I booked an appointment with Fabio at Sunshine State Tattoo for February 10th as a birthday gift to myself. Unfortunately, he had an accident and needed to reschedule. No problem—I was willing to work with him on finding a new date.
The night before my rescheduled appointment (March 13th), he told me he was locked out of his house and didn’t have his iPad. He asked me to push the appointment to the next day, but since I had already adjusted my work schedule, I told him that wasn’t possible. He assured me everything would be fine and asked me to come in at 2 PM as planned.
On the day of the appointment, I drove over two hours to Deerfield Beach. Around noon, I texted to confirm, and at 1 PM, he responded, saying he still wasn’t sure if he could get into his house and was waiting for his landlord instead of calling a locksmith.
When I arrived, he still didn’t have his iPad and had to borrow one from another artist. He spent two hours designing while I covered the cost of his lunch. During this time, he suggested turning my original quarter-sleeve design into a full sleeve, saying it would look better. I agreed, trusting his expertise.
After placing the stencil, he freehanded a cover-up on my upper arm using thick black lines. Then, instead of proceeding with the original plan, he spent an hour trying to convince me to commit to three sessions for a full sleeve, saying he needed to “block it out” first or it wouldn’t look right. I reminded him that I had only booked a forearm quarter-sleeve, but he kept pushing.
Once an apprentice arrived, he started trying to reschedule me for March 30th, saying we were running out of time. At this point, he called me “coño” (insinuating I was stupid) and eventually told me to leave, calling me a “weirdo” and keeping my deposit.
This was an incredibly unprofessional experience. From poor communication and lack of preparation to pushing me into a design I didn’t ask for and ultimately refusing service while keeping my deposit, I wouldn’t recommend booking with him.
