Torched, bombed, now closed

Saturday, May 12, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

Here lies the Black Pearl Tattoo parlor, a pirate-themed permanent ink and piercing establishment that somebody - half crazy and hell bent - wanted dead.

The Black Pearl was bombed. An explosive sailed through the tattoo parlor's front window Monday morning and detonated. Sent the window frame flying 55 feet out into the street. Glass: everywhere. Interior: gutted. Owners of the Black Pearl: baffled.

This is the second time someone has taken down the tattoo parlor. Before, it was torched. Now it's been bombed.

This time, the Black Pearl isn't getting up.

The owners - fearful for their safety and hesitant to have their names printed - are beaten by the blitzkrieg.

"They won," one owner said.

So who are they? Nobody seems to know.

The Black Pearl opened for business Oct. 20. Ten days later, someone drilled a small hole into the back door of the Fort Apache tattoo parlor and poured flammable liquid through the puncture. The place went up in flames.

The owners and their two tattoo artists spent 13 hours scrubbing the shop for anything they could salvage, which was nothing.

The Black Pearl closed for three months to start from scorched scratch.

The Clark County Fire Department investigated, but didn't return calls for comment. The owners say they have no idea who did it. They can't think of any disgruntled customers and never got any threats. There are 50 licensed tattoo businesses in Clark County, so why theirs?

"We thought it was someone being cruel," an owner said. "But not someone out to get us personally."

Think again.

The Black Pearl opened for the second time in January, the same pirate theme (with a kiddie corral in the corner for parents getting pigmented) but a different security system: a massive one. Video cameras, smoke detectors, shock sensors.

Enough armor to make everyone feel overly at ease.

"We hoped the first comeback was a way of saying you can't hold us down , you can't win," an owner said.

Three months later, they got a 2 a.m. phone call: The Black Pearl's blown up.

Firefighters, cops and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were waiting at the tattoo parlor, studying what remained, which was nothing. Again.

And nobody knows who did it.

Local news media briefly speculated it was a competing tattoo business, but the Black Pearl owners don't want to entertain the thought. They don't want to believe in a tattoo business so sinister.

Roughly two hours after the Black Pearl bomb, another exploded across town. A bomb in the Luxor parking lot killed one person and consumed the media's attention, burying news of the Black Pearl.

Police say the two explosions aren't related. They have arrested two people in connection with the Luxor bombing.

The ATF is investigating the Black Pearl bombing, but didn't return calls Thursday and Friday.

Today, the green awning that hangs over the Black Pearl has a hole blown through it. The store front is boarded with plywood and a Dumpster sits in the parking lot, swallowing debris. The business is blackened beyond repair.

So are its owners.

"We're out of tears," one said. "We're out of energy. We're not out for revenge. We just want to be left alone."