Opie Ortiz will always be the guy who tattooed ‘Sublime’ on Brad Nowell’s back. And he’s okay with that

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
The most famous tattoo ever done in this city went on pretty quickly—an hour-and-a-half, tops. “I just drew it up and blew it up and did it,” says Opie Ortiz, co-owner of American Beauty [...]

See Your Ink in Print Contest
May 16 Deadline!
We know the best art in Long Beach isn’t found only in the city’s galleries—it’s on your body.
That’s why we’re celebrating the beauty of tattooed people with our First-Ever Large Body Work Contest.
We’re looking for tattoo artists and their human canvases.
Tattoo artists, this is your chance to let [...]

What happens when Long Beach ink-slinger Kari Barba doesn’t like her own tattoos any more? She has them lasered away

ILLUSTRATION by JOE MCGARRY
Tattoo artists are their own best advertisements, because they’re almost always rakishly tattooed. But what happens when one of them makes a bad choice? Every tattoo artist is 19 once. What happens to [...]

Law enforcement’s newest crime-busting tool? A tattoo machine
It’s not local, but this recent piece from CNN.com still makes us shake our heads in wonder. Apparently, a county sheriff in Augusta, Georgia opened a tattoo parlor expressly to sting local oafs–and then just sat back and watched the felonies roll in.