A FATHER 'devastated' after a tattoo shop took his money but failed to give him an inked tribute to his dead daughter finally has a permanent memorial to the teenager.
Allan Page, from Risinghurst, was among the slew of angry customers left out of pocket when Oxford Ink closed last month and disappeared from social media.
See our original story - father 'cried in car' after tattoo let down
The 49-year-old had given £250 and a photograph of his daughter Holly, along with a poem, to tattoo artist ‘Bugs’ on February 1 at the Headington shop for reference and said there had been no indication the business would not be open the next day for his booking.
When he turned up for his appointment with a portion of her ashes for the tattoo, however, the shop was shut and there has been no sign of the money or precious photograph of his daughter, who died of cardiac arrest, since.
Mr Page feared it would take a long time to save up to finally get the tattoo done but, after reading about the family's plight in the Oxford Mail, another shop stepped up and offered to do the tribute for free.
Fury as tattoo shop disappears without refunds
His wife Doreen, who already has her own inked memorial to their daughter, said: “We were approached by Acreedo tattoo shop in Abingdon who have been kind enough to do the tattoo.
"The tattoo artist who has done it is called Ash Bernard and he has done a brilliant job of doing Allan’s tattoo of Holly.”
The 48-year-old added: “It’s absolutely amazing we can’t thank them enough for stepping in and helping us.”
Allan Page with his daughter Holly
A picture of the new tattoo was shared on Acreedo's Facebook page with a comment that it had been a 'massive honour' to do the memorial portrait for Mr Page 'on the house'.
There continues to be frustration among Oxford Ink customers over refunds, with Daniel Hall, who opened the Headington business eight years ago, repeatedly vowing to give customers their money back by the end of last month.
Speaking to the Oxford Mail last week he confirmed he had paid back ‘two or three’ people but that the rest of the refund requests were now being dealt with by a solicitor and those impacted would be contacted.
He added he would be making no further comment on the issue.
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Speaking previously about Mr Page's case he said he had had nothing to do with the couple’s tattoo and had done ‘everything possible’ to get the pair in touch with the artist.
Tattoo artist Warren Jeffrey, known as Bugs, at the time said he had ‘saved’ the photograph from the floor of the shop and would return it to the Page family but Mrs Page said he had still not responded to their messages.
Mr Jeffrey denies this.
She added if the family was able to get some of the money back it would go towards sponsorship to the Make A Wish Foundation, as her husband was planning to do a parachute jump later on this year for the charity.
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