Friday the 13th a Lucky Day for Tattooists

It’s Friday the 13th. Time for a tattoo.

Friday the 13th is one of the busiest days of the year for tattoo artists, regardless of how unlucky you might think the day may be.

Long associated with ominous superstitions — it’s called triskaidekaphobia, if the number 13 scares you — and of course a franchise of horror movies, Friday the 13th means for many of the tattooed masses a chance to score a tattoo for only $13.

Just like President’s Day might have become unfortunately synonymous with mattress sales, for many tattoo parlors Friday the 13th is synonymous with the $13 tatt sale. On Friday the 13th, get a “13” tattoo for only $13, goes many a promotion.

The number 13, along with a host of other symbols for both bad and good luck, are popular choices for tattoos in general, writes Karen L. Hudson, the author of "Living Canvas: Your Complete Guide to Tattoos, Piercings and Body Modification." 

“It shows up in the form of tattoo art over and over again, almost always as a positive symbol, sometimes by itself or accompanied by other ‘lucky’ symbols,” writes Hudson. “It stems from the days of traditional tattooing and still remains one of, if not the, most popular numbers to have inked on one’s body.”

In Toms River, it’s the first Friday the 13th as a certified tattooist for Justin Perret.

And to celebrate May 13, 2011, Perret, of Jersey Tattoo Company on Route 37 East, is offering $13 tattoos today from noon to 9 p.m.

“I think more or less ‘13’ is a taboo kind of thing and that's why it works well with the whole tattooing thing,” he said. “Both are considered taboo and rebellious, and 13 is considered unlucky and yet lucky by many people.”

This makes it an obvious choice for tattoo subject matter, he said. “I'm doing 13 dollar tattoos to kind of celebrate this, while also giving people the chance to get tattooed without breaking budgets.”

He said that, honestly, having a $13 promotion is also a good way to get your name out there as an artist.

“(I am) also trying to build up some regular clients and getting them in our shop since I'm recently became a certified tattooist,” he said. “If the 13 tattoos become a big success I might consider making it a normal thing.”

Whether the ethos behind your "Lucky 13" tattoo is an acceptance of a string of bad luck or not, Hudson says sometimes the number is what you personally make out of it: "Maybe we're all a bunch of optomists."