Bang Bang Tattoo, known for its celebrity clients and high price points, has tapped designer Jesse McGowan to create the interiors for its new shop.
The two-level shop is located on Grand Street, in the heart of New York's SoHo. Intended to become the studio's main location, the parlour seeks "elevate the experience" of receiving a tattoo.
McGowan, who previously designed Bang Bang Tattoo's brand identity, chose a monochrome palette for the interiors – alternating black and white finishes in various areas.
Marble fixtures, such as the angular reception desk and benches in the lobby, contribute to the shop's glitzy appearance.
"Imbued with a stark sense of purity and permanence, the striking marble-clad two-level studio has broken new ground in how a tattoo shop can be envisioned," said McGowan in a project description.
According to the designer, the sequence of spaces "evokes a religious experience". After checking in at the reception desk, clients pass through a black glass tunnel that leads to the studio beyond.
The tunnel is made of screens that display an immersive video installation that was designed, filmed, and produced by McGowan.
The tattoo studio itself is a long tall space, lined on two walls with workstations that artists can use for sketching and client consultations.
"Custom fabricated angular workstations line the walls — black resin-infused paper countertops are embedded with lightboxes for drafting and sketching," said McGowan.
When customers are ready to receive a tattoo, the artists installs the necessary tables, chairs, and equipment within the open-plan space.
At the back of the room, a single pane of glass frames a view of the back garden, which includes a koi pond in its centre. The pond's floor is made of glass and placed above a skylight, allowing it to be observed from below.
A staircase made of black perforated metal leads to the basement, which is laid out as a lounge space. This serves as a place for employees and artists to relax, but also accommodates client consultations.
McGowan said that the interiors, which are monochrome and feature many diagonal lines, are meant to reference the brand identity he created for the studio in 2013: a square cross framing the letters "BANG".
For a similarly rethinking of the traditional tattoo parlour, FREAKS freearchitects designed a studio in Paris that swapped the "cheesy" aesthetic with a minimalist palette, and privacy curtains printed with Hieronimus Bosch paintings.
Photography is by Anna Morgowicz.