Blue Horseshoe Tattoo and Body Piercing — Local services in Hampton

Rating: -100/10 I’m not usually one to leave bad reviews, in fact this is my very first, but this time it’s necessary. I recently came here to get a tattoo as a walk in appointment. Let me preface by saying I totally understand that this was a walk in appointment, however there is a certain unsaid rule about what you expect in terms of quality when you go to get a tattoo, appointment or not. When my friend and I walked in, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted done (reference picture is the first image below). Upon talking to the artist, Paulie, I made sure to let him know that I was getting this tattoo to cover up scars, so it was very meaningful to me. We agreed that he would draw up a sketch so as to not copy the original artist’s work. He took some time to draw up a new stencil and I really liked the way the drawing looked, image also below (second image), so I agreed to continue on with the tattoo. Once the stencil was placed, I still really enjoyed the way it looked so we agreed to get started. However, before we started, I made it very clear that I wanted the lines more on the dainty side, as seen in the original inspo picture, and I also wanted very minimal shading, if any at all. He started doing the line work and it was off to a great start. The first leaf he did looked great! The lines were thin and the line thickness was consistent. As he gets further into the tattoo, it starts getting painful, which causes me to not pay as much attention to how he is tattooing (I don’t believe I should have to double check the quality of the work as it’s being done, but). Eventually the line work was completed and initially, it looked fine to me (I was also trying not to pass out so my full attention was not on the consistency of the tattoo at the time). He then says he’s going to start shading and once again I mention that I’d like it to be minimal. Once he gets about halfway through the shading, I take a look and it is way darker and taking up more of the tattoo than I had expected from what we discussed. his response was something along the lines of “don’t worry, it’ll lighten up once it’s healed”. I took his word for it (which I realize is partially my fault) and let him continue. Again, the pain gets bad enough that I’m really not paying attention for a while. As he’s finishing up, I take another peek and see this smokey shading in the background of my tattoo that was never once discussed. We had only discussed minimal shading in the leaves and branches, nothing in the background. I told him I absolutely did not like it and again, he just said something along the lines of “when it heals it’ll be a lot lighter”. My (and multiple other tattoo artist’s opinions from different shops) suspicion as to why he did this background smoke shading without my permission, was to try to cover the blown out lines that he had previously tattooed. when the tattoo was completed, I said I didn’t like it, and again he dismissed me. For the next 48 hours I was having a panic attack because of how poorly it was done and how incredibly different it was from what I asked for (which I understand is a bit dramatic). I went to another shop two days later to get their opinion and make sure I wasn’t being overdramatic, and they told me it was, in fact, a horrible tattoo with blown out, inconsistent lines, inconsistent shading, and was completely different than my reference and even the stencil. Because I’m so unhappy with the tattoo, they recommend that i have it lasered since it is too dark to try to cover. Now I have a consult in a couple weeks to when I can have it removed, because an artist at the Blue Horseshoe in Hampton cannot produce quality work. I will update as I have more laser appointments.

Update: I called the shop and asked to speak to the manager about coming to some sort of resolution. When I asked, he laughed in my face (well, phone I guess) and said it wasn’t his problem anymore because the artist had already been paid. It was extremely rude and...

Okay so I didn’t even have time for this and honestly still don’t but my daughter pushed me to post this. It’s really nothing that was done wrong it’s just the vibe I received from a particular tattoo artist. Don’t know his name but he’s a heavy set black man wears a black vest. I’m a plus size black woman btw so I’m just using that description because I don’t know his name. Anyway my daughter and I went in a few days ago and wanted to price and possibly get tattoos. He already started off when I showed him the image I wanted talking about the size of my arm and shaking his head like that’s going to be a lot. He told me a typical arm is around $300 for what I wanted and mine would cost $450 but he should charge $500. I’m 292lbs btw lol…I told him I know and it’s no problem. But he really couldn’t do the image I wanted because he couldn’t draw flowers to complete a small part of the back side so I said ok and I looked at other peonies…but I wasn’t feeling good about. My daughter wanted a finger length and 2 finger width size cloud and ART on her neck. The lady tattoo artist that wears glasses also a black lady told her $150 for the cloud and $150 for ART but she would do $250z I was like that’s ok and left. Now their prices are their prices so I have nothing to say about that. It’s my choice to pay or not but I said no. I had no problem with the price of mine. We stopped at other tattoo shops that couldn’t do it that day but three other shops priced hers at $150 all together. I received a quote for mine at $375 (Ancient Art) and another at $450(American Tattoo). But anyway so we had to go back on Saturday to have my daughters dermal face piercing looked at cause it was starting to lift. (Also let me add that we have never had problems here. I have had piercings and my daughter received all her piercings here and the ladies are more than helpful funny nice and thoughtful. Caring even) so we’re sitting down waiting for Jessica and this same guy who quoted me for my tattoo came over and I’m thinking he’s asking something about the tattoo I was in for the other day and he says ma’am we don’t allow people to be on speakers in here I can hear the echo over here where I’m sitting. I said huh I was so confused I was like I’m not even on my phone. I had no idea what he was talking about but he said he was sorry twice and went back to his station. I never saw him try to find out where the echo came from so that was more than weird. Ok so I’ll say what I wanted to say that day but had decided it wasn’t even worth my time. I get a bad vibe from these two tattoo artist but mainly the guy. He never smiled never communicated in anyway except for telling me repeatedly about the size of my arm and the price. I mean not one smile or nice comment anything that makes people more comfortable to have someone working on your skin. So I would never get a tattoo here and I thank the lord that the lady tattoo artist gave a ridiculous price for my daughters tattoo and I left. I ended up getting the tat I wanted from “my guy” who suddenly became available lol for $375 and my daughter got both hers done for $100. I paid this guy a $65 tip so $540 in all. I included a picture of...

My friend and I came here to both get a piercing and I also wanted to inquire about booking a future tattoo appointment. When we got there just a few minutes after they opened, there was already a line almost out the door! We were greeted by Crystal, who would soon be our piercer, and were asked about what we wanted. Unfortunately, we found out that oral piercings (which my friend had wanted) was still not being offered due to covid. Also, when I asked about a tattoo artist’s availability, I was told that she would tell her to speak to me about it, but that unfortunately never happened.

After filling out our paperwork, we went back up to choose our jewelry which would be facilitated by the front desk worker. While we were waiting, however, we were ignored while they continued their own conversations behind the desk. Once we did get to choose our jewelry, there were a lot of options which was very nice! However, it seemed as though we were being pushed into getting titanium jewelry even though we wanted stainless steel. I chose my jewelry and the woman asked me, “but you want titanium, right?” And when I told her no, she seemed very annoyed with it.

After paying (cash only), I realized that gauge size was never discussed so I decided to go up and ask about it (my receipt said nothing about what gauge I was going to be pierced at, but my friend’s receipt did). I had no issues doing so, but my friend said that the front desk worker acted like it was very much of a hassle to change (even though all she had to do was tell the piercer just like she had done for me).

During the piercing process, Crystal was very professional and showed obvious skill and knowledge, and seemed to be very well-trained/experienced. She was able to simply look at a piece of unmarked jewelry and instantly know what gauge and length it was. She even went as far as to ask me about anodizing my jewelry so that it would match all of my current jewelry (all black), as well as to match the bar length and ball size of my current jewelry (since I was getting a helix right above an existing helix). I also ended up getting upgraded from the stainless steel jewelry to titanium at no charge since there was an issue with finding the correctly-gauged jewelry...