One of New York City’s oldest tattoo shops is continuing to thrive.
Situated now in the East Village, Fun City Tattoo’s roots date back to the 1970s when Jonathan Shaw started tattooing in his Bowery basement. At the time, tattooing wasn’t legal in Manhattan, so Shaw got creative with his business.
Eventually, after some law changes, Shaw was able to move the establishment to a storefront on Macdougal Street in the 1980s, before moving to its current home on St. Marks Place in 1989.
The shop is currently owned by “Big Steve” Pedone, a tattoo artist with 15 years of experience, and Maxx Starr, a New York City-based artist and entrepreneur.
“I worked for Jonathan and I started working at the shop in 2000, I was 21 years old. Jonathan approached me about buying the shop from him. I was like, hell no, I’m not doing that because I would have screwed it up,” recalled Pedone. “I was getting tattooed in the Lower East Side of a shop called Daredevil and I had mentioned to the owners of Daredevil, Michelle Miles and Brad Fink that he wanted to sell the shop. I actually brokered the deal between Michelle and Brad and Jonathan, and they bought the shop and then I worked for them for about 10 years.”
Later on, Miles and Fink approached Pedone about buying the shop again years later, and after some convincing from his wife, this time Pedone was more receptive, but didn’t want to do it alone.
“I had approached Mac because I didn’t want to do it myself. I’d known Max for almost 10 years,” said Pedone. “We ended up buying the shop in 2013 from Michelle and Brad and that’s where we’re at now. We’ve had it for about 10 years now.”
Those who step into Fun City Tattoo can feel why the shop has lasted as long as it has. Pedone and Starr pride themselves on bringing in tattoo artists who keep things fun while providing a service, and a lifelong piece of art, that customers will enjoy.
“I think Steve and I are both friendly, fun people, so I think we end up hiring people that are similar,” said Starr. “We put a lot of emphasis on treating everyone the same, no matter what tattoo you’re getting. It’s everyone that walks in, whatever they’re getting is important to them, so it’s important to us as well.”
“One thing that we stove to give people when they come in the shop is a good experience. In tattooing, I’d go into tattoo shops and it was always a bad experience — they’re rude to you, everyone comes off as if they’re better than you. I’ve had customers come in and even friends of mine that they’ve gotten like terrible experiences from,” said Pedone. “The most important thing to us is that people leave happy with the tattoo, but I feel like giving them a good experience and having them leave with not a bad taste in their mouth about the attitude that they were given by the tattooer. You could have a perfect tattoo and if you had a bad experience with people in the shop, you’re gonna hate the tattoo.”
Though the Fun City Tattoo shop has seen some improvements over the years, there are elements of the old shop that are still present, like the original cappuccino sign and tattoo sign. The shop has boasted a lineup of celebrity clientele, including SZA, Miley Cyrus, Action Bronson, Demi Levato, and so many more.
For Pedone, something that sticks with him is the generational impact that the shop has not just on the city, but on families as well.
“I’ve been tattooing multiple customers that even if they’re not being tattooed by me, they’re still bringing their family to the shop,” said Pedone. “I’ve been tattooing this guy, he comes to New York every other year from Sweden. He comes on a family vacation, just him, his son, and his wife. It’s crazy, I’ve seen his kid grow up, and now I tattooed his kid. I think I started tattooing him in 2004, so that his kid is an adult now, and he was a little baby when [his father] first started bringing him by the shop.”
Fun City Tattoo recently held its very first Flash Tattoo Weekend back in May. The weekend was very successful and brought in tons of people looking to get inked.
“We had a bunch of people come in. Everyone was excited, and the stuff that everyone’s drawn to is that we’re kind of the younger crew,” said Starr. “They’re really in tune with the styles of what people like right now, so everything [the artists] drew was cool.”
Fun City Tattoo hopes to host more Flash Tattoo events in the future. In the meantime, the shop will be hosting more events throughout the summer, including events in their gallery with brands like Private Policy and Maxwell Osborne this month.
“We really want to push the shop, we definitely wanna push it more as a brand,” said Starr. “We have a team that’s helping us with that. There’s a lot of potential there for us, there’s a lot of collaborations and we’re doing more events out of the shop.”
Fun City Tattoo is located at 94 St Marks Pl. For more information about Fun City Tattoo, visit funcitytattoo.com. Stay up to date with upcoming Fun City Tattoo events by following the shop on Instagram @funcitytattoo.
