It’s a bustling First Friday in Chinatown, and people are shuffling along Bethel Street, poking heads into the open doors of a variety of newly launched small businesses. One of those upstart enterprises is Black Cat Tattoo Studio, of Anthony Carll and Bobby Wald, long time friends. There is an unsettling noise that is at once shrill and blunt. It is the music of the needle, and a milling crowd waits to get under the gun.
The two men had a desire to become part of the Chinatown business community, and eventually settled on the idea of opening a tattoo shop and art gallery. Securing a lease proved to be a challenge, due largely to the stigma attached to the tattoo culture. While tattoos have become patently mainstream, the parlors remain encumbered by the preconceptions of those who are unfamiliar with the art. But persistence paid off, and Black Cat Tattoo now enjoys a prime spot in Chinatown.
What makes Black Cat unique among tattoo shops is how it functions as an art gallery as well as a place for creating wearable art. Wald/Carll along side of the in-house artist all serve as curators, selecting choice works by the artists they employ, be they in-house or visiting. Handsomely framed pieces hang throughout the establishment and are as alluring to art lovers as the tattoos are to ink freaks.
Much of the inspiration the artists at Black Cat Tattoo share is a desire to transcend the biker/gangster/prison inmate image with which tattoo art has always been saddled. “We want to elevate tattooing to a form of high art,”.
Black Cat Studio is committed to their endeavor and to the area they now call home. They have forged friendly, collegial relationships with the restaurants, theaters and galleries in the area, and they are honored with the privilege. “Being in Chinatown,” Wald says, “we have a responsibility to participate and contribute to the community.” Like the pieces their artists provide, they want to be permanent.