Think Ink

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 1/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

From Florida to California. On laptops, linen, and crystal. The tattoo is having a moment. The recent Design Miami saw its first pop-up tattoo parlor, offering designs by the likes of Lawrence Weiner, Jürgen Mayer H., and Hella Jongerius. Ku Ambiance, a retailer of traditional-inspired contemporary Japanese furnishings, opened its first U.S. store, in Los Angeles, with an exhibit by Don Ed Hardy, considered the godfather of the tattoo. His designs also adorn the walls of his own eponymous outpost and a Christian Audigier shop, both in downtown New York. Uptown, Steuben has launched Kiki Smith's Tattoo line of five engraved crystal objets. A South Carolina company called Of the Young and the Restless has released the bicep-worthy printed linen Thorny Rose. And on February 23, "Body Politics, Maori Tattoo Today" opens at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Roll up your sleeve.