I meet with Douglas Saturday morning at Sumach Espresso It’s a neighbourhood spot on the corner of Dundas and Sumach that sits shaded under mature trees. The place is very busy, it has a lineup out the door. It’s around the corner from the co-op he shares with roommates, so it’s a handy local.
** lead portrait by the author, all the other pics provided by Douglas **
Douglas struggles with the idea of calling himself an artist. He doesn’t know how to explain what he does at this moment, but having artist friends has helped him develop thoughts around the things he’s found himself making. He’s certainly a designer/graphic designer of sorts, and mostly right now, he’s tattooing. That’s what’s making him popular.
His buddy Joe was hankering for a tattoo, and for reason’s only a youthful mind can conjure, decided that Douglas should do it. Douglas had not tattooed ever, nor did he have the equipment. Why would that stop you?
He asked some tattoo friends what to buy—and the tattoo was made. It says ‘Toronto’ in an outline-style font that reminds me of the souvenir shops in Chinatown. It’s very janky. It looks like a first tattoo, but it’s also real and charming, and very Toronto.
Douglas’ tattoo style is very Toronto. Amongst the new and rapidly-growing group of local “scratchers” it stands out as having deep Toronto roots, as Douglas does.
Montreal has had a DIY tattoo scene for a long time. Punk-style tattoos being done by art-kids on their friends at parties or in apartments as a business.
Back in the 2010’s Toronto hipsters would go to Montreal to party and get tattoos. Or, those artists would come to the City and work for couple of weeks.
Post covid, some in the art scene started tattooing. Seeing that you could just do it, they did it. A thriving scene has developed.
The Toronto references in Douglas’ work is more nostalgic than ironic. And the more ironic pieces are twisted with exaggerated humour. It’s a unique and identifiable look that I haven’t seen in other scratchers.
We have our coffee and talk in the park under the trees across from the coffee shop. He’s 29 and although I’m 48, we share many ideas about how the city has changed. He used to work at a store I frequented, Jonathan + Olivia (rip) back when Ossington was still seedy, there’s a Tilley Hat store on Ossington now.
He recently tattooed ‘Ontario’ on a friend’s ribs and the post went viral. The 12,000 likes included some hate which Douglas said wasn’t great for his mental health. His therapist said to ‘follow what brings you joy’ and that’s what he’s doing.
On his Instagram profile it says: “books open forever”, I like this. He’s open for business and want’s to tattoo as many people as he can.
Recently a guy from Bangkok found him on Instagram. He was visiting the city and wanted ‘a Toronto tattoo from the real Toronto Tattoo guy’ .. he definitely found the right guy for the job.
He’s also started making some merchandise under the ‘Brotel6’ name – a pun/brand he’s developing. He showed me a small shoulder bag he designed that the perfect size for biking around the city.
THE END
** You can find Douglas ‘Brotel6’ Tynes on Instagram ( link )
** You can find the author on Instagram ( link )