The Best Tattoo Shop in NYC

Daredevil opened in 1997 and has been featured in every major tattoo publication and is regularly profiled in the media. Time Out, The Village Voice, Gothamist have all listed Daredevil as one of the best tattoo shops in New York City in their "Best of" issues.

Atlas Obscura: Daredevil Tattoo Museum

This iconic tattoo shop has its own onsite museum with artifacts from the early history of modern body art. Over the last quarter of a century, Brad Fink, the co-owner of Daredevil Tattoo, has been slowly amassing an impressive collection of tattoo memorabilia. So when Daredevil moved to a new, more spacious location on the border of the Lower East Side and Chinatown, the tattoo shop expanded to include an onsite museum. In 1997, Brad Fink and Michelle Myles opened Daredevil on the Lower East Side. The Museum of Tattoo History is a showcase for Fink’s treasure trove of tattoo memorabilia. Inside you’ll find all kinds of artifacts from the early history of modern tattooing. Antique tattoo machines, old news articles, and original photos of historic tattoo artists like Millie Hull and Charlie Wagner. You can see original artwork by tattoo legends like Bert Grimm, August “Cap” Coleman, George Burchett, and New York tattoo artist Samuel O’Reilly. There’s also one of Thomas Edison’s electric perforating pens, which was famously repurposed by Samuel O’Reilly in 1891, becoming the first electric tattoo machine. (Paraphrased from Atlas Obscura)

Best Tattoo shops, Time Out 2024,

“All great museums leave a lasting impression on your mind, but this may be the only one that also marks your skin for eternity. Daredevil, a shop and tattoo-history museum, has been in business since 1997. “We opened when tattooing was legalized in New York City,” says co-owner Michelle Myles. The walls are covered with artwork by tattoo innovators such as Samuel O’Reilly and Sailor Jerry, alongside antique tattoo machines and old-time sideshow banners from the early days of a taboo industry—and the museum is free to the public. Myles, co-owner Brad Fink, and the other talented Daredevil artists genuflect before this rich tradition and then carry it into tomorrow.”

WNYC All of It with Alison Stewart: Recent studies show that about one third of Americans have tattoos. But did you know that the modern tattoo was really born here in New York? We discuss the history of tattooing, and specifically the history of New York-themed tattoos, with the curators behind a new exhibit at the City Reliquary Museum and Civic Organization. Dave Herman, founder of the City Reliquary, and Michelle Myles, owner of the Daredevil Tattoo Shop, join us to discuss "Liberty the Tattooed Lady: The Great Bartholdi Statue as Depicted in Tattooing." Plus, we take calls from listeners about their New York City-themed tattoo

Traveling and Tattoos

Washington Post October 29, 2020:

Tattooing has been a part of travel for centuries. Its history is complicated.“The Bowery was the place that you came to in New York City when you wanted to have fun, get in trouble, do some drinking, maybe do some fighting — and get tattooed,” says Michelle Myles, a co-owner of Daredevil Tattoo in New York’s Lower East Side. “Whether it was with tourists, sailors or New Yorkers, the Bowery just had this reputation as a playground for the working class.”

Myles, who also led tattoo history walking tours of the neighborhood before the coronavirus pandemic, says she often meets visitors from all over the world looking for vestiges of that past.