After inking a man’s nipple with pain, a tribunal ruled that a tattoo artist had to pay thousands of dollars.
Franky Berto received a refund and an $1150 compensation payment after he took Leah Kathleen Tilini, Darwin Lelei Ink’s owner, to the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal last.
Mr. Berto claimed the 35-year-old charged him $1,600 to etch a lion’s head tattoo of his design onto his torso – but as the wounds healed he saw ‘significant errors’ in the work she did.
He claimed he was dissatisfied with the service, claiming that she had changed 80 percent of the original design while distracted from the job.
Berto stated that during his two-hour session, the respondent was constantly interrupted by multiple phone calls and a child running into the studio.
He stated that he was not willing to let her do free-hand design.
“I felt severe pain while getting my tattoo done and realized later that the respondent had also tattooed me on my nipple.”
He explained that they had discussed before the session began that she would let the nipple areas alone, as they were susceptible parts of her body.
He added, “During the healing period I discovered significant mistakes compared to my original design.”
He claimed that he tried to schedule a time to allow her to correct the errors but that she deliberately ignored the requests and he was forced into a refund.
Andrew Macrides, a senior member at NTCAT ordered Ms. Tilini not to pay the entire refund but to fork over $1,150 so that Mr. Berto could fix it.
Mr. Macrides stated that he had no reason for doubting the accuracy of Mr. Berto’s claims, and he agreed with Mr. Tilini’s attempts to correct the ‘poor service to tattoos’.
He claimed that she had failed to correct the tattoo mistakes and that she was not upholding the consumer guarantees.
The tattoo artist didn’t respond and was not present at the tribunal.
Ms. Tilini rebutted Mr. Berto’s claim that they had agreed not to touch his nipple and that he didn’t want her to use freehand patterns.
Daily Mail Australia reported that he was okay with the nipple being tattooed, but she did not have any proof.
“And he allowed me to make free-hand patterns.”
The mother of six explained that they discussed tattooing the design with both a stencil and freehand. She has done the same tattoo more than 50 times over her five-year career.
She said that after the session was complete, there was a friendly conversation outside of the studio.
“He even spoke with excitement about his second session.”
Because he was in too great pain, she advised him to make another appointment to finish the job.
Ms. Tilini claimed she did not ignore his text messages, but that he was upset she couldn’t meet him at the time he was there.
She admitted that she was interrupted to change the music at “one or two points” during her appointment, but denied that any children had entered the store.
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