Wingnut Tattoo & Piercing Studio — Attraction in Anoka

We made an appointment for three piercings, online. Pricing stated it was $25 per piercing plus jewelry.

Upon arrival, we were informed by a sign on the door that only my daughter who was being pierced could enter the store. I wasn't happy about it, being fully vaccinated and willing to wear any mask didn't effect the ability to enter, but I understand. The individual who answered the door was curt, unfriendly, and our short exchange left me feeling uneasy about allowing my daughter to enter the establishment alone. To clarify, this was planned as my daughter's celebration experience for her 18th birthday. She is a responsible and intelligent individual, I usually have very little concern regarding her ability to navigate new, difficult or challenging situations. I handed my daughter my credit card to pay for the services, an agreed upon gift, as she reluctantly entered the store alone.

No more than a minute into her solo adventure she texted me: "They are blunt." Having seven tattoos myself, I know this is common as the services provided in such establishments are mostly permanent and they want to be certain that individuals are fully aware of the process as well as details of what they're getting. Not thinking of potential inability of being with her, I didn't prepare for this interaction.

Fifteen minutes later she popped out of the building with a forced smile and stunned expression. She shared that she wasn't allowed to receive all three piercings because they only allow twenty minutes for piercing appointments. Since individuals who have appointments are only allowed in at their appointment time, that means the amount of time to select jewelry and receive the service is incredibly limited. She handed me a stack of stapled papers, on top the credit card receipt for charges of $249. Anticipating $150 max, I was shocked. (A friend had recently taken her son to get similar piercings in Minneapolis and it was $100.) Beneath it an itemized receipt, of which none of the charges notated were $25 or $50 for services. Considering my first interaction with the individual who opened the door, I knew asking for clarifications from them would be futile.

Short awful experience summarized...

-The experience felt predatory. None of the jewelry was priced, according to my daughter (price ranges aren't listed on the website, the piercer shared with my daughter that she had chosen the last expensive jewelry.) The brief amount of time allowed for the appointment doesn't accomodate processing of what's happening (for a first time customer) and to commit to jewelry that will be worn for a minimum of six months.

-Lack of communication The appointment was made four days in advance. There was no reason they couldn't have contacted us to communicate about the number of piercings and time allowance. Let alone, notifying of the limited attendance of guests prior to arrival. Multiple customers arrived while we were waiting and it was obvious they were unaware as well.

-Poor business practices Anyone who has experienced these services previously knows that choosing to receive services from these type of establishments is a big deal and often considered eventful. Part of owning a business in the service industry is recognizing it's not just about the final product but also the experience. In retrospect, I have no doubt the owner of this establishment is capitalizing on every aspect of the COVID limitations they're able to use to rationalize their current process.

-Inappropriate guidance The jewelry my daughter selected was not appropriately sized (length of bar) for the piercings she received. They are excessively too long and are likely going to stretch the skin as they heal, making the holes larger than necessary.

I would not recommend going to Wingnut for any first time experience while they're operating at this level. I know people who've had great experiences here, so our interaction was...

Update: I have been in contact with Dave. I appreciated the call back and working with me over this review.

This review has nothing to do with quality of my piercing. This is based solely on false advertising and professionalism.

I got my nose pierced a few weeks ago with a friend. When I set up my appointment I informed them of doing it on my birthday because of their birthday discount. On the day of, one of the girl workers greeted my friend and I at the door, but was very cold and annoyed while saying, "you need to wait in your car and call Wingnut. Also, you two can't be in together." Totally fine for COVID reasons, but it would've been nice if we knew that policy before having that be our first impression.

When I got my piercing Paxton was great. He walked me through everything and felt reassured. I had mentioned it was my birthday when we were talking and I brought up the discount. Right before paying for my piercing I mentioned the advertised deal from the website and he said, "yep, we can do that." Ran my card and went on my way.

When I got home later that night I noticed I was not given my discount. I called a little over a day later and left a message asking that someone just please call me back. By the next week with no answer I called during business hours. Someone answered and said, "oh is this about the nasal piercing?" (Meaning that they knew I left a message). His response was, "because we are the only piercing place in the state to be doing nasal piercings we aren't offering that discount at this time." I asked why I wasn't given that information when I was told I was offered the discount when checking out. He then started getting defensive and said, "I don't know, I am just the front desk guy." He said the owner, Dave, would be back in a hour to call back. Called back in an hour, no Dave, he wrote my name down and said Dave would call me back. Over a week later with no call is why I am writing this review.

This is a $70 discount I should have received from their advertisement and assurance from one of their workers that I was getting it. As someone who grew up in Anoka, I am very aware of this business with many friends getting piercings and ink from here. Very disappointed to give a low review on an establishment within...

I will never go back here for a piercing. I went to get my belly button pierced back in the beginning of summer, and was super excited because i just turned 18! I was super excited to get my piercing done, as I had already been turned away by them once. The first appointment I made was like the day after my birthday and i was super excited! i brought my birth certificate, social security, and paper copy of my license (i had already gone to the dmv to apply for my 18 yo license) and my old one has been stamped through and invalidated so i didn’t bring it. I can understand why they didn’t accept the 3 forms of ID that I brought, what I can’t understand is why he denied those 3, and then proceeded to tell me that if i had brought my currently INVALID license he would be able to go through with my appointment. My next visit was a few weeks later. I don’t know why I chose to come back, but I did. I got there and this time there was a woman at the desk. She was super rude and made me feel really uncomfortable, but I got though it. But this leads me to my next qualm, when I was asked what jewelry I wanted, I responded by asking for prices (they were not listed online or in store) and I was informed that the CHEAPEST option was $70. This is in no way ok. I understand that the quality may be great and all that, but there is fine quality jewelry for way less. And IF you are going to offer that as your cheapest option, you should, at the very least have it publicly known and posted. At this point I felt like I couldn’t say no so I just followed through. My piercer was nice and made sure everything was clean, but no nicer and no cleaner than any other piercer I’ve been to. Then, when I was checking out the woman at the desk said some very disrespectful things to my piercer which honestly, were personal and I don’t feel like I should share here. There was a lot of tension between the two after that. Since then I have been to 3 other local establishments, and now knowing that the service here was not normal or ok, I would have just walked out. Ultimately here I paid the most money i’ve ever spent on a piercing for the worst service i’ve ever...