Don’t know anything about shops in Chicago, but if you wanna make a run to Texas, I’ll do you. I’ll give you a decent deal on it too.

Hi

I had the misfortune of visiting this dump on my tour of America.

It was donwtown Chicago so i had to drag my arse to find it when I wnt in there must have been 5 artists sat around doing sweet FA.

Did any of them greet me?

Nope.

I had to walk over and ask for their portfolio’s – he was tutting and sighing about getting his arse off the chair. Then he goes you a Brit?

I say yes he nods looks at his friends and smiles and starts to give me an outrageous price list of $175 per hour (1 hour min charge) ‘but he could maybe cut me a deal’.

The work was average with only a couple of gems in the ones I looked at. (I had already decided I didn’t like their attitude and over-charging tactics) but asked to see their autoclave and spore check certificates.

His face nearly fell off and said ‘You won’t get any diseases other than what you already have’ so I asked him with that attitude was this place an HIV den then?

Then my wife walks in and 2 of the guys there try to hit on her immediately so I suggested unless the fuck off they will end up with the business end of their tattoo needles through their eye and left.

Now it could be because I am a Brit or it they just didn’t like something about me :D- I am pushy when it comes to sterility questions – but I see that as my right.

You want some decent ink in Chicago i recommend Windy City Ink.

Much nicer people, better art, and frankly a lot more pro.

Take Care
Matthew

Sorry about your experience Sherav. I always try to greet anyone coming into my shop, and I make sure Mike does also. My wife always goes the extra mile, starting conversations and trying to learn about them. One time a customer came in and she found out a relative of his had Bell Palsy or something like that. The customer was stressing about it cause he didn’t know anything. Well, my wife is a Nurse, so she went to some medical sites on the computer and printed out twenty pages or so of info on the disease for the guy to study and she helped him understand what was going on with his relative.

It didn’t have a damn thing to do with tattooing, but since then I’ve done a thousand dollars worth of work on him. Why? Because my wife went the extra mile.

If someone doesn’t know what they want, we try to help them, and our portfolios are open right by the door and we direct them to those from the start.

If someone comes in and they are nervous or afraid, or have sterility issues, I walk them through, give them a tour, and explain the entire sterilization procedure from start to finish. I show them the autoclave spore testing certificates, the autoclave log, and the sharps containers so they can see we don’t reuse needles.

I show them the presterilized needle packs to show them they are not out of date.

Do I have to do all that?

No, I don’t. But I want people to be at ease. So I do.