The following is taken from an interview with shop owner and artist Marc Skiles.

Why did you want to move away from 13 Shades Tattoo and rebrand the company as Rose & Raven Tattoo Parlour?

I wanted to create something from scratch.

I bought the business from somebody else, who bought it from somebody else, who’d started from somebody else, and it had its own identity at the time.

You could say each owner that had it kind of did its own thing and the name has stuck around.

13 Shades had the longevity, but I wanted something that I could start from my concept, from the very beginning, and build a brand around it and a feeling and an idea.

Why Rose and Raven for the new name?

Well I wanted something that was an iconic set of visuals in the tattoo industry but also sounded cool and rolled off the tongue. The imagery had the potential for a good brand and great logo. Roses are really beautiful and soft and ravens are dark and kind of mysterious; tattoos are beautiful and they’re mysterious, so it’s there’s a whole bunch of reasons why.

What are the core values for Rose & Raven?

100 percent quality tattoos are first and foremost. We always want good tattoos coming out of Rose and Raven. We also want people to feel like they had a good experience while they were here, that they were treated well and felt comfortable. Our goal has always been to create a clean, comfortable, safe and welcoming environment. As most folks know, especially for first time people getting tattooed, getting a tattoo can be really nerve wracking. You just don’t know what to expect.

For us being in industry for so long, sometimes it’s hard for us to remember what it was like in the beginning.

What reminds me is I’ll see somebody come in to talk about wanting a tattoo, and they can barely hold their phone still because they’re shaking so bad due to first time nerves.

I work hard to remind myself that we want to create that safe and comfortable environment for people, and then give them a kick ass tattoo experience that repeats over time as they come back for more.

We’re a lot of fun to be around. We joke around a lot, we play good music and you might catch us singing along, or watching a crazy comedian standup special on TV.

So to everyone both old and new clients, we’re really excited to continue the great work we did under the 13 Shades brand and welcome them to the future which is Rose and Raven.