House of 1000 Tattoos

OK, i want to start this off by saying that this place has really great reviews elsewhere on the web. i’m not sure how because there has to be someone else out there that had the kind of experience i did. i have reviewed this place elsewhere and seemed my reviews were not well received because they went against the grain. i had a terrible experience here and i feel the truth should be out there somewhere. getting ink is no light matter and you want to pick the right place. well, this ISN’T it.
my fiancé and i went based on a friend’s recommendation. we went in person to schedule the appointment and check out the place… the front desk woman appeared a little «out of it» but we dropped off our sketches (i drew up what we wanted) and that was it.
the problem started when we went back during our SCHEDULED appointment time for our ink. the tattooist (and owner) had decided to take a drunk friend in for a quick spontaneous tattoo instead of keeping our appointment time. i know the guy was drunk bc he smelled like beer, everyone else was talking about how he tried to walk in with a 6 pack, and the guy himself was slurring and talking about how he just came out of the bar and was sloshed. it was around 4pm.
my fiancé and i were taken aback but tried to keep it a positive experience bc we had looked forward to getting inked together. as we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting (the drunk guy came in to get the bare breasts of his mermaid covered bc he just had a baby with his wife, true story, but then also decided to get the infant’s feet tattooed on his chest, TRUE STORY) the apprentice guy comes in and doesn’t have our sketches ready. he had over 4 weeks to draw them up and he didn’t. when asked why they weren’t ready, he mumbled something about being hungover and taking a giant «pizza» crap. i am not making this stuff up. this is real life, exactly what happened here. i remember it all so clearly because it was so ABSURD.
by this time we wanted to leave. we really didn’t know what to do, and we knew we wouldn’t get the deposit back from these people… plus we had already waited 2 HOURS. we decided to stay and hope for the best bc the tattoo guy was supposed to be so «talented.» the tattoo guy (big rick shrek) was annoyed with the apprentice for not having the tattoo sketch ready… the apprentice tried to draw it up quickly but it was all wrong so the shrek guy had to do it himself, which pissed him off even more. there was so much tension we were so uncomfortable.
once in the room ready for the tat, things got slightly better. shrek guy tried to be friendly, but he rushed through our tattoos. we were getting smaller ones than he usually does, so felt like he was rushing us through even though he was the one who was running late for taking that drunk guy walk-​in during our appointment time. in the end, my fiancé’s ink came out… and he had to go back and get it re colored. he showed up again during his scheduled appointment time, and they actually told him to GO HOME AND COME BACK bc they weren’t ready!!! what?!! so after another 2 hour wait, he finally got his color re-​done, which has since come out again. he is getting it touched up elsewhere at this point.
overall, this place was the most unprofessional and uncomfortable tattoo establishment you can imagine. and they charge TOO MUCH! not worth it at all.
AVOID this «house of 1000 headaches»!!!

Researched central NJ tattoo shops becasue I wanted to stay close to home. Met with this shop a couple of times on a cover-​up tat. Owner said he would draw something up within a week, so I left a deposit. Called after a week and spoke with store manager. My job hadn’t been included in the owners work flow, so nothing was done. Another week goes by, call again and still no mock-​up. I was told to schedule an appointment to get on the owners calendar. Showed up for my appointment thinking we were going to review mock-​ups for my cover-​up and it was an appointment for the actual tat. We hadn’t event discussed what I was getting! Too scattered and unprofessional for me. Live so close to some of the best tattoo artists in the world (NYC), I did more research and wound up going to East Side Ink for my tat. Wanted to support local NJ business, but can’t take a chance with something so permanent. Very pleased with East Side Ink, I’m going back for another tat.