News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Tattoo artist Austin Hill works on a client’s arm at his new Alpena location on River Street on Tuesday.

ALPENA — Paramount Tattoo moved from its West Chisholm Street shop to a space on River Street, opening on Oct. 1.

The owners held a grand reopening on Friday and raffled off free tattoos.

Co-owner Breanna Hill said the shop moved because the old location had too little space for the large number of artists Paramount Tattoo employs.

“We were on Chisholm for two years, and we just switched buildings,” Hill said. “It was too small, because we have three other artists that work for us, so we needed space.”

Paramount Tattoo is not exclusive to Alpena. Austin and Breanna Hill also own a shop in Mackinaw City.

Breanna Hill said that the Alpena shop closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they decided to move to a location in Mackinaw Crossings in Mackinaw City after that space became available to rent.

“We were, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is our opportunity to open,'” Breanna Hill said. “Then we wanted to have a second shop down here, because this is where we’re from. Austin wanted to be able to do what he does down here, too.”

The Alpena location stays open all year and the Mackinaw City location is only open from June until the first week of November.

During the summertime, Austin Hill and two other artists work in the Mackinaw store, while tattoo artist Sasha Danger continues working in the Alpena location.

For the rest of the year, Austin Hill and all three artists work in the Alpena shop.

Despite the year-round movement, the owners said both Paramount Tattoo stores do a good amount of business.

“We stay pretty steady,” Breanna Hill said. “Sasha has a pretty big clientele. She’s been tattooing for a few years. Austin has a pretty decent-sized clientele, as well. He has a lot of people that travel from out of state, up north, downstate, or even from Canada.”

Austin Hill won two awards at the 2023 Tattoo City convention in Flint. He will also be featured in Tattoo Industry, a magazine, in an upcoming March edition.

“We had that grand re-opening, because a lot of people don’t know that we’re here,” Breanna Hill said. “Because we’re in Mackinaw for almost six months out of the year, we wanted to do a grand re-opening so that people know.”