Tattoo artist in Darwin forced to refund customer after he claimed she tattooed his nipple

A tattoo artist was forced to cough up thousands of dollars after she painfully inked a man’s nipple, a tribunal heard.

Franky Berto was awarded a refund and $1,150 in damages after suing Darwin Lelei Ink owner Leah Kathleen Tilini in the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal last year.

Mr Berto claimed the 35-year-old charged him $1,600 to have a lion’s head tattoo of his own design etched onto his torso – but as the wounds healed, he saw “significant flaws” in the work she did.

He said he was completely dissatisfied with the service, claiming that she changed 80 percent of the original design while she was distracted by work.

“During my two-hour tattoo session, the respondent was constantly interrupted by multiple phone calls and a child barging into the studio,” said Mr. Berto.

Mr Berto claimed Ms Tilini charged him $1,600 to have a lion’s head tattoo of his own design (pictured) etched onto his torso – but when the wounds healed he saw ‘significant flaws’ in the work she did

He added that he did not approve of her designing freehand.

“I had been in a lot of pain during my tattoo and later realized that the respondent had tattooed my nipple.”

He said that before the session started they discussed leaving the nipple area alone as it is a very sensitive part of the body.

“During the healing period, I discovered significant flaws compared to my original tattoo design,” he added.

He said he tried to reschedule a time for her to fix the mistakes, but she “deliberately ignored” the requests, so he was forced to demand a refund.

NTCAT senior member Andrew Macrides ordered Ms. Tilini to pay the refund in full and allocate another $1,150 for Mr. Berto to have it repaired.

Mr Macrides said he had no reason to doubt the veracity of Mr Berto’s claims and agreed that Mr Tilini had failed to respond to his attempts to rectify the ‘bad tattoo service’.

He said she had failed to rectify the tattoo errors and rectify her breach of consumer warranties.

The tattoo artist did not file a response and was not present at court.

Meanwhile, Ms. Tilini refuted Mr. Berto’s claims that they had agreed to avoid his nipple area and that he did not want her to freehand cartridges.

“He was fine with the nipple area being tattooed, although I have no evidence of that conversation,” she told Daily Mail Australia.

“And he agreed that I should do free hand patterns.”

The mother-of-six said the couple discussed stenciling and freehand inking the tattoo, which she has done more than 50 times in her five-year career.

“A friendly conversation was held outside the studio, once the session was over there were no problems,” she added.

Mr. Berto said he tried to reschedule a time for Ms. Tilini to fix the mistakes, but she deliberately ignored the requests, so he was forced to demand a refund (pictured, his tattoo after it was completed by another artist)

The mother of six said the couple discussed stenciling and freehand inking the tattoo, which she has done more than 50 times in her five-year career (pictured, Ms. Tilini’s freehand work)

“He even spoke excitedly about his second session.”

She said another appointment had to be made to get the job done because he was in too much pain to continue.

Ms. Tilini said she did not ignore his text messages, but claimed he was angry that he could not meet her while he was in town.

She admitted she may have been interrupted to change the music at “one or two points” during the appointment, but denied that any children had entered the store.