Local Tattoo Shop Looks to Ink the Airwaves

Even “The Real World” and “Playboy TV” have found their way to Brooklyn. But there’s one story that escaped their lenses.

Behind the whirring ink pens, a quirky group of artists are keeping customers coming to Jaz Tattoo to get inked up, while also drawing in one documentary filmmaker who simply fell in love with the shop and its eclectic clientele.

When David Svedosh, a 25-year-old resident of Clinton Hill, visited Jaz Tattoo to get images of Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe permanently emblazoned on his bicep, he noticed that Jaz felt different than other tattoo shops in Brooklyn. He said he was hooked by its cultish atmosphere, almost like hanging out in someone’s living room, and the charisma of the artists.

The place itself caught Svedosh’s film-tuned eye, too. He admired the place’s art gallery atmosphere, which includes classy paintings on the walls and funky sculptures.

But Svedosh quickly realized that the people at Jaz were the reason behind the warm ambiance.

“There was an energy to it,” he said. “All sorts of people were coming in, the weirdest mix of individuals.”

The artists and owners, mostly long-term residents of Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill, see themselves “as a family,” said Ruby, 29, a tattoo artist at Jaz who only gave her first name. They eat together, go to “tattoo parties” on the weekends, and occasionally argue like brothers and sisters — all fodder for the next hit reality series.

Last year, when Svodesh started filming, he wanted to portray the shop as a microcosm of Brooklyn culture. But as the project developed, he realized that the vibrancy of the shop’s community continued outside of its walls. He began taking his camera with him when the shop owners and artists would go out together, for example to Fort Greene’s Cornerstone.

When tattoo artist Slim Kashi, 25, attended a tattoo party in the Lower East Side on a Friday night, Svodesh came along to film.

“This documentary project is a great opportunity for us,” Slim said. “We’re showing what really goes on here, at tattoo parlors, and the whole Brooklyn lifestyle.”

Svedosh dreams of the reality show airing on MTV, and he said a trailer will be available online in a few weeks.

Whether the show makes it onto the airwaves, the team at Jaz is definitely enjoying having a filmmaker in their presence. It’s not bad for business, either: customers who walk in to get inked could find themselves starring in a potential miniseries.