Category Archives: Black and Gray

Steve in Inked Magazine, and a Few BTC Pics!

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It's officially October, which means Salem is becoming busier by the day. Our weekends in particular are filling up fast, and our schedules are full of wonderful clients traveling to Salem for the Halloween festivities — we even have some returning from previous years of visits, which makes us feel pretty damn special. If you'd like to be tattooed by one of our lovely artists this month, we recommend giving us a call to book your appointment as soon as possible! 978.744.9393

In other news, we recently had the October 2012 issue of Inked Magazine delivered to the shop. We opened it up to find none other than our own Mr. Gillespie. Note: This piece has since been finished, and had color added.

We've also been going through a ton of photos from the Boston Tattoo Convention recently, and have found some of our artists and clients! You can see more photos from the show right here


Jenny during a quiet moment at one of our booths.
Photo by Iggy Barskov.


Jenny in another moment of focus! By the way, have you checked out her work yet?
Photo by Tong Mangklarat.


Natan with the winner of the Miss Boston Ink Beauty Contest.
Photo by Iggy Barskov.


We were very fortunate to have a lot of our clients at the show. John is the proud owner of this back piece by Sharonn.
Photo by Arthur Newberg.

Lastly, Sharonn has been fancying up the shop window for the holiday. Here's a peek! Fun fact: She painted this skull herself!

Where the Buffalo Roam

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Okay, it's been a while since we've made a blog post. Did you know that we put on the Boston Tattoo Convention each year? This means that the Witch City Ink website gets a little quiet in the summer, as we're preparing for the convention. However, our artists have been constantly busy tattooing (and sometimes even taking pictures, when we gently nudge them into doing so), and we have plenty to share from the last couple of months.

And yes, we certainly DO have photos of our artists from the BTC, which we'll be posting in the near future!

For now, here are two pieces that Sharonn completed yesterday. First up, a Gaia back piece. Who's Gaia, you ask? As always, wikipedia has a very thorough answer.

Sharonn also finished up this really cool buffalo. We wish more people requested tattoos in this style!

As usual, all of our artists' time is being booked quickly, especially with October right around the corner, and especially for weekends. Be sure to get in touch with us soon to get your next appointment in! 978.744.9393

New from Sharonn: Dragon and Knight

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We usually post Japanese-style dragons here, but we’ve had a lot of medieval-style ones these days as well. Interestingly, dragons tend to be more symbolically positive in Asian cultures than elsewhere. For example, typically in Asian cultures, dragons represent nature, wisdom, religion, and the universe. But in many western stories and myths, how often do we see dragons depicted as evil and dangerous creatures, that are eventually slain by a hero? Even in the Slavic myth, the dragon is so vile that Mother Earth wishes not to have it within her womb, and thus the dragon is forced to remain above ground for all eternity.

We personally think that dragons are beautiful and strong creatures. And just plain cool.

This next photo is actually a rather small section of a client’s back that Sharonn is working on. As you can see, she is currently working on the Holy Grail, and in the foreground we have a gentleman from the Knights Templar. Templar Knights were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Non-combatant members of the order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building fortifications across Europe and the holy land.

And that concludes today’s edition of the more you know.

Sharonn does have time in her schedule next week for consults and possibly smaller tattoos (as well as continuations on existing pieces). If you’d like to book time with her, give us a call here at the shop, and we’ll talk about scheduling! 978.744.9393

New Work from Steve

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Steve continues to be busy, and is currently booked out for about 3 weeks, with scattered openings on certain days. Here are a couple of pictures that we snagged from him.

Celtic continues to be popular around these parts, and Steve’s attention to detail makes him fantastic at all of the interwoven intricacies.

And he was really excited about the start of this Alice in Wonderland piece. While researching references for it, he came across this dodo, and tattooing it on someone is now on his tattoo bucket list. That’s a hint to all you readers! *wink-wink*

Things are busy busy busy here, especially with the Boston Tattoo Convention fast approaching, so get in touch with us soon to set up your next appointment! 978.744.9393

New from Sharonn: The Land and the Sea

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So far it’s been nature week for Sharonn. Flowers, a tiger within a Japanese sleeve, a marine biology emblem, and a butterfly.

Sharonn, as always, continues to be a busy lady. She’s definitely one of those artists who snaps a quick photo with her phone when a tattoo is finished, and that’s usually all she has time for (we don’t say this like it’s a bad thing!). But again we must say, these photos do not do her work justice. The good news is, we usually try and bribe her clients to come back when their piece is healed so we can take more pictures. Think of these as a tease.

Dana was the gentleman who had the marine biology emblem done, and he is an interesting fellow! Before he left yesterday, he showed us some cool octopus videos on youtube. Yeah, we’re nerds here. And we love it.

Scarab by Natan, and a Shop Guest

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Scarabs were popular amulets in ancient Egypt. According to ancient Egyptian myths, the sun (Ra) rolls across the sky each day and transforms bodies and souls. Modeled upon the Scarabaeidae family dung beetle, which rolls dung into a ball for the purposes of eating and laying eggs that are later transformed into larva, the scarab was seen as an earthly symbol of this heavenly cycle.

And so this client traveled a fair amount of distance to have Natan tattoo a scarab on his ribs. A transformation symbolizing transformation.

In other news, Sharonn has been tattooing a pair of clients who run a squirrel rescue organization (as mentioned previously in this post). Today, Dave brought in a baby squirrel for us to say hello to. It was the most adorable thing to come through the shop all week (no offense to our clients).

Also, we’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about walk-ins recently. YES, we try to accommodate walk-ins whenever possible, but we always recommend making an appointment in advance if you can. Especially when it comes to the busier weekend days.

New Work from the S’s of the Shop

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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.

New & Older Works from Sharonn

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This all-seeing eye took two sessions, and is a fairly large piece on a client’s back.

This back piece is ongoing, and looking quite marvelous! This photo doesn’t do it justice.

These portraits were done by Sharonn before she came to Witch City Ink, and we love them so much that we had to share.

A recent grim reaper that is also a coverup. It’s like celebrating the death of an old tattoo with death himself!

Sharonn is currently booked a couple of weeks out, so we recommend scheduling time with her in advance! She prefers to take consults before starting new pieces, so give us a call! 978.744.9393

New Black & Grey from Sharonn

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The newest lady of the house is settling in to Witch City Ink, and we are loving having her here! It’s obvious that clients are loving that Sharonn’s here too, because her old ones have followed and new ones are finding her. Her schedule is beginning to fill up, so if you’d like to be tattooed by her, don’t hesitate to give us a call and we’ll schedule a consult for you. 978.744.9393

Here are two black and grey pieces that she’s done recently (by the way, have we mentioned that black and grey is her favorite?). These pictures were taken while the tattoos were fresh, so please forgive the quality!


This crow was done over multiple sessions. The photo does not do it justice — it’s beautiful and fits the client well!


Unless you are particularly familiar with flora, you may not recognize the above plant. It’s a thistle, which is a flowering plant covered in prickles that discourage herbivores from snacking on the plant. Thistles are also the floral emblem of Scotland.