A PARTIALLY-INKED mom says her tattoo was so bad that she stopped the artist halfway through — leaving her with a headless portrait on her arm.
Now she thinks her tat looks “horrendous” and wants to get it covered, but in the meantime it makes her family laugh.
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Sara Barner, 35, asked for a portrait of her aunt and uncle Janice and Norman Gudger — along with her daughter’s name — to honor how much they did to help her when she was growing up.
She went to a cheap home-based tattoo artist but started having doubts when she spotted him falling asleep, she claims.
And 30 minutes into the inking she told him to stop when she “realized my aunt looked like a monkey.”
The youth counselor was left with a half-finished tattoo — her uncle was headless with only half his body finished.
“His art looked good. I had seen some portraits,” said the mother of five from Greeneville, Tennessee
“I had seen good artwork. He had done his own tattoos and they looked good.
“I didn’t notice anything at first but then two hours into the process his eyes were shutting.
“I’m thinking, ‘Maybe he’s sleeping,’ so I let him go another 30 to 45 mins and I look up and he’s nodding off.
“I realized my aunt looked like a monkey and my uncle was headless with half a tuxedo.
“I said, ‘We’re done.”
“My family thinks it’s the funniest thing ever. They laugh at it.
“My 31-year-old niece called it a monkey as well.
“I laugh too. There’s nothing I can say back. It is what it is until I get it covered.”
Sara decided to get the ink when her uncle Norman died in November 2019.
I tried to turn my arm in public so no one could look at it.
Sara Barner
“I spent a majority of my childhood over at his house,” she said.
“They did so much for me. When my uncle died it crushed me.
“I wanted to have something where I could always look at him.”
Her fiancé’s brother suggested a “cheap” tattoo artist she could use.
Sara was quoted $100 for the ink she had done in May 2020 — but refused to pay full price and gave the artist $60.
“Once she started looking like a monkey I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, this is no type of honoring my uncle and aunty,'” she said.
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“So I was like, no way.”
At first, she was embarrassed by the “horrendous” ink.
“I tried to turn my arm in public so no one could look at it,” she said.
Her fiancé, Michael, 32, said she “shouldn’t have done it.”
“He thinks it’s horrendous,” she said.
And when retired factory worker Janice, 78, saw the tattoo, she was far from impressed.
“I talked to my aunt two weeks after I got it done and had my hand over my arm,” she said.
“She said to me, ‘Don’t get any more tattoos.’ She thinks it’s unfinished.”
Sara tried to have it covered with flowers in May 2022 with an at-home tattoo kit, but it didn’t work.
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“You can still see half the monkey when you look at it”, she said.
Now, she plans to get it covered by a professional but only when she has the time.
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