Lucky Friday the 13th
By Maury Englander
Every Friday 13th, Daredevil Tattoos is about the easiest shop in New York City to find: just look for the crowds lined up outside. The attraction: $13.00 tattoos! Owner Michelle Myles explains: “It started eight years ago. An artist named Danielle was working here and it was her idea. I think that first time we only did a dozen or so tattoos, but it took off from there.”
A few years later, a film crew from Fuse Network filmed the event. “They ran it repeatedly and ever since, it has been crazy here on every Friday 13th. It has become a tradition and people just expect it so we can’t let them down. Many travel from out of town to be here and some even have a collection of our Friday 13th tattoos.”
There are some special rules that apply that day and they are published in advance on the shop’s blog, www.DevilCityPress.com. First off, there is a single, secret sheet of flash drawn especially for the occasion. Nobody gets to see it until they get inside the shop. Designs are small and, of course, they all have a “13” worked in. No custom work. Customers pick their design off that sheet and there are no variations. “We also don’t do hands, necks, feet or any of the ‘hard spots.’ We want to get to everybody who comes in and we need to work quickly, so another rule: we are done when we say we’re done. It is a very grueling day for all the artists. We start at noon and go until around 10 p.m. We have six stations and six artists working. This evening we will have a second wave for artists to come in and finish up. It is a long day for everybody.”
And let’s not forget shop girl, Melissa Garcia, who is probably the busiest person in the shop. In the course of her day, she will have to clean and set up the work stations a couple of hundred times!
There is also a $7.00 gratuity added, so total cost is twenty bucks, a bargain, and New Yorker’s love a bargain. “Tattoos are lots more expensive these days than they used to be, so this makes it possible for kids with only a few bucks in their pockets to come away with a nice piece. It is also a great way to introduce new people to the shop and maybe even bring a bit of luck. I had one guy a who was unemployed and didn’t think he’d be able to come up with the twenty dollars. He did and, a few weeks later, came back to tell us he had a new job and proceeded to have a full sleeve done.”
On the morning of the 13th, customer’s line up well before the shop opens and one of the shop guys is out front adding names to the list. “Because of the crowds outside,” says Myles, we usually let the local police precinct know in advance. This year, we forgot and a patrol car came by this morning to see what was going on. They were very nice, but asked us to remember to let them know next time.”
