Black Star Tattoo Studio Continues Historical Legacy in Pittsfield
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There is a piece of tattooing history right here in Pittsfield.
The body art practice was made legal in 2000 after Stephan "Lefty" Lanphear won a lawsuit against the state that found its 40-plus year ban on tattooing unconstitutional.
"I got into tattooing and I wanted to have a shop on [Martha's Vineyard] and so I didn't know that tattooing was illegal in Massachusetts until somebody told me, and at the time the general law only let physicians tattoo, so only doctors could tattoo. They did medical marking, like lining up for radiation and things like that," he explained.
"So I didn't believe this person and I went to the courthouse on the Vineyard, went into the law library, and looked up the general law and saw that there was a prohibition on tattooing and so I decided that the only way that I was going to be able to open up a shop on the Vineyard was to try to change the law."
When the right to tattoo was granted, there were no guidelines and regulations in place for it and a committee — with Lanphear as a member — was created to write them. In the meantime, he was asked to back down until the proper procedures were established.
"The state was so unprepared for it," he said. "I don't think they thought I was going to win."
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health was already overtasked and legal tattooing was a concept that was far from its expertise.
"They didn't want one more thing they have to deal with," Lanphear said. "They knew nothing about tattooing. None of these people had seen a tattoo, gotten a tattoo, knew people with tattoos then all of a sudden they were expected to go in and deal with this stereotypical rough bunch of people and kind of get them in line."
From the early 1990s to 2000, he tattooed all around the country — primarily in New York—while the lawsuit was in progress.
In 2003, Lanphear moved to the Berkshires to open the well-known Lefty's World Famous at 103 Dalton Ave. The shop has become a household name for those interested in tattoos, producing countless pieces of body art over the years between Lanphear and other artists.
Today, he owns Black Star Tattoo on Elm Street and is passing 32 years of knowledge down to his daughter. The building is owned by his wife, Jenna Lanphear, and also houses her business, Evergreen Salon.
The pandemic influenced his decision to move from the spacious tattoo parlor at 304 Tyler St. — the shop's second location — to the smaller space. At the time that COVID-19 hit, Lefty's resident artists had dwindled and the large studio was no longer necessary.
"I was going to keep the studio on Tyler Street open at the time when COVID hit, I was me plus three tattoo artists and by the time COVID was going full bore I lost two people and it was just down to two," Lanphear explained.
"So to simplify and make the operation more streamlined, I padlocked the building, we both came over here, Pete and I came over here, just streamlined everything to kind of make it really much easier."
Like many restaurants and other businesses, it wasn't clear if the shop was going to be able to open up again or what it would open up to after the pandemic. The goal was to come out of it as strong as possible.
At first, clients were reluctant to come and get tattooed after things began to open up but Lanphear feels they have hit their pre-COVID stride within the past six months. He estimated that between him and his fellow artists, they tattoo more than 20 people a week.
In June, daughter Viviana Lanphear started taking appointments after she was trained by her father. She's spent her entire 16 years in the studio and always had the expectation that she would learn to tattoo even if it wasn't intended to be her career.
She began doing "twig" tattoos — which are dainty and often contain botanical elements — on Sundays to save up for her own equipment. The first day her availability was announced on social media, Viviana was booked into August.
The rising high school senior attended virtual learning classes in the studio during the pandemic and decided it was time to learn for herself. There is no age requirement for learning how to tattoo in the state.
"There's just nothing like it," she said.
"It's such a unique experience and you meet so many new people and there's such a rich culture and history behind it. I just can't imagine not wanting to be involved with it."
Lefty said both his children have been around tattooing their whole lives.
"[Viviana's] always been around like my people and the tattoo people and kind of my extended tattooed family because it's kind of like that in the tattoo world," he said. "Legitimate tattoo studios, they become like these multi-layered family units, so she was always exposed to all these people and she was always in the shop, so she was always by me or around me or around somebody."
He is proud of his daughter's skill, sporting a well-done devil on his leg that was her first work.
It is typical in established tattoo families to pass the craft down through generations, he said. This is especially true for people who can trace their lineage in tattooing, which Lanphear can.
"If you trace my family tree back in time, it goes back to the very very beginning roots of American electric tattooing," he said.
Viviana confirmed that part of her drive to tattoo was to carry on the knowledge and history behind it.
"It's very important for me to know that all of this information that was carried forward that was dumped into my head, that it goes somewhere and that it's going to her so that she will know," Lefty said.
"That's kind of like what I think your soul is like when people say, you died and went to heaven or whatever your soul is, it's the stories and the things that you leave behind and how it carries on so it's very important for me to have that passed on to somebody that I know is going to do it justice and is going to protect it and not just dole it out freely."
Even if Viviana doesn't make tattooing her career, he is glad that she has this training.
In the present day, Lanphear works on a lot of large and full-body pieces that take many sessions. This is a change from tattoos of the past, when people would normally have statement pieces rather than full coverage tattoos.
"When I got tattooed the first time it was like somebody had done magic in front of my eyes. It totally took me right in," he said.
"So for me, it kind of saved my life because there really wasn't an alternative for me. I couldn't get jobs, because I didn't have the credentials to get these jobs and stuff so I always had to kind of find ways of hustling and making money and I was always very artistically inclined, I could draw really, really well so when I landed in tattooing, it provided me with incredible opportunities."
The family owns multiple properties in Berkshire County, including Green Heron Farm in Hinsdale. During the season, a farm stand with fresh vegetables from the property can be seen outside of the studio.
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