Every day is a little different at Flesh Mechanics tattoo shop in Monaca.
MONACA — Draw a line. Wipe.
Draw a line. Wipe.
Shade the line. Wipe.
There’s beauty in the monotony of Kevin Kerr’s work. He’s creating art — not on a traditional canvas, but on countless clients’ arms, backs, legs and other body parts.
Kerr, the owner of Monaca’s Flesh Mechanics, has been a tattoo artist for 25 years. But he can’t remember a time when he wasn’t drawing or creating art.
“The biggest difference between me and anyone else is we all used to love to draw in the third grade,” Kerr said. “I just didn’t stop.”
Now, he owns a shop that is so busy it’s rare he can take a walk-in customer. Kerr, 46, of Monaca, opened Flesh Mechanics in 2002. He had been working at a tattoo shop in Butler County and knew he wanted to move to Beaver County to leave his own mark.
“I walked all over Beaver County, literally every main street in Beaver County, and took a look at storefronts,” Kerr said. “This was the only storefront I called about.”
The name comes from an old science-fiction movie starring Keanu Reeves called "Johnny Mnemonic."
"So there was a guy, Henry Rollins, who used to be the lead singer of this old punk rock band Black Flag," Kerr said with a chuckle. "That's what he was in the movie. It was in the future, and that's what he was, a flesh mechanic, and I stole it."
Kerr looks the part of a tattoo shop owner. He’s got about 130 hours of ink — he doesn’t count the individual tattoos, but the hours spent in the chair — across his body. He’s one of four tattoo artists at the storefront along Pennsylvania Avenue, and, rightfully so, his space is the one in the front of the shop. There’s artwork he likes, including one painting of his own. A skull he insists is real sits in a jar on his desk. A gaggle of medals from various races hang in his space; until recently, Kerr was a runner, but at 46, his knees say "No more."
The shop’s walls are littered with all types of artwork and looks like a tattoo shop should; that was his goal, after all. In the waiting area, dozens of flash — predrawn — tattoos hang on the wall. But no one comes in and picks from a sheet of flash anymore, he said.
That’s so 2001.
No, the 100 or so clients whom Kerr inks each year bring him ideas and concepts. His shop doesn’t take online appointments, or appointments by phone. If you want a Flesh Mechanics tattoo, be prepared to come into the shop with styles and ideas. Kerr and his artists won’t copycat someone else’s work.
When he finds a tattoo he’s happy with, he tends to stick with that style for a while. While Kerr requires anyone whom he apprentices to draw on themselves — to understand how deep is too deep for the needle — he’s not responsible for any of the ink on his own body.
“I’m not so in love with me that I have to be covered in my own work,” Kerr said. “I’m very critical of my own work.”
His needle goes into the skin 1,000 times per minute. To some, it’s painful. To Kerr, it’s nothing. He has tattoos on most visible parts of his body, including behind his ear.
The most painful spot? The rib cage. Though, Kerr said, he recently began working on a Marvel comics leg sleeve for a client, and behind the knee is a pretty tender spot, as well.
His shop gets its fair share of first-timers — the teenage girls who want a stereotypical tattoo, like a bird exploding into, well anything. He joked that he knows how traumatic a girl’s tattoo experience is going to be based on the size of her entourage.
“If she comes in by herself, she’s a hard-ass. One friend? She’s going to be cool. But five friends? Oh, it’s going to be a show.”
The key to having the tattoo you want is in the artist you work with, Kerr said.
“The hardest thing is to find someone good who listens to you and can do what you want,” he said.
On a recent Tuesday, Kerr spent the morning helping out someone who didn’t find the right tattoo artist the first time around. Chuck Thomas of Beaver Falls got his first tattoo at age 76 of his lemon beagle Winchester, but at a different shop. The coloring wasn’t right, so he called Kerr.
On a recent Tuesday, Kerr chatted with Thomas about everything from dogs to family while he worked on Winchester.
Thomas didn’t even blink an eye.
He’ll need one more sitting to finalize the ode to his 4-year-old best friend. The time is worth it for his little buddy.
“People come to the dog park and ask for him,” Thomas said. “It makes me feel like a million bucks.”
Everyone has a different reason for getting a tattoo, Kerr said. Some are because they like the look or phrase; others are personal.
“Some do it for their loved ones, others to show their struggle. Some are for vanity,” Kerr said. “Me? I just think they look cool."
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