Saks Invites You To Get A Tattoo While You Shop

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Saks Fifth Avenue is getting its own tattoo parlor.

Starting next week, you can be a live model in the window display at Brookfield Place. As CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reported, that's where Saks will have three artists from the Rivington Tattoo NYC parlor on the Lower East Side on permanent rotation.

"So instead of a mannequin or a rack with clothing, you will have live tattoos being performed by our artists on real life clientele," co-owner of Rivington Tattoo NYC Wass Stevens explained.

It's just one more service the store is offering shoppers, hoping to bring them inside at a time when retailers are struggling to compete with online shopping.

"Because of the internet, how easy it is to just click and buy, it will draw people in," said Stevens.

You can now get a haircut at Saks, too. The store is rolling out 14 salons nationwide. The Huntington, Long Island location is already up and running, Brookfield Place will open next week and the Saks headquarters will follow next year.

"A client can literately sit at my chair, have the sink right in front of them, get shampoo, get their hair done, buy their product, check out right at the chair, no front desk experience," The Salon Project owner Joel Warren explained.

Retail experts call the extra in-store add-ons "shoppertainment."

"Stores will definitely continue to add more perks. They're look at different experiences, different type of experimental stores to drive traffic," said Spencer Ware, retail expert with Alixpartners.

But some people say nothing beats rolling up your sleeves in an old school tattoo parlor.

"I think I'd want to go to a place that's a little bit more specialized in tattoos," one man told Duddridge.

"I think the ambiance of the place you make your tattoo matters," a woman added.

Sak's tattoo shop is expected to open sometime next week.