Adam Lauricella had just two years of tattooing under his belt when he opened Graceland Tattoo in Wappingers Falls in 2003. “I wanted to do what I thought to be right, to offer it in a way that people wanted to experience it,” he explains. “I had an idea of how I could present it and the environment that I could create.”
Lauricella’s interest in tattoo art began in high school, but he didn’t know it was possible to become a tattoo artist. After attending SUNY New Paltz and studying theater art, he just fell into it. “There’s no real romantic story,” he admits. “Tattooing kind of chooses you in some weird way.”
Graceland Tattoo sits one block from where Lauricella’s mother grew up. Lauricella, raised in the Hudson Valley, thinks the location is logical. “This is just where I’m from, I’ve made my mark here. Why not give it to the people I’m of?”
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This article appears in July 2021.
