AON Experience - Tony Mancia

[Anthonyj]

Hi guys, I'm dropping a line about my first experience at AON Saturday August 15th. My first tattoo experience was about 10 years ago when I was 16 and I got a small heart on my right arm. For years I've wanted to do a for real deal cover up by a professional. I did my homework and found AON online and realized that there was some great talent here. After checking out the artists I decided to go with Tony Mancia due to his ability to almost paint the tattoo on. First, I was very impressed with the cleanliness of the studio A+. Second, the staff was extremely customer oriented and friendly A+. Upon arriving I was greeted by the staff, given paperwork and was speaking with my artist within 20min A+. I had a few general ideas for Tony but was pretty much willing to give him free artistic range. His first choice was a Bali mask that I didn’t bite on. He worked me up an Asian mask in 20min that had a cool organic theme. Now he only had a guideline, at most, but explained the theme to me and it sounded great. He marked me up with marker guidelines and began to free hand one of the coolest tattoos I’ve ever seen. There were a few unforeseen circumstances with equipment and other clients that led to us not finishing but Tony handle everything very professionally and helped me out with rescheduling and pricing as I had driven a good 4.5 hours for this tattoo.
To sum up Tony’s work I came in with some huge expectations. Hell, these guys are published in magazines, I’m paying 150hr, and I drove half a day to get there so yes I’m expecting the best. Well, Tony exceeded all of my expectations by a mile. On the way home I’m wrapped with saran wrap and still red and irritated in my tattoo area and I have complete strangers stopping me at gas stations saying how awesome the tattoo is. This dude has some major talent, thinks outside the box, and seems to be on the front edge of the tattoo industry and trends. AON better hold on to this one!
Thanks again guys I can’t wait to finish this piece up in a few weeks.
Anthony J.