Two Natrona County residents are sparring over a tattoo with an “anatomical” error.
Angelina Parkhurst Eagle Alvarado wanted a tattoo of an eagle and feather on her neck. She got one from Ivan TwoBulls of TwoBulls Tattooing in Mills.
Now, the two are attacking each other and defending themselves over the tattoo's current appearance, which Alvarado described as “a penis on my neck.”
“I’m Oneida Iroquois,” Alvarado said. “My grandma gave me the name Little Eagle. This tattoo is supposed to be something that represents me. I don’t want a penis on my neck.”
TwoBulls said he feels he’s being blackmailed by someone unhappy with a tattoo he meant to finish, and slandered by people who didn’t wait for the full story.
“She had the option to get this tattoo fixed and finished,” he said. “Now, there are all these posts accusing me of hiding a penis in her tattoo. She’s just drama-mongering, and it’s left a bad taste in my mouth.”
The Initial Agreement
The tattoo started as a non-monetary transaction. TwoBulls wanted to rent a bounce house from Alvarado, so she agreed to get a tattoo in lieu of payment.
“I have a bounce house business, so we traded services. My bounce house for a tattoo,” Alvarado said.
TwoBulls acknowledged the transaction proceeded “against my better judgment” and admitted he offered the trade from the start.
“I asked her to let me provide my services to her, and she wanted the trade,” he said.
Alvarado sent TwoBulls an image of what she wanted: An eagle’s head sticking out of a large eagle feather that would be placed on the left side of her neck.
TwoBulls used the image to make a unique design with the words “Parkhurst Eagle” underneath.
The design was approved, and Alvarado’s tattoo appointment was Sept. 16.
“He did a stencil, and the stencil looked nothing like the tattoo at first,” she said. “I didn't notice it because I was so excited about the eagle and the eye and the rest of the tattoo.”
TwoBulls said he was still doing the linework when Alvarado wanted to end the appointment.
“She cannot sit still,” he said. “She doesn't want to finish the tattoo. I am not able to finish the tattoo, so I just put the linework in there.”
Alvarado denied this.
“He actually made comments during the session on how well I handled it,” she said.
Nevertheless, the two parted on good terms.
“She left my tattoo shop excited, happy, and extremely pleased,” TwoBulls said.
Alvarado admitted she was still happy with the tattoo overall, until her 15-year-old daughter noticed it.
“I didn’t notice it until I was healed,” Alvarado said. “My daughter asked me, ‘Why do you have a penis on your neck?’”
Scheduling Conflict
On Oct. 9, Alvarado texted TwoBulls to let him know that her tattoo “looks like a penis,” and she asked him to fix it.
This is where the accounts begin to diverge.
Alvarado said TwoBulls tried to downplay the flaw, telling her he “couldn’t control what others saw.”
“His response is, ‘I don't have time till next year,’” she said. “I said, ‘Oh, it shouldn't take too long,’ and that it’s kind of embarrassing. He told me he didn’t see a penis at all and, ‘If that's all you think now, I don't know what to tell you.’”
TwoBulls said that, because of his schedule, he couldn’t get Alvarado in for a touch-up appointment until January. According to him, Alvarado wanted an appointment within the week.
“I gave her a January date off the top of my head,” he said. “I can't drop everything and look at my book to tell her when I can fix this tattoo, but that way we could start negotiating to get this done as soon as possible. I tried appeasing her."
They never got to that point.
'Blackmail'
TwoBulls expected to negotiate with Alvarado to find a suitable time and date for a touch-up. Instead, he began seeing social media posts in groups like Casper Rants and Raves and Ink Shaming that disparaged his business and character.
Both Alvarado and TwoBulls felt they were being blackmailed. TwoBulls said the social media posts were “a big, huge form of disrespect.”
“According to her, she wanted me to fix the tattoo this week, and then she would take all the posts down, and that would be the end of it,” he said. “I'm not going to do business with a person who wants to blackmail me.”
Alvarado said TwoBulls started targeting her business in response.
“I’m begging him to fix this (tattoo), and he told me that my bounce house was disgusting and that it took two hours to clean all the mold and smell,” she said. “He never mentioned it to me until I had put him on Casper Rants and Raves.”
Alvarado also provided a screenshot of a since-deleted comment where TwoBulls was “boasting about” the tattoo in the Facebook group “Is that a PEEN on my screen?!?”
“F*** yeah I did that tattoo! And I will never deal with that Angelina lady ever again,” the comment read.
Alvarado denied she was trying to blackmail TwoBulls, saying she had only "asked him to get me in sooner to fix his mistake.”
Alvarado initially said TwoBulls “laughed and was proud of doing this to me” while refusing to do any touch-up. TwoBulls denied boasting but admitted he would not work with Alvarado again and told her as much.
“I have morals. I have values. I have standards, and I'm adhering to those morals, values, and standards,” he said.
Eye Of The Beholder
Where Alvarado sees “a penis on her neck,” TwoBulls sees a tattoo that is, admittedly, unfinished.
“I put the original artwork online so people can see that it’s unfinished,” he said. “It needs black where the black goes. It needs shading where the shading goes. A lot of people don't realize the process that it takes to get to a finished product. What she has is minimal line work.”
Furthermore, TwoBulls said touch-up appointments, especially for intricate designs like the one he did for Alvarado, are commonplace and usually scheduled weeks or months after the initial appointment.
“That's a part of the game,” he said. “It’s not the biggest part of the game, but it is definitely a factor.”
Nevertheless, TwoBulls acknowledged that Alvarado's tattoo was done "in haste" and said he has taken accountability for its current state.
"Taking accountability and being proud are different," he said. "I am not proud of that tattoo, but I took accountability. That doesn't fix the shaky lines, how that lady may feel, or the fact that it looks like a penis. I absolutely have empathy for her."
TwoBulls said Alvarado left the Sept. 16 session understanding the tattoo was unfinished and that she could schedule another appointment to finish it. Alvarado denies this.
“He never once mentioned needing a second session,” she said. “It just wanted him to fix it. It’s embarrassing.”
Code Or Conduct?
Alvarado is actively trying to find someone to fix the tattoo, but now she claims she’s run into multiple problems with other tattoo artists because of “the code.”
She described an interaction with another Casper-area tattoo artist about touching up her tattoo. She even sent him a $60 deposit.
“He was willing to fix it until he reached out to Ivan to ask him if he cared if he fixed that tattoo,” she said. “He initially told me that he didn’t care.”
Later, Alvarado said the other artist declined to do a touch-up because it would “put him in a very tough position.”
“He told me that (tattoo artists) have a code that they follow when it comes to other people's work, and he follows that code,” she said. “He said we have to work in this injury industry, and Ivan has a lot of backup from people, and he was honestly afraid to go in there and do anything with it because it could cause him issues amongst his peers.”
TwoBulls didn’t say anything about a “code” that might be violated if another local artist touched up Alvarado’s tattoo. He saw the rejection as a direct consequence of her actions.
“The only thing I can say is that I think, based on her behavior online, there are no other tattooers locally who would want to fall into this same position that I am in with her,” he said.
One thing TwoBulls adamantly denied was the claims that he’d intentionally put a penis shape on Alvarado’s neck. Alvarado didn’t claim it was intentional, but others have.
“That was very unintentional, but people are trying to misconstrue it and say that that was all intentional for some reason,” he said. “I don't know why, as a professional businessman, that would make any sense to do that.”
Everyone Has An Opinion
After days of social media vitriol, both Alvarado and TwoBulls have calmed down but remain steadfast in their positions.
Alvarado said she believes TwoBulls should rise to the occasion and apologize. TwoBulls said he feels he has nothing to apologize for and won’t work with her going forward.
“After all of the harm she's done to my business, I don't think any person would want to work with their abuser,” he said. “There is no integrity in blackmail.”
Alvarado has found another tattoo artist who’s agreed to touch up the tattoo. She says she never intended to blackmail TwoBulls into giving her a free appointment.
“Even though I have to pay for somebody else's mistake, I don't expect nobody else to do a free tattoo,” she said. “That's their way of living.”
One thing they've both conceded is that everyone had an opinion. They've both encountered support and condemnation from people who've followed the discourse.
The irony is that Alvarado is still a fan of the tattoo overall. She said TwoBulls’ work, particularly the eagle’s eye, was “badass.”
“I'm happy with the eagle,” she said. “I love the eagle. I think the eye is badass, pardon my French, but I love the eye, and I love the eagle.”
TwoBulls wasn’t sure how to handle the praise Alvarado gave his work after the public discourse had taken on a life of its own.
“If that's how she feels, I don't know why she's saying all these other things,” he said. “That’s 180 degrees from the rude and cruel things she’s saying about me and the tattoo in the comments. She says one thing and does another.”
Much of Alvarado’s disappointment comes from her emotional connection to what the image represents. She doesn’t regret the tattoo on her neck, as she feels it “represents something that's true to my heart,” but she's embarrassed by how she and others are seeing it.
“I don't have any shame in the placement because it's who I am, but feathers are something that’s very special in our culture,” she said. “It’s a sacred tattoo, not a penis tattoo.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
