On the streets of northern Virginia, fifth grader Mike Salay watched from his bus window as teenagers skated in a ditch near the highway. As bodies soared through the air, Salay’s eyes were immediately drawn to the art decorating their skin.
“They were covered in tattoos, but I was just watching them, and I was like, ‘I want to be exactly like these guys,’” the 49-year-old Gainesville tattoo artist said. “They’re jumping in the air, spinning around, doing all this crazy stuff, and I was like, ‘I want to do that. I guess I have to have tattoos to do that.’”
Salay, who has been working as a full-time tattoo artist since 2000, now works at Anthem Tattoo Parlor, located in Downtown Gainesville, which he formerly co-owned with his wife for 10 years. The studio was one of three tattoo studios in Gainesville when Salay moved to the area, and it aims to honor the roots of tattooing while contributing new creativity to the art form.
Anthem Tattoo is based out of a small blue house built in 1889 for midwives. The original floors and windows are still in place, but framed drawings of tattoos and Salay’s skateboard collection now adorn the walls.
Salay has been interested in art for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Virginia, Salay dreamed of drawing Garfield comics for the cartoon creator Jim Davis, to whom he wrote a letter asking to create cartoons for him.
As a kid, Salay would often use markers to color in his uncle’s Marine Corps bulldog tattoo. He also began to create tattoos on his friends with Sharpies, which didn’t always go over well with their parents.
“When Sunday morning would come, and they [my friends] would have to go to church, I would get phone calls saying, ‘What did you do to my son?’” Salay said.
After years of drawing and taking art classes, Salay completed an apprenticeship in Virginia under Gary Clark, a tattoo artist at All In Tattoo in Fredericksburg. Salay learned how to put a tattoo machine together and began tattooing himself and his friends. Salay recalled the first tattoo he did on himself, which was a small star on his calf, followed by two more tattoos in the next two days.
When Salay moved to Gainesville from Virginia almost 20 years ago in pursuit of “something new and different,” there were only three tattoo shops in the area, and they were already full of tattoo artists.
Salay operated out of his Gainesville home and worked at Chaos and Bodytech Tattooing & Piercing before beginning his work as a tattoo artist for Anthem Tattoo. Later, he became the store's co-owner for 10 years and has since sold ownership to tattoo artist Tim Strating.
Salay’s work is colorful and dimensional, with tattoos ranging from vibrant pet portraits, ET and sharks to florals, mermaids and nurses.
Though Salay designs many tattoos, customers are welcome to bring in their own drawings or reference images from online, and Salay can trace and redraw them to fit the skin correctly.
Salay also offers free consultations and encourages anyone to talk to him about their desired tattoo, whether it is an autograph, a handmade drawing, a minimalistic design or a specific arm piece. The artists at Anthem Tattoo charge by the hour, ranging from $175 to $200 per hour for each tattoo.
“Pretty much, whatever you bring in … we'll sit down and talk and see if we can make that happen,” he said.
During his 20 years at Anthem Tattoo, Salay has seen a variety of customers, from sports stars to drunk college students.
From 2006 to 2008, when UF won two national football championships and back-to-back NCAA championships, fan parades would run until 2 a.m. and bring intoxicated customers into the tattoo parlor.
“We would talk to them, ‘See you later, come back tomorrow,’” Salay said. “They would leave a deposit, and they would come back the next day and be like, ‘Did I really leave a deposit for a tattoo?’”
To combat the possibility of drunk students and residents entering the parlor, Anthem Tattoo does not tattoo anyone who enters the studio intoxicated. Salay gives advice to all of his customers but will delay completing a tattoo if a customer is under the influence, he said.
Although it is not his favorite thing to do, Salay has also completed a variety of tattoo cover-ups. Tattoo cover-ups can be slightly different than people imagine, Salay said. Covering up a tattoo often causes it to appear darker and larger.
“I always tell people for a cover-up to work properly, the new tattoo has to be at least two and a half times the existing size of the older tattoo in order for it to work properly,” he said.
Mike Salay’s work is not just limited to tattoos.
Since 2020, Salay has accumulated a collection of his own hand-made paintings, including a Grim Reefer painting and tropical images of birds and flowers. Some paintings can take about 20 hours to create, and he tends to work on the larger pieces in increments to encourage experimentation.
To prevent a repetitive art cycle of “monotonous torture,” Salay said he does not like to restrict his work to one specific art style.
“Style is a trap, and technique is a prison,” he said. “I try to change all the time because if you're stuck in one thing, then you get bored with it.”
Salay’s paintings were featured in his first individual art show Aug. 30 at THE AUK MARKET as part of its participation in Artwalk Gainesville, a “self-guided art experience” that highlights various events and venues on the last Friday of every month.
Salay’s wife, 50-year-old Samantha Salay, and 47-year-old Nikki Kragiel co-own THE AUK MARKET. The market sells various items created by local businesses and individuals and offers workshops on sustainable art and linocut techniques.
“We think that Gainesville is a humongous cultural hub,” Samantha Salay said. “It has a vibrant art community. We're excited that there are places popping up all over town that showcase local, amazing talent, and we're just happy to be one of those places.”
Samantha Salay said she and Mike Salay have worked together on and off for two decades, at both THE AUK MARKET and Zorka Rose Vintage.
Samantha Salay ran Zorka Rose out of Anthem Tattoo when she and her husband co-owned the business. While she used to host Artwalk Gainesville events from this location as well, this is her first time displaying her husband’s work.
The Salays have continued to work together throughout their lives, often bringing their creativity together. Mike Salay said he greatly values getting the opportunity to work with his wife.
“She's my best friend,” he said. “[I] love hanging out with her.”
It’s rare to see someone’s childhood dream come to fruition the way it has for Mike Salay. In his tattoo studio, a framed photo shows him looking at an exhibit displaying what a tattoo parlor from the 1930s looked like. Mike Salay’s mother, who worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, took the photo and gave it to him when he became a tattoo artist.
“That's me standing,” he said, pointing to himself in the image. “My mom said that I stood in front of this thing for hours just looking at it.”
Much like Mike Salay didn’t overthink the connection between skateboarding and tattooing, he advises not overthinking a tattoo.
“Do it,” he said. “I always tell people, go with your first thought and location … If you want to get a tattoo, get a tattoo.”
Anthem Tattoo is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Contact Juliana DeFilippo at jdefillipo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @JulianaDeF58101.
Juliana DeFilippo is a freshman journalism major and General Assignment reporter for The Avenue. In her free time, she loves to read and work on crossword puzzles.
