EVANSTON, IL — More than three years after the Evanston City Council modified the zoning code to allow tattoo shops in town, a tattoo artist has opened his first shop in Evanston.
David Libert and fiancée Bella Viola opened Sweetheart Ink Tattoo at 530 Kedzie St. on May 8.
So far, business is going gangbusters, Viola said. During the first week, people were mainly dropping by to greet the new business or ask for more information.
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“This week, so far, has been just people calling or literally people walking in and booking a tattoo with David like, let’s say, days or weeks from now, you know,” Viola said. “So, it’s been crazy busy this week.”
Libert was trained by Kurt Jacobson at Unbreakable Ink in Rolling Meadows, spending about five years there before renting a booth at Smart Ink in Bensonville.
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Earlier this year, Libert was looking for a location in Evanston with his father, Steve, when they found a spot in the AMLI building at Chicago and Kedzie avenues. He told Evanston Patch they got a heads-up on an available corner unit, formerly an attorney’s office, just as it became available.
“It turned out being like the perfect size and location,” Libert said.
The 1,250-square-foot live-work space on the north end of the AMLI mixed-use development now has three tattooing stations.
“I had to learn a lot about the business end of things,” he said. “And my dad being in commercial real estate, he was able to kind of guide me through that.”
Libert is looking for two new artists to join the shop who have been tattooing for at least three years.
“We’ve had a bunch of people asking, so I’m going to be starting to take actual interviews soon, and we’ll see if we’ll have more people here,” he said. “And that will be a huge change because I’m used to just acting as like an independent tattoo artist who rents a booth somewhere.”
Libert said he plans to be very discerning about finding the right people to join him at Sweetheart Ink. In the meantime, he said, the shop is bringing in some friends he trusts to work there temporarily to handle its influx of customers.
Evanston’s zoning code forbade tattoo parlors for decades. But in late 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, city staff recommended the code be updated.
“In the past, tattoo establishments were sometimes viewed as undesirable businesses that may bring nuisances and negative effects to surrounding areas. However, tattooing has become increasingly main-stream in recent decades and reportedly one in three Americans has some kind of tattoo or body art,” Then-Community Development Director Johanna Nyden, Neighborhood and Land Use Planner Meagan Jones and Zoning Administrator Melissa Klotz said in a memo to the Evanston Plan Commission.
They suggested regulating tattoo establishments the same as cannabis dispensaries — with special use permits to make sure they are in the right location and operated property and safely.
“It is also important to consider the ongoing decline of brick-and-mortar retail stores and the potential post-Covid economy. Long-term economic recovery and stability of commercial areas will depend largely on the varying types of businesses that may locate in areas,” they said, noting that the city had already added doggy daycares as a new special use.
The ordinance to legalize tattoo shops was unanimously approved by the City Council in January 2021.
Steve Libert, a Rogers Park resident with a long career in commercial real estate, was surprised that no one had applied to open a tattoo shop since Evanston changed its ordinance, he told Evanston land use commissioners during a hearing in March.
“I’m very familiar with Evanston. I grew up in Skokie. I think it’s a great location for many reasons,” Steve Libert said.
“From a business perspective — and that’s initially what I proposed to David — and there are a lot of things about Evanston from an art perspective that also, one, made it surprising that there isn’t a tattoo studio open already, and two, that we’d love to be the first one,” he said.
David Libert said that tattooing is currently in a period of renaissance, with techniques and artwork that were considered impossible in previous decades now widely practiced.
He credited the recently deceased artist and musician Joshua Carlton, the author of “Advanced Tattooing Techniques: A Guide to Realism,” who Libert described as “the Michael Jordan” of tattoo innovation.
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Tattooing, Libert said, has come a long way since being associated with convicts and sailors.
“There’s this whole battle of this sacred art that’s being protected and respected, but there’s a lot of people out there who just willy-nilly disrespect it all the time and do things improperly,” he said. “And you get someone that’s not as educated about tattoos to participate and give somebody the wrong impression, and now they group all tattoos in that category and it leaves a bad taste.”
Sweetheart Ink Tattoos is open for walk-ins or appointments and consultations Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Prices start at $150 for tattoos that take up to one hour, though sessions can sometimes last several hours depending on the piece.
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