In celebration of the eighth annual San José Day, several tattoo shops throughout the city featured limited flash tattoos.
San José Day, or 408 Day, started in 2017 and takes place each April 8, becoming an annual festival celebrating the arts and culture of the city, according to the San José Day webpage.
A series of events are being held until Sunday, including an art show, Two Wheel Thursday (a bike race), a photo walk and festival in downtown.
With help from Tattoo.408 on Instagram, San José Day organizers had the chance to expand the number of tattoo shops involved to 25 shops across Santa Clara County in its 408 themed tattoo flash day, according to the San José Day webpage.
San José Tattoo, located on West San Carlos Street, participated and offered San José logos and San José Sharks art, amongst other designs.
The owner of San José Tattoo, John “Tattoo John” Bullock, owns the longest-running studio in San José, being open since 1978, according to the San José Tattoo webpage.
“When I first got to San José, there were about four other shops, and I was open for about a year, and then those other shops ended up closing,” Bullock said.
San José Tattoo specializes in walk-ins, offering clients classic designs and custom pieces from artists with decades of experience, according to the San José Tattoo webpage.
Bullock said 408 Day events compared to other days is different because of the smaller pieces he does.
“The difference is we do more ready to go kind of stuff these days,” Bullock said. “A couple of people came in today, they wanted bigger pieces and stuff drawn up, and we had to postpone them to another day.”
Luna Tattoo Studio also participated in the tattoo flash day, embracing mixed grey scale and Chicano style tattoos.
Luna Tattoo Studio, located at 860 S. First St., Suite C, opened in San José seven years ago and is home to seven different tattoo artists each offering their own art styles, according to the shop’s owner Erika Luna.
Luna said being a part of the event meant a lot to her and the studio.
“I think it’s cool that it’s something that is being organized,” Luna said. “They’re bringing all tattoo shops together as a whole for the community and for San José.”
For the duration of 408 Day, Luna said she had a nice flow of clients throughout the day.
“I think there’s a lot more pride, a lot of people are gaining a lot more pride in their city in San José in general overall,” Luna said.
Another shop, Blacksuit Tattoo, located in downtown San José on South Second Street, returned for their second year of 408 tattoo flash day.
Owner Abraham Ortega, who has been tattooing in San José for 26 years, said 408 Day matters to people in San José.
“San Josés changed so much in the past ten, fifteen, twenty years and I think people from here kind of realized that and want to still have that pride, you know, if you’re from San José, it’s a sense of pride,” Ortega said.
Established in 2016, Blacksuit Tattoo is home to six artists each specializing in different tattoo styles, according to a San José Day Instagram post.
Clients had a new book of flash sales tattoos to choose from when going in for their new flash tattoo.
Charlane Bueno, a customer of Blacksuit Tattoo, got a shark tattoo.
“I just thought why not celebrate the wonderful city that I’ve lived in all my life and kinda just splurge to get a shark today,” Bueno said. “It’s our hockey team’s mascot and what’s not to like about sharks you know.”
Ortega said 408 Day doesn’t compare to just any typical day of work.
“It’s more personal to us and to the client, it’s not just a random nationwide thing, it’s San José,” Ortega said.
