THE APPRENTICE

Singleton Tattoo Is Tattooing By Their Own Rules

Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by LO KUEHMEIER

When you walk into Singleton Tattoo, the first thing that will probably draw your eye are the two taxidermied giraffe heads that stand in opposite corners of the room.

Their names are Jeffrey and Sally.

Ejay Bernal’s tattoo studio is bright and airy, and covered in art like most tattoo shops.

Unlike most tattoo shops, his station in the back of the studio is surrounded by glass tanks that house scorpions and tarantulas. Two pythons, named Sprinkles and Owen, live in the back room of the store.

Bernal says the animals are the shop’s “mascots.”

Victoria Bernal, Ejay’s wife, runs operations at the shop and says that, while unconventional, each artist at Singleton Tattoo has contributed to the unique environment.

“We’re an open concept studio. So I mean, there’s a lot of places that have private rooms and kind of just