Under the advisement of a few friends, I decided to check out this new tattoo shop that just opened its doors in West Nyack, NY, just last February. The shop is called Body INKorporated and owner Rick Payne is no stranger to the area. In fact, Rick used to own a piercing and body jewelry shop in the Palisades Center Mall right across Route 59. When Rick decided that he wanted to turn his Mall facility into a tattoo and piercing shop, the Mall decided that they wanted to have a problem with that and raised his rent to $23,000 a month! So, Rick and his crew decided to take action by getting shoppers and people from the West Nyack community to sign a petition to get the Mall to let them tattoo in the Mall, but after thousands of names were signed, the Mall still wouldn’t budge. Rick then looked at other options, and found a spot right next to Romantic Depot right across the highway from the Mall at an intersection that generates over twenty thousand cars a day. Did Rick Payne luck out with location? I think so! When I asked them if they’ve been doing any advertising for the shop yet, Rick and receptionist Dina DiGiacomo told me that their customers mainly have been coming into the shop through word of mouth, but also that many of their customers have been coming in because when they were pulling out of the Mall, they noticed the Tattoo shop and were curious. So, location was definitely a key factor in this instance!
So, Rick Payne opened Body INKorporated back on February 11 of this year, after he took a leave of absence from his 13-year-long career as a Registered Respiratory Therapist to open the shop. So, because Rick was already in the medical field, you know that certain precautions were taken when opening this shop. Rick told me that Body INKorporated prides itself on cleanliness, and I have to admit that I know that the shop is new and all, but Body INKorporated might be the cleanest shop that I’ve ever been in. I mean it still had that new house smell to it!
Now, Rick also told me that the piercing and the tattooing brought in equal amounts of business, which surprised me because I thought that piercing might’ve been on a downswing since most tattoo shops didn’t do it as much anymore. Rick has two piercers on staff, Christy Murtagh and Will Luterzo. Christy told me that it wasn’t too surprising to see that piercing absolutely generated just as much revenue as the tattooing did. Christy told me that piercing would cost on the average about $35 to $60, and that she gets plenty of piercing re-dos because of other shop’s piercing screw-ups. This was another thing that I found very interesting! Speaking of piercing, Rick also told me that in conjunction with the Rockland County Board of Health, he has recently written the proposed legislation to govern and regulate Body Piercing and piercers in Rockland County.
Rick was also very quick to show me that Body INKorporated is one of the first shops in the area to use a software program called ModBase, which is a program that allows the shop to scan every client I.D. in their database so that they can keep track of every detail and work done on the client whether it be tattooing or piercing. Rick was pretty adamant when he told me that nobody underage gets tattooed or pierced by Body INKorporated. They tattoo no one under the age of 18, and they’ll pierce anyone over the age of 16 who can produce an original birth certificate, a photo I.D. to match, and their parents must be present with a photo I.D. that has the same last name as the minor to prove that they’re not just a ‘cool aunt or uncle’. Now, that’s pretty strict, huh? Both minors and parent would have their I.D.s scanned into this ModBase system and put on file.
Being that tattooing has been such a huge part of Rick’s life, Rick was more than pleased to open a shop for the body art enthusiast. Rick, who is also a trained M.M.A. fighter and covered in tattoos himself, chose to only surround himself by artists that he really trusts Mick Metal, whom I also knew from a previous shop that I checked out and he made sure that I knew that I left him out of my feature last time (Not this time, Mick!). Mick has been tattooing for about three years. Then there’s Mr. Chino, who is a West Coast transplant and 100% deaf, but his black and gray work is second to none! If you’re looking for some West Coast looking gangsta artwork, Mr. Chino is amazing! There’s also an artist named Vicente that the shop just calls Vinny. He’s been tattooing for seven years. And the veteran artist of the Body Inkorporated crew is a guy named Christian Perez, whose artwork is phenomenal also. Mick Metal was telling me that shop is a custom shop, but they will do Flash work only they will manipulate the flash to make it more custom. The shop charges $150 per hour for tattooing, which is on the average compared to most shops that I’ve been too, and again it’s clean as anything! Walk-ins are always welcome and the artists will sit there and consult the customers before they start drawing.
Another added bonus to Body INKorporated is that they sell tons of tattoo related merchandise in-store like Ed Hardy, Sailor Jerry, Smet, and Affliction wear. The stuff that I liked was the motorcycle accessories that the store had like the leather jackets and helmets. Rick said that any motorcycle accessory that is not in-store, he can have within a day. Rick also told me that the shop has so much room that he likes to fill the walls up with artwork from tattoo artists from around the word. So, for all of you tattoo artists out there reading this right now, Rick is looking for your artwork to display and sell in his new shop so contact him!
I was more than satisfied with my visit to Body INKorporated! The environment was extremely friendly, it was clean, and there is just tons of room in this shop. This place will succeed for years to come, so you better make your appointments now! You can do so by calling (845) 727-7007 or just by going over to the shop yourself and checking it out! It’s located at 291 Route 59, West Nyack, NY 10994. If you want to check out Body INKorporated online, you can do so at bodyinkorporated.com or by logging onto their myspace page, myspace.com/bodyinkorporated.
Also, this month, like I always do when I get new ink, I’ve also included a picture of my new artwork courtesy of Danny Pain of Pure Ink in Ledgewood, NJ. All Danny did was add a water theme to my existing dragon piece, but it looks hot as s**t!
Well, I’m off to check out my next tattoo place!
