Some days you just want to watch a bit of bubblegum TV. There's nothing wrong with that. Even I, a self-confessed crime drama fanatic, needs a little respite every now and then. So imagine my delight when I stumbled across Tattoo Redo on Netflix. Very similar in concept to Tattoo Fixers (the British tv show), Tattoo Redo takes everyday people who want to cover up a really bad tattoo and turns them over to a professional to fix them.
The show is hosted by Jessimae Peluso and features five tattoo artists who each have their own area of expertise. The customer and his/her/their friend then tell the story of how they got the tattoo that they hate. Happy to get it covered up, the twist is that the person they brought with them gets to choose the cover-up. The client is completely oblivious as to which design will now grace their skin for eternity. And to make sure they cannot peak, only the area getting tattooed is exposed until the final reveal.
Now I know that there are shows out there where friends tattoo their mates with the most awful designs. Thankfully this is far, far better. The designs, as you would expect, are like works of art. Frankly, how some of the bad tattoos are covered up is incredible. And while there is a bit of tension before the reveal, almost all are very happy with the end result. The only problem is that you never actually get to see the tattoo artists at work. Just the stencil and then like magic it's done. Shame really.
There are three customers featured on each of the six episodes. All of the artists get to showcase their work and Jessimae really does inject some fun and sarcasm into the proceedings. Tattoo Redo ticks all the right boxes. There's the horror of the original tattoo, the fun of seeing which tattoos will get chosen and the oohing and ahhhing of seeing the final result. As I said, it's bubblegum tv that passes the time nicely.