SGoons Tattoo Supply got its eclectic name from a little district in Singapore, called Serangoon, where owner and founder, Michael Riff Vestil began his story as a tattoo mogul.
Before being enamored by tattoo artistry, Michael shared that he was an architect. As he was starting out and developing love for tattoo art, his family was hesitant to support him in such a “taboo” endeavor, and that it is for “punks and gangsters.”
In the Philippines, such a thought about unorthodox art isn’t something that’s out of the ordinary.
People perceive tattoos as somewhat a vile disrespect to the body. Michael Vestil doesn’t believe so. He considers it a beautiful way of cathartically expressing one’s identity.
Vestil won two consecutive years from 2018 to 2019 in the Singapore Ink Show Competition which further stabilized his craft in tattoo art.
SGoons Tattoo Shop started in 2010 in Singapore and eventually made its way to the Philippines. Just recently, on Aug. 13, Vestil, along with SGoon’s brand director, Chelonae Damayo, finally launched a new branch for the tattoo shop—focusing more on tattoo supply retail.
Damayo expressed her and Vestil’s collective goal of wanting to provide accessible and affordable supplies to tattoo artists here in the Metro. Tattoo supplies have a niche market and a lot of tattoo artists would sometimes resort to buying outside the country to get their hands on quality supplies. Now, they don’t have to.
“From low-end to high-end supplies, we’ve got it all. We just want to support tattoo artists here in Cebu and make it easier for them to fully explore their craft,” the brand director shared.
The pair wish to go beyond being simply a tattoo supply brand. They want to express their support for tattoo artistry by being the backbone of the tattoo community. They, too, would want to break the stigma that tattoos and those who support them are immoral. It is simply a means to express the human soul.
SGoons Tattoo Supply is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m, Monday to Saturday and on Sunday, it is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.