PSC Tattoo: Talking shop with artist Dave Cummings

It’s easy to walk past PSC Tattoo (aka Tatouage Pointe St. Charles) without so much as a glance. Faint neon lettering and a faded “walk-ins welcome” sign in the shape of Felix the Cat peers out from behind tinted glass. The door is covered in stickers. Inside lies an establishment in the city’s tattoo parlour history.

Tucked between cafes and coiffeuses, Montreal’s oldest tattoo studio is a time capsule of red-and-black checkered floors, original signage, and oversized posters filled with Betty Boop flash.

“Those were Tony’s window blinds,” owner and artist, Dave Cummings, corrects.

“He worked out of a basement in New York after the tattoo ban of ’61. The blinds helped him hide out. It was only for a couple of years, though. He met a girl down there and it turns out she was from the Pointe. I don’t know what she was doing in New York. Maybe running away. They eventually ended up back here.”