No ink today

For years, 1300 South St. served as a spot for getting inked. South Street Tattoo opened its doors here in 1987, and shuttered them sometime in the past few years, closing for good after switching tattooed hands. A 1997 City Paper article quotes the shop’s owner, Sonny Tufts, as giving the history of the building as once being a mosque and a “makeshift heroin den,” presumably at different times. The building was covered in plywood until the past year, when the wood came off the windows and renovations began inside. They’ve since stalled, so we’re wondering what the next move will be for this building, and when.

Vast empty lot

Across the street on the southeast corner, a large grassy lot has been owned by a company in Florida, also  since 1987, coincidentally. Their tax burden for their seven-property-wide lot is about $5K per year, in case you’re wondering. So it seems they’ll continue to take their sweet time deciding what to do there while paying an absurd $700 annual property tax per lot for this prime piece of real estate.

Looking south at some fancy houses

With the 1352 Lofts down the street, fancy homes recently built and currently under construction to the south, a new Dranoff building in the works at Garden of the Arts, and creative new small-scale construction happening all around, this is clearly an area with momentum. We’re imagining progress in the near future at the old tattoo parlor, and have hope that the developers/speculators in Florida will decide to sell someday. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.

–Lauren Summers