Ancient Arts

Came in to get my nose pierced. The person who did it decided he was going to finish his joint first. Then after he washed up and got gloves on he pierced my nose crooked and now it’s infected and I had to get wire clippers because it would not come out from my nose due to the crookedness Not a happy customer

Went in, in may for a nose piercing. Mine is completely crooked and sticks out at a weird angle. Seems I’m not the only one with this complaint now that I read through the reviews. Its funny there are complaints about crooked piercings from years ago and Damien still hasn’t learned how to do it correctly in 4 – 5 years. Save your money and your time. Go somewhere else where customer service matters

I went there to get my nose pierced back in September of 2011 he pierced it crooked. Don’t go here he doesn’t know what he’s doing when it comes to piercings and has a heavy hand when it comes to tattoos

Recently went to Ancient Arts to get a tattoo covered up. I couldn’t be happier! I’m surprised to see the other reviews on here. Damien was very professional and had good advice about the tattoo. Definitely coming back!

So… I’m really surprised at the reviews i’ve been seeing on here. All of our experiences will be different but I will give you the rundown of mine…
I got my first tattoo ever at Ancient Arts and I was really happy with the experience. They saw me right away and Lydia spent a good half hour helping me figure out what font I wanted to use (i only got writing in black ink) and made me feel comfortable. She made sure the stencil went on straight and when she started the tattoo she did a good job of keeping me calm and talked to me the entire hour it took. It was a fair price and I tipped her on top of it.
I can’t say anything for the piercings they do but I do know a girl who got her lip pierced there and she really liked the service. I hope this helps. I recommend going in and feeling the vibe for yourself. Thats the only way to truly know if this place is right for you.

The people at Ancient Arts (specifically Damien) are absolutely unprofessional and unskilled. Read below for experiences regarding piercings and tattoos.
The first time I went in was to get my tongue pierced. I had never gotten it pierced before, and had heard that it was a quick and painless procedure. Damien was my piercer. It probably took him about 10 minutes to grab my tongue properly with the grabbers. Then, he slowly and painfully jabbed the needle through my tongue. I could count the seconds it was taking for the needle to go all the way through. It was pretty excruciating. The days following, my tongue was extremely bruised and swollen and took a while to finally heal.
I kept the piercing in for about 6 months before taking it out. About a year later i decided i wanted it pierced again, and this time went to Ink Addiction in Eureka. The guy who did it was amazing. All I felt was a tiny pinch and it was done in less than a second. My tongue was barely sore in the days that followed, and it healed beautifully. Up until then I had thought I was just a puss when it came to tongue piercings, and that they were incredibly painful. Turns out Damien just doesn’t know what he’s doing.
The day I went in for my tongue piercing, two of my friends got nipple piercings (both of them girls). Damien took them each behind a curtain and proceeded to fondle their nipples, because, as he put it, he needed to «harden them first.» A couple months later, one of the girls went into another shop to get the other nipple pierced, and the woman who pierced her did not need to do this. She simply put the needle right through without the nipple being hard.
Some time later, another friend of mine went in with a tattoo idea in mind. She wanted a grateful dead skull on the back of her neck, but she did not want the red and blue lightning bolt in the skull opening. She wanted to brainstorm other ideas. Damien had no ideas to offer her. Instead, he sat there as she drew out the designs herself. Once she had chosen what she wanted, he went ahead and tattooed it. As i sat waiting for her tattoo to be finished, I flipped through his book. I was very unimpressed. He does tacky, low quality designs that are incredibly cliché and boring. There is a fuzzy, cheap quality to most of his work. Not surprisingly, my friend is not happy with her tattoo. To this day, she wants to cover it up, and regrets getting it. The lines are not crisp and the colors are not what she wanted.
The most APPALLING and INAPPROPRIATE thing of all, though, happened just after. When you get a tattoo or piercing, you fill out a sheet of paper where you jot down your phone number and various other pieces of information and sign at the bottom. This piece of paper is for the shop’s records and for legal purposes ONLY. My friend who got the grateful dead tattoo filled one out. Damien then decided it would be appropriate to take her number from the sheet and begin text messaging her, asking to take her out, and intensely creeping on her. SO SO SO UNPROFESSIONAL. BAD. just bad.
Don’t ask me why I returned to this place so many times. I can confidently say I will never step foot in there again though.

Got a tattoo from the owner. Very professional. He did very good work. The shop is filled with interesting art and decoration. Mood was perfect for a tattoo. I am very happy with both service and quality. Be prepared for the staff to be frank and honest with you if you are asking them to do something they don’t think they can do they will work with you, but, when it comes to tats and piercings, trust your artist and if what you want can’t be done there, find another.

Having heard good things about this shop from some people in my class, I went in for a tattoo consultation and was absolutely disgusted by my experience there. Lydia was incredibly rude. She told me that my design wouldn’t work with the placement that I wanted (my arm) and that she would ONLY do it on my thigh. I told her that I did not want it there, and that we should adapt the design together so it would work for the placement that I wanted. She very rudely told me that if she was going to do my tattoo, it would be done her way, and refused to work on an adaptation of my original design. Considering MY tattoo would be on MY body for the rest of MY life, I’m pretty sure I should have the last word on how my tattoo should be done.
I went there with a friend to buy some jewelery and get her nose pierced, and I noticed that the piercer did not change his gloves at all during the piercing process, and touched his face, his nose, the counter, his toolbox, and HIS OWN PIERCINGS with his «sterile» gloves. Gross. I’m not suprised to hear from these other reviews that it is apparently common to get an infection from Ancient Arts.
Maybe I’m just used to the shops in Seattle that are required to hold themselves to a certain standard, but I found this place to be an absolute MESS. I would not reccommend this shop to my worst enemy.

One of my ears became so swollen I couldn’t remove the earring myself, so I reluctantly went back and had it removed at Ancient Arts (he used a leatherman). Now I’m on a course of antibiotics.
Don’t let this happen to you!

This is by far the worst piercing place in the area and horror stories circulate from many people. I have seen some horrible tattoos and piercings from this place and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Bottom line: Not good service, the man that works there is unbelievably creepy to every young woman I know (as well as me), plus, as another reviewer mentioned, the shop is not certified! I would not trust this shop even to buy jewelry from! My personal recommendation would be Primal Décor, in Eureka, which is 1000 times more trustworthy than Ancient Arts, although pricey. Nor-​cal tattoo is also a better option.

I have gotten two tattoos from Lydia and I am very pleased with both of them. The prices are reasonable, Lydia is very helpful and friendly, and both times I got my tattoo without an appointment. The second tattoo she designed entirely, I gave her a few ideas of what I wanted but she came up with something that was absolutely perfect in every way. I really could not have asked for anything better than what she designed on the first try!
The shop has lots of interesting knick-​knacks to look at while you are getting tattooed and Lydia is an interesting person to talk to. Overall, I would recommend Lydia to anyone who is looking to get tattooed.