Thorn Tattoo

Thorn Tattoo: Raising the Bar for the Entire Industry

When you walk through the door at Thorn Tattoo on Moon Street, you feel the difference right away: the space is bright and open, with framed artwork covering nearly every inch of the walls and a floor plan that invites you in rather than making you feel like you're intruding. The energy in the air buzzes with the creativity and enthusiasm of the artists inside, who are usually working, drawing, talking, and laughing with each other. That vibe starts with the man who built the place from scratch: Josh Resner, known around the shop as Jay-Rez.

From Graphic Design to Tattoo Artist

Josh is Albuquerque through and through: he grew up here, went to Art Center Design College, and spent over a decade building a career in graphic design for a local company that grew from a small team into a multi-location retail operation. When they needed something done, he was the guy: corporate imaging, large-format printing, apparel manufacturing, store buildouts, inventory buying. A creative generalist doing serious work long before he ever held a tattoo machine.

Art was always in his blood. His grandmother, who he describes with real warmth, was an art teacher. She was the one who kept his hands busy with paints and pastels when he was a kid, even before he understood why or where it would take him. There was always someone in his family making something, so the creative instinct was there from the beginning.

Around 2016, while still working full-time at his day job, Josh started a tattoo apprenticeship. He would head to the shop after long hours at his day job to apprentice until ten at night, and did that for the better part of two years. By the time he was done, he was making more money tattooing on weekends than he was at his full-time job. At the end of 2020 Josh walked away from the corporate world for good. He announced he was tattooing again, and had two weeks of bookings within days.

Building Thorn Tattoo: A Shop That Runs on Friendship and Creativity

Thorn Tattoo opened in its current location on Moon Street in mid-2024, but the story behind it stretches back through a series of spaces and lessons learned the hard way. Josh started small, built his clientele, kept his head down through difficult times, and never stopped working. When the right space finally appeared, he signed the lease before he had a full roster of artists to fill it. He figured he'd work alone if he had to - but he didn't have to: artists Loren and Nicole joined up soon after. Simon followed and the Dream Team was born!

What makes Thorn unusual is that the four artists here aren't strangers thrown together by circumstance - they're genuinely friends. They demoed walls together before the shop ever opened, did the drywall, the bathroom remodel and more. You can feel that history in the way they interact when you walk in. As one longtime client put it, the artists at Thorn aren't just talented - they're kind, caring, and inclusive, and they make you feel part of the process.

What to Expect When You Walk Through the Door

Josh thinks carefully about the client experience. He wants people to feel genuinely welcome when they arrive, but he also runs a focused, professional operation. The artists are there to tattoo the client who made the appointment, not perform for a crowd. The space is super clean and bright because Josh believes you should be able to sit in the chair and look at the art on the walls instead of wondering when someone last swept the floor. Reviews consistently describe the atmosphere as cozy, clean, welcoming, and unlike any other shop in town.

The team at Thorn pays attention to the dozens of small things that separate a good tattoo experience from a great one, from the initial consultation to the moment you walk out the door. If you have questions before your appointment, you'll get answers. If you want something adjusted, say so. One client who'd been tattooed across many states and different shops said Thorn had the best vibe of any of them, and that the artists' care for their craft, their environment and their clients set the bar for everyone else.

Styles, Booking, and What the Artists Bring to the Table

Josh works across traditional, neo-traditional, illustrative, black and grey, and geometric styles. He works in bold, vibrant color, deep contrast, and fine-line black and grey detail. He's been doing this for seven years, and the art school foundation still shows up in how he thinks about translating a design onto the body. He can do the playful and surreal, a hillbilly red panda, Kurt Cobain riding a shark through space, whatever strange and specific vision a client's been carrying around inside their head. He can also do the quiet and precise.

The other artists at Thorn each bring their own strengths. Loren has developed his style as Illustrative blackwork, with a strong affinity for weapons and Dark Lettering, Nicole (Romatra) specializes in black work illustrative designs and enjoys exploring geometric mandala pattern work and large-scale designs that emphasize the body's natural movements, and Simon works in his favorite elements of nature, animals and florals through elegant black and grey work as well as Japanese-influenced tattoos. All four operate primarily by appointment, usually booking out months in advance. Each artist books individually through their own scheduling links.

The One Thing Josh Wants You to Know Before Getting Tattooed

If there's one piece of advice Josh gives freely, it's this: do your research. Look at the work of the artists you're considering. Find someone whose portfolio aligns with the style you actually want, not just the shop that happens to have availability this weekend. He emphasizes that a tattoo is the "one thing you'll carry with you all the way to the very end." He also wants people to understand that patience isn't optional. Dropping into a random shop that takes walk-ins and handing your money to whoever's available is how you end up with something you'll need to cover later. Good work takes time to book, and at Thorn it's definitely worth the wait.

Coming Up at Thorn Tattoo

Thorn celebrates its two-year anniversary on Moon Street in 2026, and is preparing to show up at the Albuquerque Tattoo Fiesta in July, where all four artists will be representing the shop with individually designed merchandise, original art pieces, and the chance to finally meet clients who've been watching from a distance and just needed an easier way in. Josh is also quietly thinking about a shop anniversary celebration, something low-key and community-focused, the kind of event that reflects how he runs the place in general.

The name, by the way, was his girlfriend's idea. He had a list of options and none of them felt right. She pointed to the thorn tattoos on his neck, done by Simon, and said: what about Thorn? He looked it up, liked that a thorn is a poke just like a tattoo needle, liked the connection to roses, one of the most requested tattoos in the industry, and liked that it was short, direct, and hard to forget. So Thorn - was born.

Thorn Tattoo is located on Moon Street just north of Indian School in Albuquerque and is open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to seven. Follow the shop on Instagram at @thornabqmoon, or reach the team by phone or text at 505-205-3637.