Arthouse Tattoo

Mike does amazing work. His studio is more like a meditation space, not the run of the mill shop. His rate is more then fair and his attitude is one of gratitude. Art house Tattoo today delivered my best tattoo experience.
I would recommend anyone to him, even if you have to wait a bit for your appointment.

Overall, spent over $3,000 across 7 sessions in total and I do not recommend working with Mike. During this time Mike has lied and proven to be quite deceptive. Definitely do not take him at his word for anything he says.

Info that may be useful for:
- Mike only works in 2 hour sessions (inconvenient)
- Each session is $400
- Setup time will take 5-10min
- During each session Mike will take at least two 7-10min breaks, sometimes 3
- During your session Mike will answer phone calls
- During your session Mike will talk to walk-ins
- Overall, expect to lose 20-30 min per session

- Mike will also try to tell you he works fast, which he does not

My final session was canceled last March due to COVID.

During my last session, I discussed the issue about the lost time during my sessions and we agreed he would reimburse the amount towards my final session.

I tried to reschedule recently and Mike responded it will now take a "few more" sessions to complete the project. Additionally, Mike now denies agreeing to reimburse for lost time during previous sessions.

I then requested he refund my deposit, which would also have been applied to the final session. Mike refused and responded that it was a courtesy the deposit would still be applied to my final session because 12 months have passed since my last session. My final session was canceled last March due to COVID.

Overall, it seems like Mike was trying to milk the project for more sessions and making store policy up since its his shop. I definitely do not recommend for large projects. If you do move forward, do not tip per session with Mike. Wait until your last session and the project is complete.

If you read previous 1-star reviews, most were around how unpleasant Mike was from the beginning, and the reviewer chose to not work with Mike. I read those reviews and still made the choice to work with Mike. Do not make the same mistake.

After working with Mike over multiple sessions, I strongly recommend looking elsewhere.
Expect Mike to make some excuses as a response to this review.

Absolutely fantastic experience with ArtHouse! Mike is great to work worth! Great work setup, very personal feel to it, ambiance is terrific, it's all you could ask for. Most shops feel like a restaurant where they're in a hurry to get you out and someone else in the chair, but Mike takes his time and isn't happy until you are. It's all 1 on 1 with nobody else screaming in the chair beside you. Very relaxing. Can't wait to get my wife's piece started on next week! Would definitely recommend over any "retail" type shop where they just take your money and get into the next one... 7 stars really!

Fantastic artist. Mike truly cares about what he does and it shows in his work. I went in with an idea of what I wanted and instead of a copy paste job he came up with and original work that I couldn't have thought of without his help. What was most refreshing was the fact that he wasn't afraid to speak his mind, and say if something wasn't going to look good. Im very happy with his work and would 100% recommend.

Not the best experience.

After an initial meeting Mike did a design, as promised. I asked for a small modification (dog's mouth closed instead of open) and Mike refused. Mike *did* agree that his design made the dog look "cartoony" and he felt that was important (regardless of my initial request for something "elegant").

YIKES :(

Disappointing to invest the time and energy... So this review is simply a caveat that I know he is capable of designs that don't look campy or cartoony... But be warned that sometimes he just isn't feeling it.

Arthouse Tattoo offers an experience you can only find in a private studio, owned and operated by a talented professional who takes a great deal of pride in his craft!

I have several tattoos, and have been tattooed in New York and Los Angeles. None of the experiences has some even close to the experience at Arthouse.

I've been going through a journey of adding art to my body and cannot believe how fortunate I was to find Mike Metzka (owner and operator) at Arthouse Tattoo!!

Mike's artwork is incredible and he is truly gifted in the art of tattooing. His hand is relatively gentile while tattooing. He has an eye for detail and really cares about you and your tattoo.

So far, He has completely three large pieces for me and we are working on more! All three of these pieces had to be integrated with existing artwork I have, and he nailed it! You simply cannot tell where my older tattoos end and my newer ones start.

Yesterday, I took my kid sister there for her first tattoo. We were more disorganized than usual, which can sometimes be a disaster. (This is not your average tattoo shop where you just show up and get a tattoo.) Mike worked great with us (as expected) and he made her first experience special.

I cannot say enough good thing about this private tattoo studio, Mike's approach, his artwork, creativity, or talent.

Show up with an open mind and an original idea, Mike will take it from there.

Thank you Mike!!!

Can I give more than 5 stars? This was my first tattoo and Mike exceeded my expectations. The studio is clean, private, and comfortable. A very zen like experience. He explained everything to me and allowed me to ask questions. The finished product is EXACTLY what I envisioned. His art is fantastic and extremely professional. I am so so proud of my tattoo that I'm searching for an abundance of sleeveless shirts to proudly show it off!

I first reached out to Arthouse by email and got a response the same day. The consultation was great and Mike was very professional. Just got inked today and my experience here was better than my previous experiences from other shops. If you're getting your first tattoo and chose Mike (good choice) then do further research on tattoo etiquette to have an idea of what dealing with a professional will be like. I'm obsessed with my new tattoo and I'm glad I went to Mike.

Mike did a fantastic job on my tattoo, designed it and executed it. Really enjoyed spending time with him, which is saying something because part one took over two hours. Tattoo looks amazing, just like I hoped it would.

Really light touch, with definitely helped with the fact that the first session was so long! Part was on my neck, which could've been much more painful than it was.

He also answered follow up questions, which I really appreciated since they were after the fact.

First tattoo. I looked around and talked to several artists. I hit it off with him, because he was the only one that didn't just say "yeah, I'll do whatever you want". My first few ideas were (looking back) really bad, and he spent some time asking what I liked about the different designs. He used elements that I wanted the most, and came up with what is pictured. It is 10x better than any ideas I had. He talked about what would age well and what would look like garbage and it was a great experience.

I came in over a few sessions. He was always on time and ready to go and make the most of the session. I wouldn't normally listen to the music he had on, but it was perfect setting the atmosphere of the place. Lots of interesting pieces of art around to look at while the tattooing happened. It was super relaxing and I nodded off several times over the sessions.

I planned for it to be one and done - it was something I meant to do when I adopted my son and I finally got around to it. But now I'm hooked and Mike would be the first guy I go to do the next one.