A Day in the Way

Follow me, Sleevie B, as I'm led through the Way of Ink, with Brian Freda.





Brian spotted me outside, taking pictures of his new M5. It had a nice stance about it, and I was taking pictures of it because I was confused by it's somewhat unique brake setup (drilled and slotteds out back, blanks up front). Brian's got some pretty sweet plans for it, but it seemed like he's keeping that hand pretty close to the chest.

We both agreed the car-phone was the coolest part of the interior.

Eventually, after satisfying our Bavarian hunger, we headed inside.

The shop is decorated top to bottom with breathtaking graffiti. These are the same artists that slatherd parts of the Muddy Mutt, a real set of pros.

The shop was full of cool stuff, including these custom Vans. They have done all kinds of custom footwear in the past, a lot of which can be seen on their Facebook page.

Brian and I both share a passion for Rat Fink.

I was lucky enough to convince Brian and his customer ( a wonderful girl named Hayley) to let me tag along for the ride.

He viewed an email Hayley had sent for reference, as well as referred to some other material to get a good idea of exactly what she wanted.

The back room is also well decorated; creativity thrives in this place

Even this tracing space seems to breathe.

In many ways the tracing part of the tattoo's life is most important. Proper technique and attention are required for the actual inking of the skin, but the piece is birthed on paper.

A master at work.

They use the cool machine seen above to morph their hand traced stencils into temporary tattoos. Brian figured "You could do it by hand but this is right, faster, and easier!" No arguments here!

It got to be time to start poking skin, first things first, loading up the gun.

Checking placement.

Getting some ink on the needle; a dab'll do ya!

Poke here, poke there.

Next thing ya know...

Brian figures he's had done nearly 1,000 tattoos in his young career, each one ink on skin, but each a piece of personal art unto themselves.

A shop well done, and an invitation much appreciated. I can't say thanks enough to Brian, Tasha, and Duong!

Way of Ink is located in Springfield Va. at 7010 Spring Garden Drive, inside the Brookfield Plaza shopping center. Brian is a pretty well known Arlington personality and went to Wakefield High School- where his Honda themed tuner team; SImplSI, inspired a great deal of V-TEC mischief.
This entry represents a first in what will become a growing focus on more Arlington, Richmond, and everything-in-between based series of pieces on local shops, restaurants, people, events, and cultural landmarks