Steve recently completed this compass and rose tattoo, which is actually the beginning of what will be a sleeve. The young lady sat like a champ, insisting on finishing it all in one go, which ended up being something like five hours. High-five!
Steve is currently booked until early May, so get in touch with us if you’d like an appointment with him soon! 978.744.9393
We love it when people leave us reviews on Yelp and Google. Truly. Sure, any business loves a good review, but for us it’s something a little more personal. When we sit down with a client, often multiple times (consults, then tattoos that require multiple sessions..), we get to know them a bit and they also get to know us. Getting a tattoo is by far a more personal and lengthy experience than say, going into a store and buying a product off the shelf and interacting with the cashier or floor salesperson. So when a person leaves us a review, good or bad, we take it to heart a bit more than other businesses might.
These days, we’re favoring Google over Yelp when it comes to customer reviews, and we’re trying to direct people there. Why? Because Yelp automatically filters 99% of our reviews, and in doing so, all of the kind words from our clients become hidden from us and the rest of the world. Plus, it’s unfair that our clients take the time to write about us, only for it to become filtered within a day or two! Here are a couple of our recent favorite reviews, now hiding behind Yelp’s filter (note: you can read filtered reviews by scrolling down to the bottom of our page and clicking the “# filtered” link).
“I am wicked glad I did NOT real the reviews before we went in! We had Steve, sure he is quiet but that allowed for my friend and I, getting matching tattoos, to chat! He was EXCELLENT at his job, which IS tattooing and not small talk and the front of store woman was spot on, polite, friendly and did her job excellently! My ex husband and I OWNED a tattoo shop and I think this one is lovely, clean, and in a great location!” -Gypsy
Gypsy also included this photo in her Yelp profile!:
“I recently got work done at witch city ink and I couldn’t be more satisfied! I was tattooed by Natan Alexander who did an amazing portrait of my son. The atmosphere of the shop was very serene and helped relax me before game time. By far the best parlor I’ve been to in New England. I’ll be going back real soon.” -Kyle
And those are just two of eighty-two filtered reviews! We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating — we have the BEST clients.
So while we encourage you to leave us reviews over on Google rather than Yelp, we’d like to give a little thank you to for taking time out of your busy schedules to leave us kind words — if you leave or have left us a positive review, we would love to give you a t-shirt the next time you stop by the shop. Or hugs*. Giant ones.
*Hugs will be dispensed by Steve, the official Witch City Ink hug-giver.
Steve continues to start quite a few new, large pieces.
This owl and hourglass on a young gentleman’s back is coming along nicely! This also happens to be his first tattoo. We’ve had a lot of clients recently with the “go big or go home” attitude, which is fun.
This next photo is after the second session of this back piece, which is based off of a piece of flash by Timmy Tatts. Steve asked Timmy for permission before using it, which is generally a good code of honor to abide by in the tattoo world. The girl it’s done on sits like a champ, too. All of the shading was done in the second session yesterday.
That’s all for now kids! Check back soon for more updates.
No, we’re not being vulgar jerks with that title. The S’s of the shop are none other than Sharonn and Steve of course. These two continue to work their butts off, and are currently booked out for about 3 weeks, but a bit further than that for weekends (Saturday is a popular day for tattoos). If you’re one of the nine-to-fivers who can only be tattooed on a weekend day, please note that both Sharonn and Steve have Sundays off, Sharonn doesn’t have a Saturday available until mid-June, and Steve doesn’t have one until mid-May (although he has some smaller time slots that can accommodate shorter sessions).
Without further ado, here are a couple of pieces they’ve done recently.
Melanie came in wanting an antique bird cage on her back. The two birds escaping from it were actually drawn by her friend, and then transferred into tattoo-form by Sharonn.
Sharonn has also been working on this Green Man piece for a couple of sessions, and it is looking gorgeous! The Green Man image is actually seen in different cultures worldwide, and is typically viewed as a symbol of rebirth, or representing the cycle of growth each spring.
Remember the elephant outline that Steve was working on in our last post? It was pretty great with just the intricate black outline, but Steve finished it up with some color earlier in the week and it’s looking even better.
That’s it for today, kids! We’ll be closed tomorrow, Sunday the 8th, for Easter, but we’ll be back to business as usual on Monday.
Steve has been really busy with some exceptional works in progresses. He had a gentlemen come in interested in having a zombie William Wallace tattoo – but not Mel Gibson’s William Wallace! William Wallace was one of the main leaders in the Wars of Scottish Independence. After some artistic magic, Steve created this piece in progress:
Steve is also working on an elephant. He is doing color work on it today and there will be more pictures to follow. The detail in this piece is really impressive!
We also wanted to show you a geisha piece Steve is working on. Geishas are female Japanese entertainers from centuries old tradition with an air of mystery surrounding them.
Steve is booked out for next three weeks, so if you are interested in having him tattoo you, please call us so we can book your consultation at Witch City Ink – 978-744-9393!
Somehow, as Steve was going through his photos, he realized that we hadn’t posted a photo of this tiger tattoo from a while back. So here it is, a blast from the not-so-terribly-distant past!
More recently, Ken has become one of our favorite new clients. He originally came in to get a coverup of some initials on his neck with a crab, which is a pretty unique coverup choice, we must admit. Steve worked a bit of his artist-magic, and poof! Initials gone. Afterward, Ken came back to have Steve start a sleeve for him, full of more oceanic creatures. We’ll post pictures of it later on as it progresses.
Also done recently by Steve, was this massive dragon on a client’s calf. Despite having to sit for a while for the color session, the client was all smiles when it was finished.
Steve is currently booked about three weeks out, so if you want to be tattooed by him we recommend setting up a consult as soon as you’re able! 978.744.9393
This tattoo was done in two sessions, which is very common for large rib pieces. What is not so common, is for such a large tattoo in an unpleasant spot to be chosen for someone’s first. We were a little concerned, but this girl sat like a CHAMPION. She deserves about twenty high-fives along with a round of applause.
Early spring, anyone? Okay, it was actually snowing down in Boston early this morning, but February has definitely been gracing us with some warmer-than-usual temperatures, which is drawing people out of hibernation and into our shop. What is it about spring that makes people want to get tattooed? Or is it simply because it coincidentally coincides with tax return season? Either way, we’re not complaining! All five of our artists’ schedules have been pretty full these days, and while we do our best to accommodate walk-ins, this would be a good time to note that we highly recommend making an appointment in advance. You can do so by stopping by the shop, emailing us at witchcityink@gmail.com, or calling 978.744.9393.
In other news, we’ve finally pestered Steve enough where he’s taking pictures of his work again (hooray!). He did this large koi yesterday, on a returning client.
One of the new favorite things in the tattoo world seems to be Instagram, which is a (free!) photo app for iPhones. And guess who has an account? Our very own Mr. Gillespie. You can find and follow him at stevegillespietattoo.
A lot of in progress pieces are happening at the shop lately, but we aren’t showing you most of them because sometimes we like to tease you and make you wait for the end result. Natan, for example, has a HUGE in progress file that we swoon over often, but he won’t let us show it to you. In an effort to appease this blogger, Molly and Steve have taken pictures of the following and are letting them out into the internet world.
These plumeria flowers started out as a small ballpoint sketch of Molly’s, and grew into this. Which will actually continue to grow, as the client wants to add more.
Steve started this large Saint Demetrius rib piece today. We predict that it’s going to look rather beautiful by the time it’s finished — not that it’s hard on the eyes even at this stage!
Steve has started a couple of large, time-consuming pieces recently. The following are both in the beginning stages, currently only outlines.
The first is massive, stretching from hip to armpit, and the client actually requested that Steve base it on one of his own tattoos. As an aside: hammerhead sharks are awesome.
Then there is this fierce looking centurion. In case you don’t know, wikipedia will tell you, “A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army after the Marian reforms of 107 BC. […] Centurions often suffered heavy casualties in battle, generally fighting alongside the legionaries they commanded. They usually led from the front, occupying a position at the front right of the century formation. They led and inspired their men by example. They also sought to display the skill and courage that may have brought them to their rank in the first place. It is for these reasons that they often suffered a disproportionate number of casualties.”
