Eternal Ink Tattoo & Body Piercing

"Never left a Google review in my life, but this was so unbelievably bad. I came to get help putting jewelry back into a couple existing piercings & it was the worst experience I’ve ever had at a tattoo/piercing shop. I came in ~3yrs ago for the same thing & had a good experience then, so I assumed it’d be the same. I was very wrong. They charged me $10. Not that that breaks the bank, but I was taken aback bc I’d never been asked to pay for help w jewelry before. But no big deal, even tipped $3. This woman gave all signs that she absolutely did not know what she was doing. I brought in 3 simple labret bars. When she learned that 2 of them were PIN labrets, she sighed and said “great” as if i was burdening her. You’d think a trained piercer would’ve put pin labrets in before. They went in each nostril. I have a high-ish piercing on each side, not an actual “high nostril piercing,” but high enough that I couldn’t do it myself. She literally said: “how am I supposed to do this?” and “I’ve never done this before.” That’s gotta be the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever heard from someone about to provide me a service. I tried to back out with “if you can’t do it, it’s fine, I’ll just figure it out,” & she insisted. You’re saying to my face that you don’t know what you’re doing & you’re gonna do it anyway? I should’ve just gotten up & left but in the moment I really didn’t feel like I could leave. When she opened the baggie she instantly started dropping the jewelry all over the counter as if she’d never held small pieces of jewelry in her life, even though that’s literally her job. She handled me so roughly, grabbing me by the chin & jerking my head to the side, going at my nose like she was trying to vaccinate a kitten, panting directly in my face. She couldn’t find the hole for the life of her and kept insisting that it closed. The piercings had only been out of my nose for ~1hr and the holes were about 2months old — even I knew there was no way they were closed. She eventually got it through, but not without tearing up the healing tissue through all her rough prodding. She absolutely could not find the hole on the other side. She tried to put a needle through to see if she could find it & spent a good minute attempting to FORCE through my nose, grunting — she was pushing THAT hard and it wasn’t poking through, even if it HAD been closed up. Her needle was way too dull. She gave up, said it was closed, then changed her mind and insisted she try again (once more I tried to back out and say I could handle it myself). She went back to pushing as hard as she could before I felt it POP through & I instantly knew it was wrong. SHE PUT A COMPLETELY. NEW. HOLE. IN MY NOSE. I felt like crying. It went through the upper, harder cartilage where I hadn’t been pierced in the first place. She says “let me check and make sure I got it through the right spot” — you’re telling me you didn’t already KNOW? You were just taking a shot in the dark? No damn way. She looks and goes “nuh-uh, I didn’t,” pulls out and says “yep, it’s closed,” after, once again, CASUALLY MAKING A COMPLETELY NEW HOLE IN MY NOSE. She couldn’t even find the right angle to put the needle through. She roughly wipes the blood off my nose (way too much blood) w a dry paper towel and sends me off. As soon as I got into the car I burst into tears. I just felt so completely unheard and violated. I even tipped her. All for what? A new, irresponsibly incorrect hole in my nose? I decided to just go back to the original place I’d gotten the piercings which I should’ve done in the first place, but it was a 45min trek versus Eternal which was 5min from my home and I assumed was safe. My original piercer slipped through the *actual* hole with complete ease and put the jewelry in in seconds. Like butter. I felt nothing. Wasn’t closed up at all. Shocker. Idk what happened between the last time I went here & this time, but these people don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Go to Hillsborough Street near NCSU instead. Best piercing experience I’ve ever had vs. the worst at Eternal."

"I received a cover up/re-work by Loni. She was very personable, explained the process, and over exceeded my expectations. I would recommend her and I plan to come back for my next tattoo!"

"Came in on a Friday afternoon as a walk-in and was helped immediately, paper work process was easy and quick and the environment was clean and organized. The guy who did my piercing (I’m bad with names so I unfortunately forgot) was quick and efficient and walked me through exactly what he was doing. My only complaint was that I wasn’t offered the opportunity to look at the marks he made before he did the actual piercing, but the piercing came out perfect so not a huge issue in my opinion. Overall I really enjoyed my experience at Eternal ink and will definitely keep them in mind for future piercings!"

"I got my first non-traditional ear piercing today at External Ink - a very feared cartilage piercing- and my piercer, Jon did a super fantastic job with it! It didn't hurt more than a second! It was easier than a flu shot, and I love the placement of it. Jon gave super detailed verbal directions for caring for my piercing, as well as a written set of instructions (because who actually remembers directions that are given out loud). Overall I was extremely pleased with my experience, and I will be sure to come back for more tiny holes in my body!"

"This was one of the best experiences for something new. They did an amazing job explaining every step and made sure I knew what was going to happen. I had the pleasure of meeting artist Dave. He did an amazing job on my tattoos and comforted me through. I would recommend this to anyone thinking of getting a tattoo or wants to get another one!"