Comments on: Continuing my snarking about Ami James on NY Ink

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:00:48 +0000

Unfortunately, if you’ve ever had the extreme displeasure of actually meeting Ami, your snarky opinion would not change. He came to our city a few years back as part of a big charity bike rally; one of the other guests was Dee Snyder. Part of the celebrity guest deal is that you do a meet and greet for a donation to the year’s cause, which was the local children’s hospital. People paid money to stand in line for hours. Dee Snyder was pleasant even after several hours of the usual fan comments and photos. When I got to Ami, he was a complete dick.

By: talby

talby — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:38 +0000

I’m watch the show for the first time, and Ami just told his apprentice that he “has to be submissive!!!” This show is ridiculous, and I, for one, would love to hear more snark from you!

By: Lizzard

Lizzard — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:02:08 +0000

I think it’s an insult to all the awesome artists out there (like Michele Wortman, Joe Cap, Eric Merrill etc.)to call Ami a tattoo master. He’s average at best. After I watch this show I wonder why they don’t show some REAL talent. There are tons of better talent in the NYC area.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:17:57 +0000

Amen Shannon….I have watched that show off and on…and though I think Ami and Kat Von D are famewhores…clearly the only one of the two with talent is Kat…Ami is just mouth, muscle and drama…

By: Shannon

Shannon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:20:29 +0000

I don’t normally approve anonymous posters like “felipe”, “f@f.com”, but his IP address 207.38.196.14 may resolve to someone involved with the show or the people on it so I figured I’d let my curiosity allow it.

Anyway, Felipe, I’m aware that reality TV has a certain amount of illusion on it, which is why I’m not snarking about Ami’s reprehensible behavior and attitude. It’s why I’m commenting on the quality of the tattoos, which are not changed by the veil of television!

By: Felipe

Felipe — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:21:31 +0000

You people really don’t seem to know what TV is about, huh?

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:34:04 +0000

I guess the whole “angel dangling a star of David over NY” thing opened the possibility of some negative connotations. I found it surprising because I remember Ami complaining about not wanting to do rosary tattoos because he’s Jewish. Why didn’t he pass on this opportunity?

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:09:40 +0000

Leslie – Fascinating, especially given Ami’s jewish background. I hadn’t noticed that. I guess he can only draw five pointed stars?

But the whole thing is amateur. The blobby shape of the feet or the blurry nothingness that he’s shaded into the face are other examples of problems in it…

BTW, I just wanted to clarify that the “Shannon” comment about this one is not me (as in me, Shannon Larratt)

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:47:06 +0000

Leslie you read my mind! NY ink contacted the tattoo studio I’m affiliated with (sacred tattoo NYC) and many other NYC tattoo studios looking for talent, and bypassed a lot of world class level headed artists to cast a crew for maximum drama; and it comes off as being very scripted, and dishonest. When Ami was on Miami ink they claimed he owned the studio, but it was only Darren’s name on the lease, they chose to cast Ami as the owner and told him what to say. I can’t even watch NY ink because it insults my intelligence with what I perceive as absurd scripted set ups and outright lies.

Even their financial troubles are scripted; the only reason they didn’t have loads of customers is because they deliberately didn’t use the backlogged client list from their previous shows, and to create fake drama didn’t seek out clients in advance.

This industry has a long history of twisting words around and putting them into people’s mouths for personal profit that predates celebrity tattoo artists, and it only seems absurd to those in the know, and we are the minority and outsiders of the entertainment industry. To be blunt our world-class artistic values would make the show more educational and less entertaining. Does the tattoo industry really want to encourage free educational shows about learning how to tattoo?

By: Brit

Brit — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:46:25 +0000

True story, as I was watching Ami doing that tattoo I was thinking about how I couldn’t wait to read what you had to say about it. It’s truly terrible.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:19:41 +0000

One more thing I noticed about the difference between the tattoo and the painting is that in the painting the star is a 6 sided star. I have no way of knowing if it’s a Star of David or if it carries any meaning for the client or her grandmother- or if she okayed the change- but I thought it was interesting.