Lifestyle

How women are re-inventing the tattoo parlor

Jessica Dwyer is co-owner of Nice Tattoo Parlor, billed as an approachable business “where everyone is nice to you.”Tamara Beckwith

When Jessica Dwyer was 18, she walked into a Long Island shop to get inked. The tattoo artists were hanging out on a couch, she recalls, and when she told them what she wanted — a cute cat on her lower back — they burst out laughing. She left, embarrassed, and never ended up getting that piece.

“That was my first experience of feeling like I didn’t belong [in a shop],” she says. “I just wanted a little tattoo — who cares? Just take my money.”

Dwyer, now 33, went on to become a tattoo artist herself and that experience she had as a teen stayed with her. So, in April 2017, she and business partners Jenny Capano and Robert Boyle opened a different sort of body art salon called Nice Tattoo. With fresh flowers and midcentury-modern flourishes, the chic Carroll Gardens shop looks more like a place to get a blowout for a night out than a design on your bicep for the rest of your life.

While plenty of women get tattoos, the body-ink industry has traditionally been male dominated. Artists are typically men and parlors tend to have an atmosphere that’s more autobody shop than Pinterest page. But that’s changing, with women picking up the ink gun and opening female- and Instagram-friendly parlors.

Dwyer’s tattoos include the abbreviated phrase “GRL PWR” across her hands.Tamara Beckwith

“It was almost like walking into my best friend’s apartment,” Bonnie Silva, one of Dwyer’s clients says, of the first time she went to Nice. Silva, 36, a doula who lives in Carroll Gardens, estimates she has roughly 30 tattoos, but says she never felt as comfortable at another shop. She and Dwyer connected over their love of animals.

“[Getting tattooed] is not an easy experience, it’s a little bit painful!” Silva says. “It’s cool if you can relax.”

Where Nice’s interiors have a sleek, retro feel, Dorothy Lyczek went for a more romantic look when she opened Lantern in Bushwick last week.

“It’s a beautiful space, adorned with plants, soft expressionist paintings of flowers and art produced by women,” says Lyczek, who says the majority of her clients are female. The art on the walls also reflects her tattoos, which often incorporate richly colored flowers.

Meanwhile, at Welcome Home Studio in Greenpoint, the look is airy and minimalist. The shop’s Web site states “hate, misogyny and sexism will not be tolerated” and drunks get the boot, so don’t expect to pop by for some inebriated impulse ink (their address isn’t public anyway).

These lady-friendly parlors pride themselves on good customer service, with Nice offering bottles of water and, sometimes, free Champagne. Lyczek says she really tries to listen to her client’s concerns and makes an effort to avoid body-shaming.

These new parlors are opening as the ink industry has a #metoo reckoning. This past December, an anonymous person launched an Instagram account called Watchdog Tattoos, outing pervy tattoo artists by posting their photos and detailing their bad behavior. Lydia Kinsey Hunt, a Georgia-based artist at Walk the Line Tattoo Co., wrote up a list of guidelines for female clients that Watchdog then enthusiastically reposted. “You NEVER need to undress more than necessary for the tattooer to do their job,” she wrote. “Your tattooer should not be hitting on you, sending you crude messages, or unsolicited photos.”

Such occurrences aren’t uncommon. Marina Heintze, who runs a tattoo and art studio called Nakapatchi in Bushwick, recalls some negative experiences. “I’ve definitely been in shops with raunchy conversations going on,” she says. But “you suck it up and deal with it.”

Marina Heintze says she’s suffered through “raunchy conversations” to get inked. She will soon open her own female-friendly parlor in Brooklyn.Vivian Babuts

It’s not just women who appreciate the tattoo industry’s makeover.

Joseph Purfield, a documentary filmmaker and a client of Jessica Dwyer, says that prior to finding Nice, his experiences in both American and English shops had been just so-so. “Tattoo parlors are rife with toxic masculinity,” Purfield says. He had gotten six tattoos before meeting Dwyer and says he felt “intimidated” getting each one.

Dwyer hopes she’s offering her clients something better.

“With such an intimate process, you want to make sure you give people a great experience,” she says, “because it’s forever.”

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Lantern in Bushwick opened last week. The shop specializes in floral tattoos and has romantic interiors and a no-body shaming policy.Dorothy Lyczek
Nice Tattoo has chic interiors and a welcoming vibe.Tamara Beckwith
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Tamara Beckwith
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