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To tattoo is human. To create art is an Inksane Skin-o-vation.
When tattoo and piercing artist Mike Jones and his wife, Johanna, decided to leave Charlotte and open their own studio, they figured Salisbury wasn’t such a bad choice. They knew the number of area colleges and the lack of existing tattooing studios would provide just the clientele they needed. Location was, indeed, everything.
So they found a spot on South Main Street, next to The Mane Zone, to open a studio that’s probably as clean as a doctor’s office — with Pergo floors, single-use needles, an ultrasonic machine for the tubes, an oversized autoclave and the unmistakable smell of rubbing alcohol. It’s also as chic as any art gallery (reproductions of Jerry Ulesmann art hang on nearly every wall). And they christened it Inksane Skin-o-vations.
Mike and his artist friends Damon Ark and John Paul Parker will most likely be head-turners whenever they’re trying to find good Chinese food for lunch in Salisbury. The three are walking billboards for their own work: Mike’s skin features a barrage of colorful images, from the face of Elizabeth Taylor to Johanna dressed as a pirate to “a sea monster driving a fan boat.” John Paul sports bold, “anti-color,” mathematically inspired markings that are similar to the tribal markings of George Clooney in “Dusk ‘til Dawn” and Wesley Snipes in “Blade.” And some of Ark’s piercings might be likened to those of a character from the “Hellraiser” series of horror movies.
There are seemingly hundreds of “flash,” or pre-drawn, pictures the artists can copy, but they prefer to create an original piece for each person.
“Everybody is different,” Mike says, “You probably don’t want to have something everybody else has.”
A client can come in with a picture or idea and, after the art is drawn, it will be run through a machine that makes a carbon copy of it to be pressed against the skin so the outline can be traced and filled in. This way, in case the client is dissatisfied with the work, it can be altered. Average-sized tattoos take about 45 minutes to complete. More intricate ones and cover-ups can take hours.
By nature, a tattoo is quite permanent, although Mike says they can be removed by a doctor with a laser.
“But even that’s still kind of shady,” he explains. “It never works 100 percent. For instance, you can never remove green from the skin. Once green is there, it’s there.”
Mike uses only all-natural, hypoallergenic color (the red is made from dried cacti) for tattooing and nickel-free surgical steel for piercing, as opposed to some of the other metals commonly used. He says gold and silver are “the nastiest metals” for piercing because of additives that are used in manufacturing and distribution.
None of the piercings are done with a “gun,” as is common in many mall jewelry shops because, Johanna explains, the gun can “mash the cartilage” and sometimes causes infection.
“With a gun, the piercing can be crooked. And guns are not very sterile,” she continues. “People think only the needle part is going into their skin, but the whole gun touches your ear.” At Inksane, individually wrapped, hollow-point needles are used for freehand piercings in any part of the body, from the webbed part of the hand to the skin covering the spine.
The art of tattooing is thousands of years old and, somewhere in the South Pacific, boys still go through rites of passage by being tattooed with a whale bone and hammer.
In this country, body art has become more popular from increased exposure in entertainment media, with celebrities often sporting tattoos. But the artists realize that most tattoos and piercings still draw rolling eyes from many folks.
“It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong,” John Paul says.
Mike speculates that one reason for negative reaction is because tattooing and piercing have gotten a bad rap over the years as a result of shady dealers who choose to tattoo from a cramped room or pull up into a club parking lot and offer to pierce out of the back of their van. But true tattooers and piercers, he defends, are artists and would like to be regarded as such.
“We’re totally staying away from the way tattoo shops are stereotyped,” Mike and Johanna say. “The stereotypes are so bad, and we wanted to do something that was higher-class and caters to a different clientele. Anybody is welcome here. They’re going to get the best of the best.”
Quality service begins with the client — age 16 with a parent and 18 or older without — signing a contract verifying, among other things, “I am not under the influence of drugs or alcohol” and “I do not have ... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV), hemophilia, a heart condition, epilepsy or hepatitis.”
“The biggest thing you have to worry about,” Mike says, “is hepatitis, not AIDS. AIDS only lives outside the body for 30 seconds. Hepatitis is 30 days.”
To prevent that risk, everything in each tattooing or piercing room is sterilized in the ultrasonic chamber (where, for a couple of hours, ultrasonic waves and green soap “bounce off the equipment and busts up dried up blood and ink”). The tubes are then sterilized with bleach and packaged for placement in the pressurized autoclave for one to 1-1/2 hours. Each month they run a spore test in the autoclave to ensure that it is acceptable for use.
They then wrap the reusable equipment in plastic. Single-use needles are disposed of in a Sharps container, and anything that can be touched is covered with a blue barrier film.
“It’s interesting, because a few years ago, when North Carolina didn’t have any laws regulating tattooing at all, it was Michael who went up to the State Health Department and said, ‘We need to regulate tattooing so it’s safe and doesn’t have a bad stereotype,’ ” Johanna said. “Before, the state department didn’t come and check you, but now they do. So, he was the one who sort of got that into motion.”
In fact, Mike is still pushing for tattoo artists to be certified in blood pathogen or the handling and control of blood.
“If they can touch it, we cover it,” Mike says. “Because once you touch that skin, then you’re contaminated. It’s not only safety for them, it’s safety of us.”
That, he continues, is what keeps his clientele happy. One horror story from a dissatisfied customer can ruin a business.
The business of body art has been quite profitable, but the journey has not been easy. Tattoo artists usually learn the trade through an apprenticeship. Mike and Damon say that, although their apprenticeships weren’t good experiences, they might one day, consider taking on an apprentice who shows serious interest in the art form and has a good attitude.
Johanna, who helped come up with the business name, says she’s also done some tattooing. “But not any that people would pay me for.”
None of the four live in Salisbury but they say they’ve been pleased with the response they’ve gotten since opening Feb. 13.
With some luck, Mike and Johanna say, they’ll earn the name of being Salisbury’s tattoo studio. Then other artists will have to try to keep up with the Joneses.
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Inksane Skin-o-vations Tattoo Studio is located at 1329 S. Main St. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon-8 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. For an appointment, call 633-SKIN.
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