I want to start off saying that I myself had a great experience here at Haven Studio Brooklyn. I was tattooed by Sophie at this location, and she made me feel really comfortable. The whole vibe of this place is really soothing and comforting, and as an LGBTQ woman identifying person I was very attracted to Haven Studio because it advertises itself as a queer, woman owned, body positive space for WOC, LGBTQIA+ and POC. I felt like I received that positive experience, so I recommended this location to 2 other friends. One friend got a tattoo from Sophie as well, and had a great experience; the other friend was tattooed by another artist in the studio, and had nothing short of a horrendous experience.
When I and my other friend who was tattooed by Sophie, we were alone in the studio. My friend who was tattooed by another artist reported that that was not the case, as her artist as well as two other artists were present working on clients (including the owner). My friend said she waited for almost an hour for her artist to be ready, and she was so caught up with talking with her coworkers that she wasn't paying attention to her set up and dropped a bunch of things on the floor and had to re set up again, taking more time. Almost an hour goes by before the process begins, which is an hour that my friend already paid for when she paid the $200 deposit that goes towards the first hour. So now she's paid $200 for the artist to basically talk to her coworkers the whole time and no tattooing has even occurred yet. My friend starts getting tattooed and she starts bleeding, and the artist stops repeatedly, claiming that she had to take a lot of breaks because of the bleeding. However my friend has gotten many tattoos before (in the same spot on the other side of her arm as this tattoo even) and this has never been such an issue before that the artist has ever had to take such long breaks. So the artist continues to talk to her coworkers during these breaks, again wasting more time and running up more money onto the $200/hr set price.
The entire time my friend reports that the employees and owner are talking trash about everyone under the sun-- other employees, and even clients. My friend says an older woman who was getting her first tattoo even fainted, and the employees talked trash about her openly after she left. They talked negatively about their own employees and clients WHILE CLIENTS WERE PRESENTLY BEING TATTOOED, and seemed to care more about their chatter than their jobs.
At the end my friend ends up paying $600 for a relatively small tattoo and leaves the shop in tears. She feels uncomfortable due to the employees' wildly unprofessional attitudes and feels unsafe because she feels like they are talking about her behind her back just like they talked about everyone else. For a place that advertises itself under the brand of empowerment, speaking negatively about clients and staff is incredibly hypocritical, unprofessional, and morally wrong, especially in front of paying clients. My friend's artist clearly took her time dragging out the experience to get more money while ignoring the needs of her client. I feel ashamed that I ever recommended this place and I feel guilty for sending my friend to a place that made her feel so uncomfortable and unsafe.
I am not one to write reviews on places like this. However I would never want anyone to feel the way my friend feels after visiting this shop. People should know what kind of business is run here and know that just because they advertise empowerment they do not practice what they preach here at Haven Studio Brooklyn.
Again, the artist Sophie has been great to me and to one other friend, and I highly recommend her as an individual artist; as for the other artists and the whole of the studio, I would never ever suggest Haven Studio to anyone ever again. read more