**BE AWARE** This shop allows traveling gypsy artist or "guest" artist to tattoo out of their shop. These artist lack respect for the shop and their clients. The integrity of a tattoo shop is a reflec... Read More
**BE AWARE** This shop allows traveling gypsy artist or "guest" artist to tattoo out of their shop. These artist lack respect for the shop and their clients. The integrity of a tattoo shop is a reflection of the artist who tattoo there. I had an appointment scheduled with Jon Montalvo for about a month. I made it very aware, from the beginning, that I would be traveling to San Marcos from out of town. (3 hour drive) a couple of hours before our appointment, while I'm on the road, about 3/4 of the way there, Jon cancels on me. He tells me "something personal came up and he will not be able to make it into work today". I tell him that I'm already about to be in San Marcos, and that I'll come in anyways to see if anyone else has availability...I don't know.. (I'm in limbo at this point)Once I tell him that I'm already about to be there and that I'll see if anyone else can fit me in today, he then tells me "Ah man... that sucks... sorry, but my assistant made a scheduling error and I have to cancel one appointment today"... which he decided to cancel on the person who is traveling from 3 hours away. So at this point, I've already been lied to. I walk in the shop and Jon's in the back already tattooing someone. I later figure out via social media that he enjoys tattooing females... I guess that was his personal matter for needing to cancel on me. The front desk guy/artist Sox goes back to ask him if he can squeeze me in... squeeze me in... I've had an appointment scheduled for a month, with a deposit, and already traveled 3 hours... Jon then tells Sox to tell me that there's no "wiggle room" in his schedule... Jon couldn't even come up to the front to tell me this in person. I wanted him to look at me and tell me that I traveled this far for nothing, but he had Sox do his dirty work for him... I find this to be very timid, and cowardly of Jon. Now at this point, I don't even want to get tattooed by someone with no backbone. I don't know if there's a culture barrier, but where I'm from, that's not how you conduct business. If this situation was vice versa, I would have been considered a last minute cancellation/no-show, and would not received my deposit back. Followed by a preach of: "my time is money" "this is my livelihood" "I'm loosing out on other work" etc. etc. but if you're the client, it's just like ripping off a band-aid. Jon straight up lied to me, and did nothing to even try to make things right... but why would he? He's off to his next city in a few days; but Classic Tattoo will forever leave a nasty taste in my mouth. Unfortunately, these instagram tattoo artist nowadays like to play the whole supply and demand card way to often. So you're just another face and another dollar to them. These traveling tattoo artist like to over book their schedules on purpose to ensure they make enough money to pay for their trip, and traveling expenses. Then they like to trim the fat and cancel on clients once the time gets closer.Bottom line: Classic Tattoo is a street shop that specializes in over priced, palm-sized tattoos for college kids who just received their financial aid checks. I hear the shop owner is a wonderful lady, and I don't doubt that; but the shop is represented by the artist who tattoo there. The shop has zero oversight of the way each artist treats their clients, but it's the shops reputation that suffers from this. Read Less