How Black Pearl Became the Tattoo Shop Everyone in St. Louis Talks About

There’s a difference between being known and being talked about. Any shop can put up a sign and hope people notice. But the places that stick, the ones that become part of a city’s fabric, they earn their reputation one person at a time. Black Pearl Tattoo Gallery didn’t set out to become a St. Louis institution. It just happened over thirty years of showing up, doing the work, and treating people right. That’s the kind of thing you can’t fake, and it’s exactly why when someone in St. Louis mentions getting tatted, Black Pearl’s name comes up.

The story starts with Roland Page Sr., who spent thirty years building the shop and making it matter in downtown St. Louis. When Lupus struck, his sons Roland Jr. and Robert had to make a choice. Walk away from three decades of their father’s work, or step up and carry it forward. They chose the harder path.

Roland Jr., who goes by Yung Ro, wasn’t exactly unprepared for this. He grew up splitting time between the tattoo shop and recording studios, eventually landing on the Billboard charts twice as a hip-hop artist. That’s not a small thing. But when family needed him, the music went on pause. What he brought to Black Pearl was different from what his father built, though. There’s a musicality to how Yung Ro approaches design, a way of thinking about rhythm and story that comes from those years making beats and writing verses. It shows in the work.

Robert, known as Jiro, came at it from another angle entirely. He’s got an associate degree in Automotive Body Technology from Ranken University, and he runs an auto vinyl wrap business alongside his tattoo and piercing work. That range matters more than you’d think. When clients walk in looking for something specific, whether it’s a small piercing or a full custom piece, Jiro’s got the technical chops and the creative eye to make it happen.

What really built Black Pearl’s reputation wasn’t just the brothers stepping up—it was the community refusing to let the shop fade. When the transition happened, clients kept coming back, brought their friends, told their stories. That loyalty was earned over thirty years of their father treating people right, and the brothers knew they had to honor that trust. The culturally diverse clientele that walks through Black Pearl’s doors isn’t just being served, they’re part of why the shop survived. When you hear someone say ‘once you get tatted at Black Pearl, you’re family,’ that goes both ways.

The brothers have inked celebrities, pro athletes, rappers, actors. That kind of clientele brings attention. But they treat the regular who comes in for their first tattoo the same way they treat someone with a million Instagram followers. That consistency is what kept people talking, what turned first-timers into regulars, what made clients feel invested in Black Pearl’s success. The shop’s reputation spread through word of mouth, through people vouching for the brothers’ work, through customers who became advocates.

The brothers didn’t just maintain what their father built. They pushed it forward. They brought in new ideas about what a tattoo shop could be while keeping everything that made Black Pearl matter in the first place. The shop’s become enough of a landmark that out-of-towners make it a stop when they’re in St. Louis. That doesn’t happen by accident.

Taking over a family business because your father got sick isn’t the dream scenario anyone hopes for. But Roland Jr. and Robert turned obligation into something bigger. They honored their dad’s vision and made it their own. And they did it with a community that had their backs, that kept walking through those doors, that helped carry the legacy forward by staying loyal when it mattered most.

St. Louis is full of really good tattoo shops, and Black Pearl Tattoo Gallery is one that’s been lucky enough to stick around. Not because they spent the most on marketing or chased trends, but because they showed up every day and did right by people. The Page brothers figured out that honoring what came before means keeping it alive, making sure the next thirty years matter as much as the first. They couldn’t have done it alone, and they’re the first ones who’d tell you that. You can see it in every piece of ink that walks out their door, in every client who comes back, in every conversation that starts with “you need to go to Black Pearl.”

Check out Black Pearl Tattoo Gallery at pearlgallerytattoo.com, or follow the brothers and the shop on Instagram at @yung_ro, @jiropage, and @pearlgallerystl.