Amenia native comes home to start new tattoo shop

AMENIA — The Queen’s Head Tattoo and Art Gallery is a fresh start for Mike Boyce, a tattoo artist originally from Amenia who spent the last 14 years running Queen City Tattoo in Poughkeepsie.

Boyce’s tattoo shop — which doubles as an art exhibition space — at 5329 Route 44 in Amenia opened last week for a soft opening, with an official grand opening planned for August.

As the challenges of running a small business in Poughkeepsie grew amid the area’s ongoing struggles with an epidemic of drugs and crime, Boyce returned to Amenia, aiming to narrow the divide between tattooing and what is traditionally seen as art, while doing his part to help the community.

For Boyce, the decision to leave Poughkeepsie was not an easy one. “I did a lot for the community out there — we used to feed the homeless,” Boyce said. “During COVID, we weren’t allowed to open up our shop, so we ended up turning it into a kitchen because a lot of the kids out there relied on school lunch.”

The COVID pandemic marked the beginning of a period of uptick in Poughkeepsie’s dangerous illicit activities, something that had always existed below the surface, Boyce said.

“When we went back, things started going downhill,” he said. “I was having to basically play a doctor, cop, security, everything. And I wasn’t able to concentrate on my work anymore.”

That work, tattooing, is something Boyce stumbled upon by chance, but it was a discovery that allowed him to make a living exploring his love of art.

Boyce, who attended culinary school, worked in the restaurant industry for ten years before he decided that it was time for a change.

Seeing an advertisement for a tattoo machine online, Boyce was intrigued by the prospect of learning to tattoo. “I was always into art since I was a little boy and I thought ‘I kind of want to try that,’” he said.

Upon trading a Game Boy and a camera for a tattoo machine online, Boyce set about teaching himself to tattoo. “At first, I did a lot of bad tattoos,” he said. “But within a year, I was in a shop. Within a year and a half, I was managing the shop.”

While Boyce appreciates the precision of tattooing itself, his love of the industry all comes down to its artistic foundation, something he hopes comes through in his work.

“I like showing people that the tattoo industry doesn’t have the stigma of drugs and bikers, gangs, stuff like that. It’s actual art now — the tattoo industry has changed and has come such a long way,” Boyce said.

“I like to show people that, you know, you might look at me and think one thing, but that’s not where I am right now,” he said. Boyce’s commitment to the artistry of tattooing is what he hopes will have his work seen as something more than the negative stereotypes surrounding the industry.

Boyce’s commitment to the skill involved in tattooing has gained recognition from others in the field. “I have a pretty good reputation in this industry,” he said.

Much of that reputation comes from Boyce’s commitment to teaching others the fundamentals of tattooing. “I taught a good 25 to 30 people how to tattoo throughout the last 14 years,” he said.

Boyce hopes to continue his tradition of serving the community, as he did in Poughkeepsie, in his new location in Amenia. “I want to start working with some kids coming out of high school that might be interested in art — do art classes,” Boyce said. “I want to do whatever I can with the community to be a part of the community. That’s huge for me.”

Everything in the store, including its name, has a lot of significance for Boyce.

“Poughkeepsie is known as the Queen City of the Hudson,” he said. “And that’s how we came up with the name when I was out in Poughkeepsie and had my shop. The Queen is over. Now it’s the Queen’s head.” Boyce added, “it’s sort of like ‘off with her head,’ you know?”

Boyce’s focus has changed slightly, being in a new location and having learned from the challenges of operating in Poughkeepsie. “One of my goals is to focus on my career. Find my peace, better my art,” he said.

His commitment to his work, however, remains unshaken. “This is something I can’t give up,” Boyce said. “This is what I’ve done for 14 years. I love it — it’s my passion.”