Black Cobra Tattoo Club

Context: I've been tattooed at BCT twice over the past year. The following comes from my own experiences, as well as two friends that have gone here within the last year and a half, meshed together to protect anonymity. My last tattoo here was a few months ago, but a friend recently had an awful experience here which prompted this review. If you're going to BCT only for a well-done tattoo by talented artists, and you don't care how you get it, by all means come here, as the staff are all super talented. But if you want a tattoo done in a comfortable, professional environment, this is where we run into problems. First issue is the shop itself. This is down to preference, but I think it's cramped if more than one artist is working, and far too small for four artists and their stations. No sense of privacy at all. It's not the cleanest shop I've ever seen either, not outright dirty by any means, but could be better. The second issue, and the real kicker for me, is the complete lack of professionalism from the staff (and lack of personal hygiene from one of them), which is a shame because they're some of the best artists in the area. Feel free to call me a prude, but as a customer, there are a few things I'd really not like to hear about from an artist while they're working on placing permanent artwork on my body, and one of those is drugs. Feels like, this, and internal drama, is all they talk about here. On and on about drugs, and people they know who deal, and personal issues, and drama. One of the last things I want to hear while someone is hovering over me with a needle is how messed up they were the night before. That'd even be acceptable, as long as they were sober while giving the tattoo, but I guess even that's too much to ask. One friend received a tattoo here from an artist here that was visibly high. The tattoo (which has since been fixed by another artist at a different shop), looked horrible, with blown out lines everywhere. I think that says enough regarding the level of professionalism at Black Cobra. I know it's easy to write this off as anecdotal, or someone having a bad day, but this is the experience of three people over the course of a year and a half. The artists are great at what they do, but mostly too immature to run a shop. I really wanted to like this place, but. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend taking your business here.