Fun City Tattoo Celebrates Its History With Stories & Songs By SZA, Miley Cyrus & More Of Its Famous Clients (Exclusive)

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Pull retired a representation if you privation stories of New York City’s euphony history. 1520 Sedgwick Avenue is wherever DJ Kool Herc’s location enactment birthed hip-hop. Near 98-81 Queens Boulevard successful Forrest Hills, 4 non-brothers began rehearsing arsenic The Ramones. The country of Vanderbilt Ave. and Targee Street successful Staten Island celebrates the Wu-Tang Clan, and you tin publication a walking tour to spot each the hip-hop past successful Brooklyn. However, for existent euphony history, spell to 94 St. Mark’s Place successful the East Village, and publication a league with Fun City Tattoo, the oldest walk-in tattoo shop successful Manhattan.

“Charles Manson utilized to telephone the store rather frequently,” Maxx Starr tells HollywoodLife. Maxx, a multimedia artist, and entrepreneur, co-owns the store with Big Steve. While Maxx preserves the stories and tales of Fun City Tattoo, Big Steve, who has spent 20 years moving wrong the shop, focuses connected the creation of tattooing, ensuring Fun City remains 1 of the astir revered and respected shops successful the metropolis – and beyond.

Mythical tattoo creator Jonathan Shaw illegally opened the store successful 1976, and it became the archetypal morganatic walk-in store astatine the commencement of the adjacent decade. While moving Fun City, Shaw tattooed folks similar Iggy Pop, Kate Moss, Jim Jarmusch, and Naomi Campbell. John Joseph of the Cro-Mags and Freddy Madball of Madball got inked astatine the shop.

To observe the shop’s spot successful euphony history, the owners – Big Steve and Maxx Starr – enactment unneurotic a playlist of immoderate musicians and artists tattooed astatine the East Village destination.

While Fun City was speedy to clasp punk and hardcore, the store wasn’t acceptable to clasp Charles Manson. “[Manson] would inquire america to bargain things from him, which we ne'er did,” Maxx tells HL. Eventually, helium swore if we didn’t bargain anything, he’d curse the shop,” they say. “Our store adjunct kindly declined astatine the time. The time pursuing we were robbed, and an electrical occurrence occurred successful an flat upstairs. The store was harmless from the fire, but we couldn’t participate the gathering for a week portion the occurrence section investigated and completed information checks. It each could person been dumb luck oregon not.”

Dumb luck is simply a portion of each success, but lone if you marque country for it done hard enactment and perseverance. Tattooing was lone made ineligible successful Manhattan successful 1997, the signifier having been outlawed successful 1961. As for why, Smithsonian Magazine cited fears of a Hepatitis B outbreak and authorities hoping to cleanable up the metropolis up of the 1964 World’s Fair.

However, the signifier continued – conscionable underground. Many amerciable shops opened successful basements and different spots extracurricular the nationalist eye. While astir of those parlors person travel and gone, Fun City has remained, acknowledgment to its dedication to the craft. The store has a past of merging good enactment enactment with punk aesthetics portion besides celebrating accepted American tattoo styling and cleanable black-and-white needlework.

It has drawn a agelong enactment of devoted clients, including a who’s-who of stars. Joan Jett, Ramones, and The Velvet Underground members are conscionable immoderate of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers who near Fun City with caller ink. 2Pac, Young Thug, SZA, Willow, Frank Ocean, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato have traveled to beryllium inked by this prestigious shop. Demi Lovato, Childish Gambino, Action Bronson, Lula Ike, and members of The Flaming Lips, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Stray Cats, and Korn have each been inked here.

The champion portion of Fun City is that they don’t get starstruck, acknowledgment to the wide vibe that’s recovered wrong the shop’s walls. “I and our full squad dainty the lawsuit the aforesaid mode – personage oregon not,” Big Steeve told PAPER in 2018. Everyone who walks into the store is fixed the aforesaid level of respect, and this creates an situation of equality and understanding. The store has a argumentation against taking pictures with celebrities, allowing those stars to consciousness arsenic comfy arsenic anyone other coming successful disconnected the street.

This isn’t to accidental that determination haven’t been immoderate chaotic moments successful the shop’s history. “We erstwhile had an older mates travel into the store adjacent closing time, neither of which had ever been tattooed,” Maxx tells HollywoodLife. “The pistillate took a sewing needle retired of her purse and asked if we could tattoo her person with it alternatively of 1 of our tattoo machines. We told her we, of course, could, but it would instrumentality a infinitesimal for america to sterilize.”

“In the meantime, she explained to america that her person didn’t privation to cognize the tattoo helium was astir to get, past whispered that she wanted him to get a tiny banana connected the apical of his foot,” helium adds. “They stepped into the back, and she handed him a achromatic velvet bandana to screen his eyes with. While helium was getting the tattoo, she rubbed his thenar with a feather. He didn’t budge once. When the tattoo was done, helium paid the shop, handed her immoderate cash, and they went their abstracted ways.”

Among the stars that Fun City has tattooed, the store had a affluent regular that would driblet a $1000 extremity whenever helium came successful for immoderate work. “The past clip helium came in, helium fell dormant during the league and went to the bath connected himself,” Maxx tells archer HL. “We didn’t accidental thing retired of niceness and due to the fact that of his routinely bully tips, but helium inactive ne'er came back. We heard helium got arrested a mates of months aft this past sojourn for selling forged Picasso paintings. To this time we aren’t definite if it was the incidental oregon imprisonment astatine responsibility for our ne'er seeing him again.”

Perhaps the champion happening astir Fun City is that anyone tin travel to spot them. The store inactive offers walk-ups and appointments. You don’t request to beryllium a personage to get a portion of New York City past etched into your skin. The shop’s existent creator lineup includes Joel Baca, Ryan E, Dylan Kraus, Diego, Tessa BX, Jesus Antonio, Emilio Alonso, and a monthly artist-in-residency. Book an appointment portion listening to the playlist Steve and Maxx person created EXCLUSIVELY for HollywoodLife.