You know that beach body we talked about earlier today? The one you may or may not be striving for this summer? Well, what do you do once you get it? Maybe add a little decoration?
Joe Campagna and Fernando Faria can set you up with a great style. Just know once you have it, it's there for quite a while!
Campagna and Faria recently stated Greenwich's first tattoo parlor, Byram Ink at 16 North Water Street, opening their doors just four months ago.
This is the first excursion for Campagna, 34, in his own shop. but Faria's been in the game for more than 27 years. They've known each other for about four years, Campagna said.
"I was in the Brazilian military," Faria said. "It's a very pacifist country. There was much else to do, so I started playing around with needle and ink."
Faria recalled his first tattoo being a king cobra on a friend's arm that turned out horribly. He had the chance to fix it more than a decade later.
"I did that first one by hand, I didn't even have a machine," he said. "Since then, I couldn't do anything else."
Campagna's newer to the game, but hungry and talented, and the experience is not even remotely foreign. He spent the last 12 years working in tattoo shops and refining his artistic abilities. His first tattoo was the word PUNX on his right arm at the age of 22. Following a couple years between the next one, Campagna befriended an artist who now lives on the West Coast and his accumulated works snowballed.
"My parents have none. I just got into it - and I was a late starter," he said. "But my sister just got her first one and she's 38 now. But I've seen a 70-year-old get a tattoo, and she was a little grandma."
The shop didn't have an easy time opening. Campagna said potential landlords repeatedly hung up on then as soon as he mentioned the word "tattoo." Now that they've found a solid location with a great landlord, he said the shop is working extra hard to satisfy the potential customer base in Greenwich by working around the hours of its guests and taking all comers.
"I've got a couple months under my belt," Campagna said. "We're just looking to keep a nice, quiet, drama-free shop. We're open 12 p.m. To 9 p.m., but I've been here until 1:30 a.m. and we'll open up early for someone looking to get a piece done before work."
For more info, check out byraminktattoo.com or call 203.532.5790.
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