Where you can get a legal tattoo on post at Fort Liberty

FORT LIBERTY  — Fort Liberty’s first-ever tattoo studio is now open on post.

The American Tattoo Society, which has a shop in Fayetteville, opened the studio Dec. 19 in the North Post Exchange by the Smoke Bomb Hill food court, said co-owner Ryan Harrell.

The studio, the ninth American Tattoo Society studio on a U.S. military installation, is open on Fort Liberty from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.

“It’s wild and awesome to be at our home, Fort Liberty, which is the largest Army (post),” Harrell said Wednesday.

Since July 4, 2014, Harrell and his wife, Nicole, have owned the American Tattoo Society studio located just shy of two miles from Fort Liberty’s Yadkin Road gate.

They also organize the annual All-American Tattoo Convention, which has been held in Fayetteville since 2016.

Harrell said he and his wife, who are Fayetteville natives, have family members who’ve served in the military and have strived to have a business that supports those who serve.

“They pay our bills, so we try to do everything we can to give back and wanted them to have a safe place they can get a tattoo,” he said.

Fayetteville business becomes military vendor

Several years ago, when Harrell worked as an online advertising consultant with then Fort Bragg's Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation, an old client mentioned they heard a tattoo studio was opening on post, he said.

At the time, Harrell said, it was illegal for a tattoo studio to operate on post.

Yet the discussion led Harrell to reach out to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service.

After a year of messaging, Harrell said, AAFES vetted the business and recommended he visit Fort Bliss, Texas.

At Fort Bliss, Harrell was told that only one vendor would be allowed a single-source contract to provide tattoos and that it would fall under health services.

“We had a hard time finding a base willing to open the first one because it was just a radical thing to put a tattoo shop on base,” he said. “Luckily, Nellis Air Force Base (Nevada) agreed, because if anything went wrong we could say, ‘It happened in Vegas.’”

The first studio opened in 2020, and then another three opened as Harrell worked through Army “regulatory hurdles.”

“The Army wanted to pull the permitting and inspections in-house with their public health department,” he said. “So, the next two years, while we got the work done, we opened six new locations.”

Other military installations where there is an American Tattoo Society studio are Fort Bliss, Travis Air Force Base in California, MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, Fort Drum in New York, Fort Moore in Georgia, Fort Irwin in California and Joint Base Charleston.

The American Tattoo Society is the only approved tattoo vendor to work through AAFES, Harrell said.

“In the military, everything is hurry up and wait, so when the opportunity arose, we were able to get in,” he said.

Fort Liberty tattoo studio opening

During American Tattoo Society’s grand opening, garrison Command Sgt. Maj. Gregory Seymour, who later got a tattoo, said Womack Army Medical Center is “actively involved,” with the studio to “ensure the health and safety.”

“It is safe,” Seymour said. “It is regulated.”

There’s a goal to have 12 studios on military installations by the end of this year, Harrell said.

He said American Tattoo Society has grown to have 260 artists and guest artists from across the U.S.

The Fort Liberty studio has four full-time artists and a booth for guest artists to come in, starting in March.

“We also have artists traveling to other locations, so we have a good mix of artists with different styles at every location, whether it’s an artist versed in Japanese or someone who can do a traditional style,” he said.

Harrell said that during American Tattoo Society’s grand opening on Fort Liberty, the business partnered with Veteran Ink, a nonprofit that donates tattoos to military veterans.

Veteran Ink paid for $10,000 worth of tattoos on opening day, he said.

“There’s a correlation to getting a tattoo and being able to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder issues and combat-related injuries,” Harrell said. “Tattooing and the military go hand-in-hand.”

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: How a Fayetteville business became military's only tattoo vendor