EDMONTON — Jaq Horvath is likely a shock to people who walk through the doors of her Edmonton tattoo shop and ask to see the owner. “They expect a big, tattooed man, right?” said Horvath with Aces N Spades Tattoo, who more resembles a bubbly beauty queen. “And when I come out, they’re like, ‘Oh!’” With a bright, radiant smile, Horvath guides clients to her office to work out designs for the ink that will adorn their skin for a lifetime. With Albertans dodging black cats, broken glass and pavement cracks, the store owner says she’s gearing up for her Friday the 13th flash sale — a day that, for many tattoo shops, is almost as big as Christmas Day. “This is a big event,” Horvath said, adding that Friday the 13th is on the calendar three times this year. Once an international day of “bad luck,” it’s treated by some tattoo businesses as an informal holiday, with artists offering up small, pre-drawn body art, often at discounted prices. In the ’90s, American artist Oliver Peck threw a 24-hour tattoo party to mark the day. And the trend took off. Horvath said early on in the trend, clients craved the dark, witchy and spooky. Freddy Krueger from “Nightmare on Elm Street” and Jason Voorhees from “Friday the 13th” are still popular choices, she said. But gradually, clients and their art choices have changed. Instead of sailors and drunkards, it’s now Olympic athletes and grandmas asking for tattoos of flowers and planets, Horvath said. On Friday, “the overall theme is more of a spooky (one),” Horvath said. “It’s taking that bad superstition, turning it into something more positive.” She even has a corporate booking of six people coming in. Horvath said her love affair with tattooing started with her brother Matthew, the owner of Canadian Ink Studios in Edmonton. The pair worked together before he eventually handed her the keys to Aces N Spades. A welder by trade, Matthew Horvath said most of his family members either own tattoo shops or are artists. While the tradition gained traction in the ’90s, he said flash designs — like those offered on Friday the 13th — hearken back to the Jazz Age, with artists such as Sailor Jerry in the ’20s and ’30s. “A lot of people always used that (number) 13 to ward off evil spirits,” he said. In his shop, it’s common to see couples come in on Friday the 13th, he said. One person will get the number 1 on their hand, and the other will get the number 3, so it reads as 13 when they hold hands. One notable appointment, Matthew Horvath said, was with an 80-year-old man who waited until after the death of his mother to get inked, because she felt tattoos were only for “drunken sailors and prostitutes.” “Since then, he’s had six tattoos,” said Horvath. “Never judge a book by its cover is basically all I could say.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026. Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press
