Tattoo Serenity — Local services in Angier

RE: Your response is simply dishonest. I'm not "friends" with the artist, I've only ever met her when she was tattooing my daughter. And I actually do have the drawing that was done-an electronic version as well as a full color printed copy. In case you missed one of the most important issues here-custom, personal art tattoos are extremely significant to the canvas. Why would I start over with someone else, when I was extremely happy with the original artist? And we both know what you said about those women-you're practically saying it again in your response to my review, albeit much more vaguely here. Also, if you earnestly offered to refund the deposit to my son, WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE SO? You were sent screenshots of the transactions, details about the entire circumstance, and spoken to respectfully. It didn't have to come to this-you were given ample time to make this right. Your way of handling this was to enact some non-disclosed, unwritten gift certificate "policy", keeping all of the money, and then changing your phone number to avoid making it right? EPIC CUSTOMER SERVICE FAIL

In October, my kids began custom designing a very personal series of tattoos for the five of us as a special Christmas gift for me. A larger one for me, and smaller versions of the components for each of the four of them. They spent a lot of time collaborating with a specific artist to perfect the custom details. When my son went to make the payment, he was offered a written gift certificate, as a tangible gift to give to me on Christmas morning. In good faith, they paid the shop in full, and in advance of booking. After Christmas, I scheduled my first session for mid-January. Because she lives out of state, my daughter got her tattoo on December 28th. Shortly after, I became aware that there had been some discord between the owner and several of the tattoo artists. Sometimes people need to part ways, and that’s okay. On the 3rd of January, I was contacted by Mary (owner? manager?) to meet with a new artist to discuss my design. I tried to explain that it was essential for us to stay with the artist who created the design for us, and that the process had already begun. The artwork was custom drawn and very personal to our family. In addition, my daughter had already been inked with her component! Mary talked over me about the new people she was hiring, and their skills. I tried again to explain why I wasn’t interested in a new artist, and that is when it went really wrong. She got loud and very edgy. She over shared her disdain for the women who chose to leave, and even disparaged their talent and character. I’m not about that drama, so I reminded her that it was unprofessional to trash former coworkers, employees, or business partners. Again, I asked about getting my children’s hard earned money returned to them. It was then that Mary replied that since I didn’t make the payment, she would not discuss any refund with me. She also said the shop policy was no refunds for gift certificates, but my kids didn’t actually buy a gift certificate. Mary did say that the shop offered other services to use the funds (piercing, different tattoo, etc). I tried for a third time to explain that the money was spent specifically, and I would have my son reach out to her about the refund. When he was finally able to reach her, she gave him the runaround too. She basically said she would not refund all the money, but would refund a standard deposit (a third of the total he paid). He explained that was unacceptable, and he expected a full refund. He even asked if she would just pass the funds along to the artist who earned them. As of today, NO MONEY has been returned, refunded, or passed to the artist. Since reaching out to her, Mary has changed her phone number and is now unreachable. She obviously cares more about keeping money that doesn’t belong to her than upholding basic decent business practices. (As a point of integrity, the original artist has offered to do the tattoo, even if she doesn’t ever see the money she so...

My 14 year old daughter went in with my wife and a friend to get her second piercings on her lobes. Her friend had the owner pierce her and she was in and out, nice and clean as you’d expect from a piercing shop. My daughter, on the other hand, had someone who was clearly new to the game. She pierced her and then struggled to get the threaded hardware in for 10 MINUTES on one ear with similar challenges on the other. She walked out with blood all over her shirt, one piercing was loose and the other wrenched down so tight she can’t turn it, and both bleeding extensively. Wife and daughter left kind of in shock so didn’t raise concern at checkout. I called as soon as they got home and spoke with both the piercer and owner (or at least a guy that claimed he was the owner). The piercer (apprentice) said she’d never worked with threaded hardware before and apologized. She handed me off to the owner who proceeded to tell me she had in fact used that hardware before and he was sorry if I felt I had a bad experience. Really?? Yes, bad experience and worse than what you get at Claire’s at WALMART. Refused to give a partial refund and instead offered me a discount if I got something else done there…sure, that’s gonna happen after this experience. Lying and placating, great customer service. I don’t blame the apprentice here, rather owner decision to assign them to a new skill on clients without coaching.

Strongly suggest going elsewhere based on complaint handling alone, spotty talent levels, and overall quality. Shame on them.

PS- based on prior reviews, can’t wait to read the response from the owner. Make the right choice here folks, plenty of high quality piercing shops around here...

I got a belly piercing here and was initially happy, the piercer Emily was kind, and the shop felt clean and calm. However, within minutes of leaving, I noticed the piercing was crooked. I returned within about 10 minutes to voice my concern and was told it looked that way because of the jewelry length and would “heal straight.”

A second opinion from another professional piercer confirmed this was not accurate. They used the same length barbell as this shop and explained that waiting would have caused it to heal crooked, leaving a scar. Because I wasn’t offered an immediate correction or removal, I went to another studio the same day to have it re-pierced properly.

I contacted Tattoo Serenity with photos showing the misplaced piercing and requested a refund for the $20 deposit and $40 piercing fee (I did not ask for the tip back). My communication was brief and respectful, this was not about getting something for free, it was about accountability and timely solutions. Their only offer was 50% off a different piercing from a different piercer, which was no longer useful because I had already paid to fix the issue elsewhere.

The business’s public reply included personal remarks instead of addressing my concerns. I have attached before-and-after photos so others can see the visible placement difference.

The initial service was friendly, but the follow-up, inaccurate aftercare advice, and lack of accountability were...