Unlucky 13

Good Morning Speakeasy Tattoo Los Angeles Readers!

This week I used Scott’s absence as an opportunity to sneak into nature myself. I took a real quick mini backpacking trip in the San Bernadino mountains! I hiked a short section of PCT trail, called the Holcomb creek trail. It was really beautiful, despite the fear of mountain lions that has been instilled in me by my friends from Southern CA. Here is a picture of the crazy light quality that kept happening during sunset in the mountains:

This week, I wanted to take a brief look into what has become a widely known tradition in the world of walk-in shop tattooing. This past Friday happened to fall on the 13th! Ahhhh, unlucky friday the 13th! While the history of Friday the 13th, or the number 13 being unlucky are more detailed, I am only going into how tattooers got involved with it. Does the name Oliver Peck ring a bell? You may have heard of him, as he was a judge on Ink Masters, and was at one point married to Kat Von D. Peck owns and works at Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas.

In October 1995, Peck hosted the first Friday 13th tattoo event. He modeled the event after other types of 24 hour Halloween sales. Peck chose Friday the 13th, as a reference to the unlucky 13 tattoos sailors had been long adorning to ward off bad luck. Nearly 25 years later, his event has lasted the test of time and is now an expected day of cheap spooky little tattoos at many a shop. Generally, shops draw up a flash sheet of themed Friday the 13th designs to choose from. The idea was that the tattoos cost $13, but those days are dwindling- as I’m pretty sure most Friday the 13th tattoos are $100 now.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

-M.M