Houston tattoo shop caters toward first responders

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Among the bars and restaurants along the often-busy Washington Avenue sits a shopping center. The Prison Break Tattoos sign can be seen from the street but what's inside is a whole other story.

Bars of another sort, jail cells, displaying a theme that mimics the inside of a penitentiary. It's a place where many Houston-area residents go to get inked up but there's a bigger story to it.

The owner, BK Klev, calls it a place for healing as well.

"It gives me such a warm feeling inside to be able to spend time with those families and to come together with them in such a tragic time and it allows us to heal with them," says Klev. He is a 24-year veteran with the Houston Police Department. He opened up the shop a few years ago to be a place where first responders would feel safe to get their work done, but it's also a place to share their stories.

"To know that the art and the things that we are doing gives them this sense and feeling of family and sense and feeling of the ability to heal, when it's so hard to do so", explains Klev.

The shop has gained a lot of attention over social media too, which has brought in business from not just local visitors but from those across the world. Officers stopping in to get their dose of ink but also to take their picture with him.

"We get them from outside of the country, we get officers coming from Australia, Israel," says Klev. 

The man is known for having a giving heart, helping out his brothers and sisters in blue.

James Senegal, a fellow police officer says, "The guy was going around putting $100 dollar bills on people's windshields and I thought, "How cool is that to actually give back?"

But Klev also has a sense of humor too. Inside the shop, has an electric chair and it actually shocks you.

To add to the shop's increasing notoriety, a production crew recently paid a visit to the parlor to share stories of first responders and their families that get tattoos there, which Klev says makes up about 90 percent of his business' customers.

"Potentially, they will be coming back for multiple episodes, so we are hoping and praying for the best, it's going to look good for Houston", says Klev.