Tattoo Artists Share The Times They Had To Tell People "Hell No", And Here Are The 35 Worst

Mum brought her 15 year old son in because he had a bunch of hand-poked scribbles on his forearm. She was asking about getting a cover-up and he had selected a traditional "3 legged panther". After having a smoke and thinking about this, I asked her, "if he didn't have all this garbage on his arm, would you be bringing hom in for a tattoo?" After she said no, I asked, "then why reward his bad behavior with what he wants? Here's the name of a laser clinic you could take him to. The cost is about the same and you can make him work off the debt." I'll never forget the death stare this kid gave me after I ruined his whole scheme. I've also refused to tattoo symbols of hate for obvious reasons, but that one with this kid stands out the most.

A friend who is a tattooer once had a kid, maybe 18 or 19, who wanted the numbers his H*******t survivor grandparent had been given. My friend asked him some questions and realized quickly that the kid had no sense of respect for the meaning of the tattoos and just wanted to be edgy.

He says he didn't give a s**t about the kid but would not disrespect a h*******t survivor that way.

Had a repeat client ask me to schedule her for like 6 different large tattoos. And I mean like full coverage of areas like shins, arms, etc. she was like 19 and had only gotten smaller pieces. She told me she also scheduled similarly with another artist. I asked if she was doing alright and she admitted her bf cheated on her and she got diagnosed with BP. Apparently was in a current manic episode. I returned her deposit and told her in a years time if she still wanted the tattoos I would discount them for her. She does not still want them lol.

No tattoos, but I did witness a rather wholesome version of this while waiting for my best friend to get his latest ink. A teenager came into the local tattoo shop to ask for a tattoo of a girl's name with all sorts of romantic junk around it. The tattoo artist probably wasn't sure about the kid's age, but asked him a few questions - and it turned out the girl wasn't the boy's girlfriend. She was his crush, and he planned to permanently ink himself as a way to show how much he cared about her when he admitted his crush. The tattoo artist turned him down flat and gave him a little man-to-man advice.

Husband is a tattooer. He refused a 16 year old who wanted 666 tattooed on his neck. The kids mom was ready to sign for him and everything. He now will not tattoo minors under any circumstances.

Hands, neck and face tattoos on younger people that have zero or very few tattoos. If you’re 19 years old and want the Louis Viton symbol on your face and you’re a line cook, imma say no. That was an actual request.

They’re called job stoppers for a reason, and I was told I was “gatekeeping bodies”.

I was once at a shop while a friend got a new tattoo. There was a guy sitting at the counter looking bored as hell and reading a newspaper. A couple of teenagers walked in holding hands, and nobody looked up or acknowledged them until they stood at the counter for a minute and said, “ummm…” Without moving a muscle, the counter guy said, “… help you?”

“Yes,” the girl replied, “I want ‘PROPERTY OF BUCKLEY’ in big capital letters across my lower back.” Cue 20 seconds of silence. The employee loudly folded his newspaper and stared at her for a bit. Then he slowly looked across at the guy. “And this winner here, this is Buckley?” She flinched and replied, “uh, yes?”

Counter guy picked his newspaper back up and opened it and went back to reading it. “Nah,” he said, in a voice that made it clear the conversation was over, “we’re not doing that.” The kids looked at each other, looked back at him, then sheepishly walked out the door.

I sometimes wonder how things ended up for them, if she went on to get the tattoo somewhere else, or if that employee saved her from some regret down the line.

I had an artist that would flat out refuse *any* name tattoos unless they were your kids, a member of your family, or dead. Didn’t want people stuck with an ex’s name.

Last month, I had a couple come in. The wife was doing most of the talking. He trailed and mumbled behind. After I finished answering her questions about a piercing, he finally said something about how much it would be to add to his tattoo. I ask to see it, and he pulls up a shirt with two confederate flags and a noose on the middle. I, baffled, said, "You want to cover this up?" He goes, "no, I want to add some dates to it. "

Kicked him out. He complained about his tattoo not being racist. Yeah, no.

Im not a "tattooer" but I got denied a tattoo that was a gang symbol.. at the time I was in a dark place but know now this man saved my life, forever marked with that would've ruined my life more than I had already done.

Not a tattooer, but a goldsmith. had someone try and commission a pendant that had the SS symbol, and "88" not at all subtly included in the design.
was extra ironic that they thought I would be a good choice for that... since i'm jewish, and make no secret of that fact...

one of my professors had a similar story, of someone asking him to make a swastika necklace... he's a 90 year old man... from poland... yeah, he had some choice words for that "person".

Wanted a tattoo of grave that said "dead girls can't say no.".

Wasn’t ever denied a tattoo, but my tattoo artist doesn’t let other people in the room when working on the design, especially spouses or significant others. His philosophy is this is your tattoo that you have to live, not theirs. That way they are not influencing a design that you might not want, just because of their relationship with you.

My cousin owns his own shop. He won’t do anything racist and no tattoos on or around genitals.

My dad refused a client who wanted a tattoo of dead babies hanging off meat hooks.

Not a tattoo artist, but I used to run the front desk of a tattoo shop and I spoke with the clients/scheduled the appointments. I had one youngish kid come in looking to get his first tattoo. After some talking with him, he mentioned that he was Jewish and the tattoo was supposed to be signify his Jewish heritage and the evils his family endured during WWII. It was at that time that I had to educate him on the fact that Jewish people actually believe that tattoo's are considered verboten in their faith and that was part of why them being tattooed in the camps was especially horrible because it was another way to spit on their beliefs. It just felt really wrong, as a person who is not only not Jewish in any way, but as someone who follows no religion to any such a degree, that I would have to explain the basic components of this kids own religion to him because he'd never truly been taught about it.

When I was 25 in Vancouver I tried to get a tattoo that said "Reserved" on my right pinkie, because I was going to get an iron ring. I went to several tattoo shops and none of them would do it. They told me that fingers weren't great for tattoos and that the lettering would bleed out. I asked about a ring tattoo instead and they all said they wouldn't give me a hand tattoo as my first tattoo.

28 years later and it's still one of only two tattoos that I wish I had gotten, but major props to them all for pumping the breaks because of their professionalism and experience.

I had a client who I’d tattooed like a decade prior - he was weird then but not weird enough for me to never tattoo him again. He sent me a strangely worded email with a PDF with like 50 different tattoo ideas and told me he wanted me to pick one for him. I replied with a few that I thought would suit my style best, but told him that at the end of the day I can’t choose for him.

I guess this set him off because he started telling me that he just wanted to get tattooed as a socially acceptable form of self harm, and then sent another email right after that one, going on some crazy rant about how he wanted one last tattoo before he kills himself. He also reminded me that he lives like an 8 hour drive away, so I assume for some reason he sought me out. F*****g weirdo.

Anyways, I very kindly declined and sent him a bunch of local mental health resources. I don’t get paid enough lol.

I had a guy that wanted to get a portrait of him and his ex-girlfriend inside of a heart shaped umbilical cord because she had aborted their baby. Yuck.

I'm an artist myself. Most of what I've had to refuse have been things I'm not technically able to execute to a level I'm happy with. Mostly very large, dark cover ups, which I refer to friends who are more specialized. I also don't tattoo faces as a matter of personal liability.

I had one gentleman reach out with a half sleeve he wanted covered. It was very large and dark and geometric, and I told him that I wasn't confident in my ability to pack in opaque greys over black like that and referred him to my former mentor. He immediately became pissy and replied along the lines of "oh you cant do it then?" At which point I stopped responding because he sounded stupid.

Anyway a couple of weeks later I get a request for a quote on a kicka*s dinosaur sleeve. We agree on a price and the day comes. It was the guy I had already said no to... with a half done cover up of the dinosaur sleeve already started and still fairly fresh.

He seemed baffled that I still didn't want to do the coverup when someone had already lined it for me, which he thought apparently was the hard part.

I asked why the person who had taken the coverup wasn't finishing it, and was told that I was cheaper. Needless to say I did not finish the coverup. I referred him back to the guy who started the thing. I don't have a dog in the fight at this point but I almost hope I see him again so I can see the outcome of this dinosaur coverup.