Live By The Sword Tattoo - Soho — Local services in New York

If you’d like to know how I was tortured by an unprofessional piercer named Mimzy and ended up crying in the store for 20 minutes, keep reading.

I have six piercings on my ears—while it’s not a lot, I’ve been pierced at different places, from expensive $90 daith piercings to affordable $7 helix ones. I am not a perfectionist who looks down on $10 services. My sociology research assignment even focused on the anatomy of piercing and the piercing industry, so I can confidently say my knowledge in this area is mature and accurate—not baseless opinions.

The story begins: I don’t have a second lobe piercing on my right ear, but I do on my left. I wanted my right ear to match my left, so I asked Mimzy if I should remove the jewelry on my left second lobe to help her locate the right position for symmetry. She said it wasn’t necessary. This was my first concern about her professionalism—without removing the jewelry, it would obstruct the placement process, and as expected, the result was that the positioning on both sides was uneven.

When she started piercing, it was extremely painful. I’ve had rook and daith piercings, and yet this second lobe piercing hurt even more. Because she pierced it completely crooked! She pierced through way more tissue necessary. The bottom of the jewelry was almost touching the base of my ear!

I returned to the shop because I cannot bear how crooked it was. Instead of discussing whether it should be redone or refunded, she simply removed the jewelry without any communication. The removal process was incredibly PAINFUL—I doubt she even sprayed saline solution to lubricate it. Everything was done in silence, and I had no idea what she was doing to my ear until I asked, “Are you redoing it?” She replied, “Yes.” she DIDNT EVEN ASK FOR MY CONSENT before starting the redo. I actually wanted someone else to do it since I had lost all trust in her, but by the time I realized this, she had already pierced it again

From removal to redo, only about a minute passed—I highly doubt she sterilized everything properly or took enough precautions. After the redo, my ear started bleeding excessively, with blood dripping down to my neck. She pressed on it VERY VIOLENTLY to stop the bleeding. I understand it’s supposed to be some pressure, but I felt her actions were intentionally harsh. Worse, she said something shocking: “You are not going to die today; of course, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE someday, but not today.” why would anyone say that? She could have reassured me with anything like, “I know it hurts, but you’ll be fine” but why saying things like IM GONNA DIE like wdym???

She then rudely wiped the upper part of my ear. I have no idea why because the blood wouldn’t have flowed there. The upper part of my ear had a freshly pierced rook from another shop, and it was visibly swollen. She wiped it so forcefully that I don’t believe it was accidental. She even pulled out a few strands of my hair while doing so.

when I asked for an alcohol pad to take out in case bleeding happens since I’d be out all day. She refused. Come on,an alcohol pad costs practically nothing.

I ended up crying in the store for 20min cuz it was way too traumatic.

On skill: I later checked Mimzy’s Instagram stories and noticed that many of her piercings involve bleeding. Although bleeding might occur, the probability isn’t high if you found the right placement.

On attitude: I’m not a native English speaker, and my speech isn’t very fast. I’ve lived in the U.S. for six months and follow manners and etiquette—I smiled throughout, repeatedly said “thank you,” and never said anything rude to her. I suspect my softness made her feel she could take me less seriously. Regardless, she should never have said, “You’re going to die someday,” unless she thinks I CANNOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. If so, she’s truly need to Get more education on racism

Advice for anyone considering here: Don’t let just anyone pierce you—choose someone professional. Avoid walk-ins if possible, as the staff is often busy, and you might not know who you’ll get:/...

I was excited to get a tattoo at Live by the Sword, but my experience with Francesca at the SoHo location left me feeling disappointed and uncomfortable.

When she called my name and asked what I was in for, I told her I wanted a fine-line tattoo, and she responded with, “Yeah, but what do you want?” She looked at my design and quoted me $220 for my small custom tattoo. I asked how she came up with the price since the starting prices online seemed lower, and she said, “Well, that’s the Live by the Sword prices” without further explanation. When I asked what the hourly rate was, she told me they don’t go by hourly rates but showed me a list of cheaper pre-designed tattoos I could choose from. I decided to stick with my design, and she printed it out.

When she came back, she showed me the size options on paper along with some minor changes she made to my original design. I was deciding between small and medium, and she suggested medium. We went back to the area, and all she said was, “You can take your shirt off,” then put some pasties on the chair and turned around. I get that this may be normal, but I’m used to providers explaining what’s going to happen and giving me some space or guidance. Instead, I awkwardly stood there shirtless, unsure of what to do, until I figured out she wanted me to stand in front of her for placement.

After placing the design, I asked if a friend could come back to look, and I realized the tattoo was too big and wide for my liking. I asked her to make it smaller and narrower, like the original design I showed her, but she disagreed, saying the larger size was better for my back. She made a minor adjustment on her iPad, but the horizontal baseline (which she added) was still too wide. When I asked her to shorten it, she told me, “Well, I’d have to redo the entire design.” I understand wanting to save time, but this is a permanent body alteration, and I felt it was reasonable to ask for adjustments after seeing the design on my body.

At that point, I felt uneasy and explained that I didn’t want to rush into the tattoo. I asked about the cancellation fee, and she sharply told me it was $50. I apologized, thanked her, and paid the fee, but I left feeling disappointed. I would have been perfectly okay with paying a cancellation fee to someone who made me feel cared for and would’ve felt bad for waisting there time, but Francesca’s lack of empathy from the beginning made the experience stressful.

While the front desk staff were kind and the studio was clean, I didn’t feel like I received good service. A tattoo isn’t just about the ink—it’s about the experience—and I left feeling rushed...

This tattoo shop is an utter and complete abomination of tattooing. Maybe some of the artists actually have skill but most are amateur at BEST. My friend and I went in to get matching tattoos to celebrate being stuck in NYC for 3 extra days when our flight was cancelled due to weather conditions. At first they quoted us 100$ each, which I knew was overpriced but we were in our yolo era. We mentioned that we wanted one colour element in the tattoo and all of a sudden the price jumped up to 150$ each. Feeling like it was too late to turn back since the artist had already done the design, we went for it anyways. Our artists name was Echo, and although she was very nice, the skill set just wasn’t there. She tattooed my lower leg. Throughout the process she had to stop 3/4 times due to having a problem with the needle. I have an extremely high pain tolerance for tattooing, especially when it’s on that part of the leg, I really felt little discomfort at the time. The biggest problem she had was with the colour, she stopped about 3 times to fiddle with the needle saying that she had been working on it but then realized no colour was coming out. When she was finished, she didn’t let the tattoo ooze out properly before putting second skin on it. She told me to keep it on for 3 days straight??? Thankfully I know how to properly use second skin and did not head her advice. The second skin had filled with plasma and ink significantly by the next morning. I was reluctant to take it off until I travelled home in the afternoon, when I would have access to proper cleaning supplies. When I took the bandage off and cleaned the tattoo it looked like there was a crater in my leg. She completely overworked the tattoo! I have never experienced so much pain with healing a tattoo before. My arms and parts of my legs are covered in tattoos and I have never ever had ANY issues!!! It took forever to heal, it was nothing short of a nightmare. When it finally did heal I was left with zero colour in the one area it was supposed to be. If this shop responds to my review by saying I did something wrong in the healing process that is categorically FALSE. I absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND GETTING ANY TATTOO FROM THIS PLACE. It’s a glorified rent an artist shop. There are plenty of qualified tattoo shops you can go to, sure it may be a bit more expensive but it’s quality over $$$ in my opinion. Daredevil tattoo is your best bet...