The Dolorosa Tattoo

i have been coming here for jody dawber’s work for a couple of years now. i initially came to jody for a coverup, and she’s now done several coverups and large pieces all over my body. she’s always extremely easy to work with, an incredibly talented artist, and overall lovely human. it’s always a good hang at dolorosa with jody and shawn :) thank you jody for helping restore confidence in myself and my body with your beautiful artwork 🖤

I had a really bad experience here w/ Jody. She does lovely work normally but what I got was not what I wanted, I was quoted a price range that wasn’t honored, I felt bullied into going through with it & agree to things (which I get is my responsibility as an adult but still was not cool), and some of the elements that are permanently on me don’t even make sense. This was supposed to be a special piece of my cat that had just died that I loved dearly. I also had been going through a breakup/stalking situation at the same time so I was mentally not doing great. I came in for a consult & I initially wanted it to be just my forearm but she said I should do my whole arm since it’s my cat portrait. She then quoted me 2k to $2500 tops she said. I had someone with me that also heard her clear as day say this. I even reiterated the price to her to make sure & she confirmed multiple times. I sent her several reference photos & details of what I wanted, as asked. When I came in she had not used some of the elements I wanted & I wasn’t sure about the line work of my cat, some of the plants, & a moth she added. she direct references for all of this which she would do in her style, but some of it was either just not what I asked for at all or seemed wonky drawing wise. I told her the things I was worried about & even asked other ppl in the shop if they thought the moth even made sense to look at which they all said “oh yeah” & “totally” etc. Jody immediately acted annoyed & gave me attitude saying she’d have to draw it alllll over again & that that was a lot of work she did etc. I felt bad & like I said I wasn’t in a great head space so after a little while I agreed to just go through with it. I hoped that when it was on my arm & colored in it would make more sense to me. Especially since all the other work I’ve seen on her IG is so great. Well it didn’t make more sense after the line work. And after a session of color it made even less. I was so upset I felt like I didn’t know if I could even have her finish it. I was devastated. I even cried about it more than once. It’s been a couple years & I’m just now really able to even deal w/ it w/out feeling emotional. Little man, my cat that it’s for, didn’t look like the cat on my arm & the way she colored him in is just not great or what we talked about. I asked her to make his eye big/yellow & that didn’t happen either. I had a some emergencies during the stalking situation that made me have to miss two appts. Yes I know that sucks but I couldn’t help it. I told her as soon as I could. She charged me 200 each time which was fine but she definitely treated me worse after this happened. After a bit I got up the courage to tell her how I felt about the work so far. I also took responsibility for my part in it but she only responded by fully blaming me and refused to take any blame at all which would’ve gone a long way for me. I even expressed that to her but she would double and triple down. She told me to come in in person and we’d talk about what to do. I did. But when I got there instead of pulling me aside to have the convo she spoke super loudly right in front of the entire shop while standing over me (she’s tall etc). Everyone was staring & again I felt bullied. More so than before even. She already had charged me in the range she quoted & now she wanted $800 more to try to fix/finish the piece which would put me definitely over the high end of the quote. That sucked especially because of the experience I had had so far & was having in that moment. Everyone was watching me, some stopped what they were doing even. So I VERY reluctantly agreed she could fix/finish the sleeve & I would pay the $800. Yes I shouldn’t have. But when I was trying to state my case she’d just talk over me, misrepresent the situation & act like I was being crazy (she even said this was some of her best work please see photos). I tried to come to a compromise several times, but that did not happen. So here I am with a sleeve that I’m embarrassed to have ppl look at. It makes me sad.

I highly HIGHLY recommend this place! Amelia did some floral work for me and I still get compliments and questions about it. I honestly plan on getting all my work done here as long as the artists are still working! Everyone is very nice and welcoming. And don't forget, tip your artists!