If you wander along Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District long enough, you’re bound to stumble upon a place where time seems to have stood still. This is Picture Machine Tattoo – San Francisco’s oldest continuously operating tattoo studio, its walls holding not just ink, but the ghosts of the past. On April 15, 2026, Jen Wong, Jason Story, and Daehi Moon gathered within the walls of this legendary workshop to continue the work started almost half a century ago.
Ghosts and Legends of an Old Tattoo Master
When Jason Story first stepped through the studio’s door in 2001, he immediately felt a special atmosphere. Rumor had it that the business was haunted by the ghost of its founder, Pat “Picture Machine” Martinuik. Legend has it that Pat died right in his chair in 1989, without finishing a tattoo of a Grim Reaper. It was said that objects in the shop would fall on their own, and one day a man in jeans and a white t-shirt approached the counter but disappeared before Story could get to him.
These strange occurrences only ceased a few months later when Pat’s son, Guy, moved the studio to a new address: 5124 Geary Blvd, near 15th Avenue. Jason worked there intermittently for about a decade until he bought the establishment in 2013. Since then, his workshop has not only outlasted its predecessors but has also solidified its status as the city’s oldest tattoo studio.
The Legacy of “Picture Machine”
For a long time, the studio was haunted by another “presence” – Martinuik’s extensive archive of flash designs. Hundreds upon hundreds of hand-drawn black and white and color icons, executed in the American Traditional style, now adorn the walls. These drawings, dating back to the 1970s, depict knives, hearts, flowers, and tigers rendered with bold black lines.
“Epiphany” was Pat’s nickname because when he wasn’t tattooing, he was creating all these flash designs,” Story explains, gesturing to the drawings overhead. For him, these images evoke another ghost: Pat’s obsessive drive to never stop working. Story admits he took the idea of emulating Pat too seriously, becoming a “picture machine” himself, which led to addiction issues until friends and family intervened.
From Lyle Tuttle to Contemporary Art
Picture Machine has been operating since 1976, when Martinuik moved from Canada to San Francisco to work with Lyle Tuttle, often called the “father of modern tattooing.” Tuttle frequently went on extended trips, tattooing celebrities like Janis Joplin and appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone. While Tuttle was in the spotlight, Martinuik worked in relative obscurity. Sometimes, clients mistakenly took the quiet artist for Lyle Tuttle himself.
Eventually, Pat grew tired of doing the work without receiving recognition, and the pair parted ways. In his own studio, named in his honor, he trained the next generation – his son Guy and Tuttle’s son, Lyle Tuttle Jr. This created an extended family tree among San Francisco tattoo artists. Guy opened his own studio in Reno, Nevada, called Body Graphics, which is now run by his son (and Pat’s grandson), Jesse.
A Modern Team and New Styles
Today, Pat Martinuik’s work has become collectible, and tattooing is recognized as an independent art form. However, Story emphasizes that Martinuik’s style was fundamentally based on efficiency. “If you’re tattooing, and you have a line of sailors who are all on leave, you want to get as many tattoos done as possible,” he explains.
Story, who grew up in the Bay Area punk scene, seems less concerned with the ghosts of the past than he used to be. Recalling the rough times of Martinuik and his contemporaries – bar fights and dealing with unwanted guests – he says, “I don’t think I would have liked that. Those guys were intimidating.”
Clients still come seeking Martinuik’s work. Future drunken sailors and Harley riders can get discounts on “founder’s flash,” featured in original drawings, and the shop sells t-shirts and catalogs with them. But now, Story and two other artists work at the studio full-time, and their styles extend far beyond the decades of Martinuik’s iconic tattooing.
- Jen Wong works with “fine line” designs.
- Big Moon, working the night shift, has a cartoony neo-traditional style.
- Jason Story has produced a wide range of designs, from “dystopian nightmares” on punk album covers to American and Japanese tattoo styles.
A Community United by Ink
Today, Picture Machine and its clients form a community that is rooted in the very beginnings of the tattoo parlor. “We’ve reached the point,” says Story, “where we’re tattooing the grandchildren of some of our first clients.”