Louis, the Iron Age staff works walk-in only on Saturdays and Sundays. To accommodate the walk-in mentality in St. Here, a lot of people just come in to pick something off the wall. Most customers in New York come in with a definite idea and intention. Louis is much more of a walk-in-type situation. Louis scenes have faded over time, they haven’t vanished completely. He says the differences between the New York and St. “A lot of these people that I tattooed 20 years ago still want me to tattoo them again, and I respect that.”įink also co-owns two shops on New York City’s ink-soaked Lower East Side, Daredevil and Fun City. “To this day I‘ll still do tribal armbands, or quarter-sized hearts,” Fink says sincerely. I don’t have to convince anyone to get the big, fun stuff.”Īlthough known for his large-scale, Japanese-inspired work, Fink doesn’t have to be convinced to change up styles. “I would do larger tattoos for next to nothing just to get to do it. “Years ago I used to have to convince people to get shit,” Fink explains. Over the past two decades he has seen a lot about tattooing change, especially in his home city. The veteran tattooer got started when he was in high school, doing work on local kids in the kitchen of his St. It’s not quite as fringe.” To keep up with the shop’s popularity, Iron Age, which started with just four artists in a 700-square-foot space, now employs 15 tattooists in a 1,800-foot set-up that’s almost always full, especially on weekends.įink witnessed this evolution of tattooing firsthand. I’m sure its popularity will wax and wane, but tattoos are embedded in our society now. “I haven’t even counted this year, but there were more than 30 shops last year,” Andrews syas. Louis scene, even as competition has exploded around them over the past decade and a half. It seems obvious now, but very few shops were going for that look back then.”Īndrews and Fink set up Iron Age on Missouri’s hippest street, the Delmar Loop, and the shop’s approach and crew of skilled artists have helped them stay at the forefront of the St. Louis area, and they were all older and dingier,” Andrews explains over the sound of music and buzzing needles. “When we opened, there were only nine shops in the St. When tattoo veterans Brad Fink and Mark Andrews decided to open Iron Age Tattoo in 1994, they modeled the new shop after a place most people hate-the dentist. Iron Age Featured in Inked Mag’s “Inked Spots”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |