When Zoe Jakes was starting out as a belly dancer, she made her living by dancing for Arabic and Persian groups—cultures that traditionally don’t approve of tattoos...

READ MORE »

From the outside, the offices of skateboard and clothing company Zoo York look like any other dull, gray building in midtown Manhattan. The inside is another story. Up the elevator and through a conference room decorated with skateboard decks, down a hallway lined with clothing racks and a few used and abused skateboards is a stairwell covered top to bottom in graffiti by renowned artists such as SP One, Skuf, Stay High 149, and Cinik. The faint smell of spray paint permeates everything. It’s a fitting passageway to the upstairs world of Zoo York, a company that shunned the warm California vibes of other skate companies for the tagged-up grit ...

READ MORE »

Spirituality rules at this famed establishment, whose client list includes Montel Williams and Dennis Rodman. “Western tattooing, unfortunately, is about money,” says owner Roni Zulu. “But the art of tattooing is a very ancient, very sacred art form.” Concerned with learning and preserving the primordial cultural aspects of the craft, Zulu frequently travels to places like the Tahitian islands and Samoa, to absorb and import ideas back to his shop. “Our goal is not to put something on you, we want to pull something out of you,” insists Zulu. This means clients and artists will sometimes collaborate on a particular piece for up to six months before both feel an image is ready to be etched. It’s a very intimate relationship, but one that culminates in a custom piece that ...

READ MORE »