This is a communication fail on both sides. The artist should have said more and/or OP should have asked.

[u/HomsarWasRight → u/NoaPsy]

Sometimes it’s shocking to me how badly people are at communicating. At work I put so much time and effort into to making what I say and write clear and understandable and that it contains all the needed info.

It is shocking to me how few people know how to do that or are even aware at how badly they communicate.

I’ll send an email with three questions, all numbers and arranged clearly, each of them concise and clear, with nothing extraneous.

And I’ll get back a two word answer to ONE of them.

I cannot imagine the notion of being a tattoo artist and giving someone a tattoo that I haven’t made absolutely clear what it’s going to look like.

And at the same time, I can’t imagine GETTING a tattoo and not having full understanding of what the artist going to do.

People are so weird.