"Everybody wants to get a souvenir - not a mug, not a shirt, not a magnet. That's a thing of the past. Now people are collecting tattoo souvenirs," said Carmen Verdugo, owner of Liberty Center Tattoo Shop in Times Square.
"The popular ones are a skyline, Statue of Liberty, the word 'New York,' 'New York City,' 'I Love New York.' But also hot dogs, pizza, a rat eating pizza. We also did a squirrel eating an apple."
"I chose the butterfly because it is the symbol of rebirth, coming to New York for me was a bit like a rebirth. I returned to the land of my great-grandmother that I finally found after 30 years of searching," she said.
"Verdugo estimated 80% of her customers are tourists, and she's inked people from all over the world. All kinds of countries: Canada, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Iceland . . . the Netherlands, Switzerland. Yesterday, we did two people from Africa," she said.
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