Tattoo Parlor Near Me on Grand Street in SoHo: Bang Bang NYC

Bang Bang NYC tattoos at 62 Grand Street in SoHo, opens 11 am to 8 pm Tuesday through Sunday, and starts every piece at $500. That floor tells you what kind of tattoo parlor this is: a celebrity-built studio where walk-ins are taken daily on a first-come, first-served basis, but where most clients pick a named artist, pay a 25% deposit and book up to three months out. Mondays the door stays shut.

The shop sits on the block of Grand Street between Wooster Street and West Broadway, a stretch of cast-iron loft buildings a few blocks north of Canal Street. From the sidewalk it reads like a gallery, and the website itself bills the space as unlike any other tattoo shop on the planet. Designer Jesse McGowan clad the two-level studio in marble and kept the whole palette black and white, with slim black tables set against white walls.

Inside, you check in at an angled marble reception desk, then walk through a dark glass tunnel fitted with an immersive digital installation. Past it runs a long corridor lit by angled overhead lights, where clients sit down with artists for consultations. The detail Hypebeast singled out is the garden: a koi pond sits on top of a glass skylight, so from the floor below you can look up through the water.

The owner and operator is Keith "Bang Bang" McCurdy, whom Vogue named the most famous tattoo artist in the world, a line the studio quotes on its own homepage. The shop credits him with tattoos on Rihanna, Selena Gomez, LeBron James, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Cara Delevingne and Adele. He is listed first on the studio's artist page, ahead of a team of more than thirty tattooers who handle most of the styles described below.

McCurdy also wrote a memoir, Bang Bang: My Life in Ink, which pairs stories from his career with more than one hundred color photos, including the tale of tattooing Justin Bieber at 40,000 feet. The press wall on the site mentions a collaboration with research scientists on a light-sensitive ink, and the studio sells its own Forever Care skincare line, marketed as gentle enough for a fresh tattoo.

Pricing is posted plainly: every tattoo starts at $500, and the final number depends on size, detail, placement on the body and which artist you choose. Some artists also bill a minimum hourly rate, so a large realism piece with a senior name will land well above the floor. The fastest way to get a real figure is the free consultation, offered in person, by email, or over FaceTime or Google Meet.

Booking an appointment takes a 25% deposit, and that money is non-refundable and non-transferable; it is credited to the final price or to your last session. Payment is cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express, and checks are refused. The age rule is strict: clients must be 18, New York State law Section 260.21 bars tattooing minors even with parental consent, and every client shows a valid state or federal photo ID.

The house signature is fine line and black and gray realism, and the artist page splits the work into tight niches. Pawel, originally from Poland, does black and gray hyperrealism shaded with what the studio calls baroque light, drawing on Renaissance painters. Zee works fine line and realism and buys fresh flowers to draw from, and says flowers are the favorite subject to tattoo. Mr. K handles micro-style single-needle work, and a March 2026 fine-line roundup says requests for him go through the Bang Bang booking form.

Color and ornament have their own specialists. Solar recreates antique jewels, brooches and crowns using the Korean fine-line technique, while Jay Shin, from Seoul, learned tattooing from his brother and works illustrative color and single needle. Ink Seeker does Chinese ink-wash calligraphy and lettering in other languages, and Anderson, raised in East New York, tattoos ornamental tribal designs after spending a decade working in Williamsburg. Send each one the reference style they post most, not a mood board.

Walk-ins run every open day, first come, first served, but the shop itself steers you to text before you show up. Text in the morning soon after the 11 am opening, describe the size and placement, and ask which artist has a gap; that beats queuing at the marble desk on a Saturday afternoon.

An honest call: skip the walk-in route if you want a tiny first tattoo for under $500, because the floor does not drop for small pieces and a Canal Street flash shop will serve you better. Also skip coming in hungover. The studio warns that alcohol can increase bleeding for up to 24 hours and that blood dilutes pigment, so the night-before party shows up in the healed result.

If the day is booked solid, the Plan B is Fineline Tattoo on First Avenue in the East Village, run by the Bakaty family since 1976 and billed as Manhattan's oldest tattoo studio. It is a no-nonsense shop with an old-school feel, a useful contrast if the marble tunnel felt like too much ceremony for a simple piece.

If you are killing time before a consultation, walk east on Grand Street and turn up Crosby Street to the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a used-book shop with a mezzanine and a coffee bar whose sales fund the nonprofit's HIV and homelessness work. It is a quiet place to sketch placement ideas or reread the deposit terms before you commit.

After the session, keep heading east on Grand Street past Mulberry into Little Italy for Ferrara Bakery, the cannoli and espresso house that has been on Grand Street since 1892. The studio's own prep advice is to eat well and drink something sugary if you feel woozy, so a sfogliatella and a soda are a fair way to end the afternoon.

Address: 62 Grand Street, New York, NY 10013. Hours: 11 am to 8 pm Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday. Appointment requests go to appts@bangbangforever.com with a design description, photo references and your preferred dates, and private off-site sessions are booked through privatetattoos@bangbangforever.com.

Bring a government photo ID, eat beforehand and carry water, especially in summer; the FAQ says walking New York all day without water and arriving on an empty stomach is a recipe for passing out. Healing takes two to three weeks on the surface, though skin takes months to fully regenerate, and you leave with an aftercare instruction card. The nearest subway is the A, C and E at Canal Street.