About True Blue Tattoo

True Blue Tattoo started as Glory Hole Body Piercing by Vanessa Alvarez in 1992.

In 1998, we opened True Blue Tattoo on Red River Street. It was built by several talented people (friends) looking for a new and welcoming place to call home. We have been at this location, as one of the last real “street shops”, to this day.

In 2013 we opened our Airport Blvd location as a kind of retirement home for our aging tattooers who were done with the fast pace lifestyle of downtown tattooing. We quickly found out that it wouldn’t be so easy to slow down. As the popularity of tattooing grew, we became busier and busier.

Vanessa Jo Alvarez
Vanessa Jo Alvarez (December 9, 1970 – September 1, 2006)

Through the years we have gone through every “fad” of tattooing, all the while being able to create one-of-a-kind and challenging individual pieces along the way. We have tattooed generations of the same families. Years apart and on the same day together. We have watched the popularity of tattooing go from sub-culture and sailors to the mainstream and the aisles of the supermarkets. We still find the same joy and pleasure from putting on a new beautiful clean tattoo and seeing how happy it makes our clients, family, and friends, just as it did all those years ago.

You can count on us. You can depend on us. We are True Blue.


Our Mission Statement

Since 1992…
We insist upon:
A sterile and clinical environment.
Knowledgeable and experienced tattoo artists and piercers.
Premium quality body jewelry, inks, and supplies.
A huge selection of artists with a wide variety of styles.

We stand behind each of our tattooers and piercer’s work.
Thank you for choosing True Blue Tattoo. We appreciate your business.