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Portland, Maine

A tattoo studio that draws the piece before it books the sitting

Ironline Tattoo Studio draws and tattoos custom work, flash and cover pieces on Anvil Street in Portland, Maine, at prices printed before anything is booked.

A monochrome tattoo studio interior: a wall of framed flash designs above the buttoned sofa clients wait on.
A coil tattoo machine photographed three-quarter on a plain white ground, its frame and springs in full view.
A painted tattooist's case standing open: a machine, needle bars and ink bottles held in fitted compartments.
  • Opening hours
  • Tue–Fri, 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM
  • Saturday, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
  • Sunday and Monday, closed
  • Every price printed at the counter
  • One chair at a time

How the studio works

Slow enough to ask what the piece is for

Ironline Tattoo Studio is a custom tattoo studio on Anvil Street in Portland, Maine. It books one chair at a time and leaves room in every appointment for the drawing that comes before the stencil: an artist asks what the piece is for, where it has to sit on the body, and how it should read in ten years rather than in the first week.

The prices on this site are the prices at the counter. Nothing is bundled, nothing is upsold at the chair, and a design that would not hold its line at the size and the placement asked for is said so rather than sold. A first piece, a sheet of flash, a sleeve laid out over several days and a cover over older work all start in the same place: a message describing the idea, answered during opening hours by an artist who would draw it.

On the board

Services and prices

Every service carries the figure the counter takes. Where a price is marked “from”, the reason and the difference are quoted before any work begins.

The question every appointment opens with

Tell me where it sits on the body and how it should read in ten years, not which picture you saved.

No. 04Asked before a stencil is cut or a needle is opened, and the reason every piece here is drawn to the placement rather than printed to fit it.

The story

A studio that draws before it tattoos

Every sitting here starts with a drawing rather than a machine. An artist asks what the piece is for, where it has to sit on the body when the body is at rest, and how it should read in ten years rather than in the first week. That is where most of the difference between two tattoos is decided, and it is the first thing to go when a chair is running behind.

The studio books one chair at a time for exactly that reason. A sitting is given the length the work needs rather than the length the diary would prefer, and the artist who starts a piece stays with it through every sitting it takes. Nothing is bundled, nothing is added at the counter, and a design that would not hold its line at the size and the placement asked for is said so before it begins rather than after.

A first visit can expect half an hour of talking and drawing before anything is switched on, a price that was already printed on the services page, and a stencil placed and approved on the skin before the first line goes in. It should not expect laser removal, permanent cosmetics, piercing or anything belonging with a medical practitioner; those are listed further down and they are listed because the answer is always the same one.

Signed at the chairMara Quinn, owner and lead artist

Rows of ink bottles ranked on a shelf with their caps upward.
Ink ranked on a shelf, photographed at a convention. The studio keeps a far shorter shelf and mixes to the piece, which is why a colour is agreed at the consultation and not chosen at the chair.
  1. 01

    The written price is the counter price

    Every service on the board carries the figure the till takes. Where a price is marked “from”, the reason and the difference are quoted before the work begins.

  2. 02

    The wrong service is refused, not sold

    If the chosen service will not do what was asked for, the artist says which one will. That happens in the reply to a message as readily as it happens at the chair.

  3. 03

    One piece, one artist

    The artist who starts a piece is the artist who finishes it, across every sitting it takes. Nobody is handed between chairs to keep a diary moving, and nobody is told at the end of a day that somebody else will pick the outline up.

Behind the machines

The artists

Four people run Ironline Tattoo Studio between them. Every artist takes every service on the board, and each has two that the studio sends their way first.

A hand-painted flash sheet: a nurse's head, a kewpie figure and a lettered eagle, drawn in rows.

Mara Quinn

Owner and lead artist

Mara Quinn opened Ironline Tattoo Studio and still takes the first chair on every day the studio is open, working custom pieces drawn for one body and no other rather than resized from a picture held up on a phone. They spend the opening minutes of a consultation asking where the piece has to sit when the arm is down, then place the stencil three times if three is what it takes, so the line that goes in is the line that was agreed.

Half-day sitting · Full-day sitting

A hand-painted flash sheet: a lettered anchor, a second anchor, shields and a profile in silhouette.

Eli Novak

Senior artist

Eli Novak works the traditional side of the board and takes most of what comes in over existing work, laying a cover out against what is already there instead of drawing something new and hoping it will bury it. They look at old work in daylight before quoting anything, and will say plainly when a piece wants lightening somewhere else first, or when it reads better reworked than covered.

Flash piece · Cover and rework

A hand-painted flash sheet: a lettered dagger, a winged propeller, a horse's head and crossed flags.

Jun Park

Artist and consultation lead

Jun Park reads the messages that arrive through the contact form and writes most of the replies, which is why an enquiry describing a piece comes back with a service named and a price attached rather than with a request to telephone during opening hours. At the counter they take the consultations and the touch-ups, drawing a thumbnail while the conversation is still happening so nobody leaves with only a number in their head.

Design consultation · Touch-up sitting

A hand-painted flash sheet laced onto a dark leather board: an anchor, a dagger, a butterfly, a clipper ship and an eagle.

Cass Moreno

Studio coordinator

Cass Moreno keeps the diary, answers the telephone and makes certain that every sitting has the right amount of time behind it, which is the reason the studio runs one chair at a time and nobody is moved along to make room for the next name. They also tattoo on the busier afternoons, taking flash pieces and consultations, and they are the person who writes the sitting count into the book so a long piece is booked whole rather than guessed at twice.

Flash piece · Design consultation

Pictures

The trade, up close

Flash sheets, needles, lines being laid and hands at work: pictures of the craft Ironline Tattoo Studio practises, from a 1930s flash sheet to a machine on a back piece.

A hand-painted flash sheet: butterflies, swallows, a rose and a lettered cross, laid out in rows.
A flash sheet from the 1930s. The designs are drawn at the size they were meant to be worn, which is still how a sheet is set out and still why a flash piece can be priced before it is booked.
Four bronze tattooing needles mounted in bone, laid in a line on a white ground.
Bronze needles mounted in bone, from a museum collection. The grouped points do the job a modern needle bar does, and how they are grouped is what separates a line from a shade.
An extreme close-up of a needle laying a black line into skin, with ink pooled at the point.
A macro photograph of a line being laid. Depth and speed decide whether that line is still a line in ten years, which is why the first pass is never the fastest one.
A carved uhi chisel laid flat on a white ground.
A Māori uhi, the chisel used for tā moko, from a museum collection. Tattooing is older than the machine by a very long way and this is one of the tools it is older with.
A sheet of flash drawn in ink on paper: dragons and coiled serpents.
A sheet of dragons and serpents. A long coiling subject is drawn to a limb rather than to a rectangle, which is why the placement is agreed before the drawing is finished.
Gloved hands working on a finished back piece, the machine held like a pen.
Gloved hands at work on a back piece. The machine is held like a pen and the free hand stretches the skin, over a fresh cover on everything either hand touches.

Said afterwards

From the visitor book

Studio detail: an engraved coil tattoo machine on a plain white ground.

Mariel D.

Design consultation

No. 01

“The consultation was the whole difference. I was asked where it would sit when my arm was down, which nobody had asked before, and the thumbnail was drawn there at the counter instead of emailed to me a week later. The price and the number of sittings were both written down before I left, and neither of them moved.”

Studio detail: a rollomatic liner machine with its frame and springs in full view.

Yusuf V.

Half-day sitting

No. 02

“The stencil went on three times before anybody was happy with it. That took an hour and it was the right hour to spend, because the shape follows my shoulder now instead of sitting across it. The break in the middle of the block was in the diary from the start rather than asked for halfway through.”

Studio detail: a tattooing implement from Vanuatu, from a museum collection.

Andre B.

Flash piece

No. 03

“Price on the sheet was the price I paid. The touch-up was booked before I left, six weeks out, and nothing appeared at the counter that had not already been said at the chair. The design was one of theirs and it went on at the size it was drawn for, which is apparently the whole reason it could be priced in advance.”

Asked often

Before writing to the studio

The questions Ironline Tattoo Studio is asked most often before a first sitting.

Which service should be chosen?

Size, placement and whether the design is drawn or chosen decide it. A design lifted from the studio's flash sheets is the flash piece; custom work is booked as a half-day or a full-day sitting; anything going over existing work is the cover and rework. Describing the idea in a message gets a straight recommendation back.

Are the listed prices final?

The listed price is what the counter charges for that service. Prices marked “from” move only when the work described in the enquiry is longer than the standard appointment, and the difference is quoted before anything begins.

Does this website book an appointment?

No. The Book action opens the contact page, and the contact form sends a message an artist reads during opening hours. Neither one holds a chair until the studio replies and confirms a time.

Can a particular artist be requested?

Yes. Naming the artist in the message is enough. If that artist is not working the day being asked about, the reply says so and offers the days they are.

Visit or write

Anvil Street, Portland, Maine

Ironline Tattoo Studio works one chair at a time, so an agreed time is the only way to be sure of an artist. A message or an email is read during opening hours and answered in the order it arrives, and a chair is held once the studio has replied and the day and the hour are agreed.

[email protected]

Opening hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Wednesday
12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Thursday
12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Friday
12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday
Closed

The column

A short note when the studio changes something

Holiday hours, an artist joining or leaving, a price that moves. Two or three notes a year and nothing else.

The privacy notice explains what happens to the address.

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