This local tattoo shop has left a lasting impression
There is no shortage of tattoo shops in Acadiana. They are dotted along the main streets, side streets, and every street in-between. With market saturation, competition can be high for a tattoo shop owner and it can be hard to stand out. However, Times of Acadiana Best Of finalist Cutthroat Tattoo is standing out just fine. The shop is located in Broussard and has been inking customers since 2010.
Owner and tattoo artist Allan Erwin has been working in the industry since 1986 and his experience shows. He believes the success of Cutthroat Tattoo is attributed to the personal service every customer gets. “Sometimes, people want to get tattoos for a reason, an emotional reason, a sentimental reason,” he says. “The birth of a child, the death of a loved one, graduating, divorce, turning 18…”
He points out that it’s important to choose wisely when it comes to something so permanent.
“You have one life, one body, one story. Who are you going to trust?”
Erwin’s work has been featured in several newspaper articles and magazines, he’s appeared on television, and has won awards at tattoo conventions. This guy is kind of a big deal. He prides Cutthroat Tattoo’s reputation on professionalism. “My shop is clean, my prices are fair, and (my team) has the experience to do the job right.”
Erwin’s love for tattoos started after a trip to Japan. “I saw men with their whole bodies tattooed, it made me want to get heavily tattooed,” he said. He notes this was in the 1980s, before sleeves and full backs were popular. He was going to one artist to have all this tattoo work done and after a while, they became friends. “One day, I just blurted out, ‘You should teach me how to tattoo, I think I can do that.’ ” At first she refused. “I said that I would sweep, mop, take out the trash, do whatever it took.” So, after three months of cleaning up in the shop, she caved. “That is when she said she would take me on as her apprentice, and teach me to tattoo. That started in 1986, 31 years ago.”
Over the years, Erwin has seen trends in tattoos come and go. He recalls, “Way back in the day when I first started, eagles, grim reapers, black panthers, wizards, dragons, and unicorns were the most requested. Roses are timeless and have always been popular!” He says today’s trend are smaller, subtle tattoos such as quotes or cancer survivor symbols. A major change in tattoo trend is customization. “Back in the day, you would walk into a shop, there would be several hundred pictures on the wall to choose from,” he said. “Pick it and stick it.” Erwin says that customers don’t really look at those options on the wall anymore. “They all have smart phones with ideas from Pinterest.” He says custom drawing is a daily request. As you can imagine, Erwin has gotten some pretty odd artwork requests in his career. “Some of them you might not be able to print!” He laughs. We’ll leave that to the imagination.
If you have another favorite tattoo place in town, chances are, Erwin has been the artist’s teacher. “I have been around tattooing for a long long time, much of that right here in the Lafayette area,” says Erwin. “I have literally tattooed on multiple generations of families - grandmother, mother, daughter, granddaughter.”
Cutthroat Tattoo is located at 4016 US-90 #116, Broussard. Call 337-330-2070 or visit cut-throattattoo.com.