There are two kinds of people who get tattoos. One kind just want more ink, and they’re open to discussing the art with their artist. The other know exactly what they want and prefer their artist not deviate or put any kind of personal stamp on it at all.

OP is the latter kind, as her tattoo was the exact same design as the one worn by her father and her grandfather. She says she communicated that with her artist and was happy with the results – at first.

I went to a tattoo shop in my area, with a photo of the tattoo I wanted. It was one my dad had gotten to honor my passed grandfather who’s father also had it. But the point is – it was important to me that the tattoo looked EXACTLY as it did in the photo.

I get to the shop, I explain everything, I pay, get the tattoo, and we’re done, I think it looks awesome, everything is great!

Her great-grandmother is the one who noticed the initials hidden in the ink.

Until a few weeks later when I show my great grandmother the tattoo. She’s static, grabs my arm to look at and compliment it, then asks, “Who’s AJ?”

I ask her what she means, and she points out on the tattoo where the initials A and J or maybe T were hidden into the tattoo. I’m instantly angry, as my artists name is Alice Trever.

She tries to assure me it’s no big deal if I hadn’t noticed it til now, but I still reached out to the artist sort of irritated.

The artist didn’t deny it, just saying it was a common thing to do with traditional art, but OP demanded a refund.

They told me the style of art I got is called traditional and it’s “pretty trad” for all artists who do that style to do it. I demanded a partial refund and they refused, so I complained to the owner who made the artist give me a full refund.

The shop owner agreed but the artist is now going after OP on social media.

Now the artist is running a full smear campaign, talking about moving shops, and all kinds of crap.

My sister says I’m wrong for pushing the issue, but I feel like, at the end of the day, I told you exactly what I wanted and you didn’t do that.

AITA?

Does Reddit think OP should have avoided the confrontation? Let’s hear them out!

The top comment agrees that it is actually a big deal.

This person, who has worked at a tattoo shop, says this is not a thing.

In fact, no one has heard of this before now.

People actually think OP didn’t take things far enough.

The weirdest part was that it wasn’t even the artist’s design.

This is beyond odd, if you ask me.

I wish OP would give us an update.