A popular Big Apple tattoo biz is suing former workers who went public over its alleged nasty conditions — including the use of bloody tools amid rats, roaches and bedbugs.
Live by the Sword — which claims to have had 300,000 tat and piercing clients at its trendy SoHo and Williamsburg locations in the past decade — recently filed a $3 million lawsuit against three ex-piercers, claiming they “colluded” to harm its business and “knowingly [published] false and misleading statements, images and information” on social media.
The defamatory posts include pictures of spilled needles, dirty sinks, rodent and insect pests and stories of clients stepping in pools of blood, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
The business “likely lost several thousand current and prospective clients, totaling more than $1 million dollars, and [are] at risk of losing many more current and prospective clients” because of the defamation, the lawsuit claimed.
But the former workers — defending themselves in court papers and to The Post — said the suit against them is just tit for tat and that they are simply whistleblowers calling out unsafe conditions in an industry where sanitation is sacrosanct.
“I think the main thing is to shut us up,” said Marcy Mattes, who worked at LBTS for three years and claimed the conditions were “disgusting,” to The Post.
“It was just a matter of time before someone actually aired [it] out,” she said.
The former worker’s lawyer, Daniel Szalkiewicz, added, “The First Amendment and New York law prevents employers from suing former employees into silence about their bad practices.”
While LBTS declined to comment on the lawsuit, it noted that a judge gave it a temporary restraining order against the defendants in court.
“Our studios operate in compliance with New York City Department of Health standards and sterilization protocols,” the business said in a statement through their lawyer, referring to locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “We remain committed to providing safe, professional, and high quality services to our clients.”
Wiki Karwacki, another defendant, kicked off the dust-up in December.
She made an Instagram post she was leaving LBTS — and added a series of images taken inside the shop alleging to show a dead rat, roach, bedbugs and other unsanitary conditions.
“Who knows how many individuals exposed themselves to avoidable infections and/or other complications,” Karwacki said in court papers. “I could not, in good conscience, allow this to continue without saying something.”
The posts went viral, and other former workers such as Mattes then shared posts of their own with similar accusations, with some going viral.
LBTS co-owner Greg Ferreira said in court papers that “not a single health inspector…has identified a health code or other regulatory violation.”
A city Health Department official confirmed to The Post that none of the several inspections at the business’s shops in the past year resulted in violations.
Ferreira said a dead rat at one of the establishments was a one-off because a worker left food out.
He claimed a huge spend on sterilization and cleaning and filed a bevy of pest-servicing bills in the suit.
Many of the bills explicitly note the disposal of dead rats and roaches.
Well before social-media posts aired the dirty laundry, workers voiced concerns over the breakdown in conditions, Mattes claimed to The Post and in court papers.
Sharps disposal buckets were left on the floor instead of properly mounted to the wall and were frequently kicked over, spilling used, bloody needles on the floor, she said.
A client once stepped in a “giant pool of blood” as Mattes walked them to a room for a private piercing, she said.
Mattes also alleged some employees took shortcuts by soaking tools and jewelry in disinfecting chemicals instead of using the $5,000 Autoclave sanitizing machine.
“There were only so many times that I could yell at other people to not be dirty and to not be disgusting,” Mattes told The Post.
But the tat business claimed in its suit that the trio is attempting to “enrich” themselves by stealing their business, stating that Karwacki directed followers to get pierced by her partner and former LBTS employee Samantha Vargas.
Vargas is also being sued — despite not posting anything about LBTS — because of that “unjust enrichment” claim.
“It was pretty devastating,” she told The Post. “They made [an] intentional choice to file on Christmas Eve — everything they’ve been doing has been intentional, just to mess with us.”
“Now I’m in the hole from paying for a lawyer,” she said, adding that the posts did not result in more business.
“It’s a ridiculous lawsuit,” she said, “I didn’t do anything, and it felt really sh–ty to be involved.”
