A tattoo and piercing shop is set to open inside the landmarked Paramount Hotel in Times Square on Saturday, with ink starting at $50 and piercings — jewelry included — going for as little as $10. The new location from Live By The Sword marks the brand's third New York City outpost and its most prominent address yet, landing at 235 W. 46th St. inside a building owned by RFR.
The opening was first reported by Crain's New York, which described the move as a tattoo and piercing shop opening inside RFR's landmarked Times Square hotel. A rendering of the new space, credited to Gabriel Roberts, shows what the Paramount Hotel location will look like once it's up and running. On its own site, Live By The Sword confirmed the Halloween timing directly, posting, “We're opening in Times Square this Halloween!”
The shop's pitch to customers leans on volume and accessibility: tattoos starting at only $50, piercings at just $10 including jewelry, and more than 950 designs to choose from, according to the company's website. The business also says it now has more than 40 tattoo artists on staff across its locations — a far cry from its humble beginnings.
From a Williamsburg Market Booth to a Times Square Address
Live By The Sword's roots trace back to a 200-square-foot market booth in the Williamsburg Mini Mall, according to a video published by Square detailing the company's growth. The outlet reports that founders identified in the video as Rudy Temiz and Greg Ferreira built that small operation into a three-location New York City chain, with a dedicated salon opening in 2019, per the same account. The Times Square shop will be the chain's third New York City location, though the Square feature predates this latest expansion.
Setting up inside a hotel rather than a standalone storefront isn't unprecedented in New York City's tattoo scene. Unscripted Ink has operated what amNewYork describes as the city's first permanent tattoo residency inside a hotel, located within the UNTITLED at 3 Freeman Alley on the Lower East Side. That shop offers hotel guests a $50 discount on tattoos during their stay, along with Happy Hour ink sessions from 6 to 8 p.m. that come with a free drink at the hotel's rooftop bar and priority booking, the outlet reports. Unscripted Ink held its grand opening in February, per amNewYork.
A Precedent at Moxy Times Square
Times Square itself has already seen a hotel-based tattoo studio before. Celebrity tattoo artist Jonathan “JonBoy” Valena opened a studio on the second floor of the Moxy Times Square hotel, as Forbes reported back in February 2019. JonBoy told Forbes at the time that he wanted to give Moxy guests priority scheduling and planned to host walk-in days, choosing hotel residency over a more traditional shop setup.
The Paramount Hotel building itself carries protected status. A Landmarks Preservation Commission designation record identifies the Paramount Hotel at 235-245 West 46th Street as a designated landmark. The shop will offer tattooing and body piercing.
For now, the known details are straightforward: a Halloween opening date, a Times Square address inside a storied hotel, and starting prices meant to draw walk-ins alongside hotel guests. Whether the shop will offer hotel-guest perks similar to those at Unscripted Ink or the old Moxy studio has not been detailed in materials released so far.
