Tattoo Artist Needed

Just a couple of quick notes:

The rougher guy from 2002 would have been bear – he was awesome, full stop no arguments.

Deus Ex Machina – took the business name with her. Her art is actually available for sale at selected galleries in Melbourne from what I understand. (As gossip would have it)

Its a real shame to hear the negativity about the studio. It used to have a reputation as one of the best in AU and by the sounds of it arogance is ruining it. It never used to advertise nazi symbol tattoos on its website either.

I would love to hear some more about the guys in the city – any comments?

I would say North Lyneham without a doubt, but the recent reviews aren’t sounding good.
I had one done there by Chris in late 2004, and one by another guy in early 2002.
The other guy looked a bit ‘rougher’ but he was nicer. I didn’t find Chris too bad though.
Shame it’s degraded.

I have two, one done by Biro in Fyshwick & one done by Steve & Chris at Deus Ex Machina.

I have seen a fair bit of work done by Biro and when he tries he can do very good work but quite often I get the impression that he lost a bit of the passion and it’s just a job to put food on the table. Hence some of his work can be ordinary. Get him on a good day however and you will be more then pleased with his work.

Chris’s work is about the best in ACT but he is a smart arse, and not just to women. My tat needed several trips to complete and I had to put up with smart comments and digs from Chris each visit. It’s not a good business practice to insult your clients.

I got both of mine done by the guy that worked in Lyneham and moved to Tuggeranong (one in each location and I’m terrible with names and faces).

He did a fantastic job on both – one of them required some very fine lining which turned out better than I expected. I took my brother there to get one done accross his shin and I was really appreciative of the manner in which he handled everything when my brothers reaction took a bit of a turn for the worst.

I’m taking my dad there to get one for his 50th later this year.

Come see me, I’ll go get the felts.

If I do a crap job, a quick shower and some solvol will cure your ills.

I’m female, and in defence of Chris, he did both my tattoos and I was very comfortable with him the entire time. I went alone both times, and was super-stressed (I have a phobia about needles), and he cracked lots of jokes to calm me down. One of my tattoos is in a very intimate part of my body, and he was very professional the enitre time (no jokes – just getting on with the job).

I had mine done by Biro in Fyshwick, he was very good and took his time. It hurt like hell but I think that has to be expected when you are having a needle pricked into your back.
My step dad had 3 done by him, he is very happy with them and as most of his upper body is tattooed he has something to compare them to.
My brother had an arm band done by someone in Tuggeranong, it wasn’t filled in properly, a good 2-3 mm from the outline. They did fix it up but considering it was one of their designs they should have done a better job the 1st time.
The best I have seen by far is a lady named Ex, her fine lines are amazing, but I have heard a rumour that she was sick and not working?

Yep, I know all too well about Adams heavy hand.

He did one on my boyfriends back and on the same day another friends back and when i got up to have a look at how they were going there was blood streaming down all over my boyfriends back. Ive never seen a tattoo bleed like that before, and ive seen many a tattoo being done in my time. And it was the same story with my friend.

One of my girlfriends husband also got Adam to start a tattoo on his back, however Adam totally screwed up the outline (which was all that was being done at the time as it was a big one) and i mean stuffed it up in a way that you cant not notice. He didnt charge my friends husband because the error was so big it couldnt be fixed, but he certainly wont be going back there to get it completed.

The day that Chris made the Miss World competition remark, this particular girlfriend was there. Adam actually recognised her, laughed and said “So, is there still a big outline walking around or what?”

Not a very good attitude for someone who stuffed something up that is permanent on someones body, or for a business that would want to keep customers.

But the thing is with Tattoo Power these days, they are so booked out and have so many customers that they dont particularly care any more.

Which is a shame because they once had a really good reputation.

Tattoo Culture in Tuggeranong definitely get my vote.. Steve did my first one but I believe he has relocated to Noosa now. Beatle (first name Darren) did my second which hurt a little more but he was very gentle. Re: Adam from Lyneham.. I have seen a tattoo done by him where the colour has blown out, the result of a heavy hand apparently. Another tattoo artist in Canberra actually said to me that ‘thats what you get when you tattoo the morning after a big night’. Ouch!

I have a few things to say about Deus Ex Machina/Tattoo Power, and yes, they are the same people.

Chris is a good tattoo artist, however, if you are female, expect to hear some derogatory comments as soon as you walk into his shop. The sorts of things ive heard from him have been (when i was getting a chinese symbol tattooed on my hip) “What does that mean? Dumb blonde?”.

I was there with a friend when she got her first tattoo and he told us he wanted to put us on the internet together.

I was also in there once with 2 male friends of mine and got asked if they were “both my boyfriends?”

And then the last time i went in there which was in April a group of my friends and i walked in to hear “What is this, a Miss World Competition or something?” accompanied by a snicker.

Now that was the last time i will ever pay for anything in that shop ever again, not only do the comments that get made towards me and my friends every time we go there annoy us, but they make us feel uncomfortable and wondering whats going to be said next.

Also, (and this is the deciding factor in my never going back) the guy that did my last tattoo there (Adam), did a great job on the lines and shape of that tattoo, but the filling in of simple colours such as black left something to be desired, in fact, id be embarrassed if i were him to put my name to it.

Yes it can be fixed with touching up, but the fact was the guy was bragging to me about how quick he could tattoo while he was doing it and then didnt fill it in properly.. well maybe he should have taken a bit of extra time and coloured it in properly instead of rushing through and making out like he was a hero for it.

And its not that im inexperienced in the tattoo world, I have 9 tattoos all up, and if I was the type to use names to get me places, i would have kindly informed Chris that he is mates with my Dad and he better put a sock in it before i tell him.

To their credit, I have seen and heard nothing but good stories about Patto and Steve (Steve is no longer there i believe, I heard something about Chris opening another shop and Steve moving to that one) and the tattoos i have got from there (bar the last one, which in all honesty does look good, it just needs to be filled in properly) have all been up to scratch.

I guess it just depends if you are female. If you are female I wouldnt bother going there unless you can book in with Patto.

I do have two tattoos from Freestyle Tattoo in Civic, and was very impressed with them. They did a tiny one on my wrist, which looks exactly how i wanted it and really good for a fine little picture, its very clear, and also an egyptian one on my shoulder, which i also cant fault.
Their customer service also beat Tattoo Power hands down.

Had my most recent done by Ray at extreme Qtown and cant fault him.

It’s the same place I’m pretty sure.

There appears to be 2 tatooists at Lyneham (according to yellow pages):
Tattoo Power
and
Deus Ex Machina

Which one are people referring to?

Ray at Tattoo Xtreme. Ok, so it’s Queanbeyan, but it’s not tha far 😉 I and a few friends have been there, and to him in particular and we’ve all been really happy with the result.

Lyneham is the go for sure. I got mine done there & am very happy with it. Not Chris, Patto….but he comes equally as recomended.

Is Ex de Medici (formerly the more pleb-named Robyn somebody) still doing tatts? She was good…

I posted the same story some time ago asking the same question, without doubt a resounding ‘Chris from Lyneham’ was the answer. I had mine done by Chris about two weeks ago and it looks great.

Don’t know about Canberra, Ska Boy, but if you want the real deal, ska-wise, you’re going to have to go to Long Beach…

http://americanbeautytattooparlor.com/html/opie.html