Ed Hardy’s legendary S.F. tattoo shop is shutting down, but fans can still get inked by former employees. Here’s how (2024)

From his son, Douglas Hardy, to Jen Lee’s feminist take on Americana, here are some local artists who were directly influenced by the legendary tattoo artist.

Tattoo artist Jen Lee, center, prepares to give a tattoo to Kate Anderson of San Diego at Ed Hardy’s Tattoo City in San Francisco on Nov. 4. The tattoo shop will be closing at the end of this year.

Photo: Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Ed Hardy’s influence is truly difficult to measure, spanning thousands of tattoo artists across the globe. But only a few dozen had the luck of working with him on a regular basis before his health took a turn for the worse. Even fewer remain in the Bay Area. Below are five Bay Area tattooists who worked at the soon-to-be shuttered historic Tattoo City and were directly influenced by Hardy.

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Douglas Hardy

Being the son of possibly the most prolific tattoo artist in history while pursuing the same craft isn’t for the faint of heart. But that’s exactly what Douglas Hardy, Ed Hardy’s only child, has done.

“At first, it was a little intimidating but I just learned to be my own person,” he says. “As time went on, people just knew me for who I was. My dad’s my dad and I’m me.”

Douglas apprenticed under Mike Malone, a close associate of his father, at China Sea Tattoo in Honolulu. After six years there, he tattooed for 11 years in Minneapolis before starting at Tattoo City in October 2009.

Douglas is known for a variety of styles including his own illustrative take on traditional Americana.

Freddy Corbin

Dubbed “Mr. Nice Guy” by many tattoo magazines early in his career, Freddy Corbin’s kindness coupled with his artistry has taken him far. Soon after moving to San Francisco at 18, he stumbled upon a copy of Hardy’s Tattootime periodical and was smitten by the quality of body art.

Corbin was early into his budding tattoo career when he sought Hardy out for a tattoo. Meanwhile, Hardy had already become aware of the quality of Corbin’s work.

“I had lucked out and he had seen one of the best tattoos I had done in that first year-and-a-half or two years that I was tattooing,” recalls Corbin.

When the two met for a tattoo session, they hit it off and soon Hardy invited Corbin to work for him at Realistic Tattoo. Years later, it was Corbin’s idea to open what became the second iteration of Tattoo City.

Corbin is known for tattooing religious iconography and has been operating both Temple Tattoo and Tattoo 13 in Oakland for decades.

Jen Lee

Tattoo artist Jen Lee greets a client at Ed Hardy’s Tattoo City in San Francisco on Nov. 4.

Photo: Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Jen Lee caught Hardy’s eye when tattooing as a guest artist at Tattoo City in 2008.

“He’s a dog lover, and I am a dog lover,” she recalls. “I was doing, and I still do, dog portraits that at the time were unique and he dug it.”

Shortly after, Ed invited her to permanently tattoo at Tattoo City, where she’s worked ever since.

About to hit 30 years in the trade, Lee is still known for her pet portraits but also for a feminist take on traditional Americana. She also frequently works with survivors of breast cancer tattooing realistic and three dimensional areolas post-reconstructive surgery.

Kahlil Rintye

Originally from Southern California, Kahlil Rintye came to San Francisco in 2003 hoping the caliber of tattoos coming out of the city could help him find an environment where his artistry could progress. He was floored when he received a call from Hardy with a job offer two years later.

“When leafing through a tattoo magazine in about 2003 I first became aware of Kahlil’s work,” Hardy wrote in “Drawings for Tattoos Volume 4: Kahlil Rintye” in 2019. “It instantly riveted me; their power, sophistication and finesse were in a class of their own.”

Rintye worked at Tattoo City from 2005 until 2024. He is known for both American traditional and Japanese tattooing and particularly the bold colors he employs across both styles. He currently alternates between Petaluma Tattoo in Sonoma County and Black Heart Tattoo in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.

Mary Joy Scott

Mary Joy Scott has been tattooing for 17 years and was a resident artist at Tattoo City from 2007 to 2020. In 2018, Vice TV called her Hardy’s “last apprentice,” a label repeated by several other media outlets.

However, in Hardy’s memoir released in 2013, he states, “Throughout my career, I’ve never really taught people to tattoo. I’ve helped some get started a little bit, but not much more than to give them the fins and shove them off the dock. … I’ve never taken anybody for a formal apprenticeship.”

When asked about the discrepancy, Scott says her apprenticeship was indeed not a “formal” one. “He didn’t have a methodical approach and rather threw me into it quickly,” she told the Chronicle in an email.

Scott is now the owner of Raven Eye Tattoo in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond. She is known for her dark, gothic spins on traditional Americana iconography.

Ethan Gregory Dodge is a freelance writer.

  • Ethan Gregory Dodge

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Ed Hardy’s legendary S.F. tattoo shop is shutting down, but fans can still get inked by former employees. Here’s how (2024)
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