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When most people buy a house they throw a party. But Ypsilanti’s Daniel William Peron got a tattoo.
“I’m getting home sweet home written across my chest,” Peron, said with a smile before the needle started.
Peron, also known as Corner Brewery’s dannyboy, chose Depot Town Tattoo Parlour for his first custom tattoo Friday evening. The tattoo celebrates the purchase of his new house on Hemphill, just a few blocks from Depot Town.
Mike Emmett, co-owner of Depot Town Tattoo, is still getting settled into his new business' home sweet home as well. After a year of planning Depot Town Tattoo, at 33 E. Cross Street, opened its doors about two months ago with first-time shop owners Emmett and Dawn Cook behind the helm.
Both Cook and Emmett hail from Ann Arbor’s Name Brand Tattoo, opened by Jeff Zuck in 1999. While at Name Brand the two decided they wanted to branch out and do their own thing; so they turned to Ypsilanti and never looked back.
From the beginning the pair decided they didn’t want to open up a “cookie-cutter” tattoo parlor in a strip mall and shuffle people in and out. Emmett said he wanted something with character and Depot Town seemed a natural fit.
“I though if we didn’t do it in Depot Town, I didn’t want to do it anyplace else,” Emmett said reflecting on his move to Ypsilanti. “Also, Dawn and I have been tattooing in Ann Arbor for a while and a lot of our clientele are around here and we didn’t want to go too far away.
“It just seemed to be the right choice,” he said.
But it wasn’t smooth sailing all the way for the tattoo parlor. Cook and Emmett had to work with City Planner Richard Murphy to change the city’s zoning ordinance before their business could open.
Old language in the ordinance considered tattoo parlors as an adult/sexually oriented business. Tattoo parlors were paired with businesses like strip clubs, which could not be located closer than 500 feet to a similar establishment, school, place of worship or residential area.
The city’s 500-foot buffer requirement left no locations for a tattoo parlor to open in the city limits. Liquid Swords, at 27 N. Washington Street, applied for and received a variance from the requirement.
In his recommendation to City Council in January this year, Murphy said changing the text is “consistent with the focus of downtown and Depot Town as regional centers for arts, cultural, and entertainment uses.”
The language was approved late January.
"We expected the road to be a little bumpier than it was actually," Emmett said. "Everybody in the city was really helpful and they seemed to want us here."
Depot Town Tattoo specializes in American traditional and Japanese traditional tattoo work. Emmett said he and Cook are trying to change the public’s outlook on the art form and be an inviting place for the community.
“We want our tattoos to be looked at in an artistic way and that is why we have a gallery in our shop,” Emmett said.
The parlor’s wall space will feature a new artist and opening reception every three months. Tom Gogola, of Dearborn, is currently the featured artist.
Although there are down-times as a tattoo artist - Emmett, who recalled tattooing Will Farrell as Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy for a co-worker on a slow winter day - said he loves what he does.
“It’s being able to support yourself through a medium of art,” Emmett said. “I couldn’t see doing anything else because I’m doing something that I love doing and I get to make a living of it.”