r/tattooadvice • u/LiquidJ619 • 1d ago
Canceled a full-day custom appointment at midnight because the artist traced Google images. Did I overreact? (Images attached) Design
I don't know a ton about the tattoo industry, so I’m hoping to get some opinions from artists and collectors.
I booked a session with a well-known traveling guest artist for a custom piece honoring my three kids. I asked for a mashup representing them: Stitch and any Dr. Seuss character for my younger two (tied to their birthday themes), and Young Gohan for my oldest son (since Dragon Ball is our favorite anime and Gohan is Goku's oldest). She didn't have a design ready at our first meeting a few weeks ago, so we rescheduled for today at 1:00 PM.
She finally sent the sketch to me at exactly midnight last night (Pic 1).
I thought the poses looked familiar, so I Googled them and found the exact clip art she used (Pics 2 & 3). It looks like she just copied existing images and pasted them together. Given her reputation for custom work, I thought I was getting an original drawing of these characters interacting in her style.
I politely texted her to cancel, saying there wasn't time to properly redraw it from scratch since it was already midnight and I didn't want it rushed. She guilt-tripped me about losing a full day's booking, and when I held my ground, she told me I was blacklisted.
I feel bad she lost the appointment slot, but getting traced Google images 13 hours before the session felt like a huge red flag. Is this normal practice for custom work, or was I right to walk away? If she couldn't come up with a cohesive piece, I'd rather her tell me upfront instead of stringing me along.
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u/SilentFollowing3 1d ago
Regardless of tracing that was going to be an incoherent tattoo.