The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/23074
Although the artists are talented, they don’t take themselves too seriously. When asked if Jackson feels like a rock star, he says, “Not at all; I’m just a regular person.” McIlroy chimes in from across the room, “Personally, I like to think of myself as half Bono and half Cher. I call myself ‘Bear’.” McIlroy’s arms are covered in brightly col- ored designs — flowers, a zombie, etc. — which he started getting at Golden Lotus when he was a student at SUNY Oneonta. He submitted a portfolio three times before being allowed to apprentice at Golden Lo- tus, which was opened by Matt Skinner and Jason Sexton in the early 2000s. Skinner has moved from the area, but Sexton is in Texas opening a sister shop. “I love art,” McIlroy said. “I like being able to be a walking piece of art.” Although rib tattoos are popular, they are not the easiest to do, according to McIlroy. “It’s a breathing canvas,” he says. “It’s like drawing on a piece of paper that’s constantly moving.” The easiest places to tattoo are fleshy, muscular areas where the skin does not need to be stretched, such as arms and the back, McIlroy says, and the hardest place is the collar bone, because it’s all skin and bones. McIlroy, Purcell and Jackson are the three artists at Golden Lotus. Piercing is also offered at the shop, and is done by Jackson’s brother, Travis Jackson, 24. Taylor and Travis worked together as cooks in an upscale French restaurant in Mo- bile, Ala., before moving to Oneonta. The brothers come from an artistic family. Their father was a photographer and a few other family members are artists. “Personally, I like to think of myself as half Bono and half Cher. I call myself ‘Bear’.” _ James McIlroy Taylor is also a portrait artist, which he has been doing since he was in his teens. Some of his por- traits in various media hang on the walls of Golden Lotus in pen-and-ink and oil paint. The shop, next to the Oneonta Public Safety Building, has two sections. There is the front room, which can be seen from the glass storefront. Walk down a few steps, and you’re in the main studio, which is well-lit with high ceilings covered in golden yellow tin tiles. Three tattoo stations fill an open space. Opposite the stations is a long, scarlet couch against a mural painted by Sexton. A green acoustic guitar rests against a wall. A peacock feature is stuck into some gold molding. The space is clean, bright and newly renovated. Indelible Ink Oneonta’s other tattoo parlour, Indelible Ink, is down the road at 147 Main St. next to the Novelty Lounge. The sign over the storefront has a roaring tiger, painted by shop founder Brett Zarro, who moved away from the area last year. Inside, there is mini- mal light. Exotic masks and a giant sword hang on the black and blood-red walls. Chi- nese lanterns dangle from the ceiling. Lava lamps line a high shelf above three stations, which are separated by partitions. Metal music plays while Dan Scannell draws a phoneix in orange Sharpie on the chest of 60-year-old Ed Vedder of Utica. This Vedder is a retired women’s slipper designer who’s had three heart attacks. The phoenix, which was to be completed in black ink, is his first tattoo, and is meant to represent his new outlook of life, he says. Scannell, 27, said he has been a tattoo artist at Indelible Ink since Jan. 25, 2005. As Scannell tells it, Zarro’s wife at the time was a teacher at Scannell’s high school who often had him for in-school, when he would constantly draw. She ran into Scannell in 2005 at The Bagel Company, where he was working, and then told her husband to hire the artist whose talents were being wasted. He did, and now Scannell is managing the parlour, where he and apprentice Austin Voltura, 21, offer tattoos and piercings. Scannell, curly brown hair in a pony- tail under a newsboy hat, is relaxed and straight-forward. Jackson tattoos a custom floral design on the ribs of Jasmine Purdy, 22. Scannell tattoos a phoenix on the chest of Ed Vedder, 60. Jan. 13, 2011 O-Town Scene 17