ADC Tattoo Studio — Local services in Niles Township

The piercer Izzy is a wonderful person to work with and the same goes for the tattoo artist Miranda. Their work is very well done and I have no qualms with them, again they're talented and friendly people and I'm happy with the services they provided me. But that doesn't excuse the fact that the shop as a whole is not where I would recommend anyone to go. The shop has a very uncomfortable atmosphere, the things that they loudly talk about while clients are there is honestly disgusting and unprofessional. During a long tattoo session I had there, I heard the artists make fun of clients after they've left and make very inappropriate comments, and just in general they were super rude and not professional. Furthermore, and I'll start with the fact that I am a vet tech and I (obviously) work with animals so I'm super comfortable around them, but they had 3 dogs running around the studio and one of the dogs tried to jump up on the bench WHILE I was getting tattooed. Thank God my artist (who now is no long affiliated with the shop) was talented enough to not make a stray mark because those dogs were running into the bench and her and just causing mayhem but the owner just didn't care. I also think the owner is a bit difficult to work with. She left me on read multiple times about touching up a tattoo that she did that faded ridiculously fast and did a couple other things that I don't want to get into but were just not cool. Again, just really not professional. Please go somewhere else, there's a lot of really talented artists in Chicago that have way better shops and are much easier to work with. Honestly I'm just sad that with me finally coming out and saying something about this shop means I'll never be able to work with Izzy and Miranda again, definitely hit them up if you're going to this shop, they deserve all the love, I just wish they worked anywhere else.

EDIT: I also want it to be said that the artists at ADC are undeniably talented. Amber does very high quality animal portraits and the other artists at the shop also work very hard and it shows in their work. They're all talented artists but, again, there are equally talented artists elsewhere with more professional and friendly shops.

Edit (again): as a response to the owner, I've had 5 tattoos done at this shop (2 by an artist no longer affiliated with the shop, 2 by Miranda, and 1 by the owner) and I've had 2 piercings by Izzy. I'd be more than happy to attach receipts and communications. Super professional way to deal with some constructive criticism online. Way to go and thanks for trying to discredit...

I supposedly won a free tattoo from Amber, a $1600 portrait of my grandfather in his uniform if I would go to a few expos with her. She never followed through with it. It was brought up today by another winner of the contest who DID get their tattoo (there were 3 winners i’m not sure if the 3rd person got theirs or not).When they posted the results again of the tattoo they won in the same contest again, I commented that I never got mine, and my reasoning for why I assumed it didn’t happen. That creator decided to reply and tag ADC in the comment, which I did not want them to do because I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore and said I didn’t want the tattoo at this point anyway because of all of the effort and excitement to not end up getting something I won was kind of heart breaking. The shop replied somewhat rudely saying that what I was saying about them was “bananas” and that there must have been a communications issue and they take pride in their giveaways, but despite the pride they say they take in their giveaways, they made absolutely no effort to contact me because they insinuated they don’t see a point in fixing the issue if I no longer want the tattoo and that was the end of that conversation. I just blocked them because I felt the comment was unprofessional and it just made me angry. If they would have just sent me a message and said something like “hey we are sorry that happened, can we figure out what went wrong so this doesn’t happen to the next person?” I wouldn’t be writing this. They dismissed me instead because I don’t want to work with them anymore for good reason. Not to mention since wining the contest I’ve heard a lot of bad things about Amber and the way she runs her shop. If they would have tried to mend things and just apologize I wouldn’t be writing this review but because they couldn’t be professional and courteous to their own customers and community, I’m never going back. It’s sad too because I used to get pierced there and would have become a regular customer for...

The BEST tattoo studio in Chicago.

I have had a full Norse themed arm sleeve, finishing of another Norse arm sleeve (that was started in another country), and now I'm on my full reaper leg sleeve.

Amber, Javier and team are great to work with. I've spent a lot of time in different tattoo studios in different countries, and I have to say, the atmosphere at this shop is hands down electric! A few hours in this shop will speed past, and you'll leave with a smile from ear to ear. The team here genuinely care about getting the creative brief perfect and ensuring constant communication with the person being tattooed. This is evident with all three of my sleeves that Javier has done. I went in with a super crazy idea of what I wanted, and he totally smashed it (creatively - it was like he was able to take what was visually in my brain and design it, and tattoo it). Even with the continuation of a sleeve that I got started elsewhere, he made sure to keep true to the previous theme, so it looks completely seamless. I always get comments from people about how awesome my tattoos are, and where I got them done.

Highly recommend Amber, Javier and team at ADC for any tattoo, even if it is your first tattoo or a super crazy idea like getting a leg sleeve of the grim reaper. You won't be...