Texas man finds tattoo artist online. Then he gets scammed out of $300: ‘So many people saying the same thing’

Decades into the lifespan of the internet, “online” is still kind of the Wild West. Equal parts the perfect place to find small businesses and an unfortunate hotbed for scams, existing on the internet is as much of a coin flip as it is a thrill.

Enter one Texas man, JP, who just wanted a nice, simple tattoo. His quest for one landed him a nightmarish experience with a shady character, resulting in JP being out several hundred dollars.

And how did it all begin? TikTok, of course.

‘Be careful. I just got scammed’

In a video initially posted in Dec. 2025, which has since accumulated over 3.6 million views, JP (@jiggajp_) tells his TikTok audience about a stressful saga in which he allegedly got “scammed” by a TikTok tattoo artist.

“To yall out here trying to get a tattoo man,” JP begins in his video. “Be careful. I just got scammed.”

JP says his experience with this tattoo artist started innocently enough: A TikTok search.

“I was on TikTok trying to find me a tattoo artist in my local area … and I came across this dude with a good amount of following on his page,” JP says. “His name is Tattedbywiz. I hit him up and I texted him like, ‘Yo, I’m … trying to get tatted.”

JP shares that as far as he could tell, Tattedbywiz seemed legit based on his TikTok profile.

“Dude got his phone number up on his page and it’s been the consistent number on his page for a little while now,” JP shares. “So I’m thinking, OK, that’s a valid number. Valid dude all day.”

At that point, JP says he started messaging Tattedbywiz, who told him the tattoo was only going to cost $500. This seemed “normal” and was “really damn good” for the kind of tattoo JP was after.

But then came the catch.

“He said $300 for the tattoo deposit,” JP says. “Oh. $300 deposit for a $500 tattoo? That’s a little hefty, but … I’m not mad at it. OK, cool.”

JP says he sent Tattedbywiz the deposit, and admittedly felt “like a goofball for doing it,” but then Tattedbywiz escalated in response. Upon receiving JP’s deposit, Tattedbywiz immediately texted him saying that now he needs even more money.

“‘We gonna need $200 so we can … get this wrote off my taxes,'” JP says Tattedbywiz told him. “‘So we can get the supplies and the utensils’ … What … you need $200 for stencils and materials? You just got the $300 from my security deposit. What the [expletive]?”

But Tattedbywiz allegedly doubled down, repeating that he was going to “write off” the $200 and promising to send it back to JP after doing so. At this point, JP was deeply suspicious.

“I’ve done business with a good amount of people,” JP says. “Nobody’s ever took money, wrote it off,
sent it back. That’s just stupid as hell … I’m like, nah, man … I don’t really feel comfortable doing all that. Let me send it to you tomorrow first thing … Then the next day roll around, he hit me up like, ‘I sent you everything in the email and everything … All you need to do is just send me the rest of that payment
and we’ll get everything set up.”

Alas, there was no email in JP’s inbox.

Tattedbywiz insisted it must have gone to spam. JP could still see nothing. Tattebywiz tripled down. Still nothing.

“But then all the while, he’s still trying to press me making this payment,” JP says. “I’m like, yeah no …
this [expletive] is a scammer. I should have known.”

JP says he’d had a feeling this was a scam the night before, but he gave Tattedbywiz the benefit of the doubt because he “can be wrong” sometimes.

At this point, JP says he asked for the location of Tattedbywiz’s tattoo parlor. After a couple of hours, Tattedbywiz “finally” sent JP an address.

“I looked this mother[expletive] address up, it says some apartments,” JP says. “[Expletive] no, bro, I’m dead. That [expletive]’s over with. So I done politely asked dude, ‘Let me get a refund.’ That was the last message that done went through.”

And that was that. JP could no longer get through to him. Tattedbywiz allegedly took the money and ran.

Now, JP is trying to prevent others from meeting the same fate.

“Do you ever wanna get a tattoo?” JP finishes. “Do not go to Tattedbywiz. He is a scammer. He will take your [expletive] money. And the moment you ask for a refund, he gonna ghost … Be careful, ’cause it happened to me.”

@jiggajp_ Tattedbywiz is a scammer do not get a tattoo from him‼️#fyp ♬ original sound – Jp

Scams on scams

A cursory Internet search reveals this is not the time Tattedbywiz has been accused of “scamming.” A 2024 Instagram reel with its audio now removed shows screenshots of a Tattedbywiz customer requesting confirmation for an appointment that was paid for—confirmation which, allegedly, never came even though the payment was accepted.

Now, typing “tattedbywiz” into the TikTok search bar yields dozens of dummy accounts whose usernames are all variations of his username. As one viewer noted in the comments section of JP’s video, “that’s how scams work – you get a person, use their likeness and in this case can use their job to scam people out of $$$ easy peasy.”

Another viewer even began to theorize that Tattedbywiz himself was behind the dummy accounts, commenting, “It seem like he started creating new accounts, talking about ‘on this is my only page, the other is a scammer’ but it’s lit the same dude.”

Some less charitable commenters clowned JP for giving up his money so uncritically, with several pointing out what they deemed to be obvious red flags from the jump.

“Who looks on TikTok for an artist?” one viewer commented with a laughing emoji.

“$300 deposit?” another laughed. “Come on bro.”

“Soon as he said $200 for supplies, I would’ve been calling my bank asap,” another person commented.

“Well can i have 300 since you just giving it out?” someone joked.

As multiple viewers encouraged JP to “dispute” the charges and/or take legal action against Tattedbywiz, tattoo regulars and tattoo artists alike took to the comments to educate others on tattoo industry norms.

“As a licensed tattoo artist myself, there is no such thing as payment for supplies,” one person commented. “We already have that u just payin for the tattoo.”

“I am covered in tattoos and have never paid a deposit,” another wrote. “And to quote you $500 right off the bat?! Nope.”

Entities like City National Bank, the VA, and the FTC all offer guidelines on how social media users can protect themselves from online scams. While scam victims are often conceptualized as the elderly in the public imagination, the FTC reports that “scams on social media are a problem for people of all ages, but the numbers are most striking for younger people. In the first six months of 2023, in reports of money lost to fraud by people 20-29, social media was the contact method more than 38% of the time.”

The Mary Sue has reached out to JP via TikTok comment to request additional comment. Tattedbywiz appears to have become inactive online and was not reachable for comment.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]