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Inked Magazine - Michelle Myles Feature |
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Michelle Myles has been getting under people's skin for more than two decades. Her work can be seen on a range of people, like Boy George, Joan Jett, Vincent Gallo, and Whoopi Goldberg. She co-owns two of the hottest tattoo shops in New York City, Daredevil and Funcity and is the only female tattoo artist running a tattoo parlor in this city.
Both of her businesses are located in downtown Manhattan, and both are partnerships with Brad Fink, a St. Louis tattooing legend who's been featured on "Late Show with David Letterman." She calls Fink her biggest influence in the business and says she wanted him to be her partner because she knew "he would help me raise the bar in terms of what I could do as an artist."
Myles, who also hails from St. Louis, opened Daredevil with Fink in 1997, right after New York City lifted its tattoo ban. The storefront on Ludlow Street used to be a refrigerator repair shop owned by a guy named Chilly Willy. Today, it's a modern, cozy space decorated with hot rods and red devils, as homage to Myles' and Fink's passion for car culture.
The pair acquired Fun City, New York City's oldest tattoo shop, about a year ago. Located next door to the brownstones that were featured on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti and just a few buildings over from where the Rolling Stones shot the video for "Waiting on a Friend." The store was in a radical state of disrepair when Myles and Fink bought it from Jonathan Shaw, son of big-band leader Artie Shaw. "Fun City has a lot of history," says Myles. "Chris Garver from "Miami Ink" started here , and Jonathan has tattooed celebrities like Jonny Depp, Kate Moss, and Naomi Campbell. He used to be the sh*t as far as tattooing was concerned, but he's pretty much lost interest in tattooing and now lives in Brazil. The shop was going down the toilet because he wasn't around to run it."
Meanwhile, Daredevil was growing quickly, and its owners were looking to expand. "When we heard the direction Fun City was heading, we put the word out that if Jonathan was interested in selling the place, we were interested in buying," Myles says. "We got it and fixed it up. There's still some work left to be completed." The gleaming space, lit with Art Deco lightsfeatures polished granite counter tops and floors, stainless steel fixtures and a star-patterned pressed-tin ceiling. Classic circus posters and vintage tattoo flash adorn the walls.
"I respect what Fun City means and appreciate the fact that modern tattooing was born a few blocks away on the Bowery, where Samuel O"Reilly patented the first commercial electric tattooing machine," says Myles. "So we really wanted to emphasize the aesthetics of an old-style tattoo shop from the 1930s."
Looking at the glamorous Myles, it's hard to believe she was a tomboy with a crew cut in highschool. With pale blonde hair framing her milky-smooth face, her skin's texture is a testament to a healthy-eating, drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle. "I've never taken a drag off of a cigarette," she says. Her inked arms are the only visible tattoos on her clothed body. "When I started out in the 1980's, girls didn't get tattooed as much, and the first thing I thought when I got a big tattoo on my arm was, 'I'll never be one of those girls that can wear a nice dress and look normal anymore."
Myles became a tattoo artist after she migrated to New York City for school, drawn to the bold outlines, vivid colors and dynamic images of pin-up girls and American eagles of traditional tattooing. She studied fine art at Parsons School of Design, but quickly changed courses. "When I started tattooing as a sophmore, painting lost all meaning for me," she says. She got her first tattoo at 17. It was a black cat, she wanted a black panther but only had $25. Michelle kept getting tattooed after the first one "whenevever I had money burning a hole in my pocket."
With a thoughtful and composed manner Myles speaks slowly, with a charming Midwest accent. She admits she can be bossy, "I kinda hide it under my sweet routine and don't mess around," she says." I think that the more tattoos I got and the better established I became, the more comfortable I grew with being a girl. "Brad, who has known me since the ninth grade, makes fun of me, saying that I've come out of the closet. I'm a girl because I used to be such a tomboy. At first I didn't want people to judge my work based on the fact that I was a woman."
She has a gift for connecting with others, which has assisted her in business. According to Fink, it comes from a genuine sense of concern. "Michelle doesn't have to work hard at any of that. She's not some sort of aggressive charmer, but someone who legitimately likes people," he says.
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