Story by Victoria Rossi

Filmed and Produced by Diya Chacko

Amid fried chicken, hamburger and pizza joints, Darada David runs a health food/live jazz/ internet cafe in the Bronx despite ambivalence from the community.

Tattoos and art meet in Harlem

By Zoe So

September 17, 2009

Peony tattoo by Andre Malcolm. Photo credit: Andre Malcolm

Black Ink ‘s storefront on Lenox Avenue, south of 113^th Street, does not look much like a tattoo parlor.  The sign of a faded cartoon pin-up girl with the word “Tattoos” stands below street level, barely visible from even a few stores away.   Flash – sheets of paper filled with small sample designs of roses, skulls, Chinese characters and other standard tattoo parlor fare – are absent from the walls, which have been painted to look like soft brown suede.  Instead, framed drawings by famous tattoo artists hang art gallery style in the lobby.

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By Chine Labbe
October 22, 2009