Tattoos remain popular with consumers but despite the interest some of Ottawa’s longest-running downtown tattoo shops have closed their doors in the past year.
For example, Inksession on Rideau Street closed in January after almost 10 years in business. A short time earlier, Universal Tattoo, which had offered tattoo and piercing services on Rideau for more than 20 years, also closed.
More recently, Golden Wave Tattoo moved from Centretown to Kanata and New Moon Tattoo closed its Orléans location to focus on its west-end location after more than 40 years with two studios.
The reasons range from difficulties recovering from the pandemic, rising costs of operating downtown, to security issues in the ByWard Market and to the trend of people tattooing at home.
Alex Laine, who goes by Alex Dropkick professionally, worked as a tattoo apprentice at Inksession when it closed and has worked at four tattoo shops in Ottawa.
Dropkick said one of the major issues Ottawa’s tattoo industry has faced is there are too many artists in town now as at-home tattooing is booming.
“Suddenly tattooing became way more accessible than ever before, [which] has been both good and bad,” they said. “People have way more options now.”
Tattoo artists across Canada have cited similar concerns to the CBC.
The owner of Silverline Tattoo on Rideau Street, Sheila, who declined to give her last name because of privacy concerns, says she noticed a shift of a different sort when her storefront reopened after the pandemic.
“[Before] there wasn’t as big of a homeless population in Ottawa,” she said. “I think as much as COVID affected your average person, I think it also really expanded on that problem.”
And that led to safety concerns downtown, affecting the number of customers coming for walk-in services.
“Nobody wants to come downtown,” she said. “It’s very frustrating because other parts of the city don’t have this issue.”
Sheila said she feels neglected by the city and has considered moving her business after 25 years on Rideau Street.
Meanwhile, marketing on social media has become an important factor for tattoo artists as walk-in services lost popularity following the pandemic.
“Suddenly a lot of artists were depending on social media to gain interest because walk-ins weren’t happening when people weren’t going out in public,” said Dropkick. “All of a sudden you had to have a portfolio online, which a lot of old-school tattoo artists never had to rely on.”
“You used to not have to worry about having appointments because people [would] walk by the shop,” Dropkick said.
A third of Canadian adults have at least one tattoo, according to a 2024 study by the Logit Group.
Despite the popularity, some artists say the rising cost of living are forcing people to give up extras such as tattoos. For instance, rent prices alone in Ottawa have increased by 48 per cent since 2019, according to Statistics Canada.
These costs are also impacting artists. Dropkick works three other jobs alongside tattooing to make ends meet.
“It’s not uncommon for a lot of people in my position to have to supplement their income with other jobs,” they said, “especially people who are new to the industry.”
Dropkick stressed the importance of safety measures as at-home tattoos become more popular.
In Ontario, tattoo studios are regulated at the provincial level through the Health Protection and Promotion Act. However, no licence or training is required for tattoo artists to practise.
“You can walk into a tattoo supply shop and buy stuff and you don’t have to prove that you’re a tattoo artist,” they said. “And that’s kind of scary when you consider the fact that there are people who are tattooing as a hobby or for fun.”
Another factor to consider for “Nobody wants to come downtown” is the lack of parking, and the shite public transport.