In pictures Emily Shephard looks to be a bubbly blonde, but she describes herself more like the dark-haired, jaded character Emily the Strange. “I’m a strange person,” she says. “I wasn’t a rocker chick. I was kind of a nerd. I didn’t have porn under my bed—I had tattoo magazines. Tattoos just fit me.”

Olivia Black is the best thing to have walked into the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop since the 2001 Super Bowl ring.

When shoe designer, Alejandro Ingelmo, walks into his Soho studio wearing jeans and a semitransparent white T-shirt—offering a view of the ink covering his chest, arm, and back—he looks more like a musician who rocks fashion-forward sneakers than a fourth-generation cobbler who creates them.

Guy Aitchison and Michele Wortman receive collectors from around the world who want to be tattooed by two of the industry’s pioneers of contemporary tattoo styles. The husband and wife team are also renowned for promoting fine art and education in the tattoo community.

The hottest rapper on the block, Mac Miller, talks about collaborating with his heroes on rhymes and with legendary tattoo artists on designs.