I’ve relished tattoos my whole like, I find them fascinating bits of human origin stories on one canvas of gorgeous flesh that only a tattoo artist can truly appreciate. When my second year of undergrad began in September, I was determined, I wanted a tattoo to motivate me, to be a reminder on my skin that as a human being our pathways maybe at times be blocked with: a giant Alice in Wonderland Walrus, or simply a MASSIVE quartz block that is impossible to move; stupidly impenetrable, to quote my friend Tony Moore, “It’s Not Over!” (Who by the way has a Brand-new song out: I Cry for You). In life, we are confronted with blockades, sharing our stories of resilience, and acknowledging them is what makes us versatile human beings, we can be our own Swiss Army Knife, with all the little compartments for blades, straight and corkscrew shaped – tattoos do just that in very little words, well, I mean unless of course one is being tattooed with a script.
As someone who is INFATUATED with research, I did my homework, I researched tattoo parlour’s in both Pickering and Toronto; there were a few things that I saw on the website that I knew The Next of Skin would be where I would be getting my next tattoo. First Tyler’s artwork is ridiculously solid, the other reason, I read something that said to not ask for artwork for free from an artist and to not haggle about the price. Artists do not work a conventional 9:00 – 5:00 pm job, their hours are incredibly different, which means when they charge for a service or a painting, some consumers think that art should be free or accessible to all and not drastically overprices. Artists are able to quantify a price with the hours, worked, supplies used, supplied maintenance, replenishing of those supplies, in addition to the utensils to be used, in addition to their upkeep, and the qualitative calculations of how to decipher a price. That, is the price, and scene.
The minute I walked into Next Of Skin, Tyler was there to greet me, the space is so wickedly vibelicious truly, the décor was beyond eclectic a genuinely fun space to explore, especially the “f@cking rats” look below you’ll see just what I am talking about. In the tattoo area also the MOST calming space to be tattooed, I looked up and saw a forest, it was so beautiful, the green put me at ease in seconds; I’d not been tattooed up in decades and everything I had thought was wrong with regard to healing was COMPLETELY wrong and the pain, not as bad as I had thought.
I would highly recommend if you live in Durham Region or the GTA check Next of Skin.
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