Life Beyond Ink · 2024

Tattoos For the Grim Hearted

The Murray brothers trace their family roots to Salem Village in the mid-1600s, and that lineage shaped everything about their vision. Since childhood they have been drawn to the darker side of things: grim fairy tales, Victorian death and mourning etiquette, New England folklore, and the macabre energy that runs through Salem's streets. Working exclusively in black and gray, they call their style for the grim hearted, every piece steeped in the city's witch-trial legacy, and a black widow spider hidden in each tattoo as the mark of the bond between them. Ryan began tattooing in 2009 while Matthew studied film, until the pull to work together won and they opened Black Veil Studio in 2012. I set their story against Salem itself, one of America's most haunted cities, where in 1692 mass hysteria led to more than two hundred accused and twenty innocent people executed, a chapter the city has never forgotten.

Filmed by Dakota Weik and Michael Corman. Edited by Dakota Weik.