Rowan Pinecrest — Local services in Orange

Only giving two stars because of my experience with the manager Josie. The service experience was good and the nurses all seem to be great!

I recently visited Rowan to have my tragus jewelry changed and was really disappointed with how the store manager, Josie, handled the experience. When I arrived, she already seemed on edge and told me there was a 45-minute wait with no option for appointments, even for the next day. I added my name to the waitlist and asked if I could receive a call when it was my turn since the only available seating in the store is one bench. She seemed annoyed but said “I guess I can give you a courtesy call”.

When I returned after about 30 minutes, the customer who was behind me was already being serviced. When I asked why I wasn’t called, Josie claimed they had an appointment, even though she had told me earlier that appointments weren’t allowed. When speaking with the customer, they actually told me that they did not have an appointment. When we pointed this out to the manager Josie, she IMMEDIATELY became defensive, accused us of yelling at her in a microagressive way and refused to take accountability. She said she wasn’t going to be called a liar and that it didn’t matter if she let people go ahead because we were next anyways.

Her attitude was unprofessional and dismissive, and it completely ruined what should’ve been a simple visit.

Thankfully, Nurse Kayla, who actually helped me with my piercing, was amazing! Super kind, and knowledgeable (my older jewelry somehow was stuck and we worked together to get it out). She definitely turned a bad situation around.

The nurses/piercers here are kind, but the manager seriously needs...

If you really, really don't want to go to a tattoo parlor for whatever reason, this is a good option. However, you are most definitely PAYING for the luxury of not being in a tattoo shop.

I have many piercings, some done in tattoo shops and some done at Studs, the NYC version of Rowan. The quality, cleanliness, friendliness, and professionalism are IDENTICAL in both places. Going to a tattoo shop is NOT dirty or unsanitary in any way. Rowan's shtick of having only nurses as piercers is just that- a shtick. It is 100% unnecessary to have a licensed nurse pierce you. In fact, I was weirded out by that fact because piercing is, in and of itself, an art that should be performed by a master piercer.

That being said, today I didn't want to go to a tattoo shop because they have a certain vibe, and honestly I just didn't want to be in that vibe today. I paid $210 extra for the privilege of not being in a tattoo parlor.

The cheapest jewelry here is $59, which is charged on top of the $35 fee. Most tattoo shops include jewelry in the cost. And on top of that, the jewelry at a tattoo shop is straight titanium or surgical steel, not plated gold that will rub off in a year. My wife and I got 3 total piercings for $326 total. We could have done the exact same for $30/piercing at a tattoo shop and gotten the exact same results.

All that to say, if you will have more peace of mind being in a brightly colored, girly studio instead of a tattoo parlor, that's your prerogative. Just know that you ARE paying a PREMIUM price for a very average product at the end of the day. If you want to get it done with no frills, go to a...

Very clean and easy piercing process! We did enjoy our time there, however there are a few points that are stopping me from leaving 5 stars! I made an appointment for 10 AM, and though we were early, we still had to wait a half hour so two people could be pierced before us. Not a huge deal at all, but I was confused about the point of making an appointment for a specific time if multiple people could schedule the same slot. We were not in a hurry or anything, I just found it odd. Second is that the woman who checked us in, while very nice and reassuring to my daughter who also got pierced, made a negative body image comment to my daughter and that immediately just turned me off. It was self deprecating and I’m sure was meant to be funny but raising a daughter is hard enough in todays day and age without a healthy looking person calling herself a hippo in front of an impressionable 12 year old. Also when we left, the piercer gave us our little aftercare package which included a little pen and I think a hair tie and a certificate or something, but she also gave us a bottle of the aftercare spray and said “this is for you”. I assumed she meant it was included in the goodies we got and was surprised when we were charged $20 for it at checkout. AGAIN none of these even combined were a HUGE deal, just some little reasons that added up to me not being able to leave a rave review. It was extremely clean however and that was impressive...