Episode Guide
Who’s Ready to See Some Bad Tattoos Hot Mess, Spicy Bets Let Your Freak Flag Fly Lions and Goats and Exs, Oh My! Boos and Tattoos Lost in Translation Tattoos are a work of art but sometimes things do go wrong. Unfortunately, there are no do-overs. If things mess up then you’re stuck with a wonky or ill-placed tattoo for life. Well, fear not because Netflix’s latest reality series turns its attention to tattoo fixing, essentially combining LA Ink, Tattoo Nightmares and Tattoo Fixers into one show. There is a twist to all this though, taking cues from MTV’s Just Tattoo Of Us and How Far Is Tattoo Far to try and instill some drama into the fold. The ensuing medley of influences converges into a show that feels subpar to those aforementioned series (minus Just Tattoo Of Us and How Far Is Tattoo Far, they’re both awful) and struggles to do anything particularly unique or interesting. Seeing these bad tattoos and how they’re covered up is part of the main allure of course, but the narration is annoying at best. There’s been a recent trend in media shows like this to include a hyperactive “character” to narrate over what’s happening but for Tattoo Redo, it detracts from the premise. Here, the show draws on the efforts of Jessimae Peluso for hosting and narration duties. She adds absolutely nothing and by her own admission admits that she doesn’t know a lot about tattoos but can spot a pretty design. This simply leads one to ask, “well, why are you even here?” With no educational content coming from the host, Tattoo Redo simply redoes what’s already been done. We’ve seen a litany of different tattoo shows over the years and this show does absolutely nothing to stand out. It simply regurgitates what’s been done already – and ironically searching for “tattoo” on Netflix (at least on the UK version) brings up both Tattoo Fixers and Tattoo Fixers on holiday. Both of these shows are far superior to this one. If you do decide to take the plunge though, each episode draws on the talents of five different tattoo artists as they set out to fix awful and regretful tattoos. Tommy Montoya, Miryam Lumpini, Twig Sparks, Rose Hardy and Matt Beckerich are in the hot seat, and they all take it in turns to tattoo their clients. The twist here (and the nods to Just Tattoo of Us) is that friends, couples or family members are the ones designing these cover-up tattoos. Tattoo Redo just doesn’t feel unique. It does nothing original in this space, it doesn’t innovate or mix things up from tried and tested shows of old and the narration is at times unbearable. This is the sort of show designed to be thrown on in the background while you do other things – and Netflix are clearly banking on its audience doing just that. If you’re a tattoo aficionado then you’ll undoubtedly check this out but to be honest, finishing 2 or 3 episodes of this will have you itching to throw on Tattoo Fixers or Tattoo Nightmares instead.
