Gumball machine takes pain out of choosing next tattoo at San Francisco Inner Sunset parlor
SAN FRANCISCO -- If getting a tattoo isn't adventurous enough for you, a business in San Francisco's Inner Sunset gives customers a chance to choose a design in a jaw-droppingly random way.
Esteban Castillo's love for tattoos clearly runs more than skin deep.
"I just really like them," he said. "Since I was a little kid, I loved drawing them on myself."
Over the years, he's gotten more than 50 of them, including a lighthouse, an anaconda, and even a map of the U.S. But on a recent, dreary June morning, with his girlfriend Vivian Redding by his side, he was about to get a tattoo like no other.
Instead of choosing a design, Castillo decided to let the universe pick one for him.
Castillo, a movie theater manager from Montana made a special appointment at a place called One Shot Tattoo on Irving Street in San Francisco that offers customers a unique way to get inked with the help of a gumball machine.
Yep, you read that right. For $100 dollars, customers get two quarters which are then inserted into a gumball machine filled with plastic balls containing different tattoo designs.
Castillo turned the crank and out came a slug with a skull on its back.
"I'm excited," he said. "I love slugs actually. "
These so-called "Get What You Get" tattoos have grown in popularity in recent years. Go on social media and there's even a hashtag with tens of thousands of posts from customers who left their tattoo designs up to chance.
Drue Grahman, One Shot's manager and a tattoo artist there, said the trend is especially common among clients who have several tattoos already.
"Once you get a couple of tattoos, you kind of care less and less," he said.
Customers who really don't like what they got, can pay an extra $20 and try again. But most, like Castillo, just go with the flow.
As he looked in the mirror admiring his new tattoo, Castillo seemed pleased.
"I love it," he said. "It's dope."