Gold Winner Lydia K., Gem Tattoo Co. Silver Winner Amber Thorpe, Adept Tattoos Bronze Winner Andy Ferrier, Utility Lydia K’s Gem Tattoo Co. is a weird and wonderful polestar of classic tattoo art, intricate designs and general cool body markings. Located at 5926 Hillside Ave #2, Lydia’s talent has her business bustling. It’s a one-woman […]
Utility
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Tattoo / Piercing Joint
Gold Winner Adept Tattoos Silver Winner Utility Bronze Winner Oceanic Art Custom Tattooing Fastidiousness may not immediately spring to mind as something you should look for in a tattoo studio, but trust me, you should. Owner and artist Amber Thorpe (your 2010 and 2011 choice for best tattoo artist) and the crew at Adept Tattoo […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Tattoo / Piercing Joint
Gold Winner Adept Tattoos Silver Winner Utility Bronze Winner Oceanic Art Custom Tattooing This year Adept Tattoos shook things up by taking out longstanding gold winner Utility for highest honours as Best Tattoo/Piercing joint. Both shops can be found on Quinpool Road, since Utility moved from its Blowers Street location in 2010, but Adept’s award-winning […]
Posted inArts + Music
Lydia Klenck: Meet the artist
Tattooing since 2006 From Nova Scotia Trained In Toronto with Bill Baker Style Portraits, traditional American What’s popular in your shop right now? It’s a range, lots of traditional stuff and portraits, what we do in the shop. Japanese, black and grey. Do you have a tattoo you’re most proud of? The one that I […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Tattoo Artist
Gold Winner Amber Thorpe, Adept Tattoos Silver Winner Lydia Klenck (aka Stalingrad), Utility Bronze Winner Andy Ferrier, Utility A sure sign you’ve reached the top of your profession is when your clients will go to jail for you. “She just did my back piece,” comments a reader who voted for gold-winning tattoo artist Amber Thorpe, […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Tattoo / Piercing Joint
Gold Winner Utility Silver Winner Adept Tattoos Bronze Winner Kara’s Urban Day Spa There are two aspects to a tattoo business, the art side and the shop side. The art has obvious importance, as you can see winners of the Best Tattoo Artist category work at the places that come out on top of this […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sailor Jerry turns 100
Legendary tattoo artist Norman Keith Collins, otherwise known as Sailor Jerry, was born in Reno, Nevada on January 14, 1911. Though he went to the great tattoo parlour in the sky in 1973, Utility Gallery (6070 Quinpool Road, 420-1348) is recognizing Collins’ centenary and influential work with a special day of discounts on tattoos based […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Utility moves
Well, it all worked out. Shoptalk reported that the Blowers Street building was sold out from underneath Pro Skateboards and Utility Gallery, forcing both businesses to relocate. Pro Skates collected all it’s stuff and took its three stores to a shiny new location down Quinpool Road. One of its previous locations, 6070 Quinpool Road, a […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Tattoo Artist
Once again in 2011, Amber Thorpe helped bring us the Maritime Tattoo Festival, the fifth annual, as a matter of fact. As if she wasn’t busy enough, her store—Adept Tattoos on Quinpool Road—is a place with a constant buzz from the sound of needles burrowing into flesh. Thorpe has a whack of experience under her […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Tattoo / Piercing Joint
Utility recently moved out of the downtown core on Blowers to their new location, the former Quinpool shop of Pro Skates. By all accounts, they’re as busy as ever, offering piercing and custom tattoo work, headed by multiple Best of Halifax-winner Andy Ferrier. And watch for special events: for Sailor Jerry’s birthday they offered walk-ins […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Proskates, Utliity and Moksha Yoga: Shoptalk Facts and Rumours
This we know is a fact, as has been reported in Shoptalk: Pretty Things Boutique (5685 Cunard Street, 492-8329) is moving into the Pro Girl space at 5240 Blowers Street, while the ProSkates empire, including Pro Girl, prepares to move into new digs on Quinpool Road. The ProSkates move was prompted by the news that […]
Posted inArts + Music
It’s the Pit: Meris Mosher’s graffiti belt buckles
Meris Mosher When The Pit, the graffiti wall on Lower Water and Morris streets, was recently demolished, a cultural history was destroyed too. Over the years, layers and layers of (technically “legal”) street art built up like icing on a cake, undocumented and often unnoticed. But Meris Mosher was watching. Since 2007, the NSCAD grad, […]