Looking for a deal on a tattoo? Friday the 13th is your lucky day

For Las Vegas tattoo enthusiasts like Pete “The Cat” Mills, Friday the 13th is the luckiest day on the calendar.

It’s the day when tattoo shops across the valley offer super cheap, fast tattoos — plus good vibes, said Mills, 31, a tattoo artist at Last Love Tattoo Parlour in southwest Las Vegas.

“Friday the 13th is less about the actual tattooing — or even offering a quick, cheap tattoo,” Mills said. “It’s about meeting new people and getting to know those in your neighborhood. Yeah, that’s why we all do it.”

Though nobody seems to really know the tradition’s origins, Friday the 13th has become a cult holiday of sorts among tattoo aficionados across Las Vegas.

On this special day, tattoo artists will draw small preprepared “flash” symbols and images on clients for as low as $20. The base price for the job could be $13, coupled with a $7 tip for good luck. For fun, studios often promote spooky or occult-themed tattoos to match the event’s namesake.

Across the valley, tattoo shops have developed their adaptations of the Friday the 13th frenzy.

Mills said you don’t have to be a tough guy to get tattooed at Last Love. On Friday the 13th, he added, crying is allowed — and sometimes expected.

On Monday, Mills took to social media to advertise his Friday the 13th tattoo offerings on a flash sheet, a standard template of designs for clients to choose from. A traditionalist, Mills hoped his sketches would bring tattoo enthusiasts and newbies alike to the shop.

Among the choices on Mills’ sheet are a pair of dice decorated with a heart, a panther head, and, of course, the number 13, available in multiple fonts. As the designs increase in size and detail, so do their price tags, but nothing is over $113. Mills said he appreciates how the event allows locals and tourists to “feel out” a new artist.

‘We expect many people’

At Beneath the Surface Tattoos, a shop east of Harry Reid International Airport, owner Elekktra Gallegos, 28, said Friday the 13th tattooing is about having fun and giving back to the community. Gallegos said she opened the shop in 2007 and has participated in the tradition since.

“When you think about Friday the 13th, you think of Freddy and Jason,” Gallegos said. “Our clients get really excited when it falls close to Halloween, so we expect many people.”

While other parlors keep the sale simple, limiting where the tattoos can be — usually no hands, feet, or neck — and what colors can be used — only black ink — Gallegos and her staff were excited to feature color tattoos for an upcharge on Friday. On rare occasions, some artists at Beneath the Surface will also consider tattooing those “forbidden” body parts above, she said.

Tyson Taumaoe, 39, co-owner at 18B Tattoo in the Arts District, offered an explanation for how the 13th celebration came to be among tattoo artists nationally and here in the valley.

“The lore, as far as I’m concerned, is that the 13 came from sailors getting the number tattooed to ward off bad luck,” Taumaoe said. “So, it fits Vegas … You want to ward off bad luck if you’re out gambling or doing your thing.”

‘A thing here in Vegas’

Marcos Juarez, one of 18B’s tattooists, added, “It has been a thing here in Vegas because we have so many tourists. Sometimes, visitors want something small and quick, and that’s what Friday the 13th offers. I think that is why it works.”

On one Friday the 13th, Gage Castro, 29, said he inked 200 people in his Las Vegas apartment. Now, he owns Blood & Tears Tattoo and gets to share the holiday with his staff, his closest friends from middle school, he said.

Koolsville Tattoo is also no stranger to cheap tattoos. Self-proclaimed as “home of the $10 tattoo,” all seven locations throughout the Las Vegas Valley will host Friday the 13th promotions. Koolsville’s marketing director, Zach Saucier, 45, called the event a “worldwide viral sensation.”

“I love seeing the floods of people coming from everywhere. I’ve been answering DMs from Canada, London, and New York, for example,” Saucier said. “Getting a tattoo here is the one souvenir guaranteed to last forever.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.