To those planning to get a new tattoo, the next thing after the "design" is the "artist". For most Pinoys who can afford, and are willing to pay more money just to make sure that they get beautiful tattoos, our first question is, "Who is the top tattoo artist in the country?"
We have money? We surely have computers...and internet. So we use Google to look for our artist. Bang! Ricky Sta Ana's name appear. We start to think, who is he? We do more research. We read more articles. We find out he's got several tattoo shops across the metro and is very popular. We download more of his works trying to convince ourselves that he is indeed a good artist just like what people say. We look in to his website. We find out he's in the business for ten years. He has won numerous awards, even from international competition. We find out he is the president of PHILTAG, it's the Philippines Tattoo Artist Guild, who doesn't even have a decent working website. We then learned he's not joining competitions anymore. He, is in fact, judging them. Very impressive.
We pay him a visit to one of his tattoo shops, and got impressed even more. Pictures of celebrities getting a tattoo from him are all overrrr. JUST ALL OVER!! Damn! He is good.
So we make the decision. He is my artist!
FUUUUUUUCCK! You just made the worst decision in your life only expensive laser procedures can reverse!
Ricky Sta. Ana has got to be the most overrated tattoo artist in the Philippines. Yeah, sure. He's the president of PHILTAG, which by the way is now torn apart due to his arrogance. But really, I don't give a shit. At first, I didn't think that this PHILTAG thing will have something to do with his work. I was goddamn wrong.
If only I knew that him being late for two freakin hours for our appointment was a bad omen, I would have walked out and never looked back. But nooooo, I fuckin waited for him because I thought that someone would have not gained so much popularity and recognition from people if he was bad at what he does. He must be awesome. HE SHOULD BE AWESOME! He is worth the wait! PUTANGINA. NAKAKAMATAY ANG MALING AKALA, BUTI BUHAY PA AKO.
I wanted a very simple tattoo. I brought my printed material. All he needed to do is follow the lines the stencil has made on my body. But I guess that was so goddamn easy that he neglected to do it. The lines are not even and some strokes are too deep that the ink has bled under my skin. I wanted a simple shape, which turned out to be uneven. ALL OF THEM. Sa tagalog, hindi pantay-pantay, lagpas-lagpas lahat ng mga linya. May makapal, may manipis. PANGEEEEET TALAGA! PUTAAAAAAAA!
It looks as if my four-year-old nephew was given a tattoo machine and drew on my body. I would have been happy if that was the case. My tattoo would have had A very meaningful meaning.
And no, I refuse to post my tat's picture. Ricky Sta. Ana, not only popular, but has lots of connections. I reckon he can be dangerous. So no.
So I went to three different tattoo artists to have my ugly tattoo checked. I want a re-do of course. You know what the three artists said to me? MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO THEIR SHOPS TO HAVE THEIR TATTOOES REDONE. COMMON DENOMINATOR? ALL ORIGINALLY DONE BY MASTER RICKY STA.ANA.
Oo, totoong magaling sya. At hindi ko kinukwestyon yun. Naniniwala pa rin ako na hindi sya sisikat ng ganyang kasikat kung hindi sya totoong magaling. Pero NOON yun. Hindi na ngayon. Mukha syang tamad sa mga gawa nya. Walang gana. Wala nang passion. Parang gusto na lang kumita. Parang ang mahalaga na lang ay yung mga tattoo sa artista na kung san makakapagpicture sya at madagdagan ang nakapako sa dingding ng mga shop nya. Pero sa mga ordinaryong tattoo na hindi nya pakikinabangan ang picture? Pabara-bara na.
I'm voicing this out para sa mga balak magpatattoo sa kanya. Don't take the risk. It's your skin anyway.
I have mine re-done by another artist who is very professional and very good by the way. I will never commit that mistake of running to SkinWorkz Tattoo and Body Piercing again.
