The bell on No Good Tattoo’s door jingled as owner Emily Ng stepped into the entryway at 3:54 p.m. one sunny April Sunday. Arms filled with snacks, bags of gear and a kombucha after her three-and-a-half-hour drive from celebrating her grandmother’s 100th birthday in Houston, she greeted everyone in her shop with a big smile.
“Hey, everybody!” she said as she rounded the corner to enter the artist-only lounge. She set her things down and stepped back out into the waiting room, just in time to greet her 4 p.m. appointment.
When clients enter No Good Tattoo, they’re welcomed with a flowery sign reading, “Come on in, take a seat.” Colorful displays of hand-painted, abstract art pieces hang on the walls while local handmade jewelry, stickers, T-shirts and more line the foyer as they make their way to the seating area. Windows surround the building and allow sunlight to stream into the space, dappling the green leaves of the studio’s many plants.
The hum of tattoo machines fills the space as artists and clients chat about which designs will look best where. Some artists quietly tattoo their guest’s pieces with headphones on, while others cackle loudly with their clients as they discuss their favorite Instagram reels or Austin hot spots.
The space feels less like a traditional tattoo studio and more like a place where friends can come together and hang out. This is the kind of vibe Emily, affectionately known in the tattoo world by her nickname, “Chuck,” wanted to create when she opened No Good Tattoo back in 2019. After tattooing out of her home for about four years, Emily took the plunge and opened the studio. Only 25 years old then, she had no formal training and no business partner—just a vision to create a space where artists and clients of all backgrounds would feel safe, supported and connected to one another.
“I feel like I’ve always really tried to create the space that I want to be in,” Emily said as she curled up with her knees tucked into her chest on her white couch. “I think that you can feel when artists are relaxed and having fun and are in community with each other and people want to be a part of that—both clients, guest artists and residents.”
Emily has always been a creative person, though she’s not sure where she got her creative genes from. Her mom played a few songs on the guitar, but it was her grandmother, an art teacher, who really had that artistic flare. She guesses it must have skipped a generation to land with her and her two siblings.
Drawn to music, ceramics, painting and more, Emily fell into tattooing accidentally when her roommate ordered a stick-and-poke kit from the internet 10 years ago.
“She started giving herself a tattoo and it wasn’t going very well,” Emily said. “She basically was like, ‘You need to help me finish this,’ so I helped her finish.”
As a business major at the University of Texas, word started to spread among her friends on campus that Emily was doing free tattoos. It didn’t take long for Emily to start running her own home studio.
“ I was a very DIY home tattooer for a long time and was doing it free on friends,” Emily recalled. “Then it started to be friends of friends and then strangers. Once the Instagram started, people really started coming out of the woodworks and wanting tattoos.”
Even in her home studio, Emily was meticulous about the health and safety of her clients. She ensured every surface was wiped, every pair of gloves was clean and every client was cared for.
After a lackluster experience tattooing as a guest at an unsanitary and overpriced traditional tattoo shop, Emily realized she could make her art her career.
“It really made me realize, ‘OK, maybe I could do this long term and maybe I could do this much better than the place that I’m at is doing it,’’ Emily said.
The name “No Good” came to Emily after her friends drew the connection between her last name, Ng, and the shorthand term used in film to mark certain shots or takes as “no good.” Emily got a kick out of that.
For a business major, Emily is fun, even-tempered and approachable. She’s always ready to dive into a deep conversation about the universe or chuckle at a good TikTok video.
She carried that relaxed and malleable nature into her 4 p.m. appointment that Sunday. The four clients she’d be tattooing had won a giveaway featured on one of Emily’s many Instagram reels. In the video, Emily playfully explained she’d give away 10 mini flash tattoos for reaching 10,000 followers on the app. All participants had to do was like the post and tag someone they’d want to share the tattoos with.
That’s how Lynn Stevens, her boyfriend Bailey Shelton, and two friends Megan Knight and Briana Ellsworth, found themselves sitting in No Good’s lobby, picking out tattoos from one of Emily’s many flash sheets.
For Lynn, entering the giveaway was a no-brainer. She’d always loved Emily’s art and jumped at the chance to get 10 free tattoos. Instead of saving them all for herself, Lynn reached out to the friends she knew would love the experience most.
“It was really cool and exciting,” Lynn said with a smile as she reflected on winning the giveaway. “I was just texting friends, ‘We’re going to get tattoos!’”
As Emily prepped for the over four-hour appointment that lay ahead of her, she was calm and collected. Her black bangs fell evenly around her bright and focused eyes as she prepped designs and printed stencils. She smiled as she breezed through the studio to chat with the other clients and artists working at their stations.
Once the group had chosen their favorite flash pieces, Emily called them back and got to work. Bailey was up first. Instead of having the rest of the foursome wait in the lobby, Emily pulled up chairs around her tattoo station for them to sit on.
As Bailey got settled on the massage table, Emily put on a clean pair of gloves, grabbed her tattoo needle and adjusted her seat.
“OK, you feel ready?” she asked.
Though Emily didn’t chat much with the group while she tattooed their cowboy portraits and disco-ball designs, she seemed like one of the gang.
When Lynn brought up a video she’d seen of a hot spring-shaped incense holder, Emily was eager to watch between strokes. When the conversation diverted to books, Emily shared her take on the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. When the subject of vacations came up, Emily wanted to know what travel plans everyone had.
“Let me know if you need to stand up and shake out,” Emily said when she noticed Bailey starting to shift in his seat. After he got more comfortable, Emily changed her gloves and started again.
This easy-going, client-focused approach to tattooing is something Emily takes seriously—so much so that she has passed on hiring talented artists who don’t value the client experience in the same way.
“I don’t put anybody in the space who doesn’t value trauma-informed consent practices or doesn’t value a client-first experience,” Emily said, “or doesn’t, in some way, value the connection and the tattooing experience as well as the actual tattoo that you get.”
This ethos is what brought Kail Pearson to No Good Tattoo in 2024. From the first Instagram post she saw, Kail knew No Good was the place for her. Seeing so many diverse people tattooing in one place was a welcomed change from Kail’s experience working with mostly white men in traditional tattoo shops.
“There were no people of color,” Kail said as she recalled her time working at another shop in town. “Definitely not a lot of women and no people of color.”
After submitting her application to No Good in 2024, Kail met Emily for a coffee. She remembered how easy being with Emily felt. The two hit it off right away and Kail was hired on the spot.
“It was so surreal to talk with someone in my age range with similar tastes as me about tattoos, tattoo machines, styles and specs, because I’ve never been able to talk to a woman my age about that,” Kail said.
Even though it’s only been six months, Kail said it feels like she’s been at No Good forever. The connections she’s made with the other resident artists are unlike any she has ever made elsewhere.
This, Kail said, is due in large part to the effort Emily has put into the staff at No Good.
“She has curated a sense of community that is striving for success in every sense of the word– in client experience and safety,” Kail said. “She has certainly been selfless in the way that she has extended herself. She just has a lot more tenderness than I think a lot of traditional shops have.”
That tenderness shows up in almost every aspect of how Emily runs her business. From planning yearly retreats for her staff to relax, unwind and commune together, to asking her clients what allergies they have or pronouns they prefer before she starts every appointment, Emily is intentional in the space she creates for people, which she admits isn’t always easy.
“ I just love to say ‘yes’ and I really love to create a space for people, but I think it can be hard for me to manage everybody’s expectations and emotions and understand that sometimes, not everyone’s gonna be happy,” Emily said from her white couch. “Sometimes what the shop needs is not gonna be what an individual person needs.”
These days, Emily is working a lot more on extending herself less. When she started No Good six years ago, it was Emily fixing the toilet and putting together HEPA filters for the studio during COVID-19. It was Emily handling the taxes and waiting on hold with the internet company when the printers went down. It was Emily dealing with interpersonal conflicts and delivering tough feedback.
“I would just have this never-ending to-do list, and I would try to pass it off (to) a manager, but some things— only the owner’s going to do it, you know?” Emily said with a chuckle. “I think that’s what I’ve learned over the years— no one is going to take care of a space like somebody who owns it.”
This is where Lauren Dunkin and another long-time artist at No Good stepped in to lighten Emily’s load by taking co-ownership of the business earlier this year. For Lauren, she always had a feeling she wanted a hand in owning the studio.
Like Kail, Lauren hit it off with Emily quickly. The two met in the backyard of a house party in 2017 and chatted about their home studios and shared love for tattooing. Emily mentioned to Lauren then that she wanted to open No Good. Two years later, she called Lauren to join the team.
“I think her and I had similar paths, and weirdly enough, the party is what brought us together,” Lauren said, “but she had much more vision to it than I did, so I’m just lucky to be along for the ride.”
In the good times and the hard times, Emily’s trust in her team, their trust in one another, in their guests and in Emily’s vision is unwavering.
It’s why Emily says No Good Tattoo feels so different– so special. It’s why she says she loves it so much.
“Trusting in people to be doing their best and trying their best– I think that’s a big part of why the community feels how it does,” Emily said. “That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently in terms of what makes a community long-lasting.”
As Emily made her way through the group’s tattoos, No Good began to quiet down. Artists and clients trickled out of the studio as the sun set on that Sunday evening.
Brianna, Lynn and Bailey continued talking about their favorite Thai restaurants and trivia nights in Austin. Emily chimed in like she’d known them all for years.
When she finished wrapping Briana’s bucking bronco tattoo around 9 p.m., Emily gave each of the giveaway recipients a hug and reminded them that they could always reach out if they had any questions or needed a free touch-up as their tattoos healed.
Once the group left, Emily slowly cleaned her station and chatted with the few remaining artists about which restaurant they should head to. After five hours and 10 tattoos, she was ready for a glass of wine and a good burger with her team.
Editor’s note: Journalism senior Hasina Shah has served as BurntXOrange’s editor-in-chief since its resurrection in 2023. Along with her incredible team, she rebuilt the publication rind by rind to make it the Texas Student Media organization it is today. This feature is Hasina’s last story in her college career and her last story with BurntXOrange. She’s going to miss this place so much.
