It’s been a little while since we’ve regaled you with a tale of ‘What the fuck?’ from the annals of the Knucklehead of the Month, but SOME people just don’t know how to act. We were really going to stop posting these, as it seems like we have plenty, but this one needs to be addressed, so here goes:

It’s Monday, about half past noon. We were short by one person who was out sick, but there was still a couple of tattooers and and apprentice/piercer on staff. Three women walk in wanting to get several small tattoos. Two of the woman are the daughters of the third, in visiting their mother from California. Mom had gotten a couple of tattoos here and she was so happy with the service she brought her two favorite people with her to enjoy it as well. While apparently no one told them getting tattooed as a walk in on a Monday might be tough, since many tattoo shops are closed on Monday, Lighthouse Tattoo was open and ready to serve!

First the ladies all wanted hand tattoos, which we explained wouldn’t be a good idea due to the constraints society can place on some people with un-hideable tattoos. They promptly explained that they were the exception since they’re from California and people there don’t care. They younger ladies explained that they had recently bought their parent’s restaurant and it was pretty make-or-break for them for the next ten years due to the debt from the purchase, so if they were looking for work, it would be dire circumstances indeed.

For the next two hours they had our young apprentice drawing tiny tattoos they wanted, to include perfectly matching a font from an existing tattoo that the mother had. (for future reference, if you want a tattoo shop to match a font, please at least TRY to find out what the name of the font is) This, as you can imagine, took some time (did we mention two hours?)

It was at this point things started to fall apart. The ladies began talking of plans they had for later in the day and our apprentice offered to schedule them an appointment, so they could get all of their tattoos at the same time, without having to wait through the entire drawing process. To whit: going to a tattoo shop as a walk-in and expecting to get work in a hurry is not a good look, never get tattooed in a hurry, it’s just plain stupid. The women declined being scheduled and moved forward with the idea for their hand tattoos, which they had by now moved up onto their wrists, discretion being the better part of valor and whatnot. Fifteen minutes later the first of the the three matching tattoos was started and twenty minutes after that, the second one was finished.

Now, a word to the wise: Lighthouse Tattoo does not take appointments for piercings. If you want to schedule an appointment, you could, but it’s not our typical practice, you usually just walk in and we take care of you right then. A small wait might be involved if the piercer is doing a tattoo or someone got here right before you, but usually it’s not more than 15 minutes. On this day, our piercer also happened to be the tattoo apprentice doing these ladies’ tiny tattoos.

After finishing the second tattoo, but before starting the third, a client walked in and asked for help changing out a septum ring. Such a thing can be tricky, to do yourself, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the process. It takes very little time to do so, less than 3 minutes, I’d say. The apprentice elected to go ahead an take care of the jewelry change rather than make them wait close to a half hour for a service that would take less than five minutes.

This was too much!!!

The mother, now incensed that someone would be seen before her daughter, approaches our owner, Will and informs him that her daughter’s tattoo should have been done first, that they had been here for three hours and that was ridiculous, and they would be leaving without getting the last tattoo.

Will, if you don’t know, sometimes has the patience of a saint. However, sometimes, he don’t. True to form, he didn’t lose his cool. He informed the apprentice NOT TO CHARGE the trio. They seemed to appreciate the gesture and said that they would be back on Wednesday to get the other tattoos they wanted. Will politely informed them that would not be possible, as Lighthouse Tattoo would no longer be doing business with them, we didn’t want their money, we didn’t want anything from them, just that they not come back. Jaws hit the floor. He didn’t call them bitches or cunts or anything either.

The irony of restaurant owners not understanding the nature of prioritizing services with a limited staff was not lost on us. The idea that someone not familiar with how a certain type of business is typically run would tall someone with twenty years of experience in a industry and almost a decade of running his own business how to conduct business in said industry defies not only logic, it absolutely wreaks of hubris and that darned entitlement mentality that we’ve all come to know and hate, which seems to have been made worse during the pandemic. Seems ;like people are just WAITING to blow up about something nowadays.

A note from Will: “Don’t tell me how to run my fucking business. If you have a complaint, let us know and we will address it. If you don’t like it, don’t come back, problem solved.”

Sometimes the man is the very PICTURE of ‘concise’.

To add insult to injury, Will had just gotten the women some complimentary waters, which we usually charge a dollar for. They all took little sips of water and left them sitting in the floor when they left…

Now, if you don’t understand why these women were told they couldn’t come back, please don’t come to Lighthouse Tattoo. If you can’t follow the context clues about why their behavior was rude and ultimately unacceptable, or you think that barring them from the shop too extreme, we would kindly encourage you to read Will’s quote.

Lighthouse Tattoo is not for everyone. If you are disrespectful; dishonest; or have a bad attitude, this means you. Your money doesn’t mean anything if you think it means you can treat us like you own us. People in service industries are here to serve, we usually enjoy it. If you haven’t been served to your satisfaction, make sure you act with an appropriate level of displeasure, not pure outrage. Had the woman simply voiced her displeasure we would have explained why thing happened the way they did and she could have gotten her remaining tattoos on Wednesday and kept a good working relationship with us for the future. Instead, she chose to lose her mind and try to fuck with the life of a twenty-year-old kid who’s just doing his best to take care of as many people he can in a timely fashion. He did nothing wrong.

That being said, sometimes folks have a legitimate complaint. Please know that Lighthouse Tattoo takes any and all reasonable complaints very seriously and we will do everything in our considerable power to make sure that you, the customer, are satisfied with your service once we’re done.