Inked To The Max

One flight up at number 269 on New York’s famous Canal Street sits Unimax Tattoo Supply, a one-stop shop for most everything related to the practice of body modification. Unimax was founded and is owned to this day by tattoo scene veteran of over 20 years, Wes Wood. The store has long been a fixture on Canal Street and the shop has been at the current address for the past decade. The vibe at Unimax is laid back and the absence of attitude makes for an experience that is just as painless for newbie collectors and fledgling artists as it is for the veteran set. A large part of the charm and personality of the establishment comes from two of the Unimax employees, Vanessa Fortin and Caitlyn Breen. Both Native New Yorkers, Vanessa has managed Unimax East (there is a sister shop in Arlington, TX) for most of the ten years she’s been with the company. Caitlyn was hired onto the sales and floor staff in 2008.

 

Vanessa got bitten by the tattoo bug as a youngster when her parents owned an art gallery in Upstate New York. Across the street from the gallery lived a couple of bikers whose ink collections planted the seed for Vanessa’s future love affair with the ink and needle. Vanessa’s family relocated to New Mexico, where she later began working with tattoo equipment, a skill that would one day get her foot in the door when she came back to the Big Apple and applied for work at Unimax.

“I got the job here because I knew how to make tattoo machines.” Vanessa explains.  “That was my in.” Vanessa moved up quickly in the company and was managing the

New York store within her first year of employment.”

 

It was about two years ago that Vanessa and Caitlyn’s paths first crossed when the girl from Long Island, and current Brooklyn resident came to Vanessa looking for work. “With Caitlyn, anything goes,” Vanessa says of her close friend and co-worker. “She’s young and she’s got great energy. I love to be around that.”

Growing up in Port Washington, Caitlyn didn’t see a whole lot of heavily tatted people, but she found herself intrigued by the artwork and colors of the tattoo community members she did occasional encounter.

Caitlyn says that the pieces in her collection hold no hidden meanings or contain an autobiographical element. “When I see something I like, I’ll be like, ‘I want that tattooed on me,” says Caitlyn who describes her pieces as running from the “ridiculous” to the “classic.” Caitlyn got her first piece, the lightening bolt on her wrist, when she and her sister cut school to get inked. She followed that up with the ivy on her hips, work she regrettably has yet to complete. The prized piece in Caitlyn’s collection is the portrait of Marylin Monroe that sits on her upper right leg that was inked by Lalo from Sacred Tattoo, a New York shop founded and owned by Wes Wood. Caitlyn’s main artist these days is her boyfriend Mike Deering, who works out of A-List Tattoo in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn.

It was during her time in New Mexico developing the craft of machine building that Vanessa embarked on her own collection. “None of this was really planned,” said Vanessa about her intricate sleeve work. “I sort of just went piece by piece with it. You can see that I like lots of color. A big part of this is being able to find the right artist. A lot of artists contributed to the work, too many to star naming them.”

One of the more outstanding and meaningful pieces on Vanessa’s skin is the lone portrait in her collection, Frida Kahlo on her left leg. The piece is a tribute to her favorite artist and someone she has looked up to since childhood. “I love her and I wanted to be able to carry her around with me,” Vanessa confides.

 

Aside from the work the ladies do at the shop, another element of their job entails representing the company at many of the region’s conventions, a facet of the job that Caitlyn Breen takes great pleasure in. “I love doing the conventions,” says Caitlyn. “I love meeting people and getting to see old friends. Whenever there’s a convention coming up, I jump all over it.” And being able to share the experience with a good friend is the icing on the proverbial cake for Caitlyn. “Vanessa has become a very good friend, and she’s also the best manager I have ever worked for. I’m very happy here.”

As for Vanessa Fortin, she has achieved what most people can only dream of– being able to make a living doing what makes her happy. “I love this company and I hope to grow even more with it. I don’t have any plans on leaving anytime soon. And Caitlyn’s friendship and energy helps keep me going. This really feels like home for me.”

Melissa Smith Model Tattoos

Melissa Smith Tattoos,Melissa Smith alleged mistress,enjoyin’ their moment in the sun, felt the sudden urge to show off her tatted bikini body at a hotel pool in Huntington Beach.

Girls Tattoos Model , hot and sexy chest tattoos

Sexy Girls Tattoos Model

Eva Huber Tattoo Models

Think astrophysicist and you’re more likely to conjure an image of Albert Einstein than one of petite blonde Eva Huber. Yet for this 26-year-old tattoo artist, “Breaking life down to a molecular level is one of the most intriguing topics—it’s the fiber that surrounds our very existence.” Make no mistake, Huber is 110 percent happy with her chosen profession, despite the muscle soreness that comes from a day’s work.

When she’s not at the shop, this Easthampton, MA, resident spends time checking her MySpace page (myspace.com/evajean) and adding to her own growing collection of tattoos. With pieces from more than 20 artists, she regrets none, not even the “piece of crap tribal flash I picked off the wall in a sketchy shop when I was 16.” Current favorites include those on her fingers and the black and gray eye on her left forearm, both courtesy of Thomas Hooper. It’s when describing the full-color eye on her right wrist (“It has energy-esque patterns emanating off of it”) and reciting the list of people she’d like to tattoo—Alkaline Trio, Andrew W.K., and theoretical physicist Edward Witten—that the connection between Huber’s tattoos and the Hawking-like side of her persona emerges.

She is hesitant to reveal what will be next, but does expect to be twice as tattooed as she is now in just five years. “My tattoos represent that I am a confident person who is completely comfortable with wearing tattoos, doing tattoos, and not trying to look like this perfect Barbie of a woman,” she says. “I am me, and being me includes not giving a fuck about how people think a woman should look.” And, it seems, being Eva also includes analyzing the theory of relativity.

Ira Chernova Tattoo Models

Stepping in front of the lens as this month’s Inked girl is ira Chernova, who’s normally on the other end of the shutter. “People usually think I’m a model and are always surprised to find out I’m a photographer,” she explains—with complete humility, we should add. But for Russian-born Chernova, photography is more than just a profession. “It’s not a job or hobby—it’s a total lifestyle,” she says. Case in point: When asked to describe her ideal day, Chernova says she would be working. “I’d love to work on a photo shoot in the morning, then do some more work in the afternoon.”

This intense work ethic isn’t entirely unrelated to her self-admitted obsessive tendencies to plan and overanalyze. “I’m in a constant state of panic. I analyze and worry about everything. Everything,” she says.

Interestingly, her ink is the one thing she doesn’t obsess about. Take, for example, her first tattoo, a sign of clubs on her left side. “I just woke up one day thinking it’d be cool to get it,” she recounts. “I thought that maybe, just maybe, I’d get one tattoo and then wouldn’t want more—obviously that didn’t work out.”

The origins of her other pieces are just as random. The “Heroes never live, legends never die” quote on her side is from a song she heard during a spontaneous bus ride. While she knows she’ll get more tattoos, people in her home country don’t give her ink a warm reception. In fact, there is a cold (war) mentality when it comes to her appearance. “In Moscow, people think they’re tough; they make fun of you and talk bullshit. That’s not the case in other European countries,” she says. That is only one of the reasons Chernova plans to move to Amsterdam later this year. “I’m excited about everything, but mostly about starting a new life,” she says. A life that we’d be willing to bet is already very well planned out.

Justine Konik Tattoos Models

We’re in geek love. This Brooklynite, Justine Konik, may not look like the typical Trekkie—but trust us, she’s well versed in all things Captain Kirk–related. And while she dreams of being at Comic-Con or in deep space, the enterprise of this self-proclaimed “barista extraordinaire” is a coffee shop.

Rivaling her devotion to sci-fi is her coffee-nerdiness. “I can’t help nerding out on espresso and home brewing in my free time,” she says. And she is discerning, calling Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks “the McDonald’s and Applebee’s of coffee,” and imbibing well-made cappuccinos and high-quality espresso instead. How far will she go for some good joe? Well, there are plenty of places in her borough, but being an avid traveler (she spent most of last year wandering through India and Nepal) Konik also makes it a point to taste international brews during her trips.

Konik’s ideal day would involve both coffee and a little Star Trek: “You can’t go wrong with coffee and some DS9.” That’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in case you aren’t in the know. And there are many who aren’t, as it’s her Trekkie-inspired ink—the Trill spots on her face and head—that elicit the most questions. “I have moments when I wish I didn’t have those even though I love them,” she says. “Most people can’t grasp the idea of a Star Trek tattoo, or they think it’s leopard print, so I end up explaining it a lot. It’s the explanations I don’t care for.”

Still, she plans on adding to her collection of ink with more spots on the bottom of her feet. And while her personal favorites are the pieces on her thighs, the senior set is more drawn to her colorful sleeve, created by Portland artist Brian Wilson. “Old ladies love my arm! They say it’s like watercolors,” she explains. Finally we have a nerdy Inked Girl you can bring home to your grandmother.

Daddy's Little Cannibal Models Tattoo