About Face Tattoo

Not only did i get quoted extremely high for my piece i also waited for an hour or 2 for a spot to open. Finely i ended up just leaving and going somewhere else. I ended up getting my tattoo immediately when i walked in. Very detailed, very well done, right on budget and NOT FROM THEM.

10 of 5 stars.
The staff here is always super pleasant and the tattoo community can be a bunch of stuck up egos but I love this shop, the front desk staff and the artist give professional opinions of size, placement and art work. Pinterest has caused a lot of repetition over the years and the artist here customize every piece and take their time. No half assin” here on any of the staffs’ part I love it front of the house to back of the house handle it all like a bunch of bosses. Very few places I would ever add something to my body FOREVER and this is one. I always have my clients as a hair stylist ask where I went and locally this is the shop

I have been going to this tattoo shop for many years. Hands down best shop!!! Courteous, nice artists. The work is amazing. My latest tattoo was by Hector, amazing artist!!!

Great People and Great Tattoo!

I’ve gotten all my tats there and I have actually moved to Clairemont, but drove all the way down for my latest tattoo because of how much I love them. I had Anton for my first tattoo (Smile Now Cry Later tragedy masks), someone else (god I’m awful with names) for my moon tattoo on my wrist, and my newest and quite possibly my favorite is my Harry Potter tattoo from Curtis! He was super cool during it all and was very accommodating especially since I changed plans on my tattoo last minute. I will continue to drive an hour away for About Face! I trust their artists and love their work :)

Waited an hour to be told there was not enough time for me. Front desk staff very pleasant but I think someone could have figured out the timing a lot sooner so I wasn’t waiting around. Not a good first impression for me, so might not be inclined to try it again.

I give this place two stars bc the guy who helped me was pleasant and very nice to look at. Anyway, wanted a simple arm band– not more than one hour work and he quoted me over 300 bucks! He also said there is likely to be a «wobble» and that there was a big chance the band wouldn’t be perfectly straight. Weird. Anyway, ended up going to hidden city tattoo in esco. Speedy is the best! Did the tat perfectly how I wanted and didn’t rip me off.

Where to start… I am a tattoo snob, we moved from Oregon and I figured I would have to go home for tattoos. I gave About Face a shot, I literally showed Anton a tattoo from my teenage years I wanted covered up. Having zero artistic ability I just sort of explained what I wanted. I was still doubtful. Then he comes out with a stencil that matched what I was imagining perfectly! The shop is clean, welcoming, professional… dare I say I have a new favorite shop?! Fast forward to tattoo day. Again, even with different staff, totally welcoming and happy atmosphere. He did beyond incredible, I am in love with my new tattoo and would recommend the shop to anyone! The talent here is incredible, just overall incredible.

Curtis is working on my tattoo and so far it looks fantastic. He is the 4^th person that I have tried because the others just weren’t cutting it. He’s confident that we can fix the whole piece and get it looking good. He did a great job of making me feel comfortable and at ease. :)

Great talent in this shop. Super clean area and the waiting room is like a gallery. There are 7 artists that display their work, portfolios, flash art and different media such as paints, pencils, market all for sale. This is a dope spot that isn’t just sticking basic tattoos on people but an actual art gallery where the canvases are people and the tattooists are artists.

The ONLY artist that was there refused to do a tattoo on my toe because it would eventually fade off (even though I fully understood this). Are you serious? I will never come in here again. Why is she even tattooing people?

Anton worked on my tattoo, and I have to say that he did a fantastic job with my very first tattoo ever. I’m really quite overjoyed with how the colors and the piece itself turned out. I will definitely be going back for more in the future.

Really good crew here, I had Evan do some work for me and I’m stoked about how it’s turned out. Thanks crew!

I can’t even begin to put into words how much I LOVE the piece that Evan did for me! He worked with me and took my idea and made it into something that is not only gorgeous, but something that will last forever and be special to me for the rest of my life.
I’ve been to a lot of shops, and had a lot of bad experiences and even a couple bad tattoos, but this place was amazing. Everyone there was so great and they were really flexible with their scheduling, and they just made me feel really great about my decision to get tattooed in their shop. I can’t rave enough about this shop. It’s really a gem in the middle of down town oceanside. I know I’ll be coming back in the future.

I came in with my mom, brother and sister to get matching tattoos of an outline of a cat. The place is clean and the layout is comfy with cubicle like partitions so privacy isn’t an issue. We went with Evan and Hector. They were both very accommodating and efficient. So quick I wasn’t ready to be done but the work was perfect :-) Idk if there is parking but we found some right in front on a Saturday. Kyle at the front desk was attentive and communicated well + he was a QT pie ;-) There is also a steam punk Odditorium which is full of really cool stuff. Great experience, thanks guys!!!

Absolutely terrible service! Walked in and talked to the receptionist about my tattoo and she gave me a price range. I signed my name on the list and sat around for nearly 2 hours and not one artist came and talked to me and the receptionist acted as if I wasn’t even there. People with bigger tattoo ideas walked in after me and the artists made sure to run right out to them. I obviously did not get my tattoo here. And the receptionist laughed as I walked out. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

I had my a tattoo done here. They are a lil pricey compare to other shops but the work speaks for itself … They charge me 300 for my praying hands… And my husband 180 for our daughters name in old English … He said that he felt ripped off because the guy in the front desk told him that the guy will retouch his roses and when he went back there the guy said that they never told him so yeah … They did a good job so is okay at the end … I guess

Have received two tattoos from about face. Been getting ink for about 12 years and been in a lot of shops. Very clean and professional shop. Compared to a few other places in the local area I will only be returning to About Face.

The artist I had was Crystal and she did an amazing job in my opinion and that’s all that matters! haha it’s true. I’ve see her portfolio and she’s so talented I’m sad that I’m quite a distance aways due to me living in LA now. She is very creative, funny, down to earth and friendly. I couldn’t have had a better experience getting my my half sleeve. I got a safari theme, I told Crystal what I wanted and she put it all together. I gave her a week to conjure something up and I loved it! This is still a business deal and she gave me a very resonable price. Pricing only gets better if you keep coming back, wink wink ;) She is currently working on my other half sleeve, pretty much a bunch of detailed roses! I will give another review when that one’s complete. I must say if your in the area and want a tattoo I highly recomend Crystal at About Face Tattoo! She will work around your schedule, give you a great price, work at an excellent pace and have great conversations with you if you prefer to talk your way through it. I personally like to talk a bit about random things during tattoo sessions to pass the time. Oh yeah, there’s curtains for privacy, it’s clean, they have a great look in the parlor w/​plenty of art to observe and good music playing in the background.
P.S.
If you decide to get a tattoo please try to be a good piece to work on, don’t complain about the pain or make grunts haha unless your really heavy on the tips. Just saying…

This review is terribly overdue, and I’m not even sure the same artist is still located at About Face but I think I owe it to other patrons to tell about my experience.
I came in to ask questions and possibly book an appointment for my very first tattoo. The receptionist told me I was in luck, and she had an artist available right then. I was caught off guard but had come prepared with my hand-​drawn tattoo idea, and took my time looking through his portfolio while he set up.
Side note: I admit I was a total newbie about the tattooing business and probably should not have said «okay» to getting tattooed by just anybody, but the shop was where I was referred to and I liked the look of his portfolio.
The artist came out to greet me and took me back. We looked at my picture together and I explained its significance, hence the reason I drew it myself. The three large traditional-​style roses had scalloped edges in my drawing — a detail I chose for its feminine look and was very fond of. The artist said «cool,» and began mapping out the placement on my side with markers.
Now I realize this was a big red flag — he didn’t draw up anything to transfer onto my skin, but merely sketched the general sizing of each rose and its position.
Then he went to work. Fast forward less than an hour later and I looked down (I had avoided peeking out of both sheer excitement and terror) and realized my roses’ petals were missing their pretty scalloped edges, and had straight edges instead. The line was blown out in some places, with varying thickness of the line all around. I was in shock, and it being my first tattoo, I wasn’t sure what to do or say. I paid an incredibly high amount and left. I will NEVER come here again. Since then, I’ve had another artist finally get it partway to where it should have been from the beginning, but still lacking the scalloped edges since the damage had already been done. Avoid, avoid, avoid!!!