Elysium Studios — Attraction in Valparaiso

absolutely the most horrid and borderline psychotic staff and service quality i have ever seen. i got my angel fangs pierced by lexi (who somehow claims to have experience doing such). honestly, i probably wouldve gotten better ones if i just did them myself and i dont know ANYTHING about piercings! lexi was aware that she pierced my left side incorrectly but didnt tell me when i got it pierced, rather when i came for a refund. i got blamed for being pierced incorrectly for 'moving too much' and 'complaining about pain' (which i was just communicating because it hurt, but im so sorry you are so offended by your client you are piercing in the LIPS makes a comment theyre in pain! that mustve been so difficult for you, lexi!) when i was NEVER aware or informed i was even moving. it took her THREE attempts to get in the jewelry. i came in for a refund after going to urgent care due to an infection caused by my left angel fangs piercing and was treated with nothing but utter unprofessional disrespect until i got a 29% refund. i was scoffed at after stating they were being unprofessional, yelled at repeatedly, and absolutely ridiculed by staff. i asked the OWNER to lower her voice MULTIPLE times, explaining i was getting stressed and didnt like being yelled at, which she didnt stop even after i started crying from being so overwhelmed. i was just told to act like an adult from someone YEARS older than me acting like an immature child. i was as well told they were just 'returning the energy' i was giving them, which i wasnt. if your staff somehow see a customer being reasonably upset whilst talking in a calm voice rude, i think that calls for an EXTREMELY required psychiatric screening. even if i was being rude, it absolutely by no means for ANY staff to raise their voice at a PAYING CUSTOMER. i think an older business owner out of anyone would know that two wrongs dont make a right. thank you so much for the immaculate experience.

thank you so much for your terrible response. i would LOVE evidence of everything if you have such! lexi seemed to be so offended over me saying she has nothing to support her documentation than her word that she blocked me after calling me a TODDLER on instagram, so clearly i touched a nerve there. the photo attached was when the piercing was NEW. i NEVER specified when it was taken. you could ask lexi to show u a photo of it from her instagram, but i fear she made it far too obvious she did a horrendous job she NEVER posted a photo. the way she pierced me is absolutely INEXCUSABLE. and the fact that she was aware she didnt pierce me correctly but didnt tell me until i had to visit in person truly tells how undeserving she is of her position. you do not know if it was due to ANY physical movement. i showed you what it looked like RIGHT AFTER getting it pierced in the attached photo, and i really dont mind providing a timestamp if you think its recent. i WAS yelled at, and i did NOT have to ask for you to lower your voice MULTIPLE times for you not to be able to. how hard is it to be professional? you seem to honor your business so much ONLY when it comes to money. i NEVER yelled, i NEVER screamed, i cried because YOU yelled at me - i repeatedly asked you to stop yelling and said it was upsetting me - its not difficult to connect the two, and i NEVER meowed??? i explained to your ABLEIST piercer who decided it was SO funny that im AUTISTIC and have high pitched vocal stims. even if it was meowing, its a STIM. it cant be helped. im DISABLED. do your employees treat every customer whose disabilities cause them to do things such as stimming like this? do you seriously think that type of treatment towards disabled PAYING customers is acceptable? and for mimicking, how about your staff LOUDLY scoffing at me? and dont try to tell me that never happened, because it did. i was not dissociating in the slightest, you would know if i was. im sure i know my symptoms better than you do. you know people can pretend to be nice, right? i mean, you were yelling at me and then acting all kind...

Monday my 7 year old daughter had a 4:30 appointment for getting her ears pierced at Elysium Tattoo. She was incredibly excited and we'd prepped by watching videos so she'd know what to expect. They didn't get us back in the room until after 5, which is fine, things happen. The appointment was supposed to be with Lexi, their piercer but they told me the person doing the piercing was finishing a tattoo first. So we get her all set up to start with Johnny. He has a great bedside manner with her, gets her laughing. Marks the dots on her ears with the marker. Then he spent the next 45 minutes trying to pierce ONE ear. She handled the first poke like a champ, sits perfectly still says ow but is doing great. The first poke was a good quarter inch away from the dot he actually made with the marker. Then he can't get the earring through (which is weird because the needles are designed to bring the jewelry through with it). So he fumbles for a while before deciding to just poke a SECOND hole through her ear, also nowhere near the dot. (I should've pulled the plug right then but she didn't want to quit despite the fact that it hurt more and she's actively sobbing). Even after putting two holes in her ear he was still trying to push the jewelry through her skin, not one of the two holes, causing her a bunch of pain. I finally did pull the plug after he'd taken the earring out and put it back in for the third time with shaky hands (he told us he'd been tattoing straight through from 11am) and told us "I just have to pop the jewelry through." There's already two holes. There should be no 'just pop it through' and if I'd wanted to have the hole made with the jewelry I'd have taken her to Claire's not a tattoo shop to have a "professional" do it. At this point my husband had already left the room to calm himself down because everyone with us was upset. I tell him "No we're done," he asks if we're sure and I'm like yes. So he takes the jewelry back out and then can't find a bandaid for her. My poor daughter goes "I'm sorry it's all my fault" and I tell her it ABSOLUTELY is not her fault. I take her out to the car. My roommate hung back to talk to the front desk lady who had heard ALL of the appointment. The lady asked what happened and my roommate told her what she'd seen (she also left the room at one point because she was getting upset about how it was going too). The front desk lady issued a refund immediately when my roommate asked if we'd put down a deposit (we had paid the entire $52 in full before starting). While we are outside trying to get the kiddo calm, she goes "oh no! we forgot to tip!" and I was like, baby we are not tipping for that (and I tip 25%+ for damn near everything). So yes, the refund was already issued - the business did what they could to make it right. The lady at the front desk was kind and professional and I very much appreciate her. We've previously had great experiences at Elysium when Travis pierced my husband and my niece has also had 3 piercings done there. This may have turned us off the shop completely. I have no idea how we ended up with Johnny but I'd have rather just be told Lexi wasn't available than pass us off on someone who, appeared to us, to either have no idea what he's doing or is so out of practice that he has no business handling a piercing needle anymore. I don't like bashing businesses, especially small locally run ones, and I hope this isn't what it comes off as. This is a review of Johnny but not Elysium as a whole, however I did send Elysium a message about this review on Tuesday morning and have...

*This isn’t misinformation: My aunt brought her in and I heard the conversation (via telephone) My daughter is autistic and has severe anxiety and this is how she was treated. This is how they treat people and spin it when called out on their behavior. Lexi tried blaming the crooked piercing on my daughter “moving” and “complaining” about pain” and then made fun of her for crying as well. A tattoo studio cannot diagnose or treat infection so why would she come in to have them assess the area as they told her to repeatedly? The piercer admitted to having to make three attempts to pierce the area, which became infected. These are facts. If you record everything then you know this as well. Also, telling a client they know nothing about body modification, then proceeding to demean them equates to a hairstylist expecting their client to understand how chemistry works when processing hair or a doctor belittling you for seeing them when you are sick because you don’t understand how the body system works.

What people are saying about the rude customer service and bad piercing are true. If you want to raise your voice at my child to the point she cries you shouldn’t be dealing with the public. She did get an infection from your piercing and it’s documented. She was advised by her mother (me) to keep documentation and take pictures. You can get nasty with me in a response, however you should know that when you cause harm you will end up with a lawsuit if you aren’t careful. We tried to treat the piercing by keeping it clean and with topical antibiotics, however it got worse and she ended up having to get oral antibiotics. From what I can see she isn’t the only one who has had issues with improper piercings and perhaps a call to the board of health needs to be made. I prefer to go the legal route and use resources like the board of health to ensure this doesn’t continue. Admitting you made a mistake would have been the right thing to do. But here we are. If anyone gets infections, take pictures, document and save all medical documentation as well. Their “waivers”...