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A look at New Hampshire’s world of tattoo artistry

By Katelyn Sahagian and Jack Walsh

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Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo
Where: DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown, 700 Elm St., Manchester
When: Friday, July 22, 5 p.m. to midnight; Saturday, July 23, 11 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday, July 24, noon to 8 p.m.
Cost: $15 for a single-day pass, $20 for a two-day pass, or $25 for a three-day pass
Visit: livefreeordietattoo.com

On Friday, July 15, the air was buzzing with more than just the whir of tattoo machines at Tattoo Angus and Spider-Bite, Inc., a joint tattoo and body piercing shop in Manchester. Anticipation grew as artists and apprentices scurried across the main floor — those not currently getting inked or pierced looked through flash sheets and pointed out elegantly crafted adornments, occasionally stooping to pet one of the “shop dogs,” a black-and-white-colored pit bull named Bijou.

It’s nearly time for the long-awaited return of the Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo — the 14th annual event is a three-day affair packed with local vendors, contests and live music, returning to the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown from Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 24.

The largest event of its kind in the Granite State, the expo originally started in 2007 but hasn’t been held since 2019. Organizer Jon Thomas, who is also the owner of Tattoo Angus and Spider-Bite, said he never imagined it would be as successful as it has become.

“An hour before the show, people started piling up and I saw this huge line out there, and that feeling was amazing,” Thomas said. “We had a sold-out show.”

The expo will be a little smaller this time around, Thomas said, but there will still be more than 100 booths set up. Sideshows by Doctor Finnigan’s Circus and burlesque performer Marlo Marquis are also planned, as well as the return of the ever popular pin-up pageant.

“For the tattoo contest and pin-up contests, we went back to the classics,” Thomas said, adding that some past themes have complicated things. “It takes [the models] a lot more work. They all do a decent job, but every time we do a classic pin-up, it goes back four times bigger.”

Artists can participate in different competitions, like Best Cover-up, Best Half-Sleeve and Best Portrait in either color or black and gray. Each of the expo’s three days will culminate with an artist being awarded the Best Tattoo of the Day.

Smaller tattoos like scripts and dates, as well as images chosen from flash sheets, will make up most of the walk-in tattooing opportunities at the expo. Thomas said that a few of the artists will be fully booked for the competitions. He added that even with the smaller number of booths there will be no shortage of artists willing to do some quick work.

Thomas is even hosting a party at Angel City Music Hall, a bar below his shop, with a complimentary limo service to take people from the expo to there and back. There will also be live music, including performances from Bar Hoppers and The Dilemma.

Meet the artist
Sean Ambrose, Arrows & Embers Tattoo
117 Manchester St., Suite 3, Concord, 988-6067, arrowsandemberstattoo.com
Years of experience: 12
Appointments: arrowsandemberstattoo.com/contact
Ambrose started his first apprenticeship at the age of 18. “I knew I was going to be a tattoo artist from an early age,” he said. “It was meant to be.” Having opened Arrows and Embers in 2010, Ambrose has gone on to win awards and accolades, continuing to do what he loves today. As for his style, it’s hard to pin down. “I work in any style that is beautiful,” he said. “I follow my instincts, draw from classical art sources, any piece of art has a recipe, like baking a cake, more so than being a magical experience.”

Meet the artist
Jo-Jo Clark, Scaredy Cat Ink Tattoo
181 Route 13, Brookline, 347-8980, scaredycatinktattoo.com
Years of experience: 17
Appointments: scaredycatinktattoo.com (scroll down to the contact form)
Originally from Maine, Clark has been tattooing since 2005, opening Scaredy Cat Ink in 2018. Working in a lot of different styles, she specializes in watercolor tattoos, preferring to do things the old-fashioned way. “I like to sit down with the client and do an in-person consultation,” she said. “I love the opportunity to sit down with them and design it for them in the studio. That way any changes can be made right there, instead of messaging back and forth.”

Meet the artist
Sami “Moxi” Monoxelos, Scorpion Tattooing
10 Manchester Road, Derry, 434-4798, scorpiontattooing.com
Years of experience: 4 1/2
Appointments: [email protected] (not currently accepting bookings)
Monoxelos, who dresses up as her favorite characters from different fandoms and attends different conventions, specializes in doing fandom and anime tattoos. While she isn’t open for booking, her shop takes walk-ins and bookings with other artists.

A rapidly growing culture

Thomas organized the first Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo just one year after tattooing became legal in Manchester. In fact, he was a major part of getting that legislation passed in 2006.

“I tried to tell [the court] how safe shops would be, instead of people getting tattooed in basements,” he said. “I had Spider-Bite already. I showed them my aftercare sheets and other stuff. They finally broke down and gave it to me.”

A major part of tattooing is getting an apprenticeship. According to the Board of Body Art Practitioners, apprenticeships are required in New Hampshire for tattoo artists to become licensed. Apprenticeships must last at least a year, but most will extend for longer until the training artist is confident in their apprentice’s abilities.

Paul Teves of Blue Iris Tattoo in Merrimack has been practicing the art for more than 20 years in New Hampshire. Back then, Teves said, there was a huge social taboo hanging over the heads of artists and people covered with tattoos alike.

“When I first started, [tattoos were] really frowned upon,” Teves said. “I remember when older women would get up and sit on the other side of the bus from me. Now you can’t go [to] the hospital without seeing a nurse with a sleeve.”

Teves will be one of the featured artists at the expo. He said he is glad to see how the art form and its overall reception have evolved tremendously over the last few years.

Meet the artist
Abe Hilerio, Tat2abe
100 Main St., Nashua, 341-0145, tat2abe.com
Years of experience: 23
Appointments: Made via phone
To Hilerio, tattooing is more than just a profession — it’s his passion. He treats every day of work as a chance to better his skills and hone his craft, as well as making the best art he can for his clients. He specializes in black and gray realism tattoos, especially portraiture. Tat2abe, his shop, only accepts clients via appointment.

Abe Hilerio of Tat2abe, a private studio in Nashua, said tattooing has changed drastically since he began back in 1999. His career started in his home state of Massachusetts, where it was illegal for people without medical degrees to tattoo up until the year 2000.

“Back then tattooing wasn’t popular,” Hilerio said. “There were no reality shows, [and] it was more of an underground type of thing. It was still kind of cliché.”

Hilerio gained an apprenticeship by word of mouth — a friend boasted of his talents in illustration — as there was no social media for him to share his work.

Now, Hilerio said that tattooing has grown in acceptance, crediting the popularity of reality television shows. He said they have shaped the current industry and have shown the world the true diversity in art surrounding each tattoo artist and piece.

Hilerio spends hours studying and drawing his designs to perfection for each of his clients. He only takes on one client per day so that he can maintain complete focus.

“Everybody wants custom [tattoos], so we have to sit there and draw, and sometimes we have to figure out what it is the client wants us to do,” Hilerio said. “That takes a lot of time.”

Sami “Moxie” Monoxelos of Scorpion Tattooing in Derry said that in recent years tattoo culture has changed for the better. She started her career as an art student at Maine College of Art before transitioning to skin canvases.

“Almost any tattoo shop that I’ll go into, it doesn’t matter what walk of life, who you are, where you come from, [or] what you identify as, people are super accepting of it,” Monoxelos said.

Lloyd Goodwin of Magic Moon Tattoo in Nashua said that being personable is a huge part of the process nowadays, especially in having recurring clients.

“The business has changed a lot,” Goodwin said. “It used to be that somebody would come in, [and] they’d sit down, be quiet and get the tattoo.”

Originally taking up illustration in his early years, Goodwin worked in retail when he was told that he could make money in tattooing by an admirer of his art. Tattooing quickly became his passion, and he has been giving people permanent art for six years.

Meet the artist
Paul Teves, Blue Iris Tattoo
416 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 505-7701, blueiristattoo.com
Years of experience: 23
Appointments: [email protected]
Teves received his first tattoo at the age of 13 and has been in love with the artform ever since. He began his career as a self-taught tattooer in 1999. A few years later he completed his apprenticeship in Massachusetts under longtime artist Mulysa Mayhem, ultimately returning to New Hampshire to fulfill his dream of owning his own shop. Teves owns Blue Iris Tattoos, where he is also a principal artist. The shop is by appointment only.

Meet the artist
Sarah Arnold, Apothecary Tattoo
141 Route 101A, Unit M4, Amherst, 521-7491, apothecarytattoonh.com
Years of experience: 8
Appointments: apothecarytattoonh.com/contact/
Arnold, who has been fascinated with art and drawing her whole life, said transitioning to tattooing in 2014 felt like a natural extension of that passion. She opened Apothecary Tattoo in 2020 as a joint tattoo shop and fine art gallery. She specializes in neo-traditional, illustrative, and cartoon tattoos. Apothecary Tattoo is open for walk-ins, as well as booked appointments for larger pieces.

Tattooing trends

While she favors creating unique fandom and anime pieces for her clients, Monoxelos said she has noticed over her four-and-a-half-year career that tattooing trends change frequently. Right now, she is seeing a spike in people requesting floral pieces.

“There’s so much that you can do with it, too. It flows naturally with the body, and it usually looks really good,” she said. She explained that any type of plant life, from forests to flowers, is considered a floral tattoo. “Black and gray floral, color floral, floral with a pet portrait, I’d say, [is] the going trend right now.”

Sarah Arnold, an artist at Apothecary Tattoos in Amherst, said that she’s seen a lot of tattoo trends come from social media.

“On TikTok, there was a girl [with] five butterflies going from her hand up her arm and the amount of people who wanted this tattoo was staggering,” Arnold said. “It was pretty, but I kept thinking, ‘Why do you all want the same thing?’”

Arnold said she has been obsessed with tattoos since she was 18, when she got her first piece done. She has been designing art and inking people since 2014, but said she has never before seen people embracing the art form like they are now.

“Everybody is getting tattoos now,” she said. “Everybody is going straight for hand, neck, face and that used to be the last thing you’d get done. You’d only do those spots when you ran out of space.”

Arnold said she won’t do faces, hands or necks for people unless they are already heavily covered. She said that a lot of young people don’t fully grasp the implications of what having tattoos in those spots could mean in the future.

A piece of advice Arnold has for people who are new to getting tattoos is for clients to not worry about offending artists if they don’t like the stencil. Arnold said that there’s no harm in turning away a drawing, because it’s the client’s body that will be permanently changed.

“Say something when you’re upset with the drawing. We have to look at it for a couple hours. You have to look at it for the rest of your life,” Arnold said. She added that offending an artist might be uncomfortable, but it outweighs the other option. “Their feelings will be fixed in an hour when they’ve forgotten you. You’d be stuck with a tattoo that you don’t want.”

Meet the artist
Lloyd Goodwin, Magic Moon Tattoo
38C E. Hollis St., Nashua, 320-9616, magicmoontattoo.com
Years of experience: 7
Appointments: form.jotform.com/magicmoontattoo/tattoo
Goodwin has been drawing and creating illustrations his whole life. While working in retail he was encouraged to take the plunge into tattooing, and he’s never looked back. Goodwin specializes in neo-traditional but is comfortable with all styles of tattooing. Magic Moon Tattoo does not take walk-in clients.

Meet the artist
Dave McCormick, Tattoo Angus
179 Elm St., Unit C, Manchester, 935-9398, tattooangus.com
Years of experience: 27
Appointments: [email protected]
McCormick does a mix of styles but said he specializes in photorealism and more classic styles. His process for designing a tattoo with a client is simple: “They just have to put me on a path,” he said. McCormick had an interesting start to his tattooing career. ”My wife bought me a ‘tattoo starter kit,’ with our tax money that we desperately needed to pay bills that year, and she said, ‘Get good quick,’” he said. “27 years later I’m still doing it.”

When it comes to trends, Goodwin said that there are often waves. He said that a lot of what people consider hot tattoos is based on the art notable celebrities get done.

“Rihanna’s pharaoh bird came out and that really set the trend for sternum tattoos,” Goodwin said. “It’s all based on what people see in the media.”

Goodwin added that now, more people are doing research on who they want to use as an artist rather than walking into a shop and picking the first artist that they happen to speak with.

Birth flowers, mandalas, dates and memorial tattoos take up about 30 to 40 percent of Goodwin’s business. The other 60 to 70 percent, he said, is based on his own creativity — he works with clients to design art that fits their body and will accommodate their special requests.

“People are beginning to see [the value of] going to see a specific artist because of the quality of the work, in comparison to just going everywhere and getting a bunch of work,” Goodwin said. “When I first started in the industry, it was more or less flash tattoos that people were doing.”

Despite the growing demand for custom tattoos, Arnold said that there isn’t any hostility amongst artists that she’s noticed in New Hampshire. She said that she’ll often refer people who are looking to get mandalas done to artists she knows who will excel at the geometric style.

“I feel we’re super lucky to have so many great artists concentrated in such a small state,” Arnold said. She said that there is competition, but it pushes her and other artists to do the best they can. “I feel like the community between artists … [is] not negative and super competitive in a bad way. We’re all proud of the accomplishments of each other.”

Tattooing styles
Source: Inked Magazine, inkedmag.com
• American traditional: A popular style of tattoo with thick black outlines, a minimal but bold color palette, and iconic tattoo imagery like skulls, snakes, knives, swallows and anchors.
• Black and gray: A style of tattooing that only utilizes black ink. The ink is diluted with water to get the gray tones for shading and highlighting.
• Cosmetic tattoo: A type of tattoo that is used to enhance features, much like make up. Common types are microblading, which is done to fill out eyebrows, as well as permanent lip and eye liner.
• Cover-up: A tattoo designed to hide an older tattoo in the new one. A good cover-up
will completely hide the old tattoo through strategic linework and color.
• Geometric: A style of tattooing that uses geometric shapes and linework with no shading. Mandalas are a popular form of geometric tattoo.
• Illustrative: A style of tattooing that combines aspects of realism and American traditional. It uses bold outlines and realistic shading to depict illustration designs.

Hannah Turtle contributed to this story.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.