How Sherod Davis opened one of Richmond's only Black-owned tattoo shops
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Co-owner Sherod Davis at his tattoo station in Misfit, which sits on Shockoe's 17th Street looking out onto Main Street Station Photo: Sabrina Moreno/Axios
Sherod Davis thinks we're all misfits and degenerates — and that's a compliment.
The big picture: Mostly gone are the days when having tattoos and aging with them were taboo, especially with Richmond taking pride in its unofficial title as a tattoo capital.
- So Davis thought, "Let's take that name [misfit] and just give it power."
- And that's how he named one of the only Black-owned tattoo shops in the city, which opened early this year in Shockoe, "Misfit Tattoo Society."
On a recent morning, Davis sat in front of his tattoo station, surrounded by vinyl records from The Temptations, Luther Vandross and Miles Davis, reflecting on how he got here.
- The born-and-raised Richmonder grew up in his mom's house in Northside, tattooing his sister, friends and family members — teaching himself when he was shut out of Richmond's gate-kept tattoo culture over a decade ago.
- At the time, Richmond's tattoo shops had predominantly white artists who wouldn't tattoo darker skin, Davis said, so he'd tattoo himself, too, to learn via trial and error.
- Then in 2018, he met his wife Kendall Battle, who he looked at through teary eyes and called "the main reason I'm still tattooing right now."
He became an established artist while working a full-time job, got licensed around 2020 and was later at Heroes and Ghosts in Carytown — a tattoo shop Davis calls "monumental" to where he is now.
- And after years of having a dream of creating a safe space for Black tattoo artists and Black clients in Richmond, he ran into a realtor who told him about the Shockoe space up for sale.
- Now he's booked 3-5 months in advance and has guest artists coming from across the U.S. and world.
What's next: Davis wants to see more of Richmond's cultural shift in the next 5-10 years. More artists of color. More Black artists. More Black-owned shops. More places showing they tattoo darker-toned skin.
- Because "Richmond is a highly minority city," Davis said. "I feel like we make the city. We built this city."