'A legacy at least as great as McCahon' - Tattoo icon Roger Ingerton's designs live on

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that it is one of New Zealand's oldest tattoo studios.

Roger Ingerton opened Roger's Tatooart in Wellington's Cuba Street in 1977 - and worked from the premises until he retired in 2009.

The studio has received a dramatic facelift, but its legendary founder's designs, photographs and paintings still fill nearly every spare inch of wallspace.

Andre Röck - known in the tattoo industry as Dre - says Ingerton's shop was "a tattoo mecca" and had drawn people dedicated to skin art from all over the world.

He says Ingerton spearheaded a turning point in the art form, stepping beyond the reproduction of small individual designs - or flash - to creating works of ambitious scope and size.

"He had an art background and focussed on custom work, custom one-off pieces. Big cohesive pieces. He worked with full sleeves, full back pieces and body suits with designs that flowed and complimented the body," Röck says.

Ingerton's studio had remained almost completely unaltered since he retired - leaving the shop in the hands of fellow tattooist Tom Downs.

Dre - who also created Lucky's Tattoo Museum in Upper Hutt - said sorting through the wealth of artwork and imagery inside the space was a painstaking labour of love.

"There was just layers - over the years - accumulated of his artwork. Flash and photos of the work that he did, paintings, line drawings, all types.

"So what I had to do was cherry pick the pieces that were the most iconic. Filtering through it all took some time," Röck says.

Ingerton was also acknowledged as one of the first tattooists to recreate tā moko designs with modern tattoo machines.

A 1976 article in Wellington newspaper The Evening Post breathlessly detailed the impact of Porirua teacher Tawai Hauraki Te Rangi's traditional moko kauae - or chin tattoo - describing it as the "first modern moko" while keeping the identity of the artist under wraps.

But just over a decade later Ingerton would tell Wellington's Dominion newspaper he did his first tā moko in 1976.

He said he was daunted by taking on the tattoo and worked alongside kaumātua to ensure the design was respectful.

Tawai Hauraki Te Rangi's portrait is still hanging in the corner of the shop where Ingerton worked and where Tom Down's workstation is now located.

Emeritus professor and author Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku was tattooed by Ingerton in the 80s. She says he should be held among the country's most respected artists.

"Because the world of tattoo and the art of marking skin has been demonised and sidelined for so many generations it never reached the attention of the arbiters of New Zealand fine arts. It was like a grubby, parlour, slum based activity that criminals and sailors and dodgy girls did.

"In terms of design, skill, of the application of colour and the understanding of the person's body Roger would make great works of art and they're walking around, they're alive, they're out there.

"For me it is a legacy at least as great as McCahon. The only difference is that - where McCahon is collected and portable and gushed over - it doesn't make [Roger's] work any less art or him any less an artist. I believe absolutely that Roger is right up there," Te Awekōtuku says.

Tattooist Derek Thunders says he leapt at the chance to work in the revamped shop after serving a portion of his apprenticeship there.

He says growing up on Cuba Street he would walk past Roger's Tatooart on a daily basis but was reluctant to step inside.

"I kind of always thought it was somewhere that you might get laughed at or beaten up for saying the wrong thing. When I was working here - a couple of times - Roger stopped in to the shop. [The] most polite soft spoken gentleman that you could think of. I was like 'oh, okay'," Thunders says.

Now the shop is operating again - Thunders says he likes nothing more than being able to open the studio door and let the sound of old school, coil-driven tattoo machines buzz out onto Cuba Street.