Steady Tattoo and Body Piercing

I've gotten two piercings at Steady, a small hoop in my cartilage and a stud in my tragus- lol, in my what?! Both times, the piercers treated me with mad respect and I'm pretty sure they had some decent credentials, I was too chatty/nervous to grill them about it. Heh. Whenever my sensitive skin has had guff with the new holes, I've gone in and they've fixed my issues for free. And the stuff wasn't that expensive to being with. Thanks, Steady. You're Saint Sabrina's for the 99 percent.

(Also, high and low fives to Steady for its prime location. Soon-to-be needled scaredy cats can stop at Sally's for a few drinks beforehand and then kick it back downstairs to Dairy Queen afterward for a little cool-down consolation prize. Sweet.)

This is a difficult review to write, its hard to separate out my tattoo (which I love) and the experience I had with this place (which sucked!). Ill give it a try...

I purchased a $100 gift card for this shop at a benefit. I chose one of the simpler tattoos on my list of ones to get since I didn't know the artists or shop well. (my regular artist is in Seattle) I called and asked to make an appointment, but was told I would have to come in and leave the gift card as a deposit. A bit annoying since it is about 20 minutes from me, but I wasn't too bothered by that. I went in and made my appointment for 2 weeks later.

A few days before my appointment, I received a voicemail saying that they needed to reschedule. I wasn't thrilled by this, but Im flexible and I know things come up. What really annoyed me is that I left 2 messages (once outside of regular hours and once during) trying to reschedule and was never given a call back. I finally got ahold of someone and made an appointment for another few weeks away.

Fast forward to 2 days before my new appointment, I called and left a message saying that I would like to change the time of the appointment due to a job interview that needed to reschedule. Again, I never received a call back, so I called and left yet another message the morning of my appointment reiterating that needed to reschedule and asking again for a call back. I never got one. A few days later, I call again and finally get ahold of someone. I explained that I needed to reschedule my appointment from earlier....
The guy on the phone ~  "Oh, did anyone call you?"
Me ~ "Um, no"
Him ~ "Well we had to take $50 off your deposit since we didn't have notice"
Me ~ "I tried multiple times to call and give notice"
Him ~ ....silence...

Awesome. I almost didn't go just because I was so annoyed with this place by this point, but that would just mean I was out a tattoo I really wanted. So I went in, got my simple little tattoo (15 minutes, tops), paid an extra $30 making it a $130 tattoo at this point, and left.

I was never offered an apology for the initial reschedule, never once called back after leaving messages, and never given even a simple compromise for my reschedule, even though I tried multiple times to reach someone. I love my tattoo, Jessie did a great job even though it is little and simple, but I will not be back. I know the customer service is a product of the shop and not her, but ultimately I am her customer and she could have asked about the lack of communication.

And now I am still searching for a local artist.....

This was my first adventure into piercing and I feel great about my decision. I did make the mistake of psyching myself out beforehand by watching some of the results on Youtube. All it did was make me more nervous than I really needed to be.
Alex, our piercer, was great in explaining the procedure, demonstrating the sterilization, and engaging you during the whole process to take your mind off the inevitable. He was quick with the piercing. Before I realized, both nipples were done and I was listening to instructions with care package in hand.
It has been a week and everything is healing better than expected. Great Job!!