When artist Tommy Giblin was 18 and started getting tattoos, the shop atmosphere – the smell of the soap, the loud buzz of tattoo machines, the music – made a strong sensory imprint. From there he easily “fell into” tattooing and has made it his career for over 20 years.
His shop, Cypher Ink Tattoo, has been in its current location, a second-floor studio in downtown Barnegat, for five years; he was in Lakeside Village Plaza in Manahawkin for four years before that.
Subscribe to keep reading
This story is from our archive. Get your SandPaper Annual Pass for access to our digital archive, plus everything else a pass includes. Details below.
Annual Pass — $18 Details
365-day access to:
- The complete SandPaper digital archive (stories date back to 2012).
- Full photo galleries from our photographers.
- The entire catalog of SandPaper games, puzzles and quizzes.
How it works
- Enter your email below and click to pay the one-time $18. Card details are entered on Stripe’s secure page.
- You’re in straight away — no password to create, and nothing to set up or manage.
- You stay signed in. If you’re ever signed out, or you read on a new phone or computer, we’ll email you a code to get you back in.
- Never auto-renews. Your pass is good for one year. We will email you when it expires so you can renew if you’d like.
See our site policies for more information.
Already a subscriber? We’ll email a code to get you back in.
















