Alberta Avenue is home to a new tattoo shop. Spencer Evans, tattoo artist and owner of Easy Tiger Tattoos, began the art form in 2008. 

“I was travelling around a little bit right after high school, and kind of got out of this suburban bubble and started seeing tattoos and being in tattoo shops. And got inspired by that,” Evans explains. After getting a tattoo upon his return to Edmonton, he decided to ask a local tattoo artist named Stacy Knight if he could train under him, and Knight agreed. Prior to that, Evans’ only art training was doodling on his binders in school and taking some art classes in high school.

After working at a few different shops over the years, including Showdown Tattoos and Black Gold Tattoo Co., he decided it was time to open his own shop. “I think that is kind of a natural progression. You kind of get to the point where you’re like, ‘I want to start making some of the decisions about where I am working and how decisions are made.’” 

“I opened the first [Easy Tiger Tattoos] location in 2016. Just over six years now,” says Evans. The first location was on 109 Street and 84 Avenue. Evans moved to another location after that, and then in February of 2022, he moved into a house north of the river.

“Well, [buying a house] was always in my mind. I just got the idea, like, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to afford [to buy] a commercial building,’” Evans explains. So, he decided to look at old character homes that were zoned for commercial use. After talking to a realtor, he found the perfect home on 117 Avenue and 96 Street, right across the street from Pizza 73. 

“As soon as I walked in, I was like, ‘I got to pull the trigger on that.’”

Evans got the name “Easy Tiger” from a bakery in Texas. 

“I was going through some stuff where I didn’t really have a shop to work at. I was on vacation and [my friends and I] were all kinda sitting around and were like, ‘You should open up your own [tattoo shop] and call it Easy Tiger, or something.’” That was about four years before Evans opened his first location, but the name stuck with him. 

Four artists are based out of Easy Tiger Tattoos. Ryan Griffiths (@ryan.philip.griffiths), Korbi (@korbiland), Spencer Evans (@spencerevanstattoos), and Liprat (@liprattattoo). They also have an apprentice named Travis at the shop. 

At Easy Tiger Tattoos, the artists create traditional tattoos, which have bold and bright lines and are often brightly coloured. Think of tattoos created by artists Sailor Jerry or Don Ed Hardy. “We all have different styles of traditional that we are doing, but it would all fall under that sort of umbrella,” Evans says.  

The artists tattoo primarily by appointment, but are generally at the shop from noon to 5 pm.

For more information, check out Easy Tiger Tattoo on Instagram at @easytigertattoos or at www.easytigertattoo.com.