Saw their booth at the Hawaii Tattoo Expo and they had great prices for what I wanted to get so I…read moredecided to get my third lobes and mid helix done.
First off, EXTREMELY unorganized. All of their jewelry was stored in plastic containers where the employees were just digging through, without gloves (SO unsanitary), to find the jewelry that the customers wanted. I wanted titanium flat backs because I'm allergic to sterling silver and I don't heal well if it is pierced with steel. The girl who pierced me looked through all the containers before finding 3 gold colored titanium flat backs with silver colored titanium ball toppers.
The piercing process started out okay, she cleaned off the area, although not very thoroughly, and marked where she was going to pierce and let me see before she started the process. I don't think they sterilized the jewelry before they pierced me either, even though different, ungloved, employees were digging around in the jewelry boxes just before. She opened a new needle and started on my lobes, these were pretty smooth.
The biggest issue came when she started on my mid helix. Told me take a deep breath and she pushed the needle through, then went to guide the jewelry in, but could only get it HALFWAY. I heard her whisper "oh shoot" under her breath before proceeding to try multiple times to push the jewelry all the way through. She asked the other guy, Jay, for help and they both stood there pushing my ear around for a solid 3 minutes before the jewelry was fully through. It was a while before the piercing was done, I could feel the blood on my ear slipping around while he essentially tried to repierce it with the jewelry.
Neither of them used a clamp, or even a tube to catch the needle as it went through to the other side, just used their hands which I could feel were slipping off my ear. To top it all off, my mom told me after that they used the same needle for all three of my piercings, super unsanitary!
I've gotten thick cartilage piercings done before this (rook, nostril, helix) and I have NEVER had an experience like this. I will not be coming back here, not even for my jewelry changes.
The only good thing I would say about this experience was that the lady at the front was polite and friendly, and the girl who pierced me was also nice, I just wish the process of the actual piercing was a bit cleaner and smoother. I hope nobody else has an experience like this, and I hope my piercings don't get infected.
