NORTH ADAMS — Leaning behind the counter of his brightly colored shop, surrounded by hundreds of original tattoo designs framed and taped on the walls, Marcos Davila, now 34, says he has known since he was young that art would play a major role in his life. “I started to draw by teaching myself, pretty much, when I was a kid,” says Davila, owner of Lucky Cat Tattoo on Ashland Street in North Adams. “Art on my dad’s side of the family was a big thing. My cousin started going to art school on Saturdays, so we would always draw with each other. We would try to copy cartoons, see who could make it better. We would also draw a lot of cars — and this was the ’90s in Puerto Rico, so some people had some wild rides, with body kits and spoilers and stuff — and that’s when I started really getting into detailing.
“After that, anything that was art-related I was into. And now, I still get inspired by things from all over,” Davila says,” gesturing to a religiously-themed painting on the wall. “I might get something out of this piece that I may never get out of anything else on my own, and who knows how that could influence my designs. The moment you stop learning or you think you’ve got everything figured out, that’s the moment you peak and get left behind. That goes for life in general. Always a student. Anybody can teach you something, it doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from.”
From his elementary years, Davila’s eye always caught the avant-garde. “My mom went back to school when I was like eight or nine, and I remember specifically one of the other guys there had some really cool tattoos. It was a new-school, cartoony kind of style, very vibrant and stylized. From seeing graffiti on the street to seeing something that looks like graffiti on the skin was wild to me.”
Davila’s interest in street art stemmed partly from casual exposure during childhood; “Puerto Rico after the ’90 was bad. There were a lot of buildings that were abandoned. Driving down the street there, in my mom’s car, I’d see all these old buildings, bare and crumbling, and the next day they would be covered in graffiti from top to bottom. Seeing that change — a lot of people hated it — but to me, it was already an eyesore, a building in decay that no one was using, that’s going to fall down anyway. And there’s art on it now instead of advertisements. That was cool to me. The use of color to show something, even if I didn’t necessarily understand what it was saying, always blew my mind.”
Getting a little older and learning about the different styles of tattooing, Davila lived vicariously through people he idolized. “In my teens, I was getting really heavy into punk rock and that whole scene. I remember when I first got one of those Rancid CDs; there’s a picture on the cover of the members and one of them is all tatted up. I used to copy those tattoos onto my skin with a pen. I was like 12 or 13 years old,” he says, laughing. “Traditional really caught my eye. The simplicity of it, but it’s also hard. There are artists out there who can do perfect portraits that look like photographs on people’s skin, but they can’t do a traditional tattoo because they can’t understand how to simplify their mind into doing something like that.”
“Punk rock, graffiti, skateboarding, it was all the same for me. It was about going against the rules,” Davila says. “At that age, it was about the reclamation and the exposure; going against the grain made sense to me. It’s the same thing with tattooing, where you’re taking something that’s ‘not supposed to be’ drawn on, like skin or the side of a building, and you’re making it your own.”
Davila found his footing in Berkshire Country after a long stretch of traveling — from Puerto Rico to Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina. Tattooing was the leading hand in these adventures, starting on the island where he got his first apprenticeship. “I started out tattooing in Puerto Rico, right by the university, at a tattoo shop called Rebel Ink. I started piercing there first and got into an apprenticeship with the owner. He bought another shop, so I went through the process of setting up and opening that space. By the time we were done, so was my apprenticeship and he offered me a job there. It was a different atmosphere too, near the beaches rather than near the university, with a different clientele.”
After a visit to Texas to see his father, Davila decided it was time to relocate and take his talents on the road. “I realized how much of a different world it was out there, and I wanted to get out of Puerto Rico and do something else, just for the sake of my own art, and to be in different places. What I wanted to focus on was traditional-style tattooing. I wanted to come to the states, soak up American traditional, and just do it.”
His experience at 357 Tattoo in Texas gave him more assurance with his career moving forward. “I remember when I gave them my portfolio; I showed them some drawings and paintings and they said they would call me. I left, and I was just about home and I got a call asking if I would like to come back. It really boosted my confidence; this was the first time I had left Puerto Rico, not just for a guest spot but to actually establish myself somewhere else.” A short intermission to Virginia led him to a gig at Red Dragon Tattoo in Richmond before he returned to Dallas, bouncing around to North Carolina, and eventually, visiting North Adams, which opened the door for his own shop opportunity.
“My partner and I came here for a family reunion. I’d never been up here; the farthest north I’d been was probably Philly. When we came up in the fall, it was perfect; the weather was great, and it was so different from the city where we were. Housing was really affordable; a house here cost us a little less than what we were paying for a studio apartment in North Carolina. That was six years ago,” he says. “We stayed here for a little bit, saw how the town was evolving, the new projects that were starting up, and it seemed like a logical step for us to open a business here.
“I had the opportunity, economically, to invest in a business, so I started asking myself, ‘what do I know?’ Two things: tattooing and cooking.” Davila explains how cooking has always been an important part of his life; he’d done a lot of barbecuing and his family had owned restaurants in Puerto Rico. “At the time we were looking to start a business, North Adams didn’t have any authentic Hispanic food, so I was trying to decide between doing that or opening a tattoo shop.”
Ultimately, after doing some research, he was more comfortable choosing a business where he had more experience. “I’ve been tattooing for so long,” he says. “I’d worked in shops and helped other people open shops. I had 14 years’ experience. This is the first shop I’ve ever owned myself. I thought, I can do it, and if it doesn’t work out then it doesn’t work out and I can do something else. I wasn’t worried about that. I was ready to take that risk.”
The low cost of living in North Adams allows some businesses to charge less than they would in a more fast-paced locale. “In North Adams, we are different from shops in New York or Boston where the clientele is different, the rent is higher, and the competition is heavier. I set my prices to fit my area,” Davila says. “Something that I would charge $150 for here costs $500 there. I could easily be charging more for the work I do, but I would alienate a lot of potential customers who might not be able to pay that much for a ‘good tattoo.’ I’ve always tried to get everybody in the door.
“North Adams is so diverse. People come in with a budget. They tell me that, and if it’s something that’s doable within my skill set, I’ll make it happen.” Lucky Cat also offers $20 piercings on Tuesdays and, come Halloween or any Friday the 13th, discounted rates on select tattoos to fit the occasion. “It’s a tradition now, people know we do it, so they expect it to happen. There are a lot of people who wait for those days. We try to do different specials; we try to make it fun.” A recent event featured rolling dice and choosing a tattoo based on the number rolled, adding an element of chance to the special.
The shop reaches a wide clientele, from locals and students to folks traveling in and out of town. “Having MCLA, with a constantly changing student base, right down the road is a big advantage for my business,” says Davila. “It’s really cool to have new people every year. We’ve got clients who first came to us when they started MCLA. We have seen them graduate, come back to visit, and stop by for a tattoo.
“I want the shop to feel like a place where I, myself, would be comfortable. Traditional art on the walls, open space where everyone is working, sharing the experience, helping one another. Not like some shops I’ve been to where you sign the paper and they take you to a little isolated room in the back and it feels so much more clinical. It’s awkward,” Davila explains.
The relationship between tattoo artist and client is reciprocal. “I still remember where and when I got all my tattoos. Some of my early ones might seem pretty dumb, but each one has a story, and I remember those stories,” he says. “Once you’re on the other side and you’re tattooing other people, you make connections with clients. I’ll go to the grocery store and someone’s looking at me funny, and I’m asking myself why, and they say, ‘Hey, man, remember this tattoo you gave me?’ It’s crazy. Even that little tattoo means a lot to them, they remember that. So, I try to give everybody a good experience.”
Creating a fun and comfortable environment is important for the staff, as well. Currently, alongside Davila, Lucky Cat hosts tattoo artist Curtis James and piercing artist Kristina Alexander. “I spend more time at the shop than I do at home, so the people that work around me are like family. I want them to feel like we work together, not like they work for me. You respect me and I respect you,” Davila says. “I tell everybody who works here that I want them to make money. I make my own money working six days a week. I can take care of the bills by myself. I don’t need these other people here; I want them here. I want to spend time with them. I want us to learn from each other.”
In March of 2022, Lucky Cat will be celebrating its four-year anniversary. This achievement is backed by a list of accomplishments, as well as challenges — many of which were caused by the pandemic. “I was in the middle of this big session on someone’s arm when we got a call from the health department saying we could finish what we were doing right then, but then we needed to close our doors. We had no idea when we would be able to open again.” Davila says the shop was closed for about three months, until June of 2020. During these months, he covered rent and bills out of his own pocket. “It happened right at the start of our busy season, which is tax refund season,” he says. “We were getting booked, and I had to call people and give them their deposits back because I wasn’t sure when we would be able to schedule them again. It was hard. I had to use a lot of my savings and crossed my fingers that I would last until the end of it.”
Davila started exploring new ways to use the shop during the pandemic. “We were trying to figure out what to do with our free time. I wanted to start painting and drawing more, but I was so unmotivated by the pandemic, going from working nonstop to doing nothing at all. To be honest, I was pretty burnt out before the pandemic and needed to take a break, but all of a sudden I couldn’t do anything, couldn’t go anywhere, just had to sit at home. And I’ve got kids, a family, bills; how do you explain to a child that we can’t go anywhere? It was horrible,” he explains.
“That’s when my buddy asked for my help with his clothing brand, Violenciaga. We used the shop space for screen-printing and production. He needed someone to design for him; he had the ideas but needed the execution and the space. I’ve done screen printing before, not professionally, but have some experience. I made shirts and started selling them, trying to get my art out there and bring some income into the shop. This helped me get away from the pandemic stress and put my energy and focus into something productive and creative.”
When the shop finally reopened in June, Davila says that following COVID protocols was fairly easy. They already were required to follow most of the procedures, including wiping down stations between clients and wearing gloves.
Lucky Cat is one of the few tattoo businesses that welcomes walk-in clients, but the pandemic made that difficult. “Once we were able to re-open, we were so backed up with appointments that we couldn’t always accommodate walk-ins. This year I’m trying to at least do one day dedicated to walk-ins. Some people don’t have the chance to plan out an appointment, whether it’s because of work or an inconsistent schedule. I get it. I’m the worst at committing to plans, too,” he laughs. “So it’s nice to be accessible.”
While the pandemic may have cost the shop one of its nine lives, Lucky Cat came out alive and inspired. Ringing in the new year, Davila is looking forward to celebrating a successful fourth year of open doors.
