Lady Lori by Sophia Mella
Back in the not-so-dark ages, tattooing was illegal in the progressive city of New York. Making and selling jewellery wasn’t though, so the astute Lori Leven had a pow wow with her mates and proposed and idea. A shop that had jewellery in the front and behind some glass and metal partitions, a secret world of tattooing. Lori, a jeweller and emerging businesswoman would run the whole outfit and they’d christen it New York Adorned.
Eleven years on, NY Adorned is part of tattoo history. Located at 47 2nd Ave it boasts a formidable assortment of some of the best talent in the world. Chris O’donnell, Shinji, Kaz, Mike Rubendall, Stephanie Tamez, Yoni Zilber, Byran Randolph plus guest artists! Phew!
The unique thing about this shop is the selection of jewellery – piercing and otherwise – that literally adorns the waiting area. For any jewellery magpie, this is THE place to go insane with your credit card.
Lori is primarily a jeweller. She has been involved in tattooing since she was 17 when she worked as a receptionist in exchange for tattoos. We meet at the beginning of NY’s Indian summer. With trepidation I introduce myself. She has a gentle handshake and a calm but authoritive quality. I instantly respect her. She leads me through the studio and out the back to the luscious garden area. With it’s fountain and greenery it’s about as Zen as you get in NY.
I have some questions for Lori but as we get talking I put them aside as Lori tells me the NY Adorned story.
Having moved to the West Coast for a change of scene, Lori missed NY and decided to re-locate again.
“I wanted to come back and was thinking about what would be a great thing to do. There were a lot of young tattooers working out of their apartments because it was illegal. And so I went to Sean (Vasquez) and I suggested that we put together a kind of tattoo collective. Get all these young folks to come with their own clients and I would run the whole thing and you know, just kinda have a place where everyone could exchange ideas and just have a little bit of a scene in NY because there was no young tattoo scene cultivated in NYC at all. Only the old guard.”
Lori actively set out to create this culture. The ethos of NY Adorned hinges on art and not just tattooing or jewellery making. “One of things we’re really adamant about here is that people want to do art. Tattooing is part of their art but maybe not completely their whole being.”
Even though tattooing was actually illegal when NY Adorned started up, it doesn’t seem like it was particularly enforced. “It wasn’t,” Lori agrees. “Actually, Jonathan Shaw was the first one to actually put himself out there. He moved onto St Marks with a big sign that’s still there now – ‘Tattoo and Cappuccino’. The day that sign went up we were all like –“ gasps “and we sat there and we watched and we watched… Nothing fucken happened! Jonathan Shaw is kind of larger than life. He’s been in this city forever. We were ignored because we were tattooing police in the 9th precinct, they knew. The cops would generally say ‘nutin’ to do with us’. We never felt as bold as Jonathan. We thought Jonathan had bigger people in his back pocket than we ever could so we certainly didn’t put a sign out.”
I ask Lori about managing so many personalities. What has she learnt in the way of people skills?
“It’s funny. Eleven years we’ve had this shop and we’ve grown. In the beginning I was much tougher. I was ‘this is how you do it, go! Go! Go!’. It was just my style, my mother’s style. I definitely learnt over the years how to be quieter and let things play out.”
Plans for a second NY Adorned are underway at the time of this interview. By the time you read this NY Adorned 2 will no doubt be up and running. The location is Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is a bourgeoning neighbourhood. It’s an appealing place to chill out in, watching the colour on the streets and escaping the gridlock of Manhattan. “All our custom guys are going over. We’re going to design it so there are individual rooms but also sliding doors so everything can open up. I think that interaction is important in a tattoo shop. These guys really love to be able to see what everyone is doing.”
The word “collective” is something I’ve heard Lori say a few times and so I ask her what that means in terms of business.
“Everybody to a certain extent takes care of their own part of the business. They’re definitely in charge of how they’re perceived. In the new space everyone can work how they want when they want. People are given as much freedom as they want. They can go off to their conventions as long as they find someone to cover their shift. It’s most important to us that they are happy well rounded artists, not just tattooers who come to work.”
An affinity with Indian spirituality is evident in Lori’s jewellery design. She’s been visiting India for the past 12 years. “I always say India makes NY look like a ghost town”. That’s a daunting prospect to say the least. “It’s so crowded and so bombastic. I feel like maybe I’m going to take a break from India for a while. India has taught me so much and given me so much but at the moment I’d rather go to Thailand where it’s 2nd world or Bali where it’s really geared towards people coming in and working. Where you can get a good ice coffee and eat sushi.”
Summertime and the beach inspire Lori’s jewellery. Her pieces are warm and artful. “When I was young I used cut out a heart shape and tape it to my hipbone and the sun would come out. At the end of the day I’d peel it off and the suntan would be missing. So I make pendants that have cut outs like this, so that your skin becomes part of the design. Sometimes the look is subtle. It’ll give a flash without using stone.”
Returning to my prepared questions, I ask Lori a Tattooed Heart standard. “What is the meaning of life?”
“The meaning of life is don’t get riled up because 20 minutes down the line you’re not even going to remember…. Just enjoy it.”
Our interview draws to a close and Lori gifts me a NY Adorned hoody. My mind is on jewellery though, and I decide to disregard my budget and go berserk on rose gold and rubies.
For Lori’s online store visit www.nyajewellery.com
For New York Adorned visit www.nyadorned.com
www.myspace.com/adorned
For the new store in Brooklyn visit www.myspace.com/nyadorned2
