Halo Tattoo has been a staple on Marshall Street for 20 years. Over the years, co-owner DJ Rose has had many people come by for photos and videos (send him your stuff, if that's you, he asks!) but this is the first time anyone has approached him for 360 video.

One of the reasons this makes for a good (I hope) 360 video idea is the space itself. There is literally art over every inch of this place, including the ceiling. It seems from previous experience at the Women's March in Seneca Falls that 360 video seems to be more meaningful in smaller spaces where you can look at things somewhat closely. In these cozy quarters you're able to look at someone getting tattooed, perhaps watch their significant others' reaction while it's happening, or turn around and stare at the drawings on the wall.

One of the things I worried about was the lighting - in the daytime, the place has these large windows, that while great for tattoo artists, proved to be a challenge for the 360 video camera I used (A Nikon KeyMission 360). At this early stage in the 360-video game at this level/price point of camera, there isn't much that can be done about this, but a quick trip in the Oculus Rift headset proved this to be a small issue. It's there, but it doesn't detract from the overall experience.

I also took an approach to the nadir patch that I saw while reading an article on The Verge about 360 video. In that article, they linked to a 360 party video from Virgin Media, where the nadir patch was a feathered black circle, so instead of a very jarring logo right underneath, things smoothly dip to black to conceal the tripod. You can see that in the Youtube video here. It actually worked out pretty well.

Unfortunately, the Mettle plugin doesn't seem to be the full version on the lab computers, so straightening out the text was a no-go, so I kept it short so that it wouldn't be noticeably bendy.

The aim here was to take the sort of business profile video you see in daily newspapers, and apply it to 360-degree video. In this particular instance, it was adding the interview with DJ Rose that added to that experience, so you were learning about the place as you watched the B-roll. I used a wireless lavalier mic plugged into an audio recorder to get better sound than the on-board audio for the interview, which worked out well and improved the quality a bit.

If this was a place that you had either wanted to see but couldn't, or were afraid to go into, now you have the opportunity to check it out.

Most of the time, you're experiencing this piece at eye level, but there are a few times where it's just a hair lower, to get a better look at the tattoos and the artists behind them.

I hope y'all enjoy the experience.