Steve Gold has turned a passion for drawing and the ongoing trend of body art into a thriving ink enterprise. In business in Madison since 1975, Steve’s Tattoo offers original tattoos and piercing services at locations on Williamson Street and in Oshkosh, in addition to Spike-o-matic, his newest partnership open about a year on Park Street in Madison.
“When I started, only one or two percent of people had tattoos. Now, it’s up to 20 to 30 percent, and many of them are women,” said Gold of the popularity of his shops’ services.
In fact, tattoos have become well accepted across many demographics thanks, in part, to reality TV shows such as as Inked, Miami Ink and LA Ink. Gold markets his shops’ services to women of all ages, who have been adding ink to their look. In particular, Gold reaches out to 40- to 60-year-old women — mainly through targeted radio advertising, and appearances at certain trade shows, such as the Women’s Expo in Madison.
“Back when I started, a lot of women didn’t want to get tattoos because they would be considered bad,” Gold said. Now, he opined, it’s similar to having a hobby.
Gold, 57, grew up on Madison’s east side and developed his love of drawing by mimicking pop-art of the day, such as the characters created by Big Daddy Roth. He decided to turn his art into a tattoo business after a friend waited six hours to get inked in Lake Geneva — the closest tattoo parlor some 40 years ago. “We could draw better than that,” Gold said of the “unoriginal tattoo selection” at that shop. “I said we should learn to do tattoos.”
Gold studied his craft in an era when it was tough to break into the business. To learn, you needed to know someone in the trade. He found a tattoo artist willing to teach him the ropes in Phoenix, where he spent six months before returning to Madison and opening his first shop on Atwood Avenue.
Today, Gold’s tattoo artists, which he jokingly calls “dermographologists,” spend a year as apprentices at his business, first learning to clean and work on original drawings, before earning a chair to practice on friends and family. Each of the six tattoo artists at Steve’s flagship shop on Williamson Street works as an independent contractor, keeping 40 percent of the fees paid for tattoo and piercing. Tattoos cost a minimum of $65 with bigger jobs — such as full-body work and portraits — commanding an hourly rate of about $150.
It takes a tattoo artist about four years to establish a reputation and attract a following. Artists such as Paul Schmidt, who won an award for the “Best Leg Sleeve” last fall at the 2008 Beer City Tattoo Convention in Milwaukee, perfect their style and build a clientele at established shops such as Steve’s. Schmidt has worked at Steve’s for 10 years, moving from the Oshkosh location about two years ago, and is known for recreating portraits on skin.
On a cold January morning, Schmidt touched up a custom photo reproduction tattoo on John Moll’s left upper chest. The Sun Prairie plumber chose to have an image of his children, Rachel and Neil, tattooed in memory of his wife, Stephanie, who died recently of breast cancer.
Memorial tattoos are common, Gold said. But portraits, in particular, are tricky to recreate on skin with a tattoo pen. They start by transferring a stencil of the image onto the skin via a thermal fax reproduction. The artist then creates an outline using an electric tattoo pen, which transfers ink into the dermal layer of skin.
Moll’s portrait tattoo took about three hours to create, including the touch-up on fine features such as facial detail and a locket worn by his daughter which belonged to his wife.
The big push among tattoo artists and studios is toward such custom work, as opposed to flash work, which are stock images decorating the shop’s walls.
“We can find a way to make anything look good,” Gold said. “Half of our business is art, the other half is salesmanship.”
Gold believes that the focus on artistry and custom work will be the dividing line between those tattoo studios that will survive and those that will close during the economic recession.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services liceses 378 tattoo and body piercing businesses in Wisconsin, 36 of them in Dane County. These shops employ 772 tattooists, 266 in Dane County. The number of tattoo establishments and artists has been on the rise, according to the department.
In Gold’s mind, the pendulum has swung toward too many tattoo shops, rather than too few when he started in the business. He believes that the field will be leveled with up to 30 percent closing.
