Tattooing
Custom design, black & grey realism, portraits, traditional, Japanese, color work and cover-ups — from a first small piece to a full bodysuit.
Detroit's Tattoo
Institution Since 1989
Inkslingers is a custom tattoo studio and professional body piercing shop. Three and a half decades, and more than two million tattoos.
- Est. 1989
- Open 7 Days
- Walk-Ins Welcome
- Licensed & Inspected
What we do
Two crafts, one standard.
Tattooing and body piercing are different trades that happen to share a room. We treat them that way — dedicated artists, dedicated piercers, and nobody doing a job they aren't the right hand for.
Body Piercing
Sterile single-use needles, never a gun. Ear curation, facial, oral, navel, nipple and dermals — all with implant-grade titanium jewelry.
The record
Work that left the building and kept going.
Inkslingers opened in the late eighties and grew up alongside Detroit's music and car culture. Over the decades the studio's work has ended up on some names you'd recognize — Kid Rock, Britney Spears, Eminem and the Dixie Chicks among them.
We don't trade on it. The thing worth being proud of is the two million-plus ordinary tattoos on either side of those appointments, done to the same standard by the same hands — the machinists, the nurses, the veterans, the families now bringing their grown kids in.
Founder Mike Jeziak also helped establish the American Association of Tattoo Studios, pushing sterilization and safety standards across an industry that badly needed them. That work shaped how studios across Michigan operate today.
1989
Established
2M+
Tattoos
35+
Years on Gratiot
7
Days a week
Tattooing
Styles we're known for.
All 15 stylesCustom Tattoo Design
Original artwork drawn for your body and nobody else's — from a first small piece to a full bodysuit.
Black & Grey Tattoos
Smooth greywash, honest blacks, and the kind of contrast that still reads twenty years from now.
Photorealism Tattoos
Skin texture, reflected light and real depth — realism that survives the jump from photo to flesh.
Portrait Tattoos
Likeness first. Portraits of family, of the people you've lost, and of the faces that shaped you.
Traditional American Tattoos
Bold will hold. Heavy outlines, solid color, and a hundred years of proof that it works.
Cover-Up Tattoos & Reworks
Old ink buried properly — with an honest assessment of what's possible before you commit.
Piercing
Needle only. No guns, ever.
All 15 servicesA piercing gun forces blunt jewelry through tissue by pressure — it crushes rather than cuts, it can't be fully sterilized, and it's why so many lobes end up crooked. Every piercing here is done with a sterile single-use needle at no extra charge, including children's lobes.
Everything starts in implant-grade ASTM F-136 titanium, fitted long to allow for swelling, with a free downsize appointment once it settles. That second visit is the most-skipped step in piercing and the one that decides how well it heals.
- Sterile single-use needles, disposed of in front of you
- Jewelry pre-sterilized and sealed by the manufacturer
- Implant-grade titanium, niobium and solid gold only
- Threadless and internally threaded jewelry exclusively
- Free jewelry checks, changes and downsizes
- Honest anatomy assessments before you pay
Ear Lobe Piercings
Single, double or stacked lobes done with a needle and implant-grade jewelry — never a piercing gun.
Cartilage Piercings
Helix, forward helix, flat, rook and snug — placed to your anatomy, not to a diagram.
Nostril Piercings
Placed to your nose's own crease and curve — studs, hoops and high nostrils.
Body Jewelry
Implant-grade titanium, niobium and solid gold — sized properly and fitted for free.
Portfolio
Healed work, not just fresh.
View galleryEvery fresh tattoo looks sharp. The only honest way to judge a tattooer is work they did five and ten years ago — so that's what we show.
Areas we serve
Metro Detroit & Macomb County.
All areasWe're on Gratiot between 22 and 23 Mile, with parking right out front — an easy run from anywhere along the corridor.
Also serving
Macomb TownshipRichmondMount ClemensClinton TownshipAlgonacSt. Clair ShoresFraserRosevilleArmadaShelby TownshipSee all areas →
Common questions
Before you come in.
Do you take walk-ins?
Yes, seven days a week. Walk-ins are welcome for smaller tattoos, flash and almost all piercings. Larger custom work and specific artists book out in advance, so call (586) 949-6200 first if you have a particular piece or a particular artist in mind.
How much does a tattoo cost?
Small pieces are priced flat starting at our shop minimum; larger work is billed hourly. Cost depends on size, placement, detail and how many sessions it takes. You'll get a real number at your consultation before you commit to anything — we don't do surprise pricing.
How do you sterilize your equipment?
We don't reprocess anything, because nothing gets used twice. The studio runs 100% disposable: needles, tubes, cartridges, ink caps, razors and gloves are all single-use, opened in front of you and dropped in a sharps container or the bin the moment your appointment ends. All body jewelry arrives pre-sterilized from the manufacturer in sealed packaging and is opened at your station. Stations are barrier-filmed and stripped down between every client. Going fully disposable removes the single biggest variable in studio safety — whether a sterilization cycle was actually run, and run correctly.
How long does a tattoo take to heal?
The surface closes in two to three weeks, and the deeper layers finish settling at around two to three months. It looks healed long before it is — which is why swimming, sun and heavy sweat should wait a full month even when it feels fine at week two.
Do you tattoo minors?
Michigan law requires anyone under 18 to have a parent or legal guardian physically present and consenting. The guardian needs government-issued photo ID and documentation of the relationship. We apply this strictly — please don't ask us to make an exception.
Book a session
Free consultations. Walk-ins seven days a week.
Come in with a reference, an idea or nothing at all. We'll talk it through, quote it honestly, and you can leave without booking a thing.