NSW Personal Injury - Request Tattoo Artist to Contribute to Medical Expenses?

[peSauce]

Hey LawAnswers,

I only found out about this site today. What a great way to point people in the right direction.

To keep it simple:

I got a tattoo January 2016. Within 4 weeks, I noticed I was having a bad reaction to the ink. Within 6 months, my condition was well beyond the severity of even the worst case of tattoo reaction I could find online. Symptoms were a 5mm raised section over the entire tattoo, extremely itchy 24/7, prevented normal sleep patterns in the end as it kept getting worse.

I received mixed advice from tattoo artists, GP's and the tattoo community online.

I ended up booking into a skin specialist last quarter of 2016. The only real thing to do was to have the tattoo surgically removed. After re-visiting the tattoo parlour for further advice, my tattoo artist told me that someone else had a bad reaction shortly after I did, so they threw the ink away for being "bad ink".

Cost of tattoo $ 200

Cost of surgery + assorted medical expenses (with receipts) $3500.

I know it was obviously my risk getting the tattoo, though what would be the responsibility of the tattoo artist / tattoo parlour?

I want to ask them to financially contribute to my already paid medical expenses. Does anyone think this is rude or out of line to ask for such a thing? (Keeping in mind I signed a liability waiver before getting the tattoo - assuming the ink would be safe)

I'm not sure what would be the legal stance on this. Any help on personal injury or general information would be much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Rod]

Try, it is worth an attempt. Though what you ask for should be out-of-pocket expenses in the first instance. Ie. no double dipping with insurance.

If that fails, then see a lawyer. You have a good chance of getting your costs back if the tattoo parlour was negligent and the medical reports back your story. Keep in mind the parlour may well now decide they never had a bad batch of ink.

 

[peSauce]

Thanks Rod,

Much appreciated.

I think this will be my main issue - proving if the tattoo artist was negligent. Seeing as there's no record of their housekeeping / ink register in their shop I can't see there's a way to prove anything.

I'll give it a go and I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers

 

[Tim W]

Don't worry about the waiver, it's not worth a lot where real and serious injury has occurred.

You are correct, however, when thinking that it will be pretty hard to prove negligence by somebody else,
when you have voluntarily assumed ("taken on") a risk (such as a risk of infection) yourself.

 

[Victoria S]

I agree with the above posts. The wavier of liability cannot exclude cases of gross negligence, however as you have pointed out negligence is the difficult thing. If they had no reason to expect that the ink they used was unsafe or different from any other ink they used - or unless they had somehow treated the ink in a way that was unhygienic or below the standard of usual practice then they can't really be held liable. I would be asking them questions about their suppliers and where the ink came from - whether it was a new product etc. It may even be a product liability case - not so much even the tattoo artists themselves.