On Oct. 13 — Friday the 13th — Downtown DeLand’s first tattoo shop opened up, and 65 people got some fresh ink to celebrate the occasion. The Alter Tattoo Company, owned by artist Brittany Arizona, formerly of Always Anchored Tattoo, wouldn’t have been able to open at its new location, 110 N. Florida Ave., without fresh changes in DeLand’s city code.
Arizona came to a number of DeLand City Commission meetings urging the city to change its rules and allow tattoo studios in Downtown DeLand and other commercial areas and not just on the city’s outskirts. Now that tattoo and piercing studios can open up in the city’s core, Arizona and her fellow artists Sebby Michaud, Chase Berenson and Chelsea Wall were the first to open a studio Downtown.
The studio formally opened Friday the 13th — a big day for tattoo studios when it’s common practice to offer deals on flash designs, or pre-drawn tattoos.
Centro Tea Co. owner Jen Brennan was first in line to get a tattoo Oct. 13 and Arizona’s first customer at her new location. Brennan has 13 tattoos total, and now four of them come from Alter artists Arizona and Berenson.
“She’s really professional, and I really enjoy her artwork,” Brennan said of Arizona.
She chose her newest design, a shark, partly because she comes from New Smyrna Beach, the shark bite capital of the world.
THE LATEST PIECE OF ART — Centro Tea Co. owner Jennifer Brennan was first in line to get a tattoo at the Alter Tattoo Company for the shop’s opening day Oct. 13. The design she got — a flash design, or one of a series of predrawn tattoo designs customers could choose from — is a shark. Brennan’s shark is the fourth tattoo she has from one of the artists at the Downtown DeLand tattoo studio.
Local musician Jarrod Ridgway got a tattoo Oct. 13, too. A number of his friends and family have tattoos from artists at The Alter, he said, and now he does, too.
“I’m really excited to finally have a parlor Downtown,” Ridgway said. “In my opinion it helps the culture of the town, and I feel as though it doesn’t make sense to not include them in our Downtown.”
More tattoo and piercing studios are expected to open Downtown in the not-too-distant future, too.
Tom Homan, a longtime piercer at Subculturez near Orange City, is planning to open a studio at 128 W. Georgia Ave. early next year, and local tattoo artist Jake Carr is also eyeing next year to open Artisan Tattoo Collective with his wife at 120.5 W. New York Ave.
