Daredevil Tattoo studio in New York have been fundraising to create a tattoo museum, we chatted to tattoo artist Michelle Myles who works at the studio to find out more…
Who tattoos at the shop? I work at the shop full time and my business partner Brad Fink is based in St.Louis at Iron Age studio. He gets to New York as often as he can. Our other full time artists are Diego Mannino, Chilly Pete and Lara Scotton from Milan.
How long has the studio been open? We opened Daredevil in 1997 when tattooing was legalized in New York after a 30 year ban. Two years ago we moved from our original location on Ludlow Street to our new space on Division in Chinatown.
Can you tell us about the New York tattoo Museum you are creating? Our new space is larger and incorporates Brad’s extensive historical tattoo collection. Our new location is also just down the street from Chatham Square and the Bowery, the birthplace of modern American tattooing. We are very excited to be able to build a space that pays tribute to the early roots of modern tattooing in the same place where it all began.
How did the fundraising page start? In December we were able to buy the storefront that the shop is located in but it really wiped us out and we were anxious to finish the work needed to bring the rest of the collection into the space. We saw the fundraising campaign as a way to finish the work on the space and also to let people know about the museum and to get people involved in it. Probably the best part of the campaign was the amount of support we got from the tattoo community and really having a sense of people believing in the project and wanting it to come about.
What do you hope to achieve? These days with so many small businesses falling to high rents and being pushed out our goal has been to build a permanent home for tattoo history in New York City that is open to everyone and is a global destination for the tattoo community.
Why is the museum needed? New York City of all cities needs a tattoo museum more than any place else because of the history it gave us.
How much have you raised? The kickstarter campaign raised $36,000
What’s next? Right now we’re working on getting all the rewards out to all the people who pledged for the campaign and finishing the projects in the shop that the campaign will be paying for. The main projects are the front display case that will hold the Thomas Edison engraving pen along with other artifacts, the signage out front that can go up when the work is done on the facade of our building and getting the crushed penny machine working that we got from Lyle Tuttle.
You can see the progress of the kickstarter campaign here