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An established Bradley Beach tattoo shop is making a move to Asbury Park.

Electric Tattoo owners Mike Schweigert [shown above], Tom Yak and Robert Ryan have signed a 5-year lease at 605 Lake Avenue and already have zoning approval from the city to operate at the location.

Demolition is underway at the site and a mid-summer opening is planned.

Seven years of growing clientele and the addition of another artist in the small Main Street location in Bradley Beach has left them with a need for more space and no viable options in the borough, Schweigert said.

“Plus, Asbury is Asbury, and Bradley Beach is Bradley Beach,” said Schweigert. “Asbury Park is up-and-coming — Bradley has been the same town for years.”

At the Bradley location, four artists shared three stations, but there will be four stations at the new 1,500 sq.-foot Asbury Park location, he said.

The ground floor entrance on the Lake Avenue side of the shop [at right, seen in the bottom right corner of the building] will lead customers down a ramp into a long, narrow hallway with work stations on the left. In the back there will be a common drawing room and lounge for the artists, Schweigert said. A separate stairway entrance on the Cookman Avenue side will be accessible through the courtyard adjacent to Words! bookstore.

Before they set up in Bradley Beach, Schweigert, Yak and Ryan looked at a Cookman Avenue location before they chose the storefront in Bradley Beach, but at that time, the rents in Asbury Park were too high and the downtown foot traffic to sparse to justify the expense, he said.

“Asbury Park was a very different place back then,” he said.

Schweigert, a Jersey-native who grew up in Brick Township, thought that the Bradley Beach location was his retirement spot and found the thought of moving out of the shop more bitter than sweet, he said. However, after walking though the Lake Avenue space in Asbury Park, he’s had a burst of reinvigorated energy at the though of a new chapter in Electric’s history, he said.

Electric artists are traditional American and Japanese-based in terms of designs, Schweigert said.

“But we are still a street shop so we habe to accomodate as many people as we can and as many styles as we can,” he said.

The new location will have the same hours and weekend walk-in schedule, Schweigert said.

Electric will be the city’s third tattoo shop, joining Old Glory Tattoo Company and Attractive Tattoo.

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