She enters her shop everyday at noon, by unlocking the steel door located in the middle of the building’s brick façade. As she opens the door, the sound of bubbling water from the fish tank fills her ears. The koi fish in the tank mimic the Japanese style drawings pinned to the wall in the nearby work station. She takes a seat behind the desk and gets ready. It’s time to tattoo.
Andreana Verona opened Supernova in 2004. Since then, her business has become one of the most successful tattoo shops in Astoria, New York. The success of the shop came from long working hours, good craftsmanship and luck, according to Verona.
Verona moved to New York from Puerto Rico 17 years ago after being offered a job at a local shop when she was in town for a tattoo convention. “I met my future New York boss… and he offered for me to come work in one of his shops.” After September 11, he decided to close his shop, located on 28th Avenue and 25th Street. Verona and her then partner decided to re-open the business under a different name.
“[The transition] was pretty smooth because it was already an old and established shop.” Verona recalls re-opening the old shop under a different name. “I think finding a name for a business is the most difficult thing to do.” After being shown prints of how supernovas form, Verona found the inspiration for the name of her shop. “Not being American, I didn’t feel like having a complete American or English name.” She felt the word supernova was neutral with a Latin feel. “I thought maybe it could be cool.”
For Verona, becoming a neighborhood establishment came easily. “I was always there and people liked what I was doing. It was pretty smooth sailing,” she says. She worked twelve hour days, five days a week, to ensure the success of her business. Supernova was one of three tattoo shops opened in that area at the time and starting off was easy, especially since the clientele from the previous shop followed her there. “That is how I established it,” she says. [I] never even did advertising.” Verona pays for a Yelp page and has features in the local Boro Magazine to promote the shop, but does not go further than that. As for social media “I am…not that active. I always forget. I should use it more,” she explains.
Most of Supernova’s clients, like Julie Pasture, are referred to the tattoo shop through word of mouth. “I heard [about Supernova] through a friend of mine,” Pasture says. “She went to get a tattoo there once and recommended it when I asked her.” Although she did not receive a tattoo from Verona, Pasture was very pleased with the work former Supernova tattooist, Leo Bulldog, had done. “Their work is great. The tattoo is done well,” she says of her tattoo. “They have amazing artists. It’s well worth the price of the tattoo.” Pasture’s tattoo on her ankle cost her $125.
Julie Pasture’s tattoo, done by artist Leo Bulldog at Supernova.
Supernova charges a minimum of $80 for a tattoo. The minimum a shop charges usually covers the cost of the new needle they will use. For smaller tattoos, such as Pasture’s, the artist will determine a price based on the location of the tattoo, as well as the size and intricacy of the tattoo.
For larger pieces, customers pay $200 an hour. On average, Verona’s larger pieces are completed in three to four hours.
Currently, Supernova only has one artist other than Verona, a tattooist named Andre. “I am encountering problems now,” Verona voiced. “It’s not easy to be a boss. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean [they] can do whatever…they want.” Being a female tattooist posed difficulties for Verona as she tried to establish herself. “Being a woman, it takes a lot of patience and thick skin.” She states that many of the men she worked with would make sexual advances towards her during her time working with her, and it has made it hard for her to find artists to work for her.
Tattooing is considered to be a male dominated trade, making it difficult for women to succeed. “While there are many more women working in and running shops than there were even 20 years ago,” Margot Mifflin, author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo, says “It can still be hard for them to get equal treatment in terms of promotion or respect, and some feel uncomfortable at conventions because of the overt sexism on display there.” Verona’s experiences mimic those of other female tattooists over the years.
Despite these stereotypes of female tattooists, Verona is able to run a successful tattoo shop with loyal clientele but getting new clients proves challenging. “There are a lot of shops opening up, some good, most of them are really bad and we have a lot less work here.” She does not let competition stifle her. “I try not to look at what other people do because it can ignite problems.”
Supernova was recently named one of the best tattoo shops in New York City by CBS. Verona makes sure she hires artists that are all experts in their perspective style of tattooing, giving the shop more of a variety to please clients. “I try to always have artists here who wont step on each other’s toes,” She said. “What I do is more realistic and black and gray, and I like geometric I like details and dot work. Andre likes more Japanese, more traditional Americana, old school.”
