Tattoo artist Jay Hutton shares two inkings he always says no to - and why

Tattoo artist Jay Hutton, former star of Channel 4's Tattoo Fixers, has explained one tattoo he would refuse to do if a customer asked him to - and he has a good reason for it. The entrepreneur, who owns a tattoo studio called Adrenaline Tattoo Studio in Ellesmere Port, was asked how he would feel if someone came to him for a tattoo, then went somewhere else for an inking, and came back to him for another one. This would bring up a moral dilemma for the tattoo artist - especially if it's a sleeve.

On his TikTok channel, Jay explained: "If someone came to me saying they wanted a sleeve, then we start on it, and then they go somewhere else to get it finished, and then come back to me, I wouldn't carry on with that sleeve. If you want to go somewhere else, you've got every right, but if you think I'm going to carry on finishing the sleeve when you've added someone else to it, no."

Explaining why, Jay said: "Because when people go 'wow, that's portrait's sick', and you go, 'oh yeah, Jay Hutton did it', they are going to think I did the s**t around it as well. And you're not going to tell them. And they'll probably think 'that doesn't look as nice, does it'."

Jay went on to explain that there are certain cases he might not want to cover up a tattoo done by someone else either. In one situation, a woman had come to him asking for a tattoo, and he had given a price. The woman had thought it was soo expensive, and had gone elsewhere to get it done.

The tattoo artist continued: "She comes back a couple of months later. She's had it done somewhere else. You should have seen the state of it. It was so bad. And she was like, 'can you fix it?'" However, Jay refused, because he wouldn't be able to make it look "as good as he would have done it originally".

"I can make it look better, but people might think 'oh, Jay did that, the teeth look a bit wonky on that'."

Language warning: The video below includes some strong language.

In the comment section, many people understood that Jay took pride in his own work. One person wrote: "This is the same principal where lash artists won't infill someone else's work … people are missing the point, he wants to finish a tattoo he started." Another said: "That is the right way to do it like a construction worker they don’t want to fix someone else problem because you want the best you will pay for the best"

However, others weren't so supportive about his decision to say no to certain jobs. "Don't some people get a sleeve done by different artist because of the different styles," asked one person. "I'd consider it a compliment if someone came to me and asked me to fix it?" added another.

But one person added: "Sounds snobby at first . But . This guy clearly knows his worth and has his reasons. Fair enough makes full sense."