Kalamalka INK Tattoo

I had a bad experience with the shop owner. Jeff did my first tattoo, had no concerns. It went well it’s a small, simple piece. I went back to him 2 years later for a memorial tattoo for my mother and little sister who died two years ago for their second anniversary. I asked for some floral work and told him I was considering adding in a quote of my mother’s handwriting. He encouraged me to continue with the quote and said it would look nice. We did no art checks before our appointment, I sat in the shop for 2 hours while he finished the tattoo the day of. As someone who hasn’t gotten a bigger piece, this was something I was naive to not being a normative practice. He had many distractions present with his partner and others. It appeared some personal drama had occurred which she wanted him to pay attention to. She was consistently asking him to look at things, be involved in whatever personal drama they had going and being an overall distraction. He went very heavy handed, I have blown out lines. He misspelled two words, “child” and “bless”. Every single word from the quote provided had an inconsistency from my mother’s handwriting. I went in to inform him immediately after my appointment of the spelling mistakes, he said he could fix it in 3 weeks or after his next after hours appointment. He downplayed the seriousness of the mistake, barely taking any accountability that there were mistakes. I said I wanted it fixed as soon as possible. He told me an hour and a half. In this time I consulted with family members and friends about their experiences and thoughts of the tattoo. They immediately were alarmed and told me to find another artist because his work looked too heavy handed, lines would be blown out and the obvious misspelling of the words. I returned to the shop to inform him of my decision, he was still working on the after hours appointments. I left and text him a polite message informing him completely of my concerns. He refused to give me a partial refund money back and said it was a “30 second fix” he also expressed personal frustrations about me seeking the opinions of my relatives. If he was secure in his work, why would this upset him? The next day I went on foot to several reputable tattoo shops around town as well as sent in photos to other artists around the Seattle area. They all expressed concerns and said I needed to get the quote covered up. They expressed concerns about the blown out line, the misspellings, sloppy line work, etc. I reached out again after seeking out professional opinions. He again lacked accountability refused to provide a partial refund, said he was offended, continued to downplay my concerns AND questioned my intelligence saying that the other artists were only trying to “hustle” me. I realize that artists may have an off day however this encounter shows the lack of professionalism and integrity this shop owner has.

Carrie did a great job! She is my new go to!

I still think about the time I went to a flash event here and one of the artists made a comment about how he would like to tattoo an SS insignia and followed it up with a hearty laugh.

I went and got my nipples done roughly a year ago. I asked to be seen a few days later to get one repierced and get longer bars. The piercer didn’t replace my bars with longer ones and I ended up in the ER the same night with a breast infection I’m assuming from unclean piercing equipment. Yes it’s the cheapest place to get your nipples done in Bellingham. But I recommend spending the extra money at another place. I’ll never go here again

First professional tattoo great work appreciate you guys for taking me in as a walk-in appointment 110%

Very clean and comfortable studio. Highly recommend the bamboo method. My wife and I both received excellent quality pieces!

AWESOME ART WORK AND GREAT PRICING!

Had an awesome experience today , Rusty was the artist, and he does amazing work, recommend the shop to anyone!