Voodoo Needle, now Auburn’s oldest surviving tattoo shop, started in 2000 after its predecessor, The Flying Gypsy, closed. Nathan Voodoo, a former Flying Gypsy employee, said the tattoo shop’s demise started after the owner died and his wife took ownership.
“The place basically ran by itself,” Voodoo said. “You didn’t feel like coming to work that day, you didn’t come to work.”
So Voodoo left The Flying Gypsy and opened his own tattoo shop.
“I had only been tattooing for a year at that point,” Voodoo said. “But coming from The Flying Gypsy I figured there’s no way I could do a worst job.”
For an entire month, Voodoo was unemployed, desperate to find a space to rent in Auburn.
“We were running around looking for somebody who would rent a retail spot to a bunch of scumbag tattoo artists,” Voodoo said. “It was actually kind of a scary month.”
Fast forward 12 years later and Voodoo is an atheist, avid jiu jitsu enthusiast and still the owner of the Voodoo Needle, but thinks of himself as more of an overlord.
“Overlord has a better ring to it,” Voodoo said. “I like that title better than owner or something boring.”
The owner/overlord is so dedicated to his business he even legally changed his last name to Voodoo. Despite starting with little experience and barely staying open in the first year, Voodoo runs an efficient business with happy, hardworking employees.
Paige Brooks, a piercing specialist, was at Voodoo Needle on her day off.
“This is probably the best job I could ever imagine,” Brooks said. “I’m at work on my day off because I love being here so much.”
The tattoo and piercing shop challenges the more conservative values of the South, yet Voodoo Needle has successfully made its mark on the Plains. Because of its close proximity to Auburn University, Voodoo Needle offers plenty of variations on a tiger tattoo.
Henry Key, a Voodoo veteran tattoo artist, has done his fair share of Auburn-inspired tattoos, but remembered one in particular.
“I did a tiger on this chick’s face,” Key said and then smiled. “It was her first tattoo. We tried to talk her out of it for about an hour and she was just not having it so she got a big-ass tiger on her face.”
Voodoo said he hesitates doing hand tattoos, but completely refuses to do face tattoos in fear of making someone totally unemployable.
“It automatically destroys someone’s chances of getting a job anywhere,” Voodoo said. “I do permanent cosmetics, so I’ll tattoo your eyelids if you want me to, but I’m not going to tattoo f**k you on your eyelids.”
A regular at Voodoo tattoo, Rick Bagget’s first tattoo was just a skull on the corner of his forehead. Bagget’s face tattoo has since grown into a full-face tattoo with a spider web covering most of his face and a lipstick kiss on his left cheek.
“Rick got it because he’s angry people are so conservative,” Voodoo said. “You know I get angry because people are pretty conservative around here, but it doesn’t make me want to tattoo my face.”
Although all tattoo advocates, the employees at Voodoo Needle do not encourage anyone who is even slightly hesitant to get a tattoo to follow through with the procedure. Regardless of if a client wants a full-face design or just a small ankle tattoo, they are not afraid to stress the permanence of the act.
“The best way to remove a tattoo is not to get it,” Voodoo said, “especially if you are not sure.”
Key was responsible for the infamous tattoo of Reuben Foster, the top middle linebacker of the 2013 class. The five-star recruit made national news after he committed to the University of Alabama, but decided to play at Auburn instead. Reuben caused even more media attention when he tweeted a picture of a large Auburn logo on his right arm, supposedly solidifying his switch.
Tattooing has become an art form to many, even attributing tattooists as artists who specialize in specific techniques.
“I do photorealistic stuff,” Key said. “I really like to do freehand tattoos with Sharpie marker instead of a stencil because it gives you complete creative control.”
Sometimes during his breaks between tattoos, Key switches mediums and works on drawings in his sketchbook with colored pencils. Key said he considers tattooing an art form because “it’s the ultimate form of self expression.”
But not everyone feels as artistically moved by tattooing.
“I’m not quite convinced everything we do is art,” Voodoo said. “I guess I’m kind of cynical like that.”
The title artist doesn’t resonate as well with the overlord.
“Whenever I do a cursive name or a baby daddy name the same way I’ve done it for the past 200 baby daddy names, is it really art?” Voodoo said. “Am I really like Michelangelo?”
Voodoo said he believes tattooing is mostly a craft.
“At the higher end of what we do I consider it an art,” Voodoo said. “A lot of it’s just a large pepperoni pizza, you put the cheese on, then the pepperonis on top and that’s just what you do for pizza.”
The tattoos and piercings on all employees have increased since working at Voodoo Needle and the exact number is hard to remember for some.
“All I know is I have a lot,” Key said. “I think it’s roughly somewhere around 40 tattoos, but I honestly don’t remember.”
When Brooks first started working at Voodoo Needle she had a total of two piercings.
“Over the course of about a year and a half I ended up with about 22 piercings.” “It is definitely an addiction,” Key said. “You want more after you get that first one.”
As for the future of Auburn’s oldest tattoo shop, Voodoo recently attempted to retire, but returned back to work only after four months.
“Going from working seven days a week for the last 11 years (at the time) to not working at all I think was more than I can handle,” Voodoo said.
Although his retirement was short lived, Voodoo said he doesn’t want to be the “big man” at Voodoo forever and the right time to retire will come when he has figured out more about himself.
“I’m still kind of soul searching,” Voodoo said. “I’m trying to figure out how life is possible without Voodoo Needle.” Voodoo said he struggles to answer the question, “What do people who don’t own tattoo shops do?”
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