One of the many things that I love about tattoos is the responsibility involved with the whole thing. I’m big on personal responsibility and for that reason, a tattoo is one of those things in which you need to acknowledge the responsibility that goes along with it. You want a portrait of your grandmother tattooed on your back? Well then it’s your responsibility to be sure that it’s really the tattoo you want, just like it’s your responsibility to seek out an artist who has the skill level to pull off the tattoo to your liking.
So when I read about people like Elmwood Park, Illinois resident Eugenia Bebis, I tend to get a little irritated. Back on June 5th, Eugenia entered the Mystic Tattoo Art & Body Piercing Corp. on Chicago’s Northwest side and asked for a Chicago White Sox logo on her thigh. It wasn’t until after actually being tattooed that Eugenia realised the mistake – the White Sox logo on her thigh had been tattooed backwards.
As of this past Thursday, Eugenia Bebis has filed a lawsuit, seeking $100,000, plus the cost of her laser treatments necessary to have the backwards logo removed as well as the costs accrued from filing the lawsuit against the Mystic Tattoo shop and the tattoo artist responsible for the error, Micah St. John.
‘The suit claims Bebis suffered pain from the laser treatments and disfigurement from the backwards tattoo and the treatments.
The suit claims, among other things, Mystic Tattoo failed to notice the tattoo was being inked backwards and didn’t adequately train and supervise employees.’
Granted, tattooing something backwards on a client is a pretty stupid move, but I have to say that despite this bit of rookie idiocy, the real blame for this incident lies with Eugenia Bebis. If you don’t take a look at what is about to be tattooed on to your flesh after the trace paper is removed or even if you do and you approve what you see, then you really have no one to blame but yourself if the final product turns out to be the complete opposite of what you wanted.
Let this be a lesson to everyone out there when they get tattooed – look at what you are going to have tattooed on to you when the artist gives you that final chance. There’s a reason they do that, so don’t just assume that the artist has done everything perfectly. Sure, the artist should have done it perfectly, but when all is said and done, do you really want someone else deciding whether or not what is about to be etched into your flesh for life is good enough? Take the responsibility of getting a tattoo one step further and ensure everything is right. It’s your tattoo, not theirs. Right?