Voted 2024

"Best Tattoo Parlor"

by Columbia Heights, Fridley, Spring Lake Park, and Blaine readers

FOUR CONSECUTIVE YEARS!

reschedule/cancellation & deposit policies

• A NON REFUNDABLE deposit is required in order to hold your appointment date.

• Deposit amounts are based on the artist’s hourly rate and are EQUIVALENT to one (1) hour of tattoo time.

• Deposits must be paid within 24 hours of booking or your appointment will not be guaranteed.

• The deposit is NON REFUNDABLE once you place it.

• If you no call no show, cancel, or completely change your mind and no longer wish to have the tattoo done, you will forfeit the deposit at that time.

• You will receive a text reminder three (3) days prior to the appointment, if you need to reschedule at that time your deposit will move with the reschedule.

  • We are closed on Sundays so plan accordingly.

• You will need to reschedule your appointment prior to two BUSINESS days in order to keep your deposit.

  • We will allow up to three (3) reschedules per date, after three (3) you will need to place a new deposit.

• If you cancel or need to reschedule within that two BUSINESS days you will need to place a new deposit prior to scheduling.

  • “I forgot to take off work” or “My babysitter canceled” are not emergencies and will require a new deposit in order to be rescheduled. Our artists put in time prior to your appointment in order to prepare for your time in the chair and it is not fair to them to cancel last minute as they will be unable to fill that time slot with another client.

• We understand that emergencies do come up. If it is a genuine emergency it will be up to the individual artist regarding your deposit.

• Deposits are with individual artists and not the shop itself.

• In order to ensure that we are able to serve all of our clients in a timely manner, we ask that you arrive on time for your appointment.

• If you are more than 15 minutes late, we reserve the right to reschedule your appointment and require a new non refundable deposit be placed in order to reschedule the appointment and/or keep any future appointments that might be already booked.

  We appreciate your understanding and cooperation with our deposit and cancelation policy. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to the front desk.

STEVE DE LOS REYES

Award-winning artist, Steve De Los Reyes, is the owner of Ink Kings Tattoo in Otsego, MN. Steve has been an artist for over 30 years. He graduated with a degree in Technical Illustration from California State Fullerton. His career experience has consisted of oil painting, charcoal portraits, woodcarving and wood burning. Steve is also an expert in airbrushing custom motorcycles and cars. Steve began his tattoo career in 2009. He built his tattoo career and managed a tattoo studio for several years before opening his own shop, Ink Kings Tattoo, in March 2016. As a master artist, Steve apprentices new artists and is a mentor to independent artists at Ink Kings as well as various artists around the United States.

Steve is well known for his artistic versatility in both color or black and gray, his brilliant wild-life pieces and realism, and unbelievable cover-ups. Steve’s clientele consists of both our home-based Minnesotans as well as loyal clients from other states. Clients travel to see Steve at Ink Kings as well as various tattoo conventions across the country. Steve is looking forward to the expansion of the Ink Kings studio over the coming months.

Hunter Hulley

Hunter has been at Ink Kings for 5 years. He specializes in geometric and illustrative black and gray tattoos. Some of his favorite subjects for tattoos include mandalas, flowers, animals, and portraits. Growing up Hunter attended Watertown-Mayer High School. After that he graduated from University of Wisconsin La-Crosse, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. In his free time he enjoys going to Timberwolves games, riding his electric scooter, and watching movies.

Before inquiring, please make sure you are familiar with the style of his work! When sending in your submission you are agreeing to give Hunter creative freedom with your ideas to create something special just for you. Hunter usually does like to give you options for different routes to take with your final design, so don’t worry!

Below is a list of subject matter Hunter will be accepting (all in black and gray only):

Carl Kerssen

Veteran Tattoo Artist with 20+ years of experience. Former owner of Forever Yours Tattoos, Inc. from December of 1994 until the shop’s closing in December, 2018. Carl joined Ink Kings Tattoo in September 2019. Welcome Carl!

“I was always interested in tattoos even as a kid. I got my first one when I was 15, with my mom’s permission of course, she signed for it and it was given to me by Neil Grant. After being tattooed by various other people between the ages of 15-19, I met up with Steve Barjonah, who was stationed on the same ship as me in the Navy. Once learning that I had some natural art skills and a desire to learn it was Steve that gave me my first step in the door, introducing me to all kinds of people in the industry and showing me some of the basics I needed to pursue being a tattoo artist. Once discharged from the Navy I worked full-time as an electronics technician at a pacemaker company while tattooing by night in my makeshift tattoo studio at my parents’ house. It soon became apparent where I belonged when someone at the pacemaker company took offense from a recent tattoo I had gotten, and I was told to cover them or be fired. Needless to say, I didn’t do as asked.” I found a little spot in Ramsey and founded Forever Yours Tattoos inc. in December of 1994. The rest is history…”

~Carl Kerssen

Austin Jackels

Austin is originally from Minnesota, but spent some time in Duval, Washington, where he graduated from Cedar Crest High School. He returned to MN with the desire to find a tattoo apprenticeship. From the age of 15, Austin knew he that he had a future in art. He did not want to work in graphics or to sit behind a desk; he wanted to tattoo. And here we are today. Austin started his apprenticeship with Steve De Los Reyes over the summer of 2018. He likes working with traditional coil tattoo machines and his favorite style of art is realism. In the future, he looks forward to being a versatile artist, but would like to specialize in color pieces.

“My focus right now is color blending and saturation, technique and stroke, and needle groupings. Steve pushes me out of my comfort zone to improve my skills and is real with me about artist expectations.”

Thanks to my Grandma and Grandpa for all of their support! ~Austin Jackels

Nick Gagnon

Nick is a born and raised Minnesotan. He began tattooing in 2011 and spent 5 years tattooing around Minnesota before making his way to the Carolinas to focus on his art and to work with other artists. He has since moved back to Minnesota and is taking on new and challenging projects.

Nick's primary focus in tattooing is capturing realistic black and grey imagery in the skin. He occasionally creates color pieces as well. Nick is a fan of tattooing styles such as surrealism, dark art, horror, wildlife and human portraiture, geometric and blackwork pieces.

Below will be a short list of things I would like to do:

I appreciate all of you for your continued support and creativity. I look forward to hearing your ideas and seeing what we can come up with and accomplish.

Much love! -Nick

John Carpenter

Hello, I'm John. As a child, I did some stuff. As a young adult, I continued to do stuff and added things to the list. I've had the pleasure of periodically falling down stairs, climbing stairs, climbing trees, falling out of trees. One might say that tattooing would be a perfect fit! So, since touring with a boy band is not in the cards, I've decided to continue the pursuit of Tattooing. I look forward to working with clients in Black and Grey realism as well as Color realism tattoos. Just keep your stairs to yourself.