User:Sharky Pitts/sandbox

Sharky Pitts

Sharky Pitts (born 1983) is an American tattoo artist, historian, and community organizer known for her roots in the East Coast tradition of American traditional tattooing. One of the few Black women to emerge from this lineage, Pitts has built a legacy traveling nationally and internationally, working in respected shops, and advancing ethical standards in the tattoo industry through mentorship and education. She is the creator of I Sing the Body Electric, a zine that documents overlooked figures in tattoo history, and has hosted several Instagram-based interview series, including Shark TV and Welcome to the Backrooms (co-hosted with Rich Fie, co-owner of R&D Tattoo in Queens, New York). Pitts is especially known for her American traditional and ornamental large-scale blackwork, which blends historical influences with a bold, contemporary approach. She also offers acetate tattooing, a historic practice that uses hand-cut celluloid stencils rather than modern thermal transfers—one of the earliest methods for duplicating tattoo designs. Pitts is a former member of the National Tattoo Association, sponsored into the organization by legendary tattooer Lyle Tuttle.

Early Life and Education

Pitts was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1983 and raised in the greater tri-state area, including New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York. She was raised by a business-owning father and a mother who worked in a New York City law firm. Pitts attended Catholic, private, and boarding schools throughout her youth. A musician and runaway in her teenage years, she left home at eighteen and immersed herself in the New Jersey and New York metal and tattoo scenes. She worked as a bartender in Times Square and was also the floor girl at True Blue Tattoo Shop in Queens, New York. Her tattoo career began when a friend of John Farag (of Cable Car Theory) saw a tattoo she had done and brought it to his attention—shortly after, she was offered a job at Inner City Tattoo, located in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The shop was a sister location to Ron & Dave’s Tattoo on Staten Island.

Tattoo Career

After her time at Inner City Tattoo, Pitts worked at several street shops while also establishing a presence on the tattoo convention circuit. Through these events, she formed lasting connections within the tattoo community and began a career-long practice of combining shop work with extended travel. Pitts embraced the road not just as a means of reaching clients, but as a vital part of her artistic and communal engagement—balancing her presence in home studios with a deep commitment to national guest work.

These journeys—ranging from four to twelve weeks—took her coast to coast by plane, train, motorcycle, bus, and conversion van. Each experience served as both a professional opportunity and a deeper exploration of regional tattoo cultures, enriching her artistic voice.

Through her travels, Pitts landed a full-time position under Pete Giaquinto, one of New York City’s earliest tattooers and a foundational figure in the Queens tattoo scene, widely known as the “King of Queens.” This period marked a major turning point in Pitts’s career, as she was now fully engulfed in the mentorship of the New York City traditional tattoo scene.

In 2014, during her yearly travels, Pitts began guesting at Classic Tattoo in San Marcos, Texas. After two annual visits, she decided to relocate permanently—closing out her books at Pete and Cubo’s, selling her belongings, and moving to Texas a year later.

On Valentine’s Day 2022, Pitts opened Lonely Hearts Club TX, a private studio nestled in the hill country of San Marcos, Texas. Created as a response to the commodification of modern tattooing, the studio was designed to offer an emotionally validating, intentionally off-grid experience. The space invites clients to slow down and connect with the process, emphasizing solitude, presence, and a deeper kind of care. This philosophy is reflected not only in the way Pitts draws and tattoos but in how she hosts her guests—fostering an environment that resists transactional norms in favor of something sacred and immersive.

Historical Research and Legacy

Alongside her tattoo career, Pitts has developed a parallel path as a documentarian and oral historian within the tattoo industry. Raised in the lineage of traditional tattooing, she became deeply invested in preserving its stories—particularly those overlooked by mainstream narratives. Her travels across the country became both tattoo tours and research missions, during which she routinely photographed shops, collected stories, and recorded the voices of tattooers around her. Her photos were even used in an episode of Vice’s 2017–2018 series Tattoo Age.

Pitts began hosting interview series on Instagram, including Welcome to the Backrooms (co-hosted with Rich Fie) and Shark TV, where she spoke with influential and underrecognized figures in tattooing. These conversations laid the foundation for her self-published zine series I Sing the Body Electric, a project that aims to highlight unsung voices in tattoo history. The first volume centers on Valeria Watson, a largely unacknowledged Black female tattooer, and threads together archival storytelling, cultural analysis, and poetic reflections. Pitts sees this work as part of a larger mission to reframe tattoo history through the lens of a Black woman—offering a perspective that has been largely absent from the historical record.

Media Appearances

Pitts’s work has been featured in various media outlets, including podcasts, books, zines, and short films. Selected appearances include:

• Like for Like podcast, episode 4 (2018)
• Books Closed podcast, episode 45 (2021)
• So You’re Kind of a Big Deal podcast, episode 31 (2023)
• Borderlandia podcast, episode 15 (2023)

• Feminine Inc. – short film by Carly M. Schneider (2012)
• Indelible Ink – About Time – short film created for the Tribeca Film Festival (2012)
• Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women in Tattooing by Margot Mifflin (2013)
• Barbed Wire Tattoozine, issue 2 (2017)
• Ladies of Tattooing Worldwide, volume 9 (2022)
• MamaTattoo – WordPress article (2012)
• The Blue Book by Ryan Cooper Thompson – featured artist
• Tattoo Passport, issue 7 (Substack, 2024)

Personal Life

Pitts is married to Alan Pitts and is a stepmother of three.

External Links

• Lonely Hearts Club TX
• Instagram – @beforethewrathcomes