The studio
Southside Tattoo, Albion Park
Southside Tattoo has been tattooing in Albion Park since 2011. In 2026 the shop moved a few doors along Tongarra Rd, from number 122 to number 155, into a space that was gutted and rebuilt for the job: proper booths, better light, and room to work on a back piece without anyone shuffling around you.
It is the same crew it was before the move. Four artists work out of the room, across black and grey, colour, fine line, script and cover-up work, and between them they will take on almost anything from a first small piece to a sleeve built over a year of sittings.
You will find us at 155 Tongarra Rd, Albion Park, NSW 2527, Australia , open six days a week.
How we work
Custom means custom
You see it before it goes on
Nothing is tattooed that you have not looked at first. Your idea gets drawn up, you see the drawing, and you say yes or ask for changes. Then the stencil goes on the skin and you check the placement in a mirror before the machine is switched on. If it is sitting two centimetres off where you pictured it, that is the moment to say so, and nobody minds.
We will tell you if something will not work
Some designs do not survive being shrunk. Some spots move too much to hold fine detail. Some colours do not sit well over what is already there. You will get told that before you commit, not afterwards, even when the honest answer costs us the booking.
Big work is a series, not a day
Sleeves, back pieces and full legs are built over a run of appointments with healing time in between. That is not us stretching it out. Skin that has been worked hard stops taking ink properly, and pushing on past that point costs you quality you cannot get back.
Walk in, or book
Walk-ins are welcome and always have been. If you want a particular artist or a long sitting, ring ahead so we can put the time aside. We have never taken deposits as a matter of course, though particular circumstances occasionally call for one, and if that applies to your booking we will tell you why at the time.
Safety and licensing
The boring part, done properly
- NSW operator licence 011131
- Body art tattooing in New South Wales is a licensed trade. Operators and individual tattooists both hold licences, and studios that skip it are breaking the law rather than cutting a corner.
- Sterile, single-use, every time
- Needles are single-use and go into a sharps container the moment they come out. Anything that penetrates skin is sterile before it touches you, equipment is disinfected between clients, and the premises is registered with Shellharbour City Council as a skin penetration business.
- Aftercare you can actually follow
- You leave with instructions for your specific piece, and there is a full guide on this site. If something is not healing the way you expect, ring the shop. We would much rather have a look at it than have you guess.
Where people come from
The catchment
- Albion Park
- Albion Park Rail
- Shellharbour
- Oak Flats
- Shell Cove
- Warilla
- Barrack Heights
- Flinders
- Lake Illawarra
- Windang
- Dapto
- Horsley
- Kiama
- Wollongong
One studio, one address. People drive in from right across Shellharbour and the lake, and regularly down from Wollongong or up from Kiama when they want a particular artist.
Come and have a look
The easiest thing is to walk in and see the room, flick through some folders and have a chat about the idea. If that is awkward, send it through here or ring and we will sort it out over the phone.
- Ring the shop
- (02) 4257 8288
- Open
- Mon to Fri 10:00 to 5:00pm
Sat 10:00 to 4:00pm, Sun closed