I’ve never been to Florida. I will go one day, but it’s the winter in particular when the urge to go some place warm really kicks it up a notch. Sure, the weather is fine in Florida and you can spend some quality time at some great beaches. You can also visit the home of a zillion dollar mouse and most recently the Harry Potter theme park. But if you’re more interested in what’s going on tattoo-wise in Florida than what theme park is up and running or what beach is getting the best surf, then maybe a trip to Orlando’s Stigma Custom Tattoos and Body Piercing is right up your alley.
Judging from the info that I’ve checked out regarding Stigma, it’s something of a theme park in its own right. I mean that in all the best possible ways, of course. Not only can you go there and get tattooed by Stigma owner Welsy, tattooist Gamy, or pierced by Michele Renee, but you can also pop into the onsite bar and get yourself a $2 can of Pabst Blue Ribbon, if you so desire. Not into drinking? Well, how about a pole dancing class? Stigma offers pole dancing classes on one of their six poles. Six poles! They’ve got six poles in this place! Also cages and chains! When the pole dancing classes aren’t being held, there are also professional pole dancers keeping things lively. Oh yeah, and Wednesdays are beer pong nights.
This is the kind of studio that has its good and bad points. On one hand, the pole dancing, chains, cages and the onsite bar – I mean, it’s all a little much. In a time when tattoo is trying to somewhat shake its sleazy reputation (however unjust that reputation may be), a place like Stigma can perhaps only add fuel to the fire to the argument that tattoos are crass and grungy.
Yet on the flip-side, I think that it’s pretty cool to see tattoo studios taking risks and doing something different with the environments that they exist in. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if 5 years from now tattoo studios become more of a place where people can go to relax and hang out as well as get a tattoo if they so desire. It’s a way of making things more accessible, I suppose and that’s a pretty positive evolution in the grand scheme of things.