Tattoo Parlor Puts Its Stamp on Historic Brooklyn Space

Up until relatively recently, tattoo studios were mostly known for their dark, masculine, punk rock aesthetic, but things have started to change. Known for its talented roster of tattoo artists and its star-studded clientele, Atelier Eva’s two locations feel more like hip boutique hotels or upscale beauty salons than old-school tattoo parlors.

And that’s because the New York-based, Turkey-born tattoo artist behind the brand, Eva Karabudak, was looking to create tattoo studios that felt inclusive and welcoming after having uncomfortable and unsafe experiences in her early work environments. She has achieved that ambition through a reimagined tattoo culture and the use of unexpected design elements and furniture choices, as well as a healthy dose of biophilia.

In 2020, Karabudak and her husband and business partner, Peter Jenkins, opened their first studio, Atelier Eva - Havemeyer Street, a 1,750-square-foot space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, located between Lorimer and Bedford Subway stations. The garden of the space was designed by their good friend, designer and architect Alp Bozkurt.

After opening the first space on Havemeyer Street, the trio began brainstorming about doing another project together when a 3,000-square-foot ground floor space on Grand Street, also in Williamsburg but two blocks away from the East River, became available. The two studios are a 15-minute walk from each other.

Originally built in 1895, the property’s ground floor retail space had originally been a hardware store, and most recently served as the storefront for a plant store known as Sprout Home. “During the pandemic, once the first studio was up and running, there were many interesting deals to be had in commercial real estate ,” Bozkurt said. Since he was a client of Sprout, as soon as he became aware of the space’s availability, he jumped on it. “It seemed like the perfect opportunity for the team to try something,” he said.

The goal was to make the second Atelier Eva beautiful and welcoming, but also functional for both employees and clients. Most of the building was built in 1895, while a warehouse extension was added later, creating a long, 115-foot-deep rectangular space. Bozkurt decided to divide the long space into three main zones. “The functionality of the studio is fairly straightforward,” Bozkurt said. “It’s really about separations.”

Upon entering the shop, one notices several plants, as well as a couch and a chair covered in white bouclé fabric. In this area, there are also a bench and a reception counter, both of which were fabricated by design studio GRS from the same concrete terracotta-colored terrazzo.

Behind the reception desk is a mesh curtain closing in a half-moon shape, which obscures a long oval table, also made by GRS, that seats 10 people. This second space offers privacy for consultations and is separate from the reception and tattoo areas.

“I wanted to do something transparent or translucid to some degree, so when you enter, you have a sense of what’s happening back there,” Bozkurt said. “There needed to be some kind of layers or separation that are invisible, but you instinctively know that you can’t walk past it. It feels a little bit more private.”

On the other side of the mesh curtain is a relaxation area with an iconic Togo sofa by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Roset, a mirror and elongated sculptures. In the back of the property is the third space, which is housed in the former warehouse. This is where the tattoo artists’ workspaces reside, framed by dramatic black arched openings through the polycarbonate, revealing the white brick wall.

The space came with great details such as brick walls and skylights in the warehouse portion of the property, which had no floors above it, but also with an array of challenges, as most of the property was built 120 years ago. Heavy timber trusses and skylights were preserved and restored during construction. “There was a lot of charm, but a lot of difficulties also, and we had to do it really quickly,” Bozkurt said.

According to Bozkurt, the biggest challenge of the project was having to design and build the space within five months. Many materials had to be bought before the team could design most of the space due to lengthy lead times. Light fixtures by Apparatus Studio and Flos had three months lead time and polycarbonate panels on the walls had two months lead time, for example. “It was a lot of trickery that we had to do,” Bozkurt said. “Luckily, they trusted me, and I had some confidence in myself to know that it was going to be okay in the end.”

Since there are skylights over the tattoo workstations, adding plants to the space was a no-brainer, especially as it echoed its former use as a plant store. “Since the space had its previous life as Sprout, it would’ve been really awkward if there were no plants at all. But instead of doing a bunch of scattered stuff, it made sense to have a focal point at the back of the studio,” Bozkurt said.

That focal piece is a 16-foot terrazzo planter, which features a weathered steel fountain. “Eva really wanted a water feature,” Bozkurt said. “She wanted to have water in the studio, not just visually but also to hear the sound of water.”

The addition of the fountain further enhances the calming, creative and comfortable qualities of the studio. “It feels like its namesake, like an artist workshop,” said Juliet Fairbrother, who is responsible for public relations at Atelier Eva. “You go in, and you have all of the artists drawing up their tattoos, and it just feels very comfortable and airy. I think that it gives a good space for the artists to be creative.”

Bozkurt agrees; he lives in the neighborhood and still drops by regularly. “It seems like sometimes people don’t get enough work done, because it’s so comfortable to hang out,” he noted, laughing. “The clients really appreciate it, because sometimes they have to lay there for four or five hours. There’s support to make them feel comfortable, so I think that we ticked that box.”