u/candy_peachyx

I run a small tattoo studio and have been doing it for five years. My booking policy has been the same from day one and it lives on the website, the booking form, and the studio wall. Custom work needs at least a week of lead time minimum and there are no exceptions.

Daniel has been coming to me for three years, tips well, refers people, and is genuinely one of my favorite people to work with.

Tuesday night he messaged asking if I could fit him in Thursday for a custom sleeve piece because he had a work event coming up and wanted something done before it.

I said no because I had a full book and more importantly I do not rush permanent work regardless of who is asking. A bad custom design lives on someone forever and I am not willing to put my name on something I did not have proper time to develop.

I offered him a slot three weeks out and he came back saying he expected more flexibility given how long we had worked together and how much he had spent with me. He said he would find someone who actually valued loyal clients and has not responded since.

My partner thinks I shouldve found a way to squeeze him in but I think rushing a permanent design onto someone just because they have history with me is not loyalty, it is a disservice to them and to my work.

AITA?

i share a resource with several other people in my building, and there are unwritten rules about how it works that everybody follows and its been fine for years

someone wasnt following those rules. i gave it more time than most people would have before doing anything, and then i acted on it in the most reasonable way available to me

they came at me immediately when they realized, like loud and rude with multiple expletives directed at me specifically. i stayed calm and explained what had happened and why id done what i did

they didnt accept the explanation and kept escalating, kept calling me names. i just kept responding calmly with the facts of the situation

then mid argument they threw out a personal circumstance. something real, something im not gonna dismiss as unimportant in general. but it was deployed at that specific moment as a way to make me back down and stop holding them accountable for what had actually happened

i didnt back down. i said something to the effect of that doesnt change what happened here or what you owe other people in this shared space

they went quiet for a second and then started crying, said one more thing, and left

they left a passive aggressive note after

i know the inconsiderate behavior was wrong and im right about that part, but the thing i said at the end, the direct comment about whether they were ready for their responsibilities given what had just happened, i keep wondering if that was a step further than i needed to take

AITA?