Staffer needles through tattoo parlor scene
Amanda Ebert
Issue date: 10/11/04 Section: Features
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The sign outside the door on Market Street says "Gus's Tattoo Parlor," but Gus doesn't own it anymore.
After Gus recently passed away, his son, Jerry Thomas, gained ownership but Jerry lives in Richmond and isn't active in the shop's day-to day happenings.
Sandwiched between North End Cleaners and Alterations and Busy Bee Beauty Shop and close to another tattoo shop (Time Bomb), Gus's is undergoing a period of drastic change.
Gus's popularity is preceded by the reputation of its tattoo artists but that may change due to the new owner and staff. Rhonda Swartwood, 29, the previous manager at Snakeman's, a tattoo shop on Route 85, began working at Gus's a month ago.
Her main job right now is to clean up and renovate the place.
"I run my shop clean," she said. "I have a good rapport with the Health Department."
Gus's reeks of the familiar sterile smell of a hospital or a dentist's office, but this is a place where people voluntarily and willingly accept, even embrace, needles.
The boy at the counter looks young but his multiple tattoos and piercings reveal that he is at least 18, or else he just has liberal parents.
It turns out that Justin Lynn is 23 but he doesn't know much about his place of employment, having just moved to Frederick from Orlando.
"I actually moved here two weeks ago because my best friend is an artist here. I'm just the apprentice," Lynn said, as he fiddles nervously with his lip ring and returns to ordering Chinese take-out over the phone.
He is leaning over a glass display case containing dozens of savage metal pieces intended for holes that people were not born with. Some of them are an inch in diameter. Bottles of Listerine and other antiseptic materials to clean and disinfect new punctures are available.
Hanging to his left are black clothes and studded belts that could have been taken from Hot Topic, the Goth store at Francis Scott Key Mall where all the punk-rocker kids shop.
On the opposite wall, flash racks boast hundreds of tattoo designs, mostly tribal patterns with occasional fairies, butterflies, and dragons scattered throughout.
After Gus recently passed away, his son, Jerry Thomas, gained ownership but Jerry lives in Richmond and isn't active in the shop's day-to day happenings.
Sandwiched between North End Cleaners and Alterations and Busy Bee Beauty Shop and close to another tattoo shop (Time Bomb), Gus's is undergoing a period of drastic change.
Gus's popularity is preceded by the reputation of its tattoo artists but that may change due to the new owner and staff. Rhonda Swartwood, 29, the previous manager at Snakeman's, a tattoo shop on Route 85, began working at Gus's a month ago.
Her main job right now is to clean up and renovate the place.
"I run my shop clean," she said. "I have a good rapport with the Health Department."
Gus's reeks of the familiar sterile smell of a hospital or a dentist's office, but this is a place where people voluntarily and willingly accept, even embrace, needles.
The boy at the counter looks young but his multiple tattoos and piercings reveal that he is at least 18, or else he just has liberal parents.
It turns out that Justin Lynn is 23 but he doesn't know much about his place of employment, having just moved to Frederick from Orlando.
"I actually moved here two weeks ago because my best friend is an artist here. I'm just the apprentice," Lynn said, as he fiddles nervously with his lip ring and returns to ordering Chinese take-out over the phone.
He is leaning over a glass display case containing dozens of savage metal pieces intended for holes that people were not born with. Some of them are an inch in diameter. Bottles of Listerine and other antiseptic materials to clean and disinfect new punctures are available.
Hanging to his left are black clothes and studded belts that could have been taken from Hot Topic, the Goth store at Francis Scott Key Mall where all the punk-rocker kids shop.
On the opposite wall, flash racks boast hundreds of tattoo designs, mostly tribal patterns with occasional fairies, butterflies, and dragons scattered throughout.