End of an Era for Johnson Tattoo & Full Circle - New Beginning 2024-06-30

End of an Era for Johnson Tattoo & Full Circle - New Beginning 2024-06-30 - After 55 years of the Johnson name in the tattoo business, and 40 years in our Ecorse Rd. location, our building has been sold; The purchaser is some unknown corporate entity ready to crush us with an impossible rent hike; SO, we saw the writing on the wall and are preparing for some big changes. Our landlords all this time have been the Daiza family, and they've been very good to us, so we agreed to help them with some Taylor ordinance demands before the deal is closed; Part of it involves replacing the vandalized plexiglass sign on the corner, which is the subject of this video. Back when the strip was full of thriving businesses, the sign sat way up high with great visibility - then one day the city of Taylor made us bring it down to street level, where rotten kids from the bus stop a few feet away would be able to vandalize it at will. And they did, over and over and over, much to my annoyance. Thanks, Taylor, and Good Riddance rotten neighborhood kids!
Inside the broken sign, you can see rocks that were used to shatter it and garbage subsequently shoved in there; Also visible are remnants of the old JOHNSON TATTOO facade and lettering from the party store that Harry ran in the end space. Thanks to client Robert Schoonover for help with the work;
My dad, Gary E. Johnson started tattooing in the late 60's out of our house in Westland then Wayne before opening House of Tattooing on Wayne Rd. in the old Nankin Township courthouse, sold to him by friend of the family Judge Bradley. 40 years ago, my brother John wanted to open a shop with dad, and found the Ecorse Rd. location in Taylor to set up operations. I was off in Toronto after my US Army enlistment pursuing the printing trade, and came back a little over 25 years ago to tattoo and pierce at the family business. Over time, the building got more and more broke down, with relentless vandalism, and it was frankly wearing us out!
These walls and that sign have seen a lot of interesting and sentimental events, times and anecdotes - and bringing down the sign carried some emotional weight with it. In the video, I mention an anecdote about how I designed the latest version of lettering to incorporate ASL (American Sign Language), which prompted some local busybody to complain to Taylor Ordnance, and ended up costing us a court date and large fine before removing the ASL characters.
We have at least a couple months to operate in the Ecorse Rd. location, then Roscoe will be moving to his brother John's newer, more modern facility Cherokee Creek Tattoo on Ford Rd. in Garden City just East of Venoy. Nick is planning on starting his own private practice; DON'T WORRY - we will be honoring all credit and gift certificates, and most of our legacy clients have assured us that they'll follow us to fulfill future body art projects. Keep in touch as things develop!
So as the video title implies, this is the "End of an Era" ... but also a full-circle, as 3 family members will be reunited under one roof again: Brothers Gary Roscoe Johnson & John Johnson along with cousin Tammy Molinar at Cherokee Creek.