Customers flock to San Francisco's Castro Tattoo for Friday 13th tattoos

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Friday the 13th isn't just a day to be superstitious anymore. It's also become a big day to get a tattoo.

San Francisco's Castro Tattoo at 17th and Castro Streets is just one shop among many across the nation who treat Friday the 13th, not as a Hallmark Holiday, but a holiday nonetheless.

"It's a tattoo holiday, owner Haley Adams told us. "Friday the 13th is supposed to be back luck, but we take it as a good luck holiday. We're weird like that."

The tradition of $13 tattoos on Friday the 13th goes back almost a century. And though the $13 has become $31, bargains draw crowds.

Customers lined up five hours early at Castro Tattoo.

And artists like Jess Koala expected long shifts.

"In a normal day I do three tattoos," she said. "Today, maybe 17. I can break my record."

Her first customer of the day was Anna Navarro who, wanted a cactus to honor time living in the desert.

"I waited for this day," she said.