02.21.2024 - Spur of the moment piercing…read more I hate that I have to leave this horrible review, especially because Jeremiah was really nice and awesome. But I feel as though I have to do my due diligence to make sure that this doesn't happen again and to help others avoid the same situation that I'm in now. Before heading back home from Santa Barbara, I take a quick shower and suddenly, one of my forward helix piercing fell out. With its awkward position, I tried putting it back in, but there was no way I could. I needed professional help. I called multiple places within Santa Barbara's vicinity, but all tattoo and piercing shops open late. Since I'll be passing by Morro Bay and it's about 1.35hrs away, the timing seemed to be perfect. So I hit the road and waited to call around some of the shops in that area. The first place that popped up on Yelp was Central Coast Tattoo. Since it was a tattoo and piercing shop, without any hesitation, I called and let the shop know I was on my way. I've been wanting to complete a certain piercing look on my right ear, so I decided to get 2 piercings along with reattaching my forward helix piercing. It was definitely a spur of the moment decision. Jeremiah was super nice, easy going and he was patient as I was looking through the jewelry collections. I asked if the earrings are surgical steel or medical grade steel. Jeremiah confirmed they were. After choosing my earrings, I waited for him to set up his station. Everything was fine, I was excited, but felt at ease. He drew the dots on my ear, showed me a mirror and adjusted them as needed. I have to say, I've had 12+ piercings throughout my life and never have I had excruciating pain during piercings. But this time, it was the first. Both piercings were extremely painful when puncturing and it ended up bleeding too. But even then, I didn't think anything of it because sometimes, the condition of our body's can feel off than normal and the location of the ear could be more sensitive than usual. Since getting it pierced, my ears started to swell badly, got red and felt hot. By the next day, just getting a whiff of air touching my right ear, I felt stinging pain. I started my aftercare regimen religiously. Warm salt water soak, clean around the piercing with saline, warm compress, ice pack...it got so bad to the point that I couldn't sleep all night from the throbbing, stinging pain. I felt like I was going to come down with a fever. My lymph nodes started to get bumpy and painful. My head started hurting. The nerves connected to my right ear all started radiating pain. It got pretty bad by the 4th day. Even with my aftercare routine, it just got more angry and irritated. When I got up on 2/25/2024 morning, I rushed to the mirror to check if the swelling went down, but my heart dropped and I was in absolute distraught mode. One of the two piercings got eating by my skin! (OMG!!!!) The front part of the earring is nowhere to be seen. I gently touch the back to see if the post was still in my ear, and it barely was. I thought my skin popped the front part off so I started checking my bed, around my bed, under my pillow, but I couldn't find it... Great, my skin at ate the earring...I never experienced this in my life...I'm panicking while trying to stay calm...my husband tried to push the back post forward to check and he saw the front part deep within my ear...My husband started searching for the best, cleanest and reputable piercing shop in the city and he found Body Manipulations. There's no time to delay and to beat the crowd, we get ready to drive down to the shop as soon as they opened. Just one look, the piercer knew what needed to be done. She had to forcefully push the embedded earring out to clasp it. Both piercings needed to be removed and I must say, this was the most painful 45 seconds of my life! She noticed that the embedded one was pierced at an angle, creating tissue damage. This explained the sharp pain with blood when Jeremiah pierced me. Also, remember I mentioned that I confirmed whether the earrings were good quality? Well, it turned out that each piece, the front and the back post were made of very poor quality metal. This added to my ear getting really angry because my skin is very sensitive. At this point, I'm pretty pissed. I spent money to get my ears infected. My other healed piercings were also getting affected from my ears swelling up so much that I had to get a longer post for them. Spent unnecessary money. Within 4 days, my ears went from looking normal to looking like dumbo with red, angry, inflamed ears. Unfortunately, this establishment does not use good quality jewelry. Although most tattoo + piercing shops are managed by professionals who are trained and skilled at performing legit piercings, I don't believe Central Coat Tattoo meets that criteria.

My wife and I did it!!! We got our first tattoos and we couldn't be happier. Thank you first to…read moreour friend Mel from Taco Temple who referred us to Central Coast Tattoo. A big THANK YOU to Chyrs and Cynthia for helping us with our initial inquiry a week earlier and for making the tattoo process so memorable. Chrys is a true artist and a top notch tattoo artist for sure. She guided me and my wife through the process after reviewing the artwork that we wanted applied. Today, on two sessions my wife had a tattoo of three birds applied to her arm as a tribute to her and her two recently departed sisters. My artwork was a nod to my favorite pastime, golf. We occasionally would talk about getting a tattoo but today we talked the talk and walked the walk. I don't know if we will be inspired again to get another tattoo but if and when we do, we will stop in and see Chrys and Cynthia.

This studio is by appointment only. My 2 daughters and I wanted to get matching tattoos to honor…read morethe 6 generations of women in our family who've been traveling to Morro Bay since the early 1900's when my great great grandmother emigrated to the United States. I reached out through his website for a quote and Eddie contacted me over text which was incredibly convenient. We connected immediately. I explained what I wanted and when we'd be in town, and we were able to come up with a plan and an appointment. My girls and I got the rock with 6 birds above it, 3 of which are in the foreground to represent us: The Trio. This was the very best tattoo experience I've ever had. It was the 6th tattoo for me. My oldest had never had one before, and this was the 3rd for my youngest. We are all beyond pleased with the results and the experience we had at Eddie's studio. He is such an incredible artist and person. His shop is clean and professional. He was more than welcoming and made us feel like we were old friends. We all bought t-shirts before we left! When the first grandchild is born someday, we will take them to Morro Bay and we will all get a 7th bird added!

Ed is the ultimate professional love the work he did for my wife and I great work great artistread more

New Shop in town!!! This place is CLEAN! Chad Best, the owner of Best Tattoos, has many years of…read moreexperience and does amazing work. I was truly impressed by his portfolio when I saw it, and thought it was especially cool to see that he has tattooed many celebrities, including Actors, NFL players, and NBA players (like Shaquille O'Neil!!) Chad is very friendly and isn't condescending when presented with my Tattoo ideas. I know some other artists who make you feel lame as soon as you walk through the door, and Chad is not like that AT ALL! If you're from SLO county or wanting to get a Tattoo on the Central Coast, I highly recommend that this is the shop that you go to!!

Chad is a nice guy and the shop is a nice environment. I am just cautioning older people with…read morethinner skin. I don't think he took that into consideration and basically what happened is he went too deep below the skin and cause shading and blurriness. When I spoke to another artist about correction, I was told there is no correcting this. Bummer.

I love retrocade! They have such unique items that you can't find anywhere else, records, clothes,…read morelocal products. The arcade is so fun they have every game you could ever want. The owners are so kind and friendly and they care about their customers. Their tattoo station is clean and they have guest artists in often, this place is fantastic.

Knew a tattoo artist at this tattoo shop and wanted my tattoo specifically from her, and she was…read morepeachy! Tattoo came out great, she was friendly, and even offered to touch up my brothers tattoo. However, the OWNER made us feel really uncomfortable. Didn't even greet us when we walked. As I was getting tattooed, I brought a couple of family members who wanted to check out this new shop. They went inside the arcade and the owner followed them in there saying in a stern voice, "Only one person at a time." my family respected it but later on, another group of people walked in and all went into the arcade and the owner didn't even care!! Not only that, but the arcade reeked of weed. Not sure if that's sanitary or safe.

Love the tattoo I got here, my artist Chuy was very sanitary and professional. Made sure to make…read morethe tattoo exactly the way I wanted before even placing it on a stencil! Definitely coming back for more tattoos

Got my tongue pierced here 2 weeks ago. Was very nervous to get it so I didn't realize till after…read morebut the piercer didn't even have me use mouthwash beforehand and didn't use a clamp. Had to take it out today because I went to a different piercer to get a different bar and she told me I should take it out because of how crooked it was. The lady that pierced me was very nice and comforting but the quality and safety of what she did is not okay. And the tongue is a very serious thing to pierce and it should be taken seriously. I understand everyone makes mistakes but she shouldn't have let me walk out seeing how crooked it was. I've never left a review on a business before but this kind of thing is too important not to share. Everyone was very friendly so no issue on that.

I went to Michelle to get my brows microbladed for the first time. She was super friendly and made…read moreme feel very comfortable. She was very detailed in her strokes and did an amazing job at making my eyebrows look full and natural, and the way I'd always wanted. I love the way they turned out and it was a great first experience! Highly recommend if you are considering microblading.

After years of wanting to have my eyebrows microbladed, i finally got to have it done. Michelle…read morecame highly recommended by my hair stylist. It took a bit to get an appointment because she's that awesome and yes, that busy. So, plan ahead. Think about your activity and the weather. I was traveling in December and knew I didn't want to focus on new brow care while traveling. Summer wasn't good me for either because ....sun! I arrived on time and Michelle was waiting in the shop. A nice shop she shares with her husband who's also a local tattoo artist. Soon to be in her own new joint though... I've heard. First off is paperwork. It's fast, legal eagle stuff. She takes some time to explain the process. Then it's lie down and left the drawing begin. She drew out a shape she felt matched my face shape etc. She will show you so you can say yay or nay. I said yay. Then it's down to business. First a topical pain cream so you don't feel much. She goes over each brow three times with color. I did not see the tool used but it lays color onto brows, and into the skin. These are my layman's terms! It was pain free for me (except for the plucking part, which I find funny). You can hear skin pulling or scratching as she moves along. I felt very little pain during the process and even later in the day just a little pain was present. The end result was soooo worth the time and investment in myself. I go back soon for my 6 week touch up. People definitely noticed the change and many are asking for her information. Overall fantastic experience. If you are on the fence, pull the trigger you won't be sorry. Using Michelle's photo of my before and my after shots.

I messaged the shop through Instagram about 3 hours prior to coming in to see if they had time to…read morefit me in, they said they did so I came through. Literally had zero plan. Just wanted to get something done. Looked through Woods' flash book and went with a little snake guy. He decided he wanted to draw it on, rather than using the flash, so it would fit the spot we were putting it in better. From start to finish it took a little over an hour. Woods was so nice and professional. The other two guys there were helping other customers as they came in. Also super nice and helpful. The shop is beautiful, with tons of natural lighting. This is by far one of the best shops I've been to in the many years I've been getting tattooed. 100% plan on making my way from the bay to get another tattoo from the guys here again.

Dillon did a tattoo for my 24 year wedding anniversary, it turned out amazing. He really took his…read moretime and put the effort into making it great. The best part was my husband was there for support but Ryan came in for his shift and was an absolute riot he ended up convincing my husband to get a tattoo from him while he waited that also turned out amazing. The colors in both tattoos really popped and were such great work. Such a great experience and had a blast during the process, we will definitely be back!

Absolutely recommend Jake for any tattoos! He started a tattoo on me yesterday in a kind of…read moreintimate/ vulnerable area. He made me feel completely comfortable & at ease! 100% professional, talented, experienced & lovely to converse with. The pricing is appropriate & fair. I'm so very happy with the artistry & it's not even finished yet!

I've been going to Apothecary Tattoo for many years. Jake has always took any vision in my head and…read moremade it 100X better. His artwork is spectacular, and the attention to detail is extraordinary. He's always treated me with respect and gave me very fair prices. We have a lot of talent here in the central coast when it comes to tattoo artists but I always go to him because of his art and friendly service. Chill vibe with a chill dude. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The workers were very nice and were kind enough to reattach my piercing for free and no wait!read more

Got my ears and septum pierced here. Johnny was absolutely amazing. They took very good care of me…read more They were very professional but also very warm. Would absolutely recommend! If I get pierced again it will definitely be here!