In the police procedural TV series Naked City, which ran from 1958 through 1963, the narrator articulated an iconic closing statement in every episode: “There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”
Apocalypse Girl Tattoo artist and owner Robert Meyers
Robert Meyers grew up watching those reruns and now, as the owner of Apocalypse Girl Tattoo in Cary, thinks the same Naked City intonation “every day and with every client I have.” Since he started tattooing in 1994 and after opening his own professional tattoo studio — and with a successful career as a sculptor behind him — Robert has realized that “There’s a story behind every tattoo.”
As an artform, tattoos carry a unique significance. Robert appreciates being trusted with artwork so deeply personal to its wearer.
“No one gets a tattoo to tie a room together. No one gets a tattoo because it might be an investment and a place to park money,” he says. A tattoo, as a work of art, Robert knows, means so much because “It can’t be sold. It can’t be lost or stolen, either.”
A tattoo artist, then, serves as what he describes as a “conduit” for someone else’s thoughts and feelings. Someone might walk into Apocalypse Girl wanting a panther, for example, but Robert — along with every talented artist in his stable — understands that what they are in fact trying to convey is strength or power. “What I’m doing,” he explains, is “taking what’s on the inside and putting it on the outside in a visual format.”
The emotional exchange between artist and client is sacred at Apocalypse Girl. It’s why service is paramount and sets the studio apart from others in the area. Walking into a tattoo studio can be intimidating, and the memory of getting tattooed will endure, so along with a higher standard of artists at Apocalypse Girl than is typical in the industry, so is the experience clients can expect to have there.
“What we’re doing is translating,” Robert says of himself and his artists. And every story deserves to be heard … and seen.
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