Skin in the game: a mobile tattoo trailer brings Broncos flash to the tailgate

Tailgates usually mean grills, coolers and team colors. In Denver this weekend, they also meant a tattoo machine. Testimony Ink, a mobile tattoo shop, set up its trailer in the parking lot behind Sports Fan off Federal Boulevard to offer Broncos-themed flash to fans ahead of the team’s Sunday night game against the Los Angeles Rams.

Owner Diesel Salas says the concept came together fast: the moment the idea of taking the shop on the road came up, his first thought was tailgates and Broncos events. For him, the draw isn’t just the ink but the conversation that comes with it.

“It’s really about them sitting in my chair.”

Salas says he wants to know who each client is and why they bleed orange and blue. One of them, Jessica Dorsey, told local reporters her connection to the team started before she was even born, and her tattoo is a way of wearing her whole life as a fan, from the city to game days.

Flash: a carnival tradition

What Testimony Ink is offering is classic flash: ready-made designs a client can pick off the wall. The term goes back to the traveling carnivals of the late 1800s, where “flash” meant anything eye-catching enough to pull in a crowd. Tattooers working those carnivals hung their designs outside their booths, and the name stuck. When electric tattoo machines arrived in the 1890s, flash became the backbone of busy street shops, and it still is.

Thinking about a team tattoo?

• Go for the story, not just the logo. A player number, a stadium, a date that meant something to you will age better than a trend.
• Check the artist’s flash quality. Clean, bold lines hold up for decades.
• Eat and hydrate first. A tattoo on an empty stomach and a long tailgate is a rough combination.
• Follow aftercare, even if you’re heading straight into a stadium.