Clash City Tattoo opened late last month at 273 E. 10th St. between First Avenue and Avenue A. EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently stopped by to meet owner and proprietor Barry "Baz" Shailes ...
I showed up to watch Baz, who has been a tattoo artist for 16 years, ink a cover-up piece on James Peterson, a partner at Tompkins Square Bagels. Baz welcomed me from behind his tiki-bar reception station into the red, black and white space, where the likes of the Cramps and (no surprise!) the Clash were playing on the sound system.
Baz left his last employer, New York Hardcore Tattoo on Stanton Street, to open his own place with the help of his wife. The two looked at many spaces, but felt as if this block was especially vibrant, and with the added bonus of Tompkins Square Park being so close.
While working on a cover-up or reworking of a sugar skull tattoo on James, Baz spoke about a variety of topics, such as single-use and vegan inks and harm-reduction. He feels education is more important than penalization, and wishes that online sellers like Amazon and eBay would stop peddling inking machines to unlicensed, untrained people who do tattoos from their kitchens or basements.
On Stanton Street, Baz said that he would often get the drunk brunch crowd stopping by, though they most often balked at the price.
In general, Baz, a Liverpool native, says that he tries to steer people away from names (although he and his wife have their names inked on each other), and first-timers away from visible ink on their hands, faces and necks. He laments that people are still judged in society for things like tattoos. A lot of people just get one because they "look fucking cool," he says.
Baz even gave his mother a tattoo — a scorpion on her shoulder, before noting that women have a higher pain threshold than men and cheerfully announced, "Men are pussies. Men pass out, women don’t."
I will never ever understand the appeal of tattoos.
ReplyDeletePeople are free to do whatever they please with their bodies; tatts, piercings, botox, inject Drano into your face for all I care. But by extension, people are also free to judge you for how you choose to display yourself, and therefore, communicate, with the outside world. Get over it. I don't have to respect your "individuality" because you look like you've been sleeping on old comic books.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've been reminding people for years women have a higher threshold for pain than men, which is why I say we should replace all frontline combat soldiers with women. Besides, it's only fair after keeping them disenfranchised for so long.
All my tattoos—except one—are outlaw tattoos, and all said tattoos were done by an untrained person in her kitchen; it's just the way things were before tattooing was legalized.
ReplyDelete9:52 -- also, if we replace frontline soldiers with women, maybe we will have less war! it's worth a try.
ReplyDelete"Sleeping on old comic books" is so apt.
Every time I see someone covered from head to toe in tattoos I wonder if they could have saved themselves some time and money by just running around inside a magic marker factory naked.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing my buddy said- "Makeout you're not supposed to start on your hands." I said after twenty years with my company- "Fuck it. What are they gonna do? Fire me?" Cool. Now I know where to go for a touch-up.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time looking at them especially on young people in their 20's. I alway saw them as something for people which have had a tough life. Sorry that's my perspective but I don't expect anyone else to understand it.
ReplyDeleteIt's more edgy to not have tattoos now a days, they are like those big mad stupid lumber jack beards that all the kids wear, a thing that used to be edgy and out there is just mainstream and boring now. I remember when I was a kid growing up in Liverpool I used to get the bus back from work everyday past an old timey tattoo parlour called Son of Sailor Jack, this was when I was about 17-18 in the early 80's when only sailors and old geezers had tattoos. I used to think I'll need to get off the bus one day and go in there and get something done, jeezo am I glad I didn't. As everyone has said it's about personal expression and everyone is free to do what they want within reason, but that freedom works both ways, just as ppl are free to get themselves covered in drawings, other ppl are free to to see tattoos in a negative light. With me it's nothing to do with what kind of person gets a tattoo, cuz as I said already it's mainstream now, it's more to do with the permanence of it. It might seem like a good idea now, but in 20-30 years time you are just going to look like a looser with poor judgment who was sucked in by a stupid fad that has gone out of fashion. Not that any of that will change anyone's mind, in fact it will probably harden their resolve that tattoos are a great idea, good luck when you are 80 and your tattoos look like they have been left out in the rain too long and they have all spread and ran together.
DeleteMy tattoos are representations of what is important to me in my life. I have chosen to do this of my own free will - for me. I have no butterflies playing pingpong half sleeve nonsense. I myself don't understand intantly covered people. To each his own. I started getting tattoos in my early 40s because that's just when it happened. They're a map of parts of my life that are important to me.
ReplyDeleteBaz is a solid man and a great artist. I wish him all the luck with his tattoo parlor. He is also the one artist I have gone to for the last 4 plus years. Great addition to the neighborhood as well - the shop fits in like it truly belongs here. Goood on ya, Bazzer!
Someone please explain to me why people put tattoos on their backs where the wearer can never seen them? If they are symbolic reminders of something why not put them in a place where you can see them every day when you look at yourself in a mirror?
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:02 - I can't tell you that - I wonder that myself. I have one small tattoo I want to do on my upper shoulder but it needs to be in that specific location for its symbolism.
ReplyDeleteOn September 22, 2015 at 3:02 PM, Anonymous said:
ReplyDeleteSomeone please explain to me why people put tattoos on their backs where the wearer can never seen them? If they are symbolic reminders of something why not put them in a place where you can see them every day when you look at yourself in a mirror?
Most of my tattoos aren't ever visible; why do you care?
The reason people do back pieces is that the back is usually the biggest expanse of skin you can create a piece of art on—not interrupted by a navel or nipples, and usually hairless—and thus like a big canvas.
Great addition to the neighborhood. Baz is a great guy and a real tattoo'er.
ReplyDeletePeople who are free to judge can fuck off like you, 9:52pm, a keyboard coward who I doubt disrespects people with tats, piercings, etc. to their faces. Eat a dick.
ReplyDeleteAll you people with smart remarks about tattoos: congrats on being the adult versions of the highschool jock assholes who made fun of people for how they looked and not looked inside these people and saw them as people. I'm sure you were approved by them hence your bullshit stance considering tattoos have been part of EV/LES culture since before most you were born.
Oh yeah I learned people in their 20s can't have hard lives yet and only people with hard lives can have tats, thanks for the edgamacation.
@4:14AM You're up at 4:14 AM and you're posting a nasty diatribe like an angry drunk on EV Grieve? That must have been one incredible happy hour you went to today. Next time try EV Heave. So how are people supposed to know what you look like inside when on the outside you look like a comic book and sound like an angry person? Nice effort on trying to correct all the stereotypes people have about people with tats (such as angry, antisocial and somewhat dangerous), you just confirmed that most of them are probably true.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:24, Well spoken. Unfortunately, 4:14am won't remember that s/he wrote that, and won't think to check for the response. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteJust because someone writes a comment at 4:14am doesn't mean they're wasted. They could be night owls, have insomnia or work late.
ReplyDeleteEV Heave - nice! Post pics of all the drunk bros vomiting everywhere!
ReplyDelete9:08 am - Stop backtracking because you got called out. You wrote about judging people and not respecting their individuality. Thats why you got the response from EV Heave. Stereotypes about people with ink? What bible belt gated community are you from? Its sad that so many commenters here are d-bags from the burbs who brought their suburban mindset. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteFunny how the crowd that pines for the good 'ol days of the gritty East Village are turned off my tattoos. Know what turns me off? Frizzy gray hair, Crocs, and reusable grocery bags. "I just don't understand why people want to look like they sleep in a cardboard box under a bridge."
ReplyDeleteFor 11:11/4:14 it's not enough that they "express" themselves, but they want everyone everywhere and for all time to accept their choices unquestioningly. "Don't judge me!" is the common refrain, even though they seldomly have enough introspection to witness their own judgmental behavior: e.g. everyone who holds X opinion must be from the "bible belt" or a "gated community" or "suburban" mindsets are double-plus ungood. So please spare us all this desperate need for acceptance and get yourself a nice tattoo of a hug. (Or is that kind of oppositional attitude not EV or punk enough for you?)
ReplyDeleteSo those of us with tattoos can judge your cheap hair color and drab clothes?
ReplyDelete@ Anon 12:05- How the fuck would you tattoo a hug? That's gonna bother me all day!
ReplyDelete@ 12:41 - of course. Why are you even asking? It's amazing how everyone has become so insecure in this land of if-it-feels-good-anything-goes that they chafe at the judgment of others. Ironic that the present company tatt crowd proves to have such thin skin, eh?
ReplyDelete@ 12:50 - that's your Zen koan for the day.
@9:24am You're replying to me (4:14am) almost a half hour to an hour and a half into your workday assuming it starts whenever between 8 and 9am? Shouldn't you be working at this hour? Are you employed?
ReplyDelete'Know how you find out about someone from the inside? You talk to him/her and refrain from looking at his/her appearance. Of course we all notice someone's physicality but ultimately we talk to each other. I don't drink or have tattoos. I'm not an angry, antisocial, or a somewhat dangerous person. You don't know shit about me so fuck off dickwad. Take your "tattoos are bad", "tattooed people are this, that, and the other" crap back to wherever you came from.
9:08pm You remind me of the head dickface jocks in Some Kind Of Wonderful and Pretty In Pink who symbolized the real life dickfaces in Brat Pack films, that's right. You remind me of everyone who ran his or her mouth about how people looked in highschool. You think tattoos are ugly? Ok, then continue to not get them, don't look at them, and keep your trap shut about them like you keep your trap shut about them away from your keyboard and in front of people who have tats. You're the one who ran his keyboard mouth about people with tats and trust me I'd say what I posted to your face in the offline world.