Exodus Tattoos

Exodus Tattoos has occupied the second floor of a calm corner on 36th Street for years, away from the usual crowd. They keep three clean chairs open most afternoons and Friday nights, ready for walk-ins who need small changes—letters, anchors, delicate lines. Bring sketches or let them eye your skin first; the portfolio they’ll pull up won’t stay open long. Custom consultations usually run thirty bucks before the needle ever touches you, a fee they said covers design time and your first deposit.

Black-and-gray shading stays their signature style, soft triangular pieces on ribs or bold sleeve sections with dense visual layers. Saturday afternoons they fire up the photo-realism machine on flash days—ninety-minute sessions when the space quiets except for radio hum and needle buzz. Cover-ups end up shorter than you’d expect, an hour to tuck old ink, another hour to lock in fresh pigment. Piercing and scar work both use single-use surgical steel on site; no extra stash hangs around the room.

In the same unassuming building, a Korean deli on the ground floor lets artists block out lunch without walking far. Nobody advertises plush waiting areas outright, but the second-floor hall stays empty long enough to scroll designs on your phone. Clients trickle in past 5 p.m. when morning chatter dies down outside—traffic thins, and the street lamp outside glows just right.

Remember to check their map before you jump the subway; directions can turn simpler from Borough Park than from Clinton Hill even though the address stays the exact same: 254 36th St 2nd Floor, Suite C55, Brooklyn, NY 11232. Need to lock in a spot? Slide the phone into your notes—(347) 218-6002.