Category: | Tattoo Shop |
Address: | 716 N Weber St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA |
Phone: | +1 719-287-5605 |
Site: | pens-needles.com |
Rating: | 4.6 |
Working: | 12–8PM 12–8PM 12–8PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 12–8PM |
AL
Alexis deYoung
Update: Earlier today I received a call from the receptionist Lexi. She offered to get me in to see another artist for free for my touch up. I really appreciate this gesture from Pens and Needles although I will probably not be able to take them up on the offer. I still would not recommend Xander to anyone without loads of free time on their hands and who doesnt have the ability to reschedule on a whim. __________________________ While the piercing experience I had at Pens and Needles was great, I cannot say the same about the tattoo. The only reason I am giving a 3 star review is because the receptinists are fantastic and I was pretty satisfied with the art. The artist I selected was Xander and he usually is booked about 3 months out so it took a long time to get in with him which was ok. The reception staff was very helpful and flexible with scheduling. I am also very satisfied with the piece he designed with me for the most part. It was exactly what I was hoping for except that he missed a couple elements while he was tattooing me so that the tattoo is not semmetrical the way that it should be. Unfortunately thats about where I have to stop with the positivity. On the day of my initial appointment, Xander was running late and it took longer that I felt was really okay to get me in the chair (about 40 minutes past my appointment). I didnt think much about it because I wasnt very busy on the day I went in. After a couple months, several places on the tattoo had faded quite a bit and I knew I needed to come in for my touch up. However, knowing how difficult it is to schedule with him and how busy I would be this summer with an international move and existing travel plans, I contacted Pens and Needles way ahead of time for the appointment. Again the receptionist was very accommodating and got me scheduled on June 4th at 4:30. When I made the appointment I told them that I would have a busy schedule and I ended up scheduling everything else I need to accomplish this summer with the assumption that my appointment would be kept by the artist. Barely an hour before my appointment at 3:07 and then 3:11, I receive a call and email that Xander will be cancelling and that I have to reschedule. Now, there are some excuses like medical or family emergencies that I would find to be an acceptable reason to cancel with such short notice, but because he failed to allocate the appropriate amount of time to another tattoo is not one of them. He told me my touch up should take 15-20 mintues when I spoke with him and refused to take a break in the appointment that was running over to quickly complete my work and suggested that I come 1.5 to 2 hours past my appointment time for him to complete the work or "any other time." Normally this would not be a problem for me, but I had to go to a birthday dinner for my in-laws and I literally have no other time to drive out of my way to Pens and Needles to have the work done since I have other appointments and will not be in the city. I expressed these issues to Xander and he refused to resolve the issue satisfactorily and did not acknowledge how problematic it is for me that the 15-20 minutes he was asking for "any other time" is really more like 2 hours with my drive time, or way more if I drove down from Denver or Fort Collins. Due to his tardiness at my first appointment and him cancelling my touch up, I also dont trust him to follow through on an appointment made under his conditions. If you want an artist who respects your time and follows through on his responsibilites, I would not suggest Xander at all. I think Xander just views his clients as a source of income and does not have pride in his art otherwise he would have followed through on the appointment he set for the free touch up on my tattoo. I strongly and truly believe that the reason he felt it was ok to give me the boot was that I was not a "paying" customer on that day and therefore he didnt feel like he had to help accommodate me. I would not recommend Xander for tattoos to anyone I know despite the quality of the art.
MA
Marrissa Cloutier
the store, customer service, and the other tattoo artists I would give a solid 5/5 dont get me wrong. I had an amazing Freddy Kruger tattoo done by Xander there and he was great! The front desk people are super nice and seeing the other work done by other artist they are amazing. Im giving this one star in particular to a certain artist. So last month for Friday the 13th I went for the spur of the moment with my friend. Since they had so many people I wasnt able to get in on that day and had my appointment for it yesterday. The tattoo I chose was a pokeball to add onto my Pokemon sleeve.(I mean even my grandparents know what a pokeball is) it was just suppose to be the outline but he said he would do the red shading. His name was Austin and he came off really rude to me. At first he was friendly and then when he was getting ready to tattoo me he didnt even had the needle to my arm and he was making small talk like "so what other tattoos do you have" and so not even shaking my whole body I just pointed with my other hand on the arm that wasnt getting tattooed and he very rudely said "DONT MOVE" so after that I felt very uncomfortable considering I obviously know not to move while getting a tattoo and the fact that he wasnt even tattooing me yet. So he did the outline and that part was good. Then he started putting in the red. I wasnt paying attention because when Im on my phone distracted I dont feel the pain as much. After he said "alright were done here" I looked down to see that he made the pokeball all red on top and bottom. I started freaking out and explained "The pokeball is only suppose to be red on the top thats not a pokeball" he then responds rudely "you cant be mad at me I didnt know" and you would think if you didnt know you wouldnt assume the color and just go for it without asking :) he then offered to put white in it, or another free tattoo but why would I want somebody who already gave a me a ruined tattoo touch me again considering there was no trust left. He handle the situation poorly and made it feel like it was my fault he didnt know the color of a pokeball (which to me is kinda pathetic) so then I left with a horrible Pokemon tattoo and was very disappointed with the experience I had with him. I will return to pens and needles because the store is amazing and the people there but I will not return to Austin ever again or recommend him to anyone.
RE
Renee Attal
I got my belly button pierced down in MS, and they unfortunately had pierced it crooked is first what my big brother had told me, then my friends, and then when i arrived back home and had time to go out on my own i went to Sinisters were i was told it was indeed crooked. The man who took a look at my Piercing, suggested i go to Pins and needles to get it repierced one i had let the original piercing heal, he had told me it was one of the best places in town. I took my piercing out and waited a month then searched on the internet trying to find if there was any other place that wasnt too far that seemed professional. I pulled up pins and needles site it gave a lot of information and i gave them a call, the man gave me another number which was to there Weber location were they did piercings. I called the woman was very friendly and i made an appointment. I did have a little trouble getting to the place at first, but was amazed when i stepped into the center, it was very clean, and looked very organized, it was an extremely friendly atmosphere and they had a lovely waiting area and really cool art. The studio was very professional looking, and was obvious they spent the time designing it. I was greeted by Bobby who i found out quickly would be the who was going to peirce me, he had been told already what i had told the woman on the phone about my previous Piercing Bobby took a look at my past piercing and informed me that it had been done crooked but also too shallow. He didnt clamp me, explaining he was a free hand piercer, unlike the guy in Ms had, it wasnt a rushed thing ether like the guy in MS had done, instead Bobby cleaned the area and then took his time drawing lines to help him make sure the piercing turned out strait. He was very friendly and very nice and explained what he was doing the whole time. the experience was also extremely clean and sterile! THANK YOU SO MUCH BOBBY! I had an okay experience the very first time i was pierced, the place was clean but in comparison to Pins and Needles, i dont think i would want to go any where else for a piercing other then Pins and Needles! It was a great experience! thank you so much i definitely Recommend!