Ocean Blue Tattoo & Art Studio Review, Prices, Services, Images

My friend and I recently got tattooed by Stephanie and it was a wonderful experience! She is a very talented artist and we absolutely adore our tattoos! The shop was clean and everyone was very friendly. My friend lives out of state and was only here for a short amount of time so we were kinda of a last minute squeeze in and they were so accommodating! Would definitely go here again!

Update: Changing from 2 stars to 4 stars. After my initial review, Daniel reached out to me and offered a touch-up session to address some of my concerns. He was very kind during the session and tried to address our mismatch in expectations. He added more color all around, covered the yellow, and added more watercolor features. He let me sit up and watch, which made it a much better experience. There was good communication during the session. I like the finished product much more now and I’m much happier with my experience.

I had to shorten my original review to make room for this update. I also added a photo from after the touch-up session.
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I waited several months to share my review in hopes that I would feel better about the tattoo I purchased and the service I received. For context, this is not my first tattoo, I have spent 24+ hours getting tattooed and have worked with other artists to design tattoos that I am very happy with.

TL;DR: My tattoo looks fine, but it was not a good experience. Daniel didn’t do what I asked or what he proofed, wouldn’t let me watch, so I couldn’t correct his deviations from my request. $800 for ~7″×4″ oval tattoo.

The tattoo I received is nice looking and seems to be quality work. However, it is not what I asked for. I had a design session in the spring of 2023 where I provided a photo of a lotus flower and said I wanted those colors in a watercolor tattoo. Watercolor tattoos are Daniel’s specialty, which is why I went to Daniel at Ocean Blue. He created a proof, and I told him again the colors I wanted, the style I wanted, and the location. I showed him the scar on my leg where I wanted the flower to mask the scar and he waved me off, told me the draft was just a guide because he freehands his tattoos and that he would do the colors and location I wanted and that it would look good because he’s good.

At my appointment in February of 2024. I again showed him the picture of the lotus flower and told him the colors I wanted. He changed the proof and said it was just to make the stencil clearer. He assured me the odd feature in the center of the flower was not a detail he would add. He reiterated that he freehands his tattoo and how good it would look. He said he would do what I wanted. I told him I wanted pink and purple for the flower part, and I wanted him to use the water color splash technique I saw in his portfolio of other work. I told him I wanted blue and green for the stem and water, and I wanted it to be along the scar on my ankle. He wanted it higher up on my calf, he said to trust him. I said I wanted it to cover the scar, and that’s why I requested the lotus tattoo specifically with the location. He said to trust him, he knows what he’s doing, the tattoo would look better where he wanted it, but ultimately agreed to have it lower towards my ankle but said it needed to be centered and not over my scar. Fine.

He insists that I lay down flat and not sit up at all. It’s like he forgot everything we talked about with respect to style and colors. He added yellow to the blue and green near the stem. I did not ask for yellow, and yellow doesn’t go well with my skin tone. He added the weird cylindrical detail at the center of the flower that he assured me he would not include. Again, as art, it looks professional. It is not what I asked for, I couldn’t convince him to listen to me, I wasn’t allowed to watch to voice my requests as he deviated. I waited 10 months and paid $800 for a tattoo that wasn’t what I wanted.

Attached are photos of tattoo, proof, and photo I provided to guide design.

The receptionist was friendly and professional. The shop uses good cleanliness practices utilizing single use components. It appeared that everything was cleaned thoroughly. It is a safe, clean place to receive a tattoo.

Awesome local shop with great staff! Daniel is a boss with photo editing and the tools to make a tattoo unique. He suggested to Stefanie adding a little brown to the red so it would “look” brownish red after healing and not pink. I will add on to this tattoo to blend in with the tattoo below. Fantastic experience!

To start off, the shop it self is great. Everyone is super welcoming and asks if you need anything multiple times. I had Danial as my artist and he’s great. He did everything when designing my tattoo and was super cool about it. A good place to go if you want a good tattoo and good people. I will be returning

Since I got a sternum tattoo, I prefer not to share mine on here. But I had to do a $200 down payment and then another $800 for the piece online on their site. My tattoo was a jewelry statement piece with a detailed center jewel and strings of pearls and shapes around it. It turned out great!!

As far as the experience went, I was not huge fan of how it went communication-wise, but we got it figured out and everything went fine after.

The artists here are very talented, including the one who did my newest one (Jared), and may return here again in hopes of getting one of the infamous and gorgeous watercolor tattoos!