Avant-Garde

Worst customer service. Made me pay $105 ahead of time for my daughter ears to be pierced. Said 45 min wait. 1 hr 45min later, still waiting. Watched them go on breaks and skip us for consults, and it didn't matter to them because we already paid, they claimed no refunds. So I could continue to wait for the service I paid for or get a gift card for the money I already paid, and come back and make appt. for 2 months later when there next appointment was! 2 hours later I had to leave with no services rendered. And no refund. My Bank had to step in.

Too many characters to fully explain but my short story is that I received a totally different piercing than I had specifically asked for by saying I wanted a philtrum/medusa and pointing to the area I wanted pierced. The employee I spoke to ended up telling the piercer I wanted a frenulum piercing as they apparently werent familiar with the words philtrum or medusa. I had never heard the term frenulum and figured that must be a synonymous word for a philtrum piercing. Not hip on the lingo. Realized when the needle went through that they didn't at all listen to me or pay attention when I pointed to the area. The piercer was nice and did a good job of piercing but it wasnt the piercing I asked for. I ended up speaking to the owner about this and asked for a refund since I did not get the service I wanted. Short story is he was incredibly rude, condescending, blamed me, talked over me, and refused to take any responsibility. His staff told him I never even mentioned the words philtrum or medusa. He refused to provide a refund and really no customer service whatsoever. It was terrible. Ended up going elsewhere and that shop agreed I should have received a refund or at the very least an apology. I'm super disappointed about my experience here.

Well, I will say that this place is really clean and has a great layout for a piercing shop.



I will also say that I've gotten pierced here twice and those were my two worst, most painful piercings and both took longer than I expected to heal. A rook is (from what I've been told) always a painful one, but this was definitely the most painful of my seven piercings. It was done with an 18g something like 3/8" (maybe 1/2"?) BCR, which is not an easy one to find a replacement for, so that's kind of a hassle and I haven't changed it out since I got it. It also took days for the swelling to go down and a couple months went by before I could sleep on that side of my head again. My belly button was the one I did not expect to give me so much trouble, but it did. It also cost way more than it would have if I had gone somewhere else.



Lastly, as someone who has no desire to name names, I will say that someone told me they witnessed some needle reuse, but I have absolutely no evidence of it, so I'm not gonna claim it's true, it's just a gross thought.



Needless to say, all five of my other piercings done elsewhere have been better and cheaper than what I got done here, so I won't be back.

So far ive gotten 2 things pierced at this place and let me tell you it aint that bad but at the same time it also aint all that! I got my lip and my tounge pierced here and my lip never healed it took forever and then got infected! no matter how much i cleaned it it still ended up infected so i took it out! That was money of mine wasted! My tounge actually healed good and it healed fast to! It didnt swell alot and it wasnt very painful, but it healed pretty fast and till this day it gives me no problems! I guess this place isnt do bad depending on the piercing! would reccomend it to some but not all infact very few....

Avant-garde has the biggest selection of body jewelry i have ever seen! If i had to guess i would say they have at least 1,000 different pieces of jewelry there. Plus the people there are super helpful and can answer any questions you have. They can even reccomend what kind of jewelry will work best in a certian area. They are just awesome! The place is spotlessly clean too, I looked and couldn't find speck of dust! Would reccomend this place to anyone who asked, anytime!

I've never had work done at Avant Garde(nor would I) but I do know people who have. I also have several friends who work in the tattoo/piercing industry and NO ONE I know has anything good to say about this shop. Their techniques are sloppy, their knowledge is not up to date and their aftercare is practically non existant. I have one friend who got her n!pples pierced there, and not only did they pierce one of them incorrectly but they used an 18g needle to do it. Anyone who knows anything about piercings knows that 16g is the absolute smallest needle size to use for n!pples and 14g is usually better. The one that was done incorrectly went through her areola rather than her actual n!pple which led to an infection so bad that she had to seek medical attention and was forced to remove the piercing and let it close. The other one never healed correctly and the hole is so small that she can't even change the jewlery. I would guess that the two positive reviews on this site were written either by employees or their friends, or by people who don't really know that much about body modification and just happened to luck out and get some decent piercings. Please don't go to this shop to get body piercing done. Remember, the key to a good piercing is to do your homework. Research the type of piercing you want, as well as the shop that you intend to go to. Look through their portfolios, talk to their staff AND their customers and above all DON'T BUY INTO THE HYPE. Just because it's popular and they have radio ads and lots of people go there, doesn't mean it's a good shop. For more information about body modification, check out BMEzine.com or ask.bmezine.com. It's one of the best and most complete sources for information on body mods.

This place is really good for piercings, good prices and great customer care.