WEIRS BEACH — In a small trailer most similar to a food truck, talented tattoo artists are inking dozens of visitors to Laconia Motorcycle Week each day and working diligently to keep the space sterile. Tattoo Saloon, which finds its origins in Greenup, Kentucky, operates two separate booths during the rally: one on Lakeside Avenue and the other off Daniel Webster Highway next to the entrance to the Weirs Drive-In. On Thursday afternoon, three tattoo artists were busy putting pen to paper and needle to skin, marking visitors' trips to the 101st Laconia Motorcycle Week onto their bodies forever.
They’d done 67 tattoos by Thursday morning at the highway shop and employees guessed business would pick up significantly as the rally moved on into the weekend. Shawn Leger, an artist who hails from Schenectady, New York, travels around the country to motorcycle rallies and races like Laconia's. He’s been giving tattoos for 27 years and said his group stops at around 15 major events each year including the rallies in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Sturgis, South Dakota.
“We make it work, man,” Leger said regarding the limited space available in their mobile tattoo studio. “We've got a good crew together, people get along.” Leger was busy designing a stencil for Dave Irizarry, of Manchester, who would later receive a forearm tattoo representative of his time spent in the U.
S. Marine Corps. It read “Semper Fi”.
“We’re just friends [that are] traveling the nation and d.
