TRX Tattoos & Piercings — Attraction in St. Louis

UPDATED REVIEW (4 stars): After my original review of TRX, Sarah, one of the shop owners, reached out to me and wanted to make my experience right. We communicated and agreed on a time for me to come into the shop to share further details with her about my experience. Sarah was so welcoming to hearing my concerns and she also replaced ALL of my jewelry on the piercing, not just one of the pieces. I truly appreciate Sarah reaching out and her genuine concern about my experience!

ORIGINAL REVIEW (2 stars): I've had two piercings done here, one about 4 years ago and another one a month ago.

My experience 4 years ago was a 5-star experience. The shop was clean, the piercing process was sanitary and quick, and the piercer was super nice.

The industrial piercing that I got one month ago and the conversations with the shop since has turned me off completely to this place. When I arrived for the industrial, the shop still looked the same and the cleanliness was still up to par. However, the piercer was not as friendly and she seemed annoyed that she had a customer. When she was explaining the care procedures to me, she sounded like she'd rather watch paint dry. The piercing experience itself was no different than the last - quick and clean.

In the month since I've had this piercing, the top ball has unscrewed itself THREE TIMES and fallen out. After the second time, I emailed my piercer and her response was actually quite welcoming to come into the shop and she would take care of it easily and quickly. She explained what could be wrong and it sounded like it would take no longer than a quick 5 minute visit. I went to the shop on a Tuesday afternoon and I explained my situation and that I'd been emailing the piercer to the worker behind the counter. Her response was that there were 3 individuals in front of me waiting for "actual" piercings, so it would be between 45 minutes and a hour wait. I completely understand that there were 3 other customers in front of me, that's not the frustration here. The frustration arose when I asked if my piercer would be in the next day, they said yes, to which I asked if I could make an appointment so I don't waste another trip, and I was told in the rudest, snottiness tone, "We don't take reservations for piercings."

Later that evening, I was cleaning my piercing, and the ball came unscrewed yet again (third time) and the bar even fell out of the hole. I tried like I had before to get it back in, and after five minutes of frustratingly failing, I called the shop. It was 7:05pm. The individual who answered the phone was extremely rude and inconsiderate for what I was dealing with. I again explained that I had been emailing back and forth with my piercer, and he was less than compliant with my situation. "If you want us to fix it, you have to come in when we are open. We close at 8." Luckily, after more fuss with the earring, I got it back in and the ball screwed on. Had I not though, I would have wasted money on a piercing and piece of jewelry because it would have closed up by the next afternoon when I could make it to the shop after work since I was rudely told they don't open until 11am.

The entire tone of this situation has come off that this shop no longer cares about their customers and keeping them, rather, they are solely focused...

Im 16 and yesterday, I came in to get snake bites and my left eyebrow pierced. The moment we(my mother and I) walked in it seems friendly and professional but as we looked at jewlery, the person at the counter was rushing me to make a choice, seeming very impatient. After telling me I couldn't get my snake bites pierced with hoops, I picked out several different pieces of plain metal jewlery. Every single time I chose one, they didn't have all the parts to. I was pushed towards getting the jeweled pieces after stating firmly I did NOT want something with a stone placed in it. When I said I'd come back another day to do my snake bites, I was rushed over to the gold pieces and told I could use those options as well. On top of all of the snake bite issues, they had one standard barbell choice that is almost too small for my eyebrow, and is not doing great with all the swelling im experiencing. After we had everything worked out and the proper forms sorted etc, we had to wait just a few minutes and were pulled into the piercing room. My piercer was Zach, a very friendly, funny, and positive person. I felt confident that the experience would be fine, until he pierced me. He first used the straight needle, then a plastic place holder(?) and then put in my jewlery, all without forceps. Each time, pulling the material all the way through. It was so immensely painful and my face/hairline was covered in blood. Halfway through threading my jewlery through, it got stuck and he couldn't find the other side for the jewlery to come out at. During my piercing, I had no clue this was all why it was hurting so much, but my mom did. Since she had an eyebrow piercing and knew my pain tolerance, she knew something was wrong when I was saying how badly it hurt. Although the damage was done, and he cant just, take out the hole he had now put into my face. After the whole ordeal was over, I was cleaned up and walked to the front to pay. Over the phone I was quoted for $58 and in store I payed about $75 after tax. The jewlery itself(a plain titanium barbell) was about $30-$40, I don't precisely remember. Either way, the experience was more painful than it should have been, and the jewlery was more expensive than it should have been. I do NOT recommend this place...

If I could give negative stars I would. I am completely unsatisfied with the entire process of getting this tattoo. Let's start from the beginning. My best friend from Salt Lake City, Utah was coming in for the weekend and we wanted to get our signatures tattooed because we had been pen pals since middle school. I looked at a lot of different places and was hopeful when i found TRX. I looked at all the Google reviews and went through all the artists and their work and picked 2 people that I really liked. I then called to set up an appointment. I explained my friend and I's situation and the clerk on the phone said that only one of my artist had openings this weekend and so I booked Sunday at 11. When we showed up we met with Dustin, but the clerk had only put us down for a consultation and he didn't have time to do the tattoos. At this point I was a bit disappointed. Then they offered to have Jeff do the tattoos. I was glad but also a little scared because I hadn't seen any of his previous work. We showed him the signatures we wanted and he insisted they were too small (1inchx2inch). He enlarged a copy of it and asked if it was okay, and I told him it was a lot bigger than what I wanted. He insisted he couldn't go any smaller. At this point I asked if I could get a blackened brown instead of straight black (I have very fair skin and can't even wear black mascara). He then insisted I do black, saying he would not touch up or fix it if it wasn't black. My friend and I agreed because we were both really looking forward to these tattoos. I didn't get exactly what I wanted but at least it would be okay, right? Wrong. The lines are crooked and wobbly. You can see every stroke he used. Some of the lines aren't even connected! My friends tattoo turned out better than mine (I went second). I am extremely unsatisfied with the end result. It was definitely not worth $50. I am not going back to get it fixed. I already found another artist at a different shop who is helping me get what I want. 0/10 would...