Xclusive Ink II — Attraction in Rocky Hill

This review is for the shop, NOT my artist (she deserves 5 stars). I made an appointment 2 weeks in advance for the flash day because I was excited to get another tattoo from her before she goes on maternity leave. The day of, I called 1 hour before just to see if she happened to have anything earlier, which they told me yes, come 15 minutes before my scheduled appointment. I got there and checked in where they told me she was running 45 minutes behind, I was totally understanding about that…but on my way out another customer told me they had been waiting for her for 2 hours. I brushed it off as she was being dramatic and trusted the business was being honest. I waited patiently in my car for 1 hour and 20 minutes, then walked back in to see what was up. They then told me there’s still 1 person in front of me so it would be 30 more minutes. I opted not to wait any longer because I had things to do (which could’ve been done within my waiting time btw). I scheduled this appointment so I didn’t expect it to take over 2 hours for honestly a 15 minute tattoo. The shop knew from the jump she was 2 hours late and chose not to be honest about it. Their excuse about telling me to come early is they had their calls forwarded to another location so they had no clue what was happening here. Even with that, if they were honest at check in I could’ve left, run some errands and come back and been happy with it, but because they lied I wasted an hour and a half of my time sitting in my car. Only to not even get the tattoo I was looking forward to so much. Lying to your customers and showing you don’t value their time is a terrible way to run a business. Honesty would’ve gone a long way, and I would’ve been happy to be patient if they had been transparent about the situation. I may still return for my artist because she is amazing (again, 5+ stars for her), but it will be reluctantly because I don’t appreciate being treated like that by the...

So I first heard about Xclusive ink when I went to the Tommy tattoo convention at Mohegan Sun in October. Well there I got worked on by Mel. She was very professional and cordial and spoke to me about some of her artwork and she had set out and I was impressed by one and asked her if she would do it with some color which she did for me, and it came out wonderfully. I eventually spoke with another tattoo artist at the convention that worked at the same shop, and we agreed to meet and discuss a tattoo that I've had in my mind for a while. I eventually made it down to the shop and made plans to have her tattoo me but unfortunately a month before I was to get the tattoo she had moved on from shop. They were willing to work with me and give me back my deposit but I was willing to work with another artist after going over her work. Known as Taj mirage she was very flexible to work with me and for some reason kismet seem to have worked because we were very in sync and what I wanted. Reset the appointment for today January 3rd 2025 because my birthday is on January 4th, and this was my gift to myself.

When I got there we went over all the details and she went to design the tattoo.while it did take about an hour and a half to get all the details together she came back with three pieces and the first one she had designed hit everything exactly how I wanted and in fact made it even better in my head. She has a deft touch, an artistic soul, and she has the ability to interact with you and make you feel special while working with you. A good listener, attentive, and definitely spiritual and empathic, I would recommend Taj to anyone who is new into tattooing and to those who want their vision made life. This is not my first tattoo and it definitely is not my last one and I know that I would come back to her again if I have a particular vision I know she can make come to life....

Came in for a half sleeve. Worked with someone that was unprofessional to put it lightly.

Every appointment I made was either moved or canceled by the artist. This happened each of the 5 times I came in to get work done. This happened despite me adhering to their schedule which meant that I had to take time off work at least once. Suffice it to say taking time off work to have the appointment canceled after I put down a deposit was less than ideal.

One of these appointments was a touch up for a fresh tattoo as the application was sub par and a lot of the tattoo faded within a month. Unfortunately this was not the only touch up that needed to be done. The second time I called for a touch up, the front counter person was confrontational and told me to call back another time.

Each time I came in for an appointment, the artist did not have a design prepared and would spend upwards of an hour choosing designs, placing the stencil, and charged me for this time each session.

I would have loved to stay with the same artist and get the whole piece finished, but having to come back and re-experience the pain of getting tattooed, the healing time, and the time spent in the chair all not leading to a high quality piece was inexcusable. I ended up having the entire tattoo retouched and completed by...