Whether a reality show is about singing, surviving, real estate, housewifing, or tattooing, it’s really about something else: it’s about people and their backstories. The template for all of the above show themes is the same: find people who are “ordinary, yet charismatic; people who have a good life story to tell. If we don’t care about the people on a reality show, then we won’t give a crap about anything else.
The new Netflix series, Tattoo Redo understands this as well or better than most. Yes, it is especially interesting to folks with tattoos, but what makes the show watchable is the viewer’s empathy with the participants.
The set-up is simple: “Bad Tattoos Walk In. Great Tattoos Walk Out.” Each half hour episode features three different “victims” of bad tattoos that have haunted them and often have been a bad reminder of an ex, or a past life that is no longer who they are now.
Jessimae Peluso 
But it goes further – each tattooed person arrives with someone who is very close to them: a spouse or partner or a daughter or parent or best friend. It’s almost like couple’s counseling. The engaging host, comedian Jessimae Peluso does a Q&A that brings out the ups and downs of the relationships and the story behind the bad tatts.
There’s also a gimmick where Pelusa reveals that the tattooed person doesn’t get to choose the new cover-up. It will instead be the person who accompanied them who will choose and the tatted person won’t see what design that’s been chosen for them until the big reveal. This part never really creates as much tension or curiosity as the producers must have wished for. After all, the people have brought their most trusted mates with them – are those people really gonna screw over their loved one by choosing a horrible cover-up? Of course not.
At any rate, now we have a stake in the tattoo itself. We want the best for the people. We’re introduced to what must be the ultimate rockstar team of artists because they each seem to have big personalities and are engaging in camera. They are Miryam Lumpini, Twig Sparks, Tommy Montoya, Matt Beckerich and Rose Hardy
Of course, they are also kick-ass artists and it’s pretty amazing to see how they take something regrettable or tacky or worse and turn it into something that’s pretty much a “Wow!” in every case. That’s not much of a spoiler, either. I mean, are the producers going to hire bad artists who would make the cover-up worse than the original? Again, that’s an easy “no way.”
So, while the format swings and misses on the attempts at tension, it totally wins you over by getting participants that virtually anyone could identify with. The diverse couples include gay and lesbian, people of color, longtime married duos and others who haven’t been dating that long. Also a sweet daughter who is helping out her loving Pops move forward with something that will surely impress his future dates.
There are giggles and tears and some really knock out tatts. That’s all we could ask for.
Tattoo Redo streams on Netflix starting July 28th | 6 Episodes | 3 out of 4 Stars
