IronlinePortland ME Book
Sections

Behind the machines

The artists and what each is asked for

Four people run Ironline Tattoo Studio between them. Each one works every service on the board, and each one has two the studio sends their way first. The pictures below are hand-painted flash sheets rather than portraits — the studio publishes its drawings and not photographs of the people who work here.

The artist records

A hand-painted flash sheet: a nurse's head, a kewpie figure and a lettered eagle, drawn in rows.

No. 01

Mara Quinn

Owner and lead artist

Mara Quinn opened Ironline Tattoo Studio and still takes the first chair on every day the studio is open, working custom pieces drawn for one body and no other rather than resized from a picture held up on a phone. They spend the opening minutes of a consultation asking where the piece has to sit when the arm is down, then place the stencil three times if three is what it takes, so the line that goes in is the line that was agreed.

Responsible for the drawing standard the other three chairs work to.

Service focus

A hand-painted flash sheet: a lettered anchor, a second anchor, shields and a profile in silhouette.

No. 02

Eli Novak

Senior artist

Eli Novak works the traditional side of the board and takes most of what comes in over existing work, laying a cover out against what is already there instead of drawing something new and hoping it will bury it. They look at old work in daylight before quoting anything, and will say plainly when a piece wants lightening somewhere else first, or when it reads better reworked than covered.

Responsible for every cover and rework the studio agrees to take.

Service focus

A hand-painted flash sheet: a lettered dagger, a winged propeller, a horse's head and crossed flags.

No. 03

Jun Park

Artist and consultation lead

Jun Park reads the messages that arrive through the contact form and writes most of the replies, which is why an enquiry describing a piece comes back with a service named and a price attached rather than with a request to telephone during opening hours. At the counter they take the consultations and the touch-ups, drawing a thumbnail while the conversation is still happening so nobody leaves with only a number in their head.

Responsible for what the studio promises before anybody sits down.

Service focus

A hand-painted flash sheet laced onto a dark leather board: an anchor, a dagger, a butterfly, a clipper ship and an eagle.

No. 04

Cass Moreno

Studio coordinator

Cass Moreno keeps the diary, answers the telephone and makes certain that every sitting has the right amount of time behind it, which is the reason the studio runs one chair at a time and nobody is moved along to make room for the next name. They also tattoo on the busier afternoons, taking flash pieces and consultations, and they are the person who writes the sitting count into the book so a long piece is booked whole rather than guessed at twice.

Responsible for the timing of the day and for the book itself.

Service focus

Talk to the studio

Ask for an artist by specialty

Naming an artist in a message is enough. If they are not working the day being asked about, the reply says which days they are.

Book a consultation Send a message Email the studio

The column

A short note when the studio changes something

Holiday hours, an artist joining or leaving, a price that moves. Two or three notes a year and nothing else.

The privacy notice explains what happens to the address.

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