Irish Ink Tattoo and Piercing — 8920 S Meridian St, Indianapolis

Custom, or
off the wall.

The main floor of Irish Ink, looking toward three red doors. Framed tattoo flash covers both walls, printed flash panels face out from the counter fronts, and a tattoo bed and a barber-style chair stand on a slate floor beneath a red chandelier. — The floor, looking back at the red doors. Flash up both walls, more of it on the fronts of the counters.

Two things happen at 8920 South Meridian: tattoos and piercings. Every frame on those walls is flash. Point at one and have it put on you. Or bring an idea in and have it drawn to fit. We’re not just any tattoo and piercing shop, we’re a collection of artists, and every tattoo that leaves here is designed by one of them for the person wearing it. Bring yourself and your concept. We’ll take care of the rest.

The room
in the back.

Behind the floor there is a small room with a table in it, and the walls around that table are papered from the baseboard to the ceiling in photographs of the people who have already sat on it. A good number of them are children on the day they got their first pair of lobes.

Ears are done here with a needle. Parents who bring a six-, eight- or eleven-year-old in tend to write down the same thing afterwards: the dot went on and got approved first, and nothing started until the kid said it could.

Not everybody who comes through that door is buying something, either. People turn up with a hoop that will not come out, or a stud they cut too short doing it themselves at the kitchen table. Somebody has a look, sorts it out, and sends them off knowing how to stop it happening again.

The piercing room at Irish Ink. A procedure table sits in front of a long cabinet run with a sink, spray bottles and a steel sterilizing unit, and every inch of the surrounding walls is covered with small photographs of past clients. — The back room. Every photograph on those walls is somebody who sat on that table first.

Bret was awesome! You can tell he’s been doing this a long time.

★★★★★ Marie Lomax Google review

Where the rose
ends up.

Every tattoo in here starts the same way. A line on paper. Then purple stencil sitting on the skin for an hour or so while you both look at it. Then it is yours, and it does not come off. A rose and a moth, at the far end of that.

A finished traditional tattoo on a limb: a red and black rose in old-school style with a moth resting below it, its wings shaded in grey and rust with yellow markings. — A rose and a moth, healed and finished.

What people
wrote down.

The waiting area at Irish Ink. A mint-green wall carries framed tattoo flash from the baseboard to the ceiling, alongside a woven red blanket reading Welcome Stranger, a double-faced station clock and an American flag. Two brown leather chairs and a small round table sit beneath it. — Where you sit while you wait. The blanket on the wall reads **Welcome Stranger**.

4.7

422 reviews on Google
Rated out of five

★★★★★

“Brought my 17 yo daughter in to get her a second set of ear piercings. We did a walk in and only waited about :10. The piercer was super professional.”

Dan BowersGoogle review

★★★★★

“Took my daughter here to get her ears pierced for the first time. She is 6 and was pretty nervous. Every team member there was so kind, patient, and compassionate.”

Lisa WeaverGoogle review

★★★★★

“I’ve gotten 2 tattoos and a nose piercing so far from this shop. My first being with cat, my second one with James. The artists are very chill.”

Marlee ThomasGoogle review