Grindhouse Gallery Tattoo

As we are often asked about our name, the following is a brief history of the term Grindhouse:
From Jaws to Star Wars, most people are familiar with the “Hollywood Blockbuster”,
however, for decades, groups of talented filmmakers worked outside the Hollywood system,
without the benefit of big budgets & distribution, they instead used ingenuity, creativity & passion
to create smaller films that weren’t bound to the rules of commerical cinema-
these outsiders became known as Exploitation Filmmakers.
In the 1960’s- 1980’s exploitation filmmakers took over a variety of decaying burlesque
theaters & adopted a strategy dating back to the 1920’s known as a “Grind- Policy”
where they showed continuous films of various genres back to back for a single admission fee.
these films were unpretentious, often eclectic, sometimes shocking, but ALWAYS entertaining.
These theaters became known as GRINDHOUSES.
Grindhouse Gallery Tattoo owner/Artist Mike Falcigno, along with resident artists
Steve Hellkey & Cait Coale, share a mutual love of old School exploitation cinema.
Considering we are a team of down to earth, fun loving artists who work in a wide variety
of styles, & the fact that we are ALWAYS working...
Grindhouse Gallery Tattoo was a perfect banner to work under.

*Please note that for the previous 6 years we were called Black Diamond Ink Tattoo. This shop consisted of Mike Falcigno & Steve Hellkey and was located at 1089 Bridgeport Avenue. This past year, shop owner & artist Mike Falcigno expanded the shop to encompass both 1087 & 1089 Bridgeport Avenue, changed the name, & brought in Cait Coale to join the team. All three artists currently work at Grindhouse providing the same excellent service & inviting atmosphere as they did at Black Diamond...only bigger & better! We would like to thank all of our clients for 6 amazing years of laughter, memories, and great artwork!