Tattoosday Goes to L.A. - Vanessa's Sugar Skull by Joe Truck

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, even though I was in town for only a few days, I wanted to find some time to visit a tattoo shop. Of course, with L.A. being one of the "most tattooed cities in America," the challenge wasn't finding a shop, but deciding from among several to visit nearby. I was staying on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and there are a host of establishments in the Hermosa Beach/Redondo Beach/Gardena/San Pedro/Torrance.

Out of respect to shop owners and the artists, I didn't want to just drop in unannounced, so I reached out ahead of time to see if anyone would be open to coming in for a visit. Fortunately, I found one shop with a New York City connection, Ace of Hearts Tattoo in San Pedro. It's proprietor, Joe Truck, is from the Big Apple and he was open to me stopping by.

Last Monday afternoon, I stopped in the shop, only to discover that my timing was off. Joe wasn't in. The shop was impressive, however. It was well-lit, clean, and very spacious. And not only were the staff friendly,  they each shared some of their own ink with me for Tattoosday.

For example, the piercer, Vanessa, offered up this sugar skull on her forearm that was tattooed by Joe Truck:

Vanessa said that she got this from Joe after she started working at the shop. As I've said many times before on Tattoosday, sugar skulls are a lot like snowflakes, even though they're basically the same, there are never any two exactly alike, and it's always cool to see how many different ways they can be done.

In addition to Vanessa, I also spoke to two of the tattoo artists in the shop, but you'll have to wait for future posts to see what they had to share.

Thanks to Vanessa for sharing her sugar skull with us on Tattoosday!

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