When I was a young man in my late teens/early 20's (Who can actually remember? I think I was sober about 15 minutes back then), I wasn't exactly possessing of a lot of faith in humanity courtesy of a ... Read More
When I was a young man in my late teens/early 20's (Who can actually remember? I think I was sober about 15 minutes back then), I wasn't exactly possessing of a lot of faith in humanity courtesy of a less than stellar upbringing. About a year before I started to turn things around, I allowed a way too intoxicated friend of mine to dip a needle in ink and sketch on my left arm my first tattoo, a godawful version of the word "tenderness," what I had no faith existed in the world, and what ended up looking an awful lot like "tender mess." Yeah, it fit me perfectly so I've never gotten it covered up. 20+ years later, I'm still a fan of tattoos even if I'm not exactly covered in them. I've got my non-profit logo, the happy/sad drama masks in a heart and, yeah, I'm the dork who fell in love with the hot chick and proudly got her very unique name tattooed on my arm alongside our prized ducks. Most women like cats or dogs or whatever. Her? Ducks. Sigh. Why couldn't she have a name like Lisa so I could just go out there and find another one? Still, no cover-ups. So, that put me up to four tattoos when I somewhat impulsively pulled into the parking lot of Artistic Skin Design at 53rd & Keystone, which they call their Broad Ripple location but is really that pretend place we call SoBro and, if we're being honest, is actually across the street from SoBro since Keystone is to SoBro what I am to Brad Pitt - completely unrelated. I knew that my idea was a trend that would quickly fade away, but I so completely resonated with the idea that I didn't care. So, I pulled into Artistic and requested a semi-colon on the upper portion of my spine. Project Semicolon Β is a project started for those who struggle with mental illness, suicide, addiction and self-injury. The semicolon is used when you could have ended your sentence, but you choose to continue. So, then, Project Semicolon is used for those who struggle but continue. While the focus of the project is on mental health issues, I also found it significant to place it on my spine as I wanted to say "My open spine is not the end of my story." I will admit that I always find tattoo shops a bit intimidating. I do not resemble your typical tattoo customer. I am neither heavily inked nor cool in any way. I typically contemplate a tattoo for awhile before finally splurging, often times impulsively as was done on this day. I'd never been to this shop before, but you would have to be majorly incompetent to screw up a semicolon. So, I figured it was a fairly safe risk. Tattoo artists are, after all, truly artists and it's pretty awesome to watch.Artistic offers both appointments and walk-ins, or in my case wheel-ins. The parking lot at this location is super small, but it does have a designated, non-ADA parking spot. The glass door to enter is pretty workable and it's all on one floor with no steps. Tattoo shops can be very hit-and-miss for wheelchair accessibility, but this shop is wheelchair friendly.They do both piercing and tattooing, but I lucked into the fact that the tattoo artist, I believe it was Jesse but wasn't paying attention, was available. My piece wasn't exactly a challenge, but as is the custom he drew up a quick example of what he would do and after agreeing on a price of $55 (a tad high in my opinion, but not high enough to back out) he got going. Let's be honest. This didn't take long, but it was done and done well and I appreciated that he didn't minimize my desire to have the semicolon and, in fact, had done a couple of others and understood the project's significance. Dignity is huge with me and I respected that I was treated just as well as the person getting an elaborate, full-color tattoo. This is definitely a place I'd send a first-time tattoo customer. I requested he take a photo of it with my phone so I could post it online - he obligated. Again, a little extra step that I appreciated. While the price was a tad more than I expected for what was truly just a semicolon, the truth is that it was in the ballpark of pricing for tattoos and it was done well and the artist was friendly, professional and delivered exactly what I wanted where I wanted it. Before I go a 5-star, I really want to look toward that sixth tattoo and get something a little more elaborate. However, I have zero hesitation to recommend Artistic Skin Design and I had no difficulty accessing the place by wheelchair and I'm happy with both the process and the finished product. Read Less