Once you've decided you want to get a tattoo, it's time to find someone to do the ink.
With so many artists out there, it's hard to know where to begin in the search for the right one.
But one woman who entrusted her friend to do the ink was so horrified by the final result that she was forced to get it fixed a week later.
Jessica Williams shared the end product on her TikTok @jessicawilliams546, where she said "thank God for coverups."
In a series of viral videos, Jessica explained: "My friend and I tend to do a lot of things out of impulse because that's just how we are and it makes for great stories."
After asking around for recommendations, the women were told about a mutual friend who tattoos at his house.
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This should have been "red flag number one", she later realised.
She explained: "He showed us some of his work. His girl was there and she had her whole body covered in tattoos he did and they weren't bad.
"He also tattooed himself and they weren't bad."
So she showed him a picture of what she wanted doing, a dainty design of two hands reaching out to each other.
But unfortunately for Jessica, her Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam inspired piece ended up looking more like ET from the iconic phone home scene.
She added: "He put the stencil on, it looked great. It was what I wanted.
"But when I looked down when it was finished, that wasn't the stencil... at all."
The hands instead ended up looking more like claws thanks to the wobbly linework.
Jessica later ended up going to a proper tattoo shop to get the ink fixed.
She explained: "The new tattoo artist told me that from the way it looked, the [mutual friend] pressed way too hard for it to be on my rib cage which was going to make it harder for him to cover up."
So a week later, once the design has healed slightly, she went back to have it covered over with some flowers.
Since being posted, the video has racked up more than 280,000 likes and 3,700 comments from people who were stunned by the final result.
One person said: "I've never done a tattoo in my life but I genuinely think I can do better."
Another wrote: "I've seen jail tats better than that."
A third commented: "YOU'RE JOKING?! WERE THE ARTIST'S EYES CLOSED?"
Someone else put: "This is the first one that's made me audibly cackle. It's giving ET phone home."
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