So I live in a small town in Montana, we have a local tattoo artist who is the only shop in town.

For christmas last year, our mother got us all $100 gift cards to the shop. My youngest brother was the first to go and had a lot of work done, getting most of a full arm sleeve done, but he moved away before getting it finished.

My sister contacted him back in february and gave the guy ideas for a design for a half sleeve, he seemed excited to do the work and all seemed well so in March my sister paid him a $200 deposit which he said would be put towards the completion of the tattoo.

Months went by with my sister checking in and him repeatedly telling her he was sorry, he's just been too busy but he would get her an update as soon as he could, all the while my brother had been getting his sleeve finished.

Well my brother met a girl and moved out of town a few weeks ago, and didn't get the tattoo finished.

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Which brings us to yesterday when after a long period of silence the guy finally got back to my sister. He e-mailed her telling her that he would not be continuing the work or even considering getting her into a chair because my brother owed him $150, and he wouldn't refund the money for her deposit or release the design to her until little brother paid him.

The $150 was the cost of the final session my brother never had done before he left town.

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So my question is how to proceed? My sister asked for the deposit to be returned and in the last email she got from the guy he said "hey if you don't like it sue me."

We have documentation of all the emails sent and received but I've been waiting until I have a cooler head before going and requesting copies of the written agreement she had signed with him, although I feel like it might be less than easy getting him to hand them over.