Tattoo shop hopes to make its mark

They're often grimy, unwelcoming places, and they rarely attract a certain clientele, like, say, soccer moms.

The owners of the newly opened Stingray Body Art & More in Allston view theirs as a different kind of tattoo shop, and they're hoping to attract a broader crowd.

''We want you to think of this place and not think bikers, thugs -- what you would normally think when you go into a tattoo shop," said Quent Stulzaft, 41, one of the owners. ''We want a 35-, 40-, 50-year-old woman to come in here and be comfortable."

His partner, Scott Matalon, 40, added: ''We really want to be a classy place, kind of like Newbury Comics meets a dentist's office."

Transforming the dimly lit former antiques store at the corner of Harvard Avenue and Cambridge Street into a kind of tattoo boutique might seem like a stretch, but the owners are serious.

The market seems to be moving in their favor, too, as tattoos are increasingly common among the under-30 set. A 2003 Harris poll found that 16 percent of US adults have at least one tattoo, including 28 percent of those age 30 to 39 and 36 percent of those 25 to 29.

The owners of Stingray began by stripping the old space down to its beams and rebuilding the store with new wiring, plumbing, and flooring.

Now, the lighting is bright and the walls freshly painted. The five tattooing and piercing booths are built with medical-grade tables and flooring. An adjoining retail space is filled with books, party decorations, novelty items, compact discs, and DVDs by local artists, and locally made clothing and accessories.

Many tattoo shops have ready-made designs tacked to the walls, but customers here can view the art at four computer stations, and the in-house artists have thick portfolios of their finished products.

All of the information allows customers such as Ramon Perez to more easily comparison shop for tattoos. Before deciding to have Stingray put the face of a pit bull terrier on the back of his hand, he said he visited three other tattoo shops.

''You want to see the work that's been done," said Perez, 25, an auto mechanic from Brighton. ''If you see a portrait of a baby or a grandfather that comes out very sharp, you can tell that they've got talent."

Meg Whitney, 22, an Emerson College student who lives in Dorchester, came in to have a camouflage-colored tattoo around one of her arms touched up. Unhappy with the quality of her first tattoo, she wanted her next tattoos to be more professional and personal.

''It's hard to find a good tattoo artist, and once you find one, it's like a hairdresser, you don't give 'em up," she said.

Whitney browsed through the art by clicking on a mouse at one of the computer stations.

Then she showed a visitor what will be her next tattoo: Saraswati, the four-armed Hindu goddess of knowledge and the arts.

The design is too complex, she says, to trust to just anybody.

Will Kilburn can be reached at wkilburn@globe.com.