Gold Coast Tattoo Studio

BEST PLACE EVER!!! Good prices, they take debit and credit AND it’s clean and professional. Looking for good artists? Don’t waste your time, come here.

Q was awesome! He did these amazing California poppies on my side. I thought he was very polite and knew what he was doing. He will add to the tattoo but makes sure you are okay with it first. They turned out gorgeous.

Walked in without an appointment and left with an amazing tattoo. Keely was awesome, friendly and did a great job with the minimal prep time I gave him. Would recommend to anyone in the area and beyond. Definitely going back to Gold Coast Tattoo.

I came here to get two simple stars added to a preexisting tattoo. I agreed to the 65 dollar minimum, the guy gave me attitude when I mentioned the ink color to him. Whatever. Then, as he is tattooing one of the (very simple) stars, I notice it’s all fucked up. Totally unbalanced. I brought it up, and I’m not kidding, he said, «It looks good from my angle. You know, of all the the things to tattoo… stars are the most difficult because of the points.» What!!!
I had to get another artist from a different shop to fix them. Now it’s awesome.

I felt like I was discriminated against. I had gotten a tattoo done there years ago. I wanted to coverd it up. I didn’t care for it anymore. The guy was like «I didnt do it, so I dont care». I was like. Can you cover it with a flower. He didn’t help at all. I know when you get something like that done you should know what you want. But it’s still called customer service. As an artist, a tattoo is a work of art. It represents who you are. Its your work of art. Your customers which are local and help you build your reputation, stay humble because if it wasn’t for us you wouldn’t be where you are. Our bodies are your canvas.

I was very unimpressed with this studio.
Went in on a Sunday with my friend and got tattooed by Q.
He was not very friendly, pretty sure I only saw him smile once. He grumbled along while doing our tattoos about how he should get royalty rates for doing tattoos. Made me kind of sad, like, he was only thinking about money but doesn’t he realize that he’s tattooing peoples bodies and every time we look at it, we will think about the artist that did it? I love my tattoo (I love the SUBJECT matter) but I don’t think he did a very good job. I got a semi colon — should be simple. But the circle is lopsided and the lines aren’t clean.
I tried asking about colors and got a really odd answer and a lot of indecisiveness. He also acted like I was really annoying him, while I was trying to ask what the blue looks like. Uhm, I have the right to know roughly what color you are going to TATTOO on me. I understand it will look different based on skin tone, but you could at least make an effort and not get annoyed with me. I didn’t think I was asking too much to understand the color you were going to embed into my skin. Yeesh.
He started going on about how he could mix black into the blue. I got confused. Then he said you SHOULDN’T mix black into the blue, that isn’t the right way to go.
Dude, I’m here because YOU are supposed to be the expert.
Anyways, I wouldn’t go back nor recommend Q. I have several other tattoos and been through this process before, so I knew what to expect in general. I feel bad for anyone getting their first tattoo and looking for guidance; if that is your case, do not go here or at least see Q.
The kid that works the front desk was very friendly and sweet.
Also, I WILL give props that the studio is very sanitary and clean and good with those type of practices.

Walked in today and got a tattoo done by Q. Not only is my tattoo bad ass but Q is an amazing human being! Just a great experience all together…

Fucking dicks! I walked in and asked for a four letter word extremely small and i wouldn’t mind paying the $ 60 minimum. I didn’t get the guys name that I was taking to but he was short, busted af and needed to fix his grill. Anyways he basically tried to rush me into signing the form and told me he wouldn’t write out the word unless I filled it out. He said he wasn’t going to waste his time drawing out my FOUR letter word unless I’m getting it for sure. Like bitch is your job really that hard? You’re standing there not doing a damn think and your work isn’t even that goo for you to be acting like that.

I had spoken with «Q» over a week ago. I discussed a cover-​up project with him. He told me he would draw something up and put me on his schedule for ¹²⁄₂₈ at 5pm. When I showed up on my scheduled day, he had no idea who I was or what I was doing there. He even asked the other artists if I was on their schedule! So I left… never to return!

Beast made, after scheduling problems with another shop I called gold coast, spoke to Anthony let him know what was going on and he said he would personally assist me.
I walked in little past 5, and he took me right in. He sketched my tatt up and even though it wasn’t my vision it was what I needed!!! It was so amazing I started to imagine my sleeve, blew what I thought about out of the water.
Very Cool As Well As Profesional, very personable.
Can’t wait to go back in.

My 3 friends and I wanted to get tattoos on a whim while on vaca In Monterey. Due to a tattoo convention most artist were not available. Keeli was the only artist that was willing to take us. He was super rad! He did an awesome job at both the tattoos and entertaining a bunch of 19 year old girls. Would totally come back for more!

My three girlfriends and I came to Monterey on vacation and came here on impulse. Three out if the four of us never had gotten tattoos so we were nervous but Keeli, who did all of our tattoos, was super nice and reassuring. He didn’t sugar coat anything but didn’t scare us and took time to answer our questions. He made our two hour stay fun! I highly recommend going here, the studio is SUPER clean and professional. Keeli also got us in last minute. By the way, Rick doesn’t work there anymore, the one who everyone hated and said was rude, so don’t base going here off of that! :)

Three words: WE LOVE KEELI!
He did such a great job on my tattoo and if I lived in Monterey I would always go to him. He’s the best one there. So happy he could fit me and my three girlfriends in his schedule :) thank you!

I took my daughter to Gold Coast for her nose piercing, and we were very happy with our experience. When we arrived, Jess (I think? Sorry if I’m misremembering his name) had just gone home for the day, but the guys in the shop called him and he came right back and took care of us. Very clean, very professional (checked ID’s, filled out forms, taught us about hygiene and maintenance) and now, a little over two months later everything looks great and has healed up very nicely. We’re very happy.

I really love getting tattoos but had yet to have a tattoo artist that really gets me and knows what I want. I went to Gold Coast because my dad got most of his tattoos from them. Went here for my second tattoo and the guy that did it was kind of rude asking me if I was going to cry… uhm no I was fine and I had gotten a tattoo before. But then I talked to Jason or as he goes by «Q». He is the most chill and amazing artist I have ever met. He has done four of my tattoos so far and I’m having him do two more this coming month. I will never let anyone ever tattoo me again, and I’ll go wherever he goes! I’m always happy after Q finishes my tattoo!

Bumped from four to five stars since Rick has gone elsewhere.
Most reviews mention that he was very rude, which is true. He has recently moved elsewhere and the shop is much better for it.
I’ve gotten over ten tattoos here at Gold Coast, and I absolutely adore the staff. I highly recommend Gold Coast for anyone interested in getting inked in Monterey.

Amazing experience, walked in with an idea and came out with a memory. Thank You to Shawn for an Amazing tattoo experience. My grandfather passed away yesterday and ment the world to me… Shawn did great justice to both me and my Grandfather who both served in the Military… He combined both the Army of him and the Marine in me to leave me very pleased. I will Only be going to Shawn at Gold Coast.

I was recommended to come to Gold Coast by a close friend. It was my first tattoo and so I went. The artist I dealt with was Rick. Now as I knew nothing then about getting tattoos, I was quite shy in my attempts to explain what I wanted. He drew up a design, which was okay. I asked for an ‘antique’ color scheme – and ended up with red and blue and gold. Now, the work he does is lovely. I have tried since the day I met him to be nothing but friendly, engaging and willing to work with him.
Unfortunately, he has been consistently rude, dismissive and condescending every time I spoke with him. He was wonderful to my friend – because she’s very very pretty and he’s friends with her husband. But I thought I would talk to him again about another piece because maybe it was just me. I was polite, complimentary – every time I interacted with him – so maybe I was doing something unconsciously.
So we are discussing my idea, I wanted something with organic and inorganic elements. He tells me that that is not ‘art’ and it doesn’t ‘work’. Well, last time I checked, sir, I’m paying you – not the other way around. So what you consider ‘art’ is not what everyone considers ‘art’. But we managed to work something out. Okay, cool. I put down a $ 160 deposit on the piece.
I come back a week later so that Rick can take a print of it. He asks me for a $ 60 deposit. It all would go towards my tattoo in the end, so I paid that.
I arrive to get it – my appointment has been cancelled. Oh. Huh. Why? He vanished off to some convention and I was promised that he would contact me as soon as he got back. I left a couple messages — and I got nothing in return for a month.
Then, out of the blue, he sends me an email telling me that he doesn’t want to do my piece anymore because he heard I might be leaving soon for medical reasons. And he didn’t feel like putting all the work into it. I was rather stunned – one, because there was no way he should have known ANYTHING about my medical issues and did not feel like he had to disclose WHY he knew that information. And two – seriously? Really? You cancel my appointment without notice, go to some convention for a week, jerk around for a month and your first contact is to tell me you don’t feel like it?
Okay, fine. I ask about my deposits. He tells me he would rather keep the money in-​house because it would be better for his ‘books’. I tell him I don’t really care about that and I go by the shop. He gives me $ 60. I ask about the $ 160 I already had on it. He says he doesn’t know anything about that. And there’s no way he would have taken a $ 160 deposit. So I went home, found the receipt and brought it back. Rick tried to tell me that it didn’t «prove anything” – but after some tense words were exchanged, he finally refunded my money.
So, forget this guy – I could have just blown it off. But this next bit was the icing on the cake.
I go to another tattoo shop called Earthbound Tattoo. I take an idea to Noël, who creates a beautiful piece for me. I get it and I put the pictures of it on Facebook.
To my surprise, i find that Rick has come and commented on those pictures with this: «What the hell? That’s a strange thing to do? Guess I didn’t do a good job on that compass after all? Hmmmm?»
I have been nothing but gracious to this guy. Every chance I got I tried to compliment the work he did. Told him how much I liked it. But apparently if I don’t bow down and act like he walks on water – I’m the one being a jerk? He REFUSED to do the piece I brought to him after jerking me around for two months. Every time I spoke with him, he was dismissive, rude and made me constantly feel stupid and I was patient. But that made me really angry. Who does he think he is? He doesn’t have exclusive rights to anything I want to get tattoo’d.
Thanks but no thanks, jerk. I’ll take my money elsewhere. There are PLENTY of shops in Monterey where I can get tattoos. You are not the only good artist here. Because yes, the work that Rick does is lovely. It’s very good – but his attitude is extremely ugly. I want nothing more to do with this place. I’ll never come here again.

Worst tattoo I’ve ever had! Some dumb crack head chick named Kelly tattooed my husbands name on my hip I laid stiff as a board for her mind you I have my entire ribs tattooed I can handle the pain. Well it took her more than an hour to stencil out an already drawn up stencil I made every time she kept bringing it back she kept screwing up more until I had to step in. I was nice didn’t pressure her. But after my ink healed and I did take proper care of it I can see all the mistakes she made! I’ll post a pic and highlight all the mistakes. I should of had the guy done it he seemed more experienced. I’m gonna get it lasered off so I can get a new one. I have plenty of tattoos but this is by a far landslide my worst! I hope that girl is fired. She had ALOT of space and couldn’t make a straight line!!! Please learn from my mistake people.

I decided to get my nose re-​pierced and was greeted by the piercer (I can’t remember his name). He went in the back to set up his station while I waited for a few minutes. Then the girl at the front desk handed me some paperwork to sign. I was led back to his station where he did his thing… cleaned the area that was to be pierced, then marked my nose and asked if that’s where I wanted it to be. Finally he pierced my nose and it actually didn’t hurt as much as it did the first time.
He was able to answer all my questions and gave me a pamphlet on the cleaning instructions. The only thing I’m disappointed about is that I didn’t know there was a military discount until after the fact, and I clearly told the guy that I’m in the military and needed to take the jewelry out in uniform and asked about using a retainer, but he never mentioned about the discount. Bummer.
So I paid $ 75 total and that’s including the tip. A bit pricey but it was well worth it. Parking does suck because you will need to park on the busy street of Lighthouse. The staff were friendly and it was clean throughout the studio.