A booming business: Changing the face of the tattoo industry

BATAVIA – Elizabeth Doyle didn't even flinch as Fallen Star Tattoo artist Anthony Burkhead started to tattoo the character Stripe from the movie "Gremlins" on one of her arms.

Doyle, 30, got her first tattoo when she was 18, and she now sports several tattoos. At the same time Doyle was getting her new tattoo, she was getting her first one covered up, which she admitted was crudely drawn.

“It was done by a homemade gun,” Doyle said.

Tattooing is a growing business. According to a study done in December 2013 by the Pew Research Center, more than $1 billion a year is spent on tattoos, and 14 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo.

Doyle agreed that tattoos have become more popular.

“It’s very rare to find somebody who doesn’t have a tattoo,” she said.

The industry also is heavily regulated by the Illinois Department of Public Health. It requires tattoo shops be registered with the state and tattoo artists are versed in infectious disease control, including waste disposal and hand-washing techniques, as well as sanitation and sterilization methods.

Fallen Star Tattoo owner Brian Eberle said he believes such regulations are good, along with an Illinois law requiring those who want to get a tattoo must be at least 18 years old. The current law went into effect several years ago, he said.

“Your body is still growing at that age,” Eberle said. “I helped lobby to get the law changed.”

Eberle opened Fallen Star Tattoo in February 2013 at 115 S. Batavia Ave. in downtown Batavia. He has been a tattoo artist for almost 10 years.

He said he will talk to customers beforehand to understand exactly what they want. Eberle has served a wide variety of customers, including an 89-year-old great-grandmother who wanted a long-stem rose tattoo and a banner with the names of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“It’s fun,” he said. “You get to take what the customer is saying and turn it into an image. You don’t want to ever disappoint anybody.”

There are tattoos that Eberle won’t do. For example, he said one individual who had just turned 18 walked into the shop and wanted obscenities tattooed across the knuckles of his hands.

“You make your first impression when you shake somebody’s hands,” he said. “I refused to do it. I don’t know whether they got it someplace else.”

New tattoo shops continue to open. Aurora resident Ramiro Guillen proposes to launch a tattoo parlor/art gallery called Artistic Theories Tattoo and Gallery at 241 Genesis Drive in the Orchard Place shopping center on the west side of North Aurora. He hopes to open his shop in late spring or early summer.

Guillen said he hopes the shop will put a new face on tattoo shops and help erase the stereotype of what tattoos should look like.

“I want to open a more elegant-looking shop,” he said. “It will kind of be like a two-in-one kind of a business. I want to help struggling artists, maybe interview them and see what kind of art they have and see if it kind of fits our style and the theme of our shop.”

Guillen himself is an artist, and he dabbles in several mediums. He has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. Guillen said there is still a stigma attached to tattooing.

“It’s definitely been more acceptable,” Guillen said. “People know what to look for now. I feel that the television shows and everything have somewhat educated people that tattooing can be an art form, not just something that’s damaging the skin or ruining somebody’s appearance. I think the real issue that needs to be addressed is to separate the fact that some people are getting tattooed in a professional environment, such as a shop, which is regulated by the state and the city, versus the people who are getting tattooed in basements and people’s houses by an untrained tattoo artist.”

Guillen said the chance of getting an infection is lower in a professional tattoo shop.

Eberle noted there are many reasons why people come into his shop to get a tattoo. That includes a woman who had to have a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

The woman later had reconstructive surgery, and wanted nipples tattooed on her breasts so she felt “like a real woman,” he said.

“Those are the rewarding times in my job, for sure,” Eberle said.