The newest vanity-play place for beautiful urbanites has just opened its chic black doors (not coincidentally, we think, across the street from the members-only Spoke Club and the strip of King West where high-end restaurants gather to breed). Black Line Studio is a tattoo parlour unlike any other, and – judging by the tans and heels at the launch party – with patrons who are as concerned with real estate and wedding china as with any kind of underground sensuality.
Why is this particular ink-hole so cool? Three reasons: Bioplast, Cory Ferguson and Precipice Studios.
The first is a flexible body-piercing material that promotes healing and allows movement that minimizes the risk of injury (besides, you get to say, unironically, “This? This is bioplast, babe.”). Still scared? You can ask for a goldsmith with a nursing background (body piercer Jason Hill) to take care of your septum.
The second, Cory Ferguson, is an internationally renowned guest artist who, in a 2005 Skin Deep magazine’s readers’ poll, was voted one of the top 100 tattoo artists. Each month Black Line Studio hosts an artist who will be more than happy to sit down at the studio’s industrial-iron consultation table to discuss how to – for example – nicely cover up that girl-frog thing you got when you were studying forestry in Timmins.
Of course, you can also count on the two talented residential skin artists: Karolyn Pham (who has a degree in Psychology – now how’s that for skin-deep?) and Steve MacKinnon to do that for you. Check out their work on line at www.blacklinestudio.ca.
The third reason is courtesy of XYYZ’s own design guru, Anwar Mukhayesh (think Lobby, Liberty Market Building or Paaeez), who along with partners Matt Davis and Allen Chan make up Precipice Studios, (a.k.a. HGTV’s New Designer Guys). Bleached wood floors and discreet opaque-glass rooms for inking and piercing make Black Line Studio look more like a spa than a locus of rebellion. We think it’s just the sort of place you want to point out to your long-legged, pouty date… and nonchalantly mention there is a way she too can get rid of that Duane-forever banner in the most elegant way possible.
And here’s one more reason to pay Black Line Studio a visit: XYYZ members save 20% on any service.
Black Line Studio, 577 King Street West, (416) 850-8227
