I was really excited about this place. The reviews were solid.
When I looked on their site I was drawn to Justin's work for specific reasons, especially the way he tattooed trees.
I went there with the intention of talking to him and setting up an appointment.
As I started talking about what I wanted (a tree coming from my mid forearm down onto my hand, lots of detail, etc), he basically just cut me off and explained to me that he hates tattooing trees. He said he gets at least one person a week inquiring about a tree tattoo and how he just hates them and doesn't feel inspired doing them. One of his co-workers walked in and Justin said something along the lines of, "Oh he hates doing trees too" and the guy said, "uhghhh I f*cking hate trees".
Now lets be realistic, I am sure if I were a tattoo artist I wouldn't be too jazzed about tattooing the american flag on someones shoulder or a bald eagle on their back but I wouldn't put down someone's interest. I would simply explain that I would recommend someone else, but I wouldn't just blatantly make someone feel like an idiot.
He recommended me to go to someone else at the shop but I was so put off by the experience that I decided to go elsewhere (Ian at Club Tattoo on Country Club/US 60 is a lot nicer and actually talked to me about what I wanted).
The only part of getting tattoos that I hate is dealing with jerks who think they're far too awesome to be nice to someone with differing interests.
I suppose if I were to cross paths with Justin again I would suggest him to take down the pictures of his work involving trees because I'm sure that's what is drawing people interested in tree tattoos to him.