A Note from Shop Owner Matt Hessler

After months of deliberation & with some very mixed emotions, I made the decision to close XS @ the end of August 2018.

I started tattooing @ XS in May of 1997 & have owned the shop since 1998.  In that 20 year span of time, the shop has been a defining aspect of my life & career.  It has grown & evolved with me.  The talented people who have worked @ XS over the years have been & remain some of my closest friends.

Over the last several years, I’ve bought & renovated a couple of historic buildings in the city of Detroit, my home for the last 15 years. These have been my largest scale art projects, if you will.  One of the buildings, @ the corner of Cass & Peterboro in midtown Detroit, houses Iconic Tattoo, the sister shop to XS, which has now been operating for over 3 years.

As one might imagine, all of these endeavors, in addition to family responsibilities & my busy tattoo schedule, have created large demands on my time.  Additionally, working out of 2 shops made me feel disconnected with the daily operations of both.  I gradually came to the realization that I needed to simplify my situation a bit & to that end, I decided to consolidate the 2 shops in the Detroit location.

All staff that previously worked @ XS has become part of the crew of Iconic & we will continue on in midtown Detroit moving into the future. We hope to serve all of our long standing clients as well as new ones going forward @ the Detroit shop.

I can’t express how much gratitude I have for the city of Rochester & all of our great clients in the area that have supported us over the last couple of decades.  None of the opportunities I've had over the last 20 years would have been possible without XS.  Thank you so much...

~Matt Hessler

Iconic tattoo.piercing

Please visit iconictattoodetroit.com.  All current XS tattoo artists & piercer have portfolios posted on the site, as well as individual email addresses & links to social media. General shop info, contact info, & location for the Detroit shop are, of course, also included.