Tattoo Parlor Deposit

[Hudson85]

My son paid a £100 deposit (cash) for a tattoo on Friday 24 May On Saturday I took him to the Dr because he has develop quite bad eczema. Not surprisingly, he advised him not to have a tattoo (it's on his arms). He wasn't given a receipt at the time he paid so I recommended that he go back into the shop to explain the reason for the cancellation. They are closed on Sundays and Monday was a Bank Holiday. When he rang yesterday, he was told that there was a 72 hour cancellation policy and they would not refund his deposit. The person with whom I then corresponded said had he emailed, she would have responded even though they were closed. That to me seems a ridiculous presumption (that the hours that they are close would count). When I asked if they were licensed or belonged to a professional association, she accused me of being aggressive and said she definitely wouldn't consider a refund. I also pointed out that he is not yet 18 but she said they are only required to confirm age when doing the tattoo, not taking the deposit. Advice?

[R0b]

If the cancellation policy was not stated as part of the terms and conditions at the time of paying the deposit, then the tattoo shop can't seek to introduce new terms afterwards so you ought to be able to recover the deposit. Proving that may be an issue if there were no witnesses and the arrangement was a verbal one.

As for you trying to argue that the your son was under 18, I think you are partly to blame if you were willing to allow your son to have a tattoo in the knowledge that it was illegal to do so. I've done a quick search and there's nothing to suggest that they must ask someone's age at a certain point but in any event they should definitely confirm before actually carrying out the tattooing as she rightly said, otherwise it becomes a criminal offence.

The Tattoo and Body Piercing Guidance Toolkit has been endorsed by Public Health England and it says that tattooists should seek proof of age during the consultation process and a consent form signed prior to the work being done (click here for link, see page 15 under the heading "Consent").

Local authorities should have a register for those licensed to do tattoo work so you could contact them and I also believe they have to show their certificate on public display.

Perhaps you went about it the wrong way questioning whether the shop was licensed or part of a professional association and I can understand why she got defensive as it may have come across as a form of intimidation when really the issue here seems to be whether you were told of the cancellation policy. Of course we don't know how the conversation went down so can't speculate much on this point.

Might be worth a punt going to court but for the sake of £100 you have to consider whether it's worth your time.