Patrick Berube, owner of Beacon Tattoo, spends most of his Tuesdays at work drawing.
“I get my drawings done on Tuesdays so they’re done for the week and I can show my clients to see if I need to make any changes,” he said, noting larger pieces can sometimes take anywhere from four to five hours to finish, while smaller ones are around an hour or less.
As of last March, it’s been one full year in business for Beacon Tattoo in Port Hardy, which he said has been “Amazing — to me, after coming here on a shot in the dark, everyone has been super responsive in such a positive way.”
Berube noted that he has definitely stayed more than busy all the way through “and I’ve just been super stoked by the response I’ve had from everyone.”
He received his very first piece of ink when he was 15 in downtown Edmonton during a bit of a wild adventure with his friends from the suburbs, and ever since then he’s been hooked on the business. “Just the experience of getting my first tattoo was pretty neat,” he noted, adding that he’s always been artistically inclined due to his family. “My mom’s an artist, and I just naturally learned from her.”
He’s been tattooing for roughly 19 years now and isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon.
Berube met his wife Alyssa while living in Vancouver and convinced her to move back to Edmonton, before they finally ended up moving to the North Island with their two sons, Teil and Taz.
As for any differences between tattooing in Edmonton versus Port Hardy, Berube noted the pieces he does here are a bit smaller. “I’m still doing larger stuff here, but in Edmonton I was used to doing a full sleeve pretty much everyday,” he laughed, adding, “I really try to be as open to whatever comes in the door as possible — if you’re only doing one particular thing then why tattoo.”
He noted he can ink anything from portraits, to wildlife, to floral images, to black and graded colour, and much more.
Berube has a board full of pre-drawn artwork in his studio that you can choose from to get tattooed, but also really enjoys it when people come in with their own ideas “and I can turn it into something.”
He added he wanted to say thank you to Alyssa for being such a great business partner. “She does the social media, handles the phone calls, the general inquiries and all the paperwork.”
Beacon Tattoo is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and customers must be 18-years-old (no exceptions). To check out Patrick Berube’s work follow Beacon Tattoo Co. on Instagram or visit Beacon Tattoo’s Facebook page.
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