Get your ink on at Taylor Street Tattoo
Douglas Pearson
Issue date: 10/17/05 Section: News
There are many things on Taylor Street, many good restaurants, some UIC buildings, and a lot of apartments, but there is only one tattoo parlor.
Taylor Street Tattoo opened about a year ago. It was hard for owner Keith Underwood just to open his doors. The tattoo parlor was assaulted by other residents of the area, thinking a tattoo parlor would bring the community down a notch. Taylor Street Tattoo has been there for a year and it seems that the hostility it received had been ill founded.
When you walk into the parlor it is easy to see that it is one of the cleaner businesses on the Street. It may be small, but it has a lot to offer. The walls are packed with designs and ideas for tattoos, and there are many different kinds of body jewelry under the glass cases.
Underwood, a 29-year-old New Yorker, has been a tattoo artist for 9 years now, and has been working in tattoo shops since before he graduated high school. When asked about business on Taylor Street, he said that he gets about 8 or 9 students in a week. "I thought I would get more students, the 21 year or older law doesn't help."
It may seem that with TV shows about tattooing and tattoos, and tattoos getting more publicity in magazines that they must be getting more popular, but Underwood says that he hasn't seen a direct result. He hasn't had anyone come in and say that they wanted a tattoo because they saw a documentary on tattoos. Most of his costumers are women; at least 60 percent. When asked about the oddest tattoo that he had ever done Underwood said, "I find barbed wire kind of odd."
For a man that has lost count of how many tattoos he has, he does not seem what you would expect. When most people look at a person covered in tattoos most do not have a high opinion of him or her. Underwood has successfully run Taylor Street Tattoo for a year and has been self-employed for many more.
Being a tattoo artist is not like most jobs. It would appear to be like any other job in sales, but all of the artists, including Underwood, work solely on commission. "If we do not work we do not get paid. It is tough work," he says.
Being a tattoo artist is one of the few jobs left in this time that still work up from an apprenticeship. Lots of occupations have apprentices, but tattooing is unique because there is not any formal schooling. The artists have to learn from other artists. They work in tattoo parlors for years as gofers before they can ever start to tattoo anyone.
For any UIC student looking for a tattoo or a piercing Taylor Street Tattoo is definitely the place to go. They take walk ins and if you want help what to put on your body they will help, or you can design it yourself.
Taylor Street Tattoo opened about a year ago. It was hard for owner Keith Underwood just to open his doors. The tattoo parlor was assaulted by other residents of the area, thinking a tattoo parlor would bring the community down a notch. Taylor Street Tattoo has been there for a year and it seems that the hostility it received had been ill founded.
When you walk into the parlor it is easy to see that it is one of the cleaner businesses on the Street. It may be small, but it has a lot to offer. The walls are packed with designs and ideas for tattoos, and there are many different kinds of body jewelry under the glass cases.
Underwood, a 29-year-old New Yorker, has been a tattoo artist for 9 years now, and has been working in tattoo shops since before he graduated high school. When asked about business on Taylor Street, he said that he gets about 8 or 9 students in a week. "I thought I would get more students, the 21 year or older law doesn't help."
It may seem that with TV shows about tattooing and tattoos, and tattoos getting more publicity in magazines that they must be getting more popular, but Underwood says that he hasn't seen a direct result. He hasn't had anyone come in and say that they wanted a tattoo because they saw a documentary on tattoos. Most of his costumers are women; at least 60 percent. When asked about the oddest tattoo that he had ever done Underwood said, "I find barbed wire kind of odd."
For a man that has lost count of how many tattoos he has, he does not seem what you would expect. When most people look at a person covered in tattoos most do not have a high opinion of him or her. Underwood has successfully run Taylor Street Tattoo for a year and has been self-employed for many more.
Being a tattoo artist is not like most jobs. It would appear to be like any other job in sales, but all of the artists, including Underwood, work solely on commission. "If we do not work we do not get paid. It is tough work," he says.
Being a tattoo artist is one of the few jobs left in this time that still work up from an apprenticeship. Lots of occupations have apprentices, but tattooing is unique because there is not any formal schooling. The artists have to learn from other artists. They work in tattoo parlors for years as gofers before they can ever start to tattoo anyone.
For any UIC student looking for a tattoo or a piercing Taylor Street Tattoo is definitely the place to go. They take walk ins and if you want help what to put on your body they will help, or you can design it yourself.