#116 Venus Beach Ink

Age: 50 Years

Hidden or Lost?: No

History: The small seaside town of Venus Beach is known for its bustling boardwalk arcades, t-shirt shops, and tchotchke vendors. But the locals know that the mark of a true Venutian is a tattoo from Venus Beach Ink.

Like many boardwalk tattoo joints Venus Beach Ink mostly caters to weekenders and tourists, but if you can get the nod from a local, you'll get a tattoo that won't just change how people see you, but what you can see in other people.

Owned and operated by local oddball Vince Buddy, the shop seemed to simply pop up on the boardwalk one day in the 1970s. Most folks agree that they'd heard something about it somewhere though none could remember exactly where. Regardless, Vince began inviting locals to get free tattoos in the shop’s private parlor, where he would use his custom-made inks to create designs that seemed to shimmer and move on the skin. In addition, anyone who got that locals-only ink at VBI suddenly seemed able to spot others who had gotten the special work done. To one another, the inked Venutians seemed to glow with an uncanny aura, day or night.

Within two decades, getting a tattoo at VBI became a right of passage for every generation of Venutian visiting the Venus Beach boardwalk. As the decades passed, Vince Buddy himself remained the only artist at Venus Beach Ink. He never seemed to age and was known for his standard uniform of dark shades, leather jacket, and pompadour. The image of a stereotypical greaser straight out of Happy Days.

In the 1980s, an elderly resident of Venus Beach who claimed to have gotten the first ever tattoo at VBI, attempted to burn down the tattoo shop. He had been raving around town that he was receiving alien messages, that beings from outer space were speaking to him through his tattoo. He broke into the shop, ransacking it and disappearing into the back rooms where Buddy said he would mix his miraculous custom colors. When the man emerged from the storefront, hysterical and covered in blood, he claimed to have murdered Buddy after discovering that he was an alien in disguise. The man claimed that Buddy had been marking the Venutians like cattle and injecting them with microscopic control robots. Before he was hauled off by the authorities, the man could be heard shouting about the UFO stored in the secret warehouse behind the shop. Of course Buddy, alive and well, soon appeared to refute the story.

To this day, the young people of Venus Beach flock to VBI to get their first ink, but no one is surprised when the voices of Vince Buddy and his leaders begin ringing in their heads.

1. Reception Area

2. Flash Art Hypnotica

3. Tourist’s Seat

4. Hall of Venus Beach Art

5. Private Parlor

6. Custom Mixing Lab

7. Human Cloaking and Regen Pod

8. Dissection Lab

9. Broadcast and Nano-Activation

10. Skin Lockers

11. Secret Warehouse Hangar

12. Vince Buddy’s Scout Saucer