30 Times When Tattoo Artists Had To Deal With The Worst “Tattoo Virgins” As Shared In This Online Group

A couple of years ago, I had a girl come in for what was supposed to be a simple little seahorse, it was only about 4-5 inches long. This was going to be her first tattoo and she told me that she had a severe fear of blood, that she always passed out whenever she sees blood or even thinks she’s going to see blood. After that, I should have never agreed to tattoo her. But she said that she wanted to do this so that she could get over her phobia.

Well, the outline itself should have taken me about 20 minutes or so, but it took me well over an hour and a half to get through. This girl passed out about a dozen times. And after each time, I would have to revive her, get her some water, hold cold compresses to her forehead and back of the neck, elevate her feet and get her calmed down.

And no, you can’t just keep working on someone after they pass out. And I couldn’t just leave her with a couple of random lines that would look awful, I had to finish the outline. The worst part was that I had gotten what I think was food poisoning the night before, so I was just going to do this little tattoo and then go home and get some rest because I still felt awful. I didn’t think I’d ever get that outline done.

Not an artist, but I have a friend who is. Her worst virgin client was a girl who was terrified that the tattoo would hurt a lot. She assumed it was going to be so painful that she took a bunch of pain killers before the appointment. The problem is, most pain medicine causes blood to not clot well. So she ended up bleeding more than normal and freaked out to the point that she passed out. She ended up going to the hospital with maybe half a tattoo.

Kid who wanted to get a full sleeve as his first ever tattoo. Convinced him to get a smaller tattoo for his first ever. He proceeded to throw up after, now this sounds like and exaggeration, five seconds.

I was the worst tattoo virgin. Didn’t know you were supposed to tip the artist until a couple weeks later a friend asked me how much I tipped. Made more sense why he seemed really cool until I checked out and was all pissed. I was to embarrassed to go back and tip him but I wish I would’ve now. It’s been 10 years

I dated a tattoo artist for a couple years and spent a good chunk of time at the shop. One time, a girl we knew from school came in for a large tattoo on her ribs. I think it was flowers. Anyway, everything is set up, she's stenciled and laying on the chair just chatting and waiting. As soon as the needle hits her skin, she starts screaming bloody murder, moaning and begging him to stop. So he stops, shocked, and she tells him (in her normal voice) to ignore her and keep going. Screaming fit proceeds. Every so often he'd stop to check she was alright and she'd respond in a normal, cheerful tone that she's excited to see how it turns out, etc. Needle hits skin, back to screaming like she's being eaten by a pack of wolves. I watched a couple people walk in the shop and turn and walk right back out. I'm surprised cops didn't show up. Anyway I think he only got the outlines and some shading done before he couldn't deal with it anymore and said something about scheduling another session because he had another client coming in. She never came back to get it finished.

It's not the worst, but I love this one. At the expense of my very good client, I generally use this story to help newbs ease in to my chair more comfortably. So it was his first and I'm getting my stencil prepped. He was so nervous, he was basically white. Kept asking if he was good. Yeh he was ok..I guess. Place the stencil on him and ask him to take a look. He looks at his arm and immediately passes out in the chair lol. He's sliding out of the chair, we get him back up and he comes to. He got over it, eventually and has his sleeve 👌

Have two.

I did piercings, but my friend was an artist at the shop we worked at. Had a girl come in, no ink, no piercings. She wanted to get no joke, "Daddys Girl" as a tramp stamp. She was in tears moments into the tattoo, like hysterical s**t. She suffered through all together probably 25 minutes, and walked out with "Girl" right above her waist line. 10/10 hilarious.

The other was a guy. He had a few small tats on his arms, nothing crazy. He was also one of the "I watch UFC and wear Tapout, don't f**k with me" types. He wanted a pretty large tribal chest piece. Collarbone to collarbone. He was told that we recommended a couple of sessions, them s***s is going to hurt, and this is A LOT of outline and A LOT of shading. He insisted no, he could sit. He ended up fainting toward the end of his outline. I worked there for roughly a year after and he never came back to get it finished.

Not an artist but my regular artist told me he had a guy come in to get his birth year tattooed on his back in Gothic script but insisted it be really tiny. The guy then bragged about "being inked".

I ask this question if every tattoo artist I go to. The last tattoos I got were just above the back of my knees. It didn’t tickle, but it was fine. A girl the bed over from the is getting a really cool looking owl on her thigh and weeping the entire time - sniffing and wiping her tears, whimpering occasionally. I ask my question. “Ooooh boy, we had a guy come in last year for his first. He passed out and p****d himself. I didn’t know a human could hold so much p**s.” The tattoo artist doing the owl tattoo chimes in: “I had a guy throw up a few weeks ago. The whole studio stank real bad.” They swapped some other stories, but these were the best. I love these stories so much and will as the question every time I get tattooed.

She was HOWLING during a simple solid color fill. Like the grape lady during the whole thing