If you decide to go to Higher Ground Tattoo (which you should), have Steven Jackson be your artist. I can ensure you that you won't regret it at all.
I followed Steven from his previous tattoo place. He did a Friday the 13th tattoo and fixed up/completed a tattoo on my left hip. Anyways, I came to him again for every tattoo artist's dreaded request - a cover up. I told him what I wanted to get done. On the day of my appointment, he evaluated the piece and began putting together an awesome design that we both agreed would cover up what I wanted covered up.
The whole process took roughly over 3 hours, which is amazing he was able to do all that in that amount of time. He would ask every now and then how I was holding up and gave me 1-2 breaks to get the blood flowing back in my left arm. He's extremely talented at what he does and I'm so glad I decided to go to him for this cover-up. I've posted a few photos of my tattoo and already have a few people asking me who my artist is and I'm more than happy to share that information with them.
Now onto the place itself, Higher Ground Tattoo is located in the shopping plaza across the Arroyo Grande Shopping Center off of Rainbow and the 2-15W (it's near a 7-11). The inside is very new and clean. I know some people have an idea of what a tattoo parlor is suppose to look like (dirty, dingy, and old), but this is exactly opposite of that. They also do piercings here if that's something you're looking to get done.
All in all, I'll be coming back to this place and if you haven't been here - GO HERE.