The business of body art

Most tattoo parlors in Carson City and the Reno area are still are profitable, but many shops have experienced declines in walk-in and casual clientele as consumers tighten spending.

Most clients nowadays, says Sean Dawley, owner of Hooligans Ink in Carson City, are passionate tattoo collectors who have no qualms about spending money on additional body art. The number of walk-in customers, he says, has dipped 30 percent from the start of the year despite an increase in vehicular traffic passing the shop at Fairview Drive and Saliman Road after the opening of the second leg of the U.S. 395 bypass through Carson City.

"People that are avid collectors and are really into their body art, they are finding ways to make it happen," Dawley says. "Our walk-in traffic has slowed down a little bit, but not enough to start freaking out yet."

Kevin Cox, owner Aces Tattoo on South Virginia Street in Reno, says tattooing is a vanity that most won't give up.

"Generally nobody needs a tattoo. They need to pay their rent or mortgage or buy food. But things that involve vanity don't get hit as hard; people won't cut them out completely," Cox says.

Rob Fargo, owner of Wild West Tattoo, a fixture at 124 W. Second St. in Reno for 10 years, says tattoo parlor business typically dips during November and December.

"We just hope it is not too much less than last year and the year before," Fargo says. "We have started to see a decline little by little each year. It really comes down to high unemployment; a lot of people would love to get a tattoo, they just don't have jobs or the money to pay for it."

Fargo says to keep ahead of the recession's scythe he's downsized personally and professionally. He closed a sister shop in Fallon in June, a year after it opened, and he also sold his 5,000-square-foot home to purchase one half its size.

Tattoo parlors typically rely on reputation and artists' quality to gain clients, Fargo says.

"We just try to pump out great tattoos. It says a lot for your business. If people are not blind in one eye and the other isn't missing they should be able to discern quality," he says.

Reputation spells longevity in the body art business.

Zach Mueller opened Distinct Ink in Carson City 15 years ago. Despite the recent addition of two new tattoo parlors - making a total of five in Carson City - Distinct Ink still garners a lion's share of the market. But business is down about 40 percent at the shop, says Johnny Bavaro, who does piercings at Distinct Ink.

'I think everybody could say when asked, "How's business been?" that we are steady but not busy," Bavaro says. "The main thing that keeps us running is our name - we were the first shop in Carson City."

Reno also has seen a rise in tattoo parlors in recent years, but Cox of Aces Tattoo says it will be difficult for new shops to keep their doors open without an established customer base.

"We have been around for 14 years," Cox says. "Our location and the fact that we have been around for so long. We have such a big local base that we do pretty well."

Tattoo artists usually work as independent contractors who rent booth space, much like those who cut hair or do nails at salons.

Ray Scott, an artist at Battle Born Tattoo at 1717 S. Wells Ave., says saturation of tattoo parlors shriveled profits at most shops. Rather than inking five or six customers each day, Scott says, he's doing just one or two - and about 40 percent of his work is covering up artwork of lesser quality.

"This summer I wasn't starving, but I definitely was not near as busy as last year. Usually October 1 to January 1 is our slowest season, and this is the worst I have ever seen it.

"There are 33 tattoo shops between Reno and Tahoe," Scott adds. "Everybody's complaint is that there are too many shops in this town. There are a lot of people that stay true to some shops, but with any new shop in town people want to check it out.

"Some will argue that only the strong will survive, but at the same time, either you have got good tattoos and people come back, or you live in a town where there are not enough tattoos to go around."