TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — With the tip of his needle, a permanent image inks onto the arm of Alain Rodger's customer.
It's an ace of spade on the inner part of his right forearm. A simple design that gives Rodger's client a way to give the world a visual into who he is.
"I remember fourth and fifth grade drawling a lot, more than I was doing my school work," Rodgers said.
Alain is a tattoo artist and the owner of Euphoria Tattoos.
From a young age, he's always loved to draw but if you ask him why he became a tattoo artist he'd say "I kind of picked it up as a joke".
A joke that turned into a 27-year-long career.
Rodgers said it's a process to tattoo someone.
He first has to create the customer's idea on his iPad, print it out to make a stencil, then thoroughly clean his station before he is able to get to work.
"There is a lot of my pieces walking around on this earth, and I think that's really cool," Rodgers said.
In his career he has made 27,000 thousand tattoos.
Rodgers said each tattoo symbolizes a different meaning.
"Someone who passed away, to graduating to achieving a goal they've achieved with whatever they're interested in," Rodgers said. "Sometimes people don't even need a reason to get a tattoo."
Rodgers said one of the coolest parts has been witnessing the evolution of tattoos in society.
Now more than ever - he's seeing older generations coming in for their first piece of ink.
"If you're older it's because you were told you weren't allowed to get a tattoo. They were bad. They were taboo. Now, they've become more main stream," Rodgers said.
His shop first started on Gaines Street, but he's had to expand to South Monroe.
With five artists, he's hoping to continue growing, something he says wouldn't be possible without this city he calls home.
"I'd like to fill my shop up with as many artists as I can so I can tattoo the world," Rodgers said.
And that makes this tattoo shop Totally Tallahassee.
