music

Black Gold's Magic Night - features

2013-03-21T03:09:43Z

+The nouveau-vintage aesthetics of Black Gold Records tend to attract equally stylish denizens, which can be an intimidation factor at a distance. Yet, they are of the kindest and most accepting sort. Writer/photographer Meredith Zinn-Caraher spent an evening after-hours at the Court Street hybrid record/coffee/antique shop last month. Story on the jump. ]]>

By Meredith Zinn-Caraher

Edison bulbs and string lights illuminated Black Gold Records as The Great Dubini unfolded a small table in the corner of the shop. The magician reached into a dark sack on the floor behind him, adorning his set with gold fringe, the compulsory magic wand, and several aged cups, completing the neo-vaudevillian styling.

The decor of the hybrid coffee/record/antique shop lent itself to the evening's revelry, a dark and sultry space filled with the kinds of mysterious items you might hope to find at a Hudson Valley yard sale but never do. Carnival chalk, outsider art, high quality taxidermy and occult brotherhood paraphernalia fill the walls above the record bins, while the smell of fresh ground coffee emanates from the counter and fills the room with a welcoming allure.

The Great Dubini (Greg Dubin), was playing master of ceremonies for the parlor style variety show, which featured his own slight of hand as well as performances by accordionist Matt Dallow and Kirket the Belly Dancer.

Dubin has graced the stages of The Slipper Room, The House of Yes and Ripley's Believe it or Not Sideshow of Wonders to name a few. However, this was an evening designed for an intimate crowd.

During their after hours events, Black Gold can accommodate some three dozen patrons, splitting the difference between a full theater audience and the few passerby's who might chance upon a closeup street performance. This was a welcome change, Dubin said; it can be difficult to connect with a sea of dark faces from a platform. Not having a backstage, but still having a sizable crowd allows for a different kind of performance. Dubin's background in standup comedy is fully apparent as he presents himself with a charming air of sardonic wit.

He's was straight man in a comedic duo, and his partner was his quick fingers - the punchline being the materialization of limes during his scam-free three cup monte, or the regurgitation of a handful of needles swallowed separately but returned precisely threaded. An occasionally well-timed accordion accompaniment by Dallow punctuated Dubin's story telling and gave the whole affair the effect of stepping onto a steamy cobblestone alley late one evening in victorian Londontown.

During his own sets, however, Matt Dallow's numbers are anything but old fashioned. True, he sports a rather impressive throwback mustache/goatee combo modestly peeking out from behind a deep orange accordion, but his set was not to be of a traditional repertoire. As a subway performer, Dallow reaches the blunted New York City audiences by folding highly recognizable melodies like Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" into the thick bellowing chords associated with the instrument of yesteryear. At Black Gold, Dallow would be offering masterful renditions of "Why Don't You Do Right?" and Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," proving that a deep sexuality can be achieved with an apparatus often considered campy or kitschy.

While Dallow can be found enriching the subway systems, often alongside cellists, percussionists or acrobats, his main project is currently with self described neo-gypsy punk band Amour Obscur, a cross section of distinctly unique and unexpectedly blended instrumentals. For those of you interested in a retro-topical answer to the slog of contemporary pop music, Amour Obscur will be performing at Le Poison Rouge on April 23rd.

Belly dancer Kirket (Kerry Greene) rounded off the evening's performances, bringing together the sensuality of Dallow's set and physicality of Dubin's routines for a well crafted variety show. As her east coast debut, Kirket's arrival in New York inspired the event and was specifically built around her. Likewise, her routine found her gyrating through the tight crowd, working her way through a bottleneck of people with the chorus of hundreds of tiny bells chiming from her hand made costumes. While the tight space may have seemed less than ideal for belly dancing, (and certainly unfit for her dazzling fire dancing), she dismissed my concerns when explaining some of the origins of the art.

The earliest histories of belly dancing are largely unknown, but one story in particular conveys the idea of dancing as a means of therapy rather than entertainment. In her final dance of the evening, Kirket would lure various women from the audience to join her, referencing the nomadic communities in Eastern Europe where women would cathartically dance for each other in kitchens and back rooms as a way to escape the stress of daily life. This is a far cry from the cinematic representation of half-naked women undulating erotically in a smoky gentleman's club, and on a Friday evening in a cozy shop in Brooklyn, dancing away the chaos of the week is a welcome release. The upcoming Tribal Fest in Sebastopol, Cali. will see Kirket working her magic on the main stage.

While Black Gold has enjoyed a glittering reputation as a Brooklyn shopping destination (QuestLove named them as a favorite on his MYNY column for the Post), whispers from haters call them out for their philosophy of careful curation, considering them pretentious for representing themselves as such. However, when is a retail location not a purveyor of the owner's tastes? And is it pretentious to be highly considerate of your customers by providing them with the best, hand picked experiences?

My own experiences at the shop, and even more so at their events, have revealed a warm, welcoming community full of equally warm and welcoming people. The nouveau-vintage aesthetics tend to attract equally stylish denizens, which can be an intimidation factor at a distance, yet they are of the kindest and most accepting sort. According to regulars, it would seem that the charms of Black Gold extend beyond their wares and events to the enthusiastic reception and hospitality extended to everyone that walks through their door.

The cool and composed Great Dubini can tell you that appearances are not always as they seem. "Sometimes when you want to be charming you can come off as cocky. There's a fine line between confident and cocky."

Records, That Is... - photo

2013-03-21T02:51:57Z

Meredith Zinn-Caraher photographed Carroll Gardens culture shop Black Gold's variety show last month. Click the image to view the gallery. Click here to read Zinn-Caraher's feature on Black Gold.

Fake It 'Till You Fake It: A Review of Marc Spitz' Poseur - features

2013-03-13T06:25:27Z

+Book Critic Peter Milne Greiner calls Spitz' rock 'n roll memoir "a riveting, bleak tale, exactly like the late nineties."]]>

By Peter Milne Greiner

Poseur: A Memoir of Downtown New York City in the 90's

By Marc Spitz

De Capo Press

Downtown-before-Now has been amply chronicled these past few years in accounts like Just Kids by Patti Smith, Inferno by Eileen Myles, and The Book Of Drugs by Mike Doughty. The glitzy, dour eras below 14^th Street before the year 2000 are coming into focus, and the memoir is its truth-y pantheon.

I'm beginning to think of these tales as an odd form of inheritance, as after-the-fact access points into a New York that I thought I could get to by coming here, but of course can't. That bittersweet quandary is probably true for many; it definitely was for Marc Spitz. In Poseur, the shadows of heroes litter and adorn the streets of old New York. This memoir swimmingly fits the rock yarn bill, and Spitz is every bit the self-fashioned mystic of the city that a Smith or Myles are, but his desperate caper across the millennial barrier is, for all it's dysfunction and feckless abandon, eerily familiar as it stalks and finally collides with the present.

A shambling, sunglasses-obfuscated alt rock golem, ever enacting himself upward toward a voice, Spitz cuts a fearless figure. He's never afraid of portraying success, or portraying cool, or imitating his idols. Making it in New York -- and the concurrent and subsequent self-mythologization so characteristic of rock 'n roll -- for him is a kind of decade-long cosplay in Poseur. And what is making it for Spitz? Leaving Long Island, becoming a poet in Vermont, a novelist in Vermont, arriving in New York a playwright and high-functioning junkie, and finally landing a gig at Spin as a blurbist for its new AOL site. This is not the stuff of legend, but anyone with any ambition at all will recognize it as the stuff of the city. Spitz's myth, his triumphant bildungsroman of artistic ascension, is centered around a cultural moment where the wild, contumacious improv of daily and nightly life in New York as a Bennington graduate in the early nineties segues into a planet Earth on which the Internet is not a fad, and rock's beacon on the horizon is Is This It by The Strokes.

It's a riveting, bleak tale, exactly like the late nineties. There's a girl subplot and a drug subplot here, too, but both are blurry, hoaxy messes that sink and resurface sporadically like lake monsters -- with little significance or believability, even for Spitz. That ambiguity of substance, of a life with content, is absolutely part of the point. It's right there in the first ten pages with Spitz listening to They Might Be Giants -- those champions of the ambiguous -- in the car with his dad. No, he doesn't agree with the lyric, but he thinks it's a good one. If there's any revelation here, it's that against all odds New York can still afford the naïve but driven a little incidental adventure and enough lucky breaks to give a person that big name and serious cred they trekked here to earn for themselves.+

Future Shuttle Releases First LP - photo

2013-03-08T18:23:45Z

Since they played the YBNY Launch Party in 2010, the Brooklyn-based ambient synth band Future Shuttle has added two band members and shot an airy, beautiful video for the track "Feathermaster." Now, the all-girl group has released their first full-length album, "In To It," on New Images Records, and are celebrating the release tonight at Union Pool in Williamsburg, with Alice Cohen opening at 9 p.m. and Future Shuttle at 10 p,m,, followed by LFwind and Blondes DJing. Listen to the track "Astro Curio" below.

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Epic Debut - features

2013-03-01T23:27:58Z

+Reviewer Kevin Olitan calls Brooklyn singer, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's newly released Ripely Pine "a musically epic and cinematic debut that showcases Spaltro's tremendous growth. Listen to a stream of the track "Rooftop" on the jump.

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Review by Kevin Olitan

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper

Ripely Pine

Ba Da Bing (2013)

Aly Spaltro, the tiny, bespectacled girl behind the moniker, "Lady Lamb The Beekeeper," said her dream-born nickname was created to avoid being pigeonholed - the name was meant to incur mysteriousness and anonymity within her music. Having already toured with giants like Beirut and Sharon Van Etten, the name invokes some familiarity now.

At first sight of her, a small figure, long, unencumbered hair, clutching a guitar or a banjo, you'll frame her music into something recognizable. At first listen to Ripely Pine, her songs will start slow, solo, with just a pluck of the guitar here and there and a lonesome whisper. But maybe after a few seconds, maybe after a minute, the spike comes. The drums erupt from nowhere as it moves the tempo faster and faster. Another guitar drops in with some melting riffs. A few string parts start emerging in the distance, and then, the crowning piece, the once soothing, quiet vocals transform into an emotional wail. Suddenly, that sad, acoustic song you were expecting to hear has you sonically holding on for dear life. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper has caught you in a beautiful bait and switch.

In Ripely Pine, the artist's first studio album released this past week from Ba Da Bing Records, Spaltro channels a few of the folk-rock/pop-rock gems that were once part of her bedroom recordings and amplifies them into new heights with layer after layer of accompanying sounds. Being a notoriously complete solo performer and recording tracks on her own terms for years, it was hard for me to imagine where the band would fall in. But Spaltro took full command once again and wrote every single arrangement for the album. The record playfully tears apart traditional song structures in favor of tempo shifts and key changes that turns the experience into a musical roller-coaster with the excellent, "Bird Balloons" and the silky smooth, "Rooftop" (above), being the prime examples. It's a musically epic and cinematic debut that showcases Spaltro's tremendous growth.

It isn't to say Ripely Pine isn't for the casual listener. For new fans of Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, this is an excellent time to jump in, as her catchy melodies and soulful voice are still very much in the driver seat. Overall, it's a marvelous step out of obscurity for Lady Lamb the Beekeeper and one that boldly showcases her maturing musical prowess. Where many bedroom songwriters fall short after jumping toward the mainstream spotlight, Aly Spaltro emerges from her cocoon as an unclassifiable, explosive force for the future.+

Time for a haircut... - photo

2013-02-26T11:07:03Z

A classic from the YBNY archives, depicting a barber shop on Mott St. Full image on the jump.

Autumn Swisher photographs Body Mod Culture from the inside - features

2013-02-26T10:31:54Z

+Autumn Swisher's training as piercer has facilitated her photographing body modification culture around the United States. Interview by Anni Irish. Photos by Autumn Swisher. Additional Images on the jump.

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By Anni Irish

YBNY Body Mod Correspondent

Autumn Swisher has been professionally piercing for the past decade. I first met the West Coast native in the Spring of 2006 while she attended the New York Studio Program (NYSP), a semester long residency program offered to students enrolled in an art and design schools within the U.S. and Canada. During this time she worked at Venus Piecing, while also interning at the infamous 20x24 Studio in Tribeca, and maintaining a full course load and studio practice at NYSP.

It was Swisher's visible tattoos and piercings which sparked our initial friendship. We bonded over our mutual love of the body modification culture, but it was Swisher who was fully entrenched in it.

I recently had the chance to sit down with Swisher to discuss her career as a professional piercer, her photography, and how she views body modification culture. During our conversation, Swisher recalled first being exposed to piercing at a young age.

"I was thirteen when I got my first piercing," she said, "but it was really my little sister who got me into it because she had her nose pierced." From this first experience, Swisher's interest in piercing began to grow.

At 19 she began working at High Priestess a piercing and tattoo shop located in Eugene, OR. It was Swisher's apprenticeship that gave her the opportunity she had been waiting for: to be able to learn how to pierce professionally, while gaining better insight into the body modification community. This proved to be a particularly grueling and exciting time in Swisher's life. She worked fifty hours a week within the shop learning to pierce, in addition to two other jobs that helped to pay her living expenses.

According to Swisher, her teachers were "very tough and made sure I had a very detailed apprenticeship which included CPR classes (and) classes on first aid and blood borne pathogens. In total, I had seven different teachers all with different styles of piercing and teaching." Swisher's apprenticeship lasted two years in total and consisted of a lot of "watching and learning" but also involved her practicing on friends and family. Swisher did this until she was comfortable piercing on her own and eventually began to take on her own clients

In 2002, Swisher began attending the Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she concentrated on photography. While Swisher racked up hours in both the dark room and piercing shop, her two worlds began to collide. Fresh out of her apprenticeship, Swisher also began working at Robot Tattooing and Piercing. She started to document the body modification community within Portland area and beyond.

While she built up her clientele at Robot, Swisher also had the opportunity to meet and befriend many tattoo artists and piercers within the industry. The professional contacts she made through her apprenticeship allowed her to do guest spots all over the country.

"Because I started out at a professional shop there were always people coming through to learn, work, and teach, I met piercers from all over the US. Soon after I finished my apprenticeship, I (was) asked to come work a week in Philadelphia, Seattle and elsewhere," she said. This eventually led Swisher to move back to New York City in 2009 where she began working at New York Adorned.

I asked Swisher about her thoughts surrounding the ways in which piercing and tattooing often get lumped together.

"Most of the time people think its all the same, or that I tattoo," Swisher said. "They do not separate the two. Plus, a majority of shops offer both piercing and tattooing. I think a shop that is only offering piercing means a lot and that they can survive and must be doing a good job."

It also becomes a part of of the job to educate your clients and others about the different practices, which Swisher is actively engaged in doing. Swisher annually attends the Association of Professional Piercers convention where she teaches classes and brushes up on emerging piercing trends, which she sees as part of her ongoing education as a piercer.

Swisher's training as piercer has facilitated her photographing body modification culture around the United States. Being an active participant within the culture has helped her to gain trust and bond with her photography subjects. Swisher who is constantly traveling, always has her camera by her side. Since 2011 Swisher has been doing freelance work for companies like Maya Organic, which specializes in hand made high end jewelry, sold in many piercing stores around the U.S. and online. This new business venture has added a twist to Swisher's photography career and she is enjoying the different kind of work she is producing as a result of it, she said.

By combining her two passions: piercing professionally and photography Swisher has, in many ways, created her own niche. Swisher eventually hopes to open her own print and photography studio. Through her drive to create new work and to educate people surrounding the body modification community, Swisher is destined to achieve years of continued success.

Palomino to record first LP - features

2013-02-15T07:02:51Z

Brooklyn-based rock trio, Palomino, is midway through a campaign to raise money to record their first full-length album - 11 new songs in all. Click to the jump for a video of a recent Palomino rehearsal and for a link to their Indiegogo page.

]]> "(The) trio harkens back to the days of early alternative pioneers Husker Du and The Replacements." - Dustin Wilson, YBNY

Visit Palomino's Indiegogo page here. Watch the fundraising campaign video for their debut LP below.

"Saving Lincoln" at Quad Cinema - photo

2013-02-15T06:34:13Z

Opening Friday, Feb. 15th at Quad Cinema on 13th St., "Saving Lincoln" tells the story of Ward Hill Lamon, Abraham Lincoln's body guard, and his friendship with the 16th president of these United States. In cooperation with Operation Gratitude, moviegoers are encouraged to write letters to deployed troops and wounded warriors that will accompany one of hundred of thousands of care packages sent to the U.S. Armed forces by the non-profit.

A Reader of Coupons - moments

2012-12-21T09:46:24Z

-11/15-

Skinny fella in a charcoal P-coat sitting at a table in the window of the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at 86th and Amsterdam.

He's got middling gray, shaggy hair, but it looks washed, and generic black restaurant sneakers, and a mustache, and a pile of Zabars receipts on the surface in front of him.

I make a call, struggling to hear over the corporate coffee music mix - Elvis Costello meets Taylor Swift, Serge Gainsbourg and Tina Turner, then a Carribbean sounding cover of the classic Rolling Stones track, "Angie" - and the fella turns his head, chin on his left shoulder, to leer at me.

Now, in front of him he has a coupon supplement from a newspaper. A supermarket rag with specials on lunch meats. I'd disturbed his reading, and now he turns back, shakes his head, turns the page to the tomatoes.

Skinny Love in Queens - music

2012-11-27T22:02:09Z

Queens singer/songwriter and friend of YBNY, Justina Soto, covers Bon Iver's "Skinny Love." Video on the Jump.

]]> Queens singer/songwriter and friend of YBNY covers Bon Iver's "Skinny Love."

New York Rises - features

2012-11-08T22:51:03Z

+Of course we are people who ride in steel boxes daily, where the smell of our humanity is not uncommon to us. But I just wanted to say, that as always, you are the city that inspires me. You rise to everything that meets you. By Kathleen Griffin.

]]> Editor's Note: YBNY will be cross-posting the writings of artist Kathleen Griffin, as she prepares what will be the third largest public art installation in New York City, "Butterflies of Memory." Edited by Joel Silverstein.

So I am hoping that you are doing well after the storm, and the snow this week. Just as it's effects where unequal, so too where the responses, and I guess I mean that in a good way.

I was out of town last week so I spent days checking in and re-checking in with friends about their status and whereabouts and dozens of people reached out to me - webbing together a story at a distance. Some were basically skipped, though mostly no one had power, one even had been out dancing on thursday night (yes that was Brooklyn). Several were out of their houses for the week or had their homes and all of their possessions totally destroyed by the storm surge, that was also Brooklyn.

Two friends have restaurants downtown that were in chaos and one friend is a florist who lost all of his flowers. Yet both of them, after seeing the destruction, gave the most right back, going to help cook at shelters. In so many cases, equal to the hardship and tragedy was the response, friends sent texts of where they were volunteering or pictures the lines of people they were feeding, volunteering as EMT's, others who had lost everything had so much strength and perspective, just happy for the safety of their family and the hope of insurance. Another friend who was in a hotel for the week was equally strong despite the real hardship of being displaced from her home.

And every call seemed to include the things that people had done or given to someone else, they had been all day helping a friend with a business, cleaning up someone's flood damage, collecting clothes, getting food deliveries in dry ice for a boyfriend.

Yes, there were stories of fist fights and jackasses, but that, like most NY crisis made me really proud of the strength of our city - our character. Of course we are people who ride in steel boxes daily, where the smell of our humanity is not uncommon to us. But I just wanted to say, that as always, you are the city that inspires me. You rise to everything that meets you.

Tomorrow Tomorrow, Monday - features

2012-11-05T01:36:41Z

Vocalist Meredith DiMenna and Tomorrow Tomorrow - a throwback outfit featuring a range of sounds from Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western-style guitars to haunting Starship vocals and Gospel organ - play Monday at 10 p.m. at Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St. Click to the jump to listen to two tracks from Tomorrow Tomorrow's upcoming debut album, due out in 2013.

]]> Vocalist Meredith DiMenna and Tomorrow Tomorrow - a throwback outfit featuring a range of sounds, from Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western-style guitars to haunting vocals and Gospel organ - play Monday at 10 p.m. Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St. Listen to "All of the Seasons" and "Can't See My Sun," both tracks featuring harmonies from The Stepkids, below.

Yasmin Does Dog Halloween - video

2012-11-02T01:58:20Z

Clinton Hill's Hidden Gem - features

2012-11-01T01:11:11Z

Opened by Artist Big Jaz in 2009, Greene Ave. Tattoo represents the changing face of Brooklyn. Amidst the mothers and baby strollers, the tattoo shop has become a neighborhood mainstay. Story by Anni Irish.

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By Anni Irish

On a recent sunny fall afternoon I visited Greene Ave. Tattoo. The trees were just beginning to turn color even though it was an unseasonably warm day.

Greene Ave Tattoo is located in the historic neighborhood of Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. As I made my way down Greene Avenue from the B69 bus stop, I felt as if I had been transported into another time period. Each brownstone I passed seemed to be more beautiful then the last, with intricate wrought iron stair railings and seasonal floral arrangements in neatly tended flower boxes. While Greene Ave Tattoo seems to be an unlikely addition to this historic area of Brooklyn, it is quickly becoming part of its landscape.

Opened in 2009, Greene Ave. represents the changing face of Brooklyn. Amidst the mothers and baby strollers, tattooed hipsters entered and Greene Ave. has become a neighborhood mainstay.

As I entered the shop, I was immediately greeted by a fashionably dressed male receptionist in black thick-rimmed glasses. The reception area featured a collage of tattoo flash options (designs that artists have come up with to give walk ins ideas for tattoos) on the wall. The sitting area has each artist's portfolios neatly laid out on a table with comfortable chairs set out for customers to occupy as they waited for either a consultation or to get tattooed. The receptionist was very friendly, and told me to take a seat while he went to get shop apprentice, Lucas Finelli. I met Finelli this past summer at Project Parlor, a local bar where he also works.

I sat down with Finelli to discuss what it's like being a tattoo apprentice - how he got started and about tattoos in general. Finelli, who is a New Jersey native, has been apprenticing under tattooer and shop owner, Big Jaz, for the past four years. Finelli started getting tattooed at 16. He vividly remembers his dad taking him to a tattoo shop at age 8. During this particular visit, Finelli's dad got a tattoo of a fishing hook. While his dad was getting tattooed, Fellini became so fascinated by the process and asked so many questions, that the shop owner asked him to wait outside until his dad was finished. This experience at a young age solidified Finelli's love for tattooing.

Prior to apprenticing at Greene Ave., Finelli's first worked as a professional piercer and began "collecting" tattoos from artists all over the country. Collecting tattoos, for Finelli and many others, involves traveling or attending various tattoo conventions or shops to get tattooed by specific artists. Finellli's "collection" covers almost his entire body including his neck, arms, hands and knuckles.

When asked what he thought the difference between tattooing and piercing was, he described the piercing process as less "intimate" than tattooing because "tattooing means you will have an image on you permanently and a piercing is only temporary." Finelli's typical day at the shop begins with him arriving between 10 and 11am and he stays until close. He assists in all aspects of the day to day running of the shop including cleaning, ringing customers up, watching other artists tattoo in addition to building up his portfolio. He typically works about 80 hours a week just at the tattoo shop in addition to bartending to support himself. While his work-weeks are grueling, Finelli is genuinely enjoying this experience and learning many things.

Tattoo apprenticeships serve as a right of passage within the industry and entail many aspects. This means that the tattooer in charge of the apprentice is passing down their knowledge of the trade and investing in the person they have chosen. Finelli's apprenticeship is no different. Since 2008, Finelli has been working under Big Jaz to learn all the tricks of the trade. What makes this apprenticeship even more special is that Finelli is Big Jaz's third and final apprentice. Big Jaz has been tattooing since 1994 and is well known within the industry, often traveling to national and international tattoo conventions throughout the year. Big Jaz initially came to tattooing with a love of photo realism and black and gray work; over the years has cultivated this talent into all forms of tattooing. Greene Ave. is also the fourth tattoo shop that Big Jaz has opened and operated. His influence can be seen within Finelli's work and within the Greene Ave. shop in general.

During the interview, Finelli was hard at work on a watercolor of a tiger. When asked what his favorite images to create were, he responded quickly by saying "roses, tigers and old-school pinup girls." These images cover his work space and his attention to detail is evident in his paintings and drawings.

The charm of the Clinton Hill neighborhood has been incorporated into Greene Ave. through the people who work there, the decor of the shop and the tattoos they produce. While Greene Ave. has only been open for three years, it has quickly gained a loyal local following. Greene Ave. has a very successful future ahead of itself, which can only be underscored through the talented tattoo artists who work there and the great work they produce.