About

In 1997, when I was trying to come up with a name for my soon to open tattoo shop, my family and I tossed around a lot of names. I always like the idea of calling it Tattoos by Victor, even though “Victor” is not my name. I seemingly thought it would be funny to have a mysterious shop owner who was somehow always out of town.

My daughter, Erica, who was 7 years old at the time, came to me one day with a picture she had drawn in crayon. Erica had drawn a picture of our dog, April, in that way a small child will draw members of the family. April, a giant lab-mix, was truly the sweetest dog ever. She was gentle almost to a fault, mothering our many cats, letting them knead her fur and eat her food, and of course letting Erica dress her for tea parties and other play dates.

In addition to April’s many attributes, April processed one big flaw…standing in the yard and barking at nothing for hours.

Thinking of April’s penchant for habitually barking at nothing, while looking at Erica’s drawing, I knew we had found our name, and Barking Dog Tattoo was born.