Cat Tattoo Co

I got my tat at Cat Tattoo 2 years ago on the 25th. It was my Xmas in July present. I was tattooed by a guest artist whose name escapes me and my boyfriend was tattooed by Jeff. We were both EXTREMELY happy with our sessions. This was my first tat and his 2nd. I brought in a rough sketch of what I wanted and the artist told me it was too small, and that most people regret not getting bigger tats anyway. So he drew up an altered design that reflected what I had brought in and I loved it even more than my design. It was a beautiful blue rose with streaming ribbons behind it. I was so excited to be getting this one of a kind tattoo. I felt minimal amounts of discomfort, no pain, and it only took an hour. I have several more tats and piercing I want to do, and I will never go anywhere else. My boyfriends tat was an idea he had nearly 10 years ago. He brought in 5 different pics of what he wanted and described to Jeff what he had in mind. Jeff took his time and drew up several sketches and one of them just happened to be exactly what my bf wanted. He quoted a length of time it would take and it ended up only taking half the time, so we were very impressed with Cat Tattoo. Everyone I came in contact with was extremely nice and friendly. Being my first encounter with anything to do with tattoos, they were very informative and I knew exactly what to expect, and didn't get anything I didn't expect. I work in a salon as a nail tech so I know how important sanitation is, and I inspect everywhere I go. I was very happy with how clean this shop was. Don't fret guys, these idiots who post this crap are nothing more than common, un-intelligent f-ers. We love Cat Tattoo!!

Posted 07/21/09 | Report Abuse

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I went in last week to see about having an old tattoo fixed - it was missing some ink and wasn't done very well (had it done at a different place in Dallas). Scott was very helpful and gave me a reasonable estimate on having it redone. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided that I would rather invest in a new piece. Scott was in again when I stopped by and discussed what I wanted with me and set up a time to stop by the next day. He had spent some time with Eddie discussing my new tattoo and decided to hand it over to him since Eddie deals well with smaller tattoos with lot of detail and small lines. He did a wonderful job on something that he's never done before and I couldn't be happier with how he was able to incorporate the new piece with another one. I'll definitely go back and hope that all who are interested in having body art done will at least give them a chance. They are a busy shop but they do wonderful work!

Posted 05/27/09 | Report Abuse

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I would HIGHLY recommend Cat Tattoos. I began my tattoo removal process about a month ago and can't wait to get my next treatment. I'm even considering getting another tattoo since going to Cat.

I don't understand what the below comments are talking about when they say they are "rude". I found the 4 guys that were there to be very friendly and funny. While I was waiting, one of the guys had even stopped what he was doing to talk to me about a possible future tattoo. Not something a "rude" person would typically do when there is no immediate money involved.

If you are in the market for a new tattoo or to get rid of an old one, go to Cat tattoos. You will see for yourself how nice and friendly the staff is, how clean the place is and how talented the artists are.

Posted 05/15/09 | Report Abuse

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Cat Tattoo is an excellent place! I walked in with only a vague ideas of what I wanted and my artist was very patient and worked with me to get exactly what I wanted.

The studio is clean and the artists are friendly, and they all really know what they are doing and how to make you feel comfortable.

I definitely recommend Cat Tattoo to anyone who's looking to get inked!

Posted 04/20/09 | Report Abuse

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I am in the process of getting a scar covered up with a beautiful floral tattoo. And I cannot say enough about my artist. Aaron Goolsby is amazing I have several tattoos but Aaron by far is the best artist ever. I will certainly go back to get more with him. Even if I have to wait moths to get to see him. Highly recommended. :)

Posted 04/20/09 | Report Abuse

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I am working on a new piece on my arm and am getting it done by Scott. He has really worked well with me and it very patient and kind. I too paid the $100 deposit for the work up, and am not disappointed! I love what he came up with and could see that he really listened to me and was seeing my vision. Keep in mind, you will find jerks anywhere..we are all individuals. Don't judge a shop by one person...you will find yourself missing out on some great work if you turn away too soon. There is definitely talent in this place.

Posted 04/20/09 | Report Abuse

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I went to Aaron Goolsby last November to fix a tattoo I wasnt happy with. The color was dull and there wasnt much shading detail, but after Goolsby worked on the angel wings on my back I was much happier! I received compliments before but even more now. (I was stopped in sephora last week by a guy who said my wings were the first hes seen that werent kinda boring.)I went back to Goolsby for a Fleur De Lis tattoo on my wrist and got more then i expected. The detail is amazing and its obviously the work of a true artist. My friend watching me get the tattoo was even surprised of all the shading and highlights. She told me "when I saw him pulling out more colors i was wondering what he was doing but it looks amazing." It is well worth the money to go to an artist I know is going to give me great results then take a chance on someone risky. Aaron Goolsby is an amazing artist as well as a real professional. Ill be back for the next one!Thank you!

Posted 04/07/09 | Report Abuse

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I must say that I LOVE my back tattoo. I had some work done in California, but was not happy. I found Aaron Golsby. We have been working on a cover up job for a year. Its taken some time, but it is so worth the wait. He is a great artist, and I am so happy with my tattoo, it fits my body like he said it would. The colors and the shading look wonderful. Goolsby Rocks!!!!

Posted 04/05/09 | Report Abuse

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Aaron Goolsby did a stunningly beautiful, truly professional tattoo on my back. He was able to cover up an old, lame tattoo (by someone downtown) and make it disappear. Placement on the body makes a difference, and this tattoo is really flattering. I love the hyper details, shading, and color. Our consult was cool because he is an artist - he patiently explained lots of styles and what would work best. Goolsby (he said he goes by his last name) drew up everything so I would have an exact, custom design of what I wanted. The day of my tattoo I was a bit nervous because I'm a germ freak and hadn't been tattooed in years, but he was totally sanitary and it didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as the other tats I have. I'm so happy with the tattoo, I highly recommend Aaron Goolsby.

Posted 03/25/09 | Report Abuse

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I do not have a tattoo by the shop yet, I did go in there one night and showed a couple of the guys in the shop what I wanted. It was a small tattoo, a quote from Michelangelo, all writing in a normal Trajan font. So I am not sure if they thought that the tattoo was not worth their time or a waste of their skill as artists but they spent the rest 20 minutes trying to describe to me why I should get more artsy letters, more old English, more cursive, need gradient backgrounds etc. Also one of them tried to educate me on Michelangelo's work.

I am a designer, that is my profession and I understand that as an artist you want to share your knowledge with someone that doesn't know design or art. But when I went in there I told them exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it. Simple and timeless, not a design that 5 years from now I will hate like the one on my back. I am open to suggestions don't give me wrong, but only if there is a problem with my choice, the tattoo is to small, The tattoo artist can't copy fonts etc.

Anyways, I am not sure I will be going back there again, not sure. Anyone else know of any other good tattoo places in the Dallas area with someone good with smaller lettering and copying fonts?

Thanks!

Posted 03/13/09 | Report Abuse

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Cat tattoo is a great shop for a piercing or tattoo. Joey, our tattoo artist, was amazing. He is incredibly skilled and was very patient throughout the whole processes. I got a pretty big tattoo especially for it being my first one. It was an array of stars that started at my hip and went up my back onto my shoulder. It took about 8 hours over 2 days to complete but overall it was a great experience. Joey was very detail oriented and put up expertly with my squirming. :)

If your going to get a tat, I definitely recommend cat tattoo and Joey (He's the man).

Posted 03/11/09 | Report Abuse

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The future wife and I decided we wanted matching tat's to celebrate our up coming wedding. I read the reviews of Cat Tattoo on here and other sites. I wasn't planning on visiting Cat's due to the reviews. We drove around on Saturday looking at other places. The other studio's must have not wanted to take our money because i couldn't get 1 person to speak to me about what we wanted. I decided we should just go "look" at Cat and see if the reviews were correct about the "rude staff". Well we were they for a total of 2 minutes before Scott asked if we needed help. Now i noticed Scott was in the middle of designing another tattoo but stopped his work to talk to us. We felt a instant click with Scott. We decided right there that Scott was the one artist for us. They were a little busy so we decided to come back a little later. When we got back we gave Scott a sample drawing of what we wanted and he took it back with him and came back with his design which was just what we wanted.

So if you are looking for a great artist and a super clean studio go to Cat Tattoo. Make sure you ask for Scott

Thank you for the great artwork.

Posted 01/25/09 | Report Abuse

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I wanted to get my bellybutton pierced so I called around to different places in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. When I called here, whoever picked up the phone was incredibly nice, and very patient when I asked him a multitude of questions, which included: Do you pierce minors? What do i need to bring with me? Does it hurt? He answered yes, they pierce minors, all I needed to bring was a parent, my ID and her/his ID (with our last names matching) and a copy of my birth certificate, and that most of the people that he pierced came to the consensus that it didn't hurt nearly as bad as they had imagined. When I pulled up to the shop I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was completely sterile, and the people were just as friendly as they had been on the phone. The guy who pierced my bellybutton (Chris) was easygoing and nice, yet completely professional, and there was hardly a wait at all to get down to business! He marked my bellybutton and made sure it was lined up properly and that I liked the position it was at, and pierced it. The whole piercing process (from needle to screwing on the ball) took 15 seconds or less, much faster than I had expected! I was extremely happy with the entire ordeal, and did not run into any problems at all. He explained the after-care process in depth and made sure that I knew how to clean my piercing properly. Overall, I am immensely happy with the results, and could not have had a better experience anywhere else!! I have already recommended Cat Tattoo Company and Chris to several of my friends who are looking to get piercings, and am sure that they'll be visiting soon!

Posted 01/23/09 | Report Abuse

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I am from out of town. I came in November to get a small tattoo on my foot, approx 3 inches in diameter. The color was left unfinished due to my body rejecting it. I was asked to come back once the tattoo was healed. Today, about a month later, I went in to get the color finished and the artist that had originally worked on it was not there (he is out sick). When I informed the lady working at the front of the shop that I was leaving to go back home tomorrow, and asked if someone else could finish it, the other artists in the place told me that no one would touch it. What a rip off. I spent over a hundred dollars to get this tattoo and now it is going to be unfinished until I can get someone from home to finish it...and its going to cost me even more money!

Just to let you know, I had offered to pay whomever it was that finished it. My tattoo artist at home (in Austin) offered to finish it for free due to the shoddy job. He wanted to make sure that any other tattoo that "graced" my body looked as good as his. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if I ever do come back to town, I will never step foot back in this shop again.

Posted 12/21/08 | Report Abuse

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Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing. Like the first monkey shot into space. - Tyler Durden

Over the last 7 years, I got 12 tattoos and spent way too much time in tattoo parlors. Last year, I decided to get a back piece. The artist had to be local, and pretty stable. I didn't want to get half finished and have him get arrested, OD or become incapacitated so he couldn't finish.

I wanted my back to be epic, and searched for the best person for the job. I was introduced to Cat Tattoo @ a convention and got a recommendation from "Joey" a waiter at Addison's Blue Goose.

I myspaced Terry Mayo and asked him to recommend an artist. I like Jeff Ensigner's work and knew the shop owner, who had just released his book "Brain Dookie", would be able to tell me if Jeff could do the work, of if there was an artist of his that would be more up to the challenge.

To my surprise Terry said he was interested in the project himself. I showed up the day before our appt, to check out the shop. He was there and recognized me from one of my existing tattoos. He met with me while he was on break from another piece.

I left a credit card deposit of $100 bucks and didn't hear from him for awhile. He said he was about 3 months out, but would try to work me in. He took my pics drawings and ideas and came back with exactly what I wanted (only bigger). The ironic thing is that my only regret from my prior tats is that they are too small. Terry certainly prevented that from becoming the case.

My back piece took over 100 hours to complete, over 12 months and 24 sessions. You can see the results for yourself, www.cattattoo.com/tattoos/tattoos_32500.html . Terry never missed a session and seemed just as interested in doing a good job as I was.

The shop is custom, so don't be in a hurry or afraid to spend a little dough to get some awesome work.

Posted 11/30/08 | Report Abuse

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I was referred here by mom who had gotten her tattoo done here. I got my monroe done in August. The service was amazing and everything was SUPER sterile (and the guy doing my piercing was cool). I reccommend all of my friends to Cat Tattoo. I would not get anything pierced or tatted anywhere else.

Posted 11/25/08 | Report Abuse

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DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE! I went in on 4/25/08, spoke to Terry Mayo, gave him my photos/reference material. He told me it would be a $100 deposit just for him to draw it up (that $100 paid for his time, supposedly) and that it would be 3-4 months at the most for him to get it drawn up. August rolled around, nothing. No drawing, no e-mail or call from him. I did try to keep in contact with him and he had the audacity to tell me that he did send me a drawing. I checked both my e-mail addresses and nothing. So basically this guy, the OWNER of the shop straight up lied to me...Also he told me it would be about $1000 for a piece on my back that only took up a quarter of my back. And I'm a petite person. So, now we're in November and still no drawing. No response to my e-mails and no phone call. I hope this place goes under...

Posted 11/11/08 | Report Abuse

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I went in many times to talk to them about getting a simple tattoo. I spoke to Mikey I took the design in to show him and he couldn't get past the fact that the tattoo was so simple and tried to say that it had to be bigger than I wanted. He told me to come in and he would have something, I went back a few times and he had something that was not what I wanted and he said he would change it, and to come back, so I did and then he told me when I went back in that he couldn't do my tattoo(he was very rude) if he was any artist he would have been able to do as I asked. I would have never gone back as many times as I did if he had just said I can't do that simple tattoo! I have got one other tattoo from another place and I would NEVER go back to Cat Tattoo. It seems to me that the only words that can come out of the mouth of Mikey are very rude words that I will not type. The whole experience was really bad!!!!

Posted 10/14/08 | Report Abuse

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I just wanted to update everyone, since the owner obviously thinks that he can blame everything on the fact that I WAS 16 when I got my piercings, and that because of this, I'm a completely immature fool. Don't make me out to sound like an impatient little girl. I'm not your average little "teenage" highschooler. I graduated two years ago, at 15, and I don't appreciate you insinuating that just because someone is "young", they are ignorant morons and act childish. I've been dealing with that since I was 11, I am tired of it. You guys were the ones who didn't even check my birth certificate which was such a big deal over the phone.

Sorry buddy, I'm not an idiot. I know how piercings work thankyouveryeffingmuch. NO I was never given the option to come back when there were free barbells for my navel, and no I was not told if/when I could come back to get my tongue ring switched out. The one thing my mom got pissed off about, was your piercer speaking so crudely in front of her about the aftercare. Unless, of course, you guys don't think that saying "no oral sex, no making out, and when you drink, stick to liqueur not beer" - in front of a 16 year old girls mother - isn't inappropriate.

In case you do actually care about your clients, it has been way over a month and my navel piercing still isn't able to heal properly, it is stretched and still hurting, meaning he took way too much skin into the clamp, the barbell is not long enough for the amount of skin he pierced, and that is a fact. I would take it out but I would be stuck with a huge amount of scar tissue quite visible to the eye. I spoke with two other studios and they don't understand why I was told to lie down for the tongue piercing, and not offered to check placement on either, it is dangerous to have someone lie down, you know why? Because it is VERY possible for the piercer to literally DROP THE BALL down someones throat choking them more so then they already are with the salivating and the bleeding down their tongues. I've actually learned a lot about you guys from them and it's not just competition talking, some know you guys pretty damn well. And you might want to trust me in this one, all (and I do mean all) of my friends have been tattooed and pierced MULTIPLE times, and not ONE of them understands why:
1. he paused for longer then necessary in the middle (seemed like he was nervous because I had a few people with me, when we left, they actually said "he looked pretty nervous").
2. he had me lie down.
3. why I wasn't offered to come back to switch it out. (I really wasn't, don't say otherwise, I have no reason to lie. I was the one who made the mistake of going to you anyway, anything bad I say about you, in turn makes me look pretty dumb, doesn't it.)

I have 5 tattoos that I started getting at 14, I now have 10 piercings, the other 8 I had done myself without any issues, I have never had an infection like this, and I have never had any body modification related pain as I have with this. Get it? I'm not new to this, I understand there is pain involved, however, in this instance it is/was way more then what is/was necessary. I'm not some kid who's never felt a needle before and expected it to be painless and because it hurt I'm complaining. This is not the case.

How about instead of criticizing what people say about your studio, you actually listen to what we are saying, differentiate between the BS and the truth, take a look at what might be going on, THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT EVEN KNOW ABOUT, and make some changes. Think twice before making your clients sound stupid, after all, they made the choice to go to your studio, what does that say about you guys?

If you want to talk about this further, feel free to contact me via e-mail. I have two classes a day, so I've got plenty of time. putemupkid@yahoo.com

My original post doesn't fit in here but I'm sure you guys get the gist of it.

Posted 09/25/08 | Report Abuse

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I got my tattoo at Cat Tattoo by Jeff Ensminger and he screwed it up right from the beginning. First of all he didn't listen to a word I said when I was describing what I wanted. This was a very large peice and I was looking for someone with experience (like he said he had on the shops website). Come to find out he only has 3 yrs experience as he was putting the tat on me. When the tattoo was finished I noticed lots of mistakes and the colors were all wrong and blending together. No one can tell what it's supposed to be. The whole thing looks like shit and I paid over $1000 and several hours getting it done. Now it looks like I'm gonna spend another load of money getting this crap removed from my body. There are plenty of good tattoo artists in the DFW area, but he isn't one of them. If you have money to burn go to him, otherwise find a real tattoo artist.

Posted 05/23/07 | Report Abuse

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I got tattooed by Jeff Ensminger (www.jeffennsminger.com) from Cat Tattoo Company. He did an outstanding job, carried good conversation, and made me feel comfortable. If anyone is planning on getting a large tattoo or one that requires lots of detail, I recommend this man hands down.

Posted 05/02/07 | Report Abuse

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I went up to Cat Tattoo on Friday night to drop off a deposit for a time slot for Saturday. When we got there my friend decided to pierce her nose. The piercer was super nice, and answered all of her questions professionally.

Saturday I got there for my new tattoo and the work was FANTASTIC! I'm always nervous, as you should be, letting someone permanently alter my body. But it was very comforting knowing how much experience he had, and he did a better job than I imagined could be done. I'm going back in 2 weeks to get the rest of my tat!

Morale: If you're looking for an original piece from a talented artist, I'd definitely check out this shop.

Also, if you're getting pierced...it's gonna hurt to some extent...that's really common sense!

Posted 05/01/07 | Report Abuse

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I went there to get a piercing, and from the beginning, the piercer was rude.I asked if it would hurt, and her reply was, "You of all people know better than to ask that. Don't act like a child, I don't wanna waste my day."

Then she called me stupid for piercing myself. None of the ones I did were ever crooked or infected. The one she did is swollen and oozing still after 5 months, and it's totally crooked.

I asked for my money back, and she blamed it on the way my body healed. Then I confronted the manager, and he also blamed it on my body. IT WAS CROOKED TO BEGIN WITH!

Then I criticized one tattoo the owner had done, and replied with "But he still looks better than that nose you have."

PROS: clean...
CONS: Rudest staff.

Posted 11/12/06 | Report Abuse

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