My sisters and I got a tattoo by Ian Rydquist this afternoon and we were very pleased with his work! Ian is both friendly and professional. We took his suggestion on slightly altering original tattoo idea we had and glad that we did because the outcome was perfect. Very clean and comfortable atmosphere in the shop with a lot of great tattoo art posted on the walls. I will definitely go back to Ian if I get another tattoo!
Review Source:I am very pleased with the tattoo Ian Rydquist did for me. I came in as a walk in, and it had been seventeen years since I had been tattooed. I had no picture with me. Ian took his time designing a large lotus flower and was a complete professional. I was made to feel comfortable and relaxed as he worked his color magic for two and a half hours. Ian was quiet and respectful, offering me a break or two which was appreciated. This place is spotless. I get many compliments on my lovely lotus flower and I will be back next year for another custom piece. Thank you gentlemen for running such a classy place.
Review Source:LOVE these guys! Came to Mac with my idea and he put together a great piece for me. Not to mention this was my first tattoo ever - I felt  comfortable and at ease with the whole experience and walked out very happy with my new tattoo! Looking forward to going back soon to add more to it. I highly recommend Gilded Lily.
Review Source:Reading reviews, I read someone's words, "Most Awesome shop. Â They are very talented. Â Mac is the BOMB!!! he is a most honorable character and is very knowledgeable about the industry and what it takes to be a REAL Tattoo artist."
Whoever wrote this evaluates this place as I would. Additionally, Mac is a true gentleman, something harder to find every day.Patient, helpful, well-spoken and mannered. That counts big for me. Can't wait to get in for my second.
Since all the reviews on here to this date are about Mac, I wanted to leave some praise for Jim. I walked in yesterday, with no appointment, just to talk about my design and setting up an appointment. Â I really lucked out and Jim happened to have no appointments lined up, so 3 hours later I walked out with my tattoo! It was my largest one and my first one in a couple of years, and Jim made it very worth it. He tweaked the design to make it more fitting to my body and what I had in mind, and his artistic talent is simply amazing. He was also very friendly and personable throughout the whole process. I have a friend who swears by Mac too, so I don't think you can really go wrong with this shop! I would absolutely get tattooed here again.
Review Source:Mac is the man to see for custom tattoos in the Santa Cruz area.
There are plenty of tattoo parlors in Santa Cruz, but please dont forget Felton!
Gilded Lily is the best parlor for any custom tattoo. Mac can tattoo portraits, black and grey to full color sleeves. He is super friendly and always honest. He knows how to translate what you want into a unique tattoo that suits you. I have seen him for a full sleeve and some other small work. His wife and shop manager Maren is also so sweet. She is very anntentive to the clients needs. And if you bring a friend there are some awesome vintage arcade games circa 1995.
Stop by Felton to check him out or go to his website.
This place was great!
I investigated a lot of different places so I could get my first tattoo. I came in and talked to Mac about my design. He was very welcoming and courteous when we talked about the process. I showed him the sketches I brought and was surprised to find that he liked them. (I'd gone to LoveDog the day before, and one of the artists told me he wouldn't do the font I had drawn, then showed me books of different fonts, none of which worked. I left.) I told him that he could do his own variation on it to make it look a little more sharp. I came back the next day for my appointment, with a little bit of a wait for prep of the wax paper and materials. When he was all ready, he showed me all the needle and hammer stuff as he unwrapped them from their sterilized packages so I'd know it was safe. His sketch was very good, and I didn't need to correct anything. He was pretty gentle and thorough in his process, which took about 45 minutes for my small black tattoo. Overall, it was a magical experience that I would recommend to all my friends.
Mac and Maren are super good, ultra honest, and refreshingly friendly folks whose main objection is to have happy customers. Mac will work with you to produce a unique design catered to YOUR taste and won't push a bunch of garbage on you. The only place worth going to in SC County. Awesome long-time locals you can trust. You will leave with amazing artwork on your body and new friends.
Review Source:Most Awesome shop. Â They are very talented. Â Mac is the BOMB!!! he is a most honorable character and is very knowledgeable about the industry and what it takes to be a REAL Tattoo artist. Â Seth is our boy and he's just getting started...he's going to turn out to be a great tattoo artist just like MAC. Â My band 30.06 will always endorse this place of business and they are the official 30.06 Tattoo shop. Â Won't be going anywhere else for my ink.
Review Source:Note: Â I have not been tattooed (yet!) by this establishment.
I stopped by yesterday with a photoshopped image of what I want, so I could get a feel for the shop, talk to the tattoo artist, try to get a sense of whether the artist would be keen to do my tattoo or more "sure, I can do that (*shrug* implied)" and to get a rough quote of how long he thought it would take and how much he charges per hour.
The shop is clean and attractively decorated, the staff and other people hanging out there were friendly and willing to talk to me until the artist was done with his current client, the tattooer was friendly and open - happy to talk to me at length about what I wanted initially and where I wanted to go with things later (starting a half-sleeve), and I got no snobbish attitude like because I only have a few smaller tattoos so far, I wasn't worth his time to talk to.
I'm not sure yet if this will be the place I finally get my sleeve started, I want to check out a few more places, but right now this is the place where I felt most like the artist has the ability and interest to do the piece and where I wouldn't feel like I was "just another job"
I may go here for a smaller piece to start though. Â While I'm dying to get my sleeve started, I want to be sure of the shop and artist I choose before I commit to such a large (and visible) piece of ink.
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