09/13/09

Great Experience!

by Treefrog1616

I brought Nathan a photograph and he spent a lot of time drawing up the stencil. I did not feel rushed and I felt like he was trying to be very careful to get it right. During the tattoo he made me feel very comfortable by checking in with me (it was my first tattoo). When I saw the end result, it looked better than the photograph I brought him. It was better than I thought it could be.

• Pros: friendly, professional, careful, accurate

07/05/09

Mixed at best

by spinal11

I've patronized Dogstar over the years several times for tattoos and piercings, and although I've rarely experienced the outright rudeness some reviews claimed, it has been a mixed experience. Several years ago they had some excellent artists who were very clean, friendly and professional. I had a beautiful piece done by Mike - I drew the design and it had a lot of personal significance to me, and after talking with him he added his artistic touches and designed a gorgeous tattoo that I will be proud of for the rest of my life. I was nervous and so happy to have someone who understood how important this was to me, and seemed to genuinely enjoy the design process. I also had a piercing done by T and she was extremely clean, precise and informative. She talked me through the aftercare and even followed up a few days later. She was awesome.

But those people are gone and over the years, some of the new artists have been awful. I had one tiny wrist tattoo done by a guy who was extremely rude and appeared to be hungover. After a few days it was all blotchy and uneven, so I went in and he tried to fix it and was much nicer, saying "Sorry I was a **** the other day, it was just a bad day." I understand, but your 'bad day' is now on my body forever. I also got a piercing from a guy who was VERY twitchy and ended up getting blo0d everywhere. Again, it looked infected after a few days and I had to go in and get it fixed. After these two experiences I don't patronize Dogstar any more.

So I would warn people that this isn't a place like Warlock's where the whole staff is experienced and good at what they do. There are some good artists there (I heard Nathan is great) but you have to DO YOUR RESEARCH first and not just walk in expecting excellent service. This place is the McDonald's of tattoo shops - I think they get such heavy walk-in traffic due to location that they don't have to worry about repeat customers. It's too bad, because Dogstar has the potential to be a great neighborhood tattoo shop.

• Pros: easy location, some good artists
• Cons: some of the artists are terrible

06/06/09

The land of "Sound" tattoos

by evangelaoates

Where to begin? If you are looking for a place that is professional and values its clients, this is not the business. On December 13, 2008 me a couple friends got tattoos (walk-ins). At completion, my tat looked good. However, within a couple of days I knew something was terribly wrong. Mind you, this was my third tat. It was so poorly done that it scabbed (you wouldn't believe) and I even lost pigment. When I went back to talk to the owner, even though she knew his (Nathan) work was poor (she couldn’t disguise her reaction), she told me I had a "sound" tattoo. I didn't pay to get a "sound" tattoo. She made sure that I knew that they didn't give refunds and that I would have to wait to have the same person retouch my tat. Really? To think that I would want to go back to the person who damaged my skin. Please! He didn't have any idea how to tat dark brown skin and failed to let me know. I can provide pictures to anyone who would like to see my formerly desecrated back. I found wonderful artist in Atlanta to do the cover up (Miya Bailey, City of Ink). I have pictures of before and after. Seriously folks, after my experience I wouldn’t recommend any black person patron their shop. Hell, I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone given their total lack of sensitivity and professionalism. Email diva1955@hotmaildotcom to request pictures.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Poor service, poorly done work, damaged skin