Tattoo artist Tyler Nolan travels to Miami to visit Anthony, one of South Florida’s largest coral distributors, to ensure color accuracy for a memorial tattoo featuring a rockflower anemone. The video provides an extensive tour of Anthony’s 4,000 square foot, 13,000-gallon facility, which houses vast quantities of high-value corals like torches, acans, and brain corals (Donuts). Using a specialized filter to accurately capture coral colors under blue actinic lighting, Nolan showcases the exotic diversity and estimated multi-million dollar inventory. The tour also includes a demonstration of coral feeding and a brief discussion of the dangers associated with handling certain coral species. The video concludes with the successful color matching and continuation of the ocean-themed tattoo session.
Coral Farm Tour and Tattoo Color Correction
1:13 Initial Goal: Tyler Nolan, a tattoo artist, explains he is driving to Miami to visit coral distributor Anthony to finalize the colors for a memorial tattoo of a specific piece of coral, whose appearance changes drastically under different light spectrums.
3:33 Facility Scale: Anthony’s facility is a massive 4,000 square feet and holds 13,000 gallons of saltwater, functioning as a primary distributor for stores throughout the US and internationally (exporting to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Poland).
4:31 The Memorial Tattoo: The tattoo features a rockflower anemone that Anthony’s late friend, Travis (a diver), collected five years prior. Tyler needed to see the real coral to finalize the colors, confirming the colors needed were primarily blue and orange/red, not green.
6:05 Color Correction Filter: Tyler uses an orange filter provided by Anthony on his camera to negate the intense blue actinic lighting in the facility, allowing the camera to capture the true, vibrant fluorescent colors of the coral.
9:44 Tank Capacity: The facility utilizes massive, vertically stacked holding tanks, with the largest measuring 8 feet by 4 feet and holding 320 gallons.
12:48 Estimated Value: Due to the high density of valuable specimens, Tyler and Anthony estimate that one single 320-gallon bin of "Donut" (Scolymia/Skullie) corals alone could be worth up to $50,000 retail.
14:19 Coral Feeding Demonstration: Anthony demonstrates the feeding process using fish food, showing how the "Donut" corals extend their tentacles (feeding arms) to grab and slowly move the food into their central mouths.
19:40 Coral Safety Warning: While discussing Zoanthids, Tyler warns viewers about the toxins some corals possess; polyps juice can cause severe rashes or poisoning, requiring medical attention.
22:03 Total Facility Value: Tyler estimates the entire inventory of coral in the facility could easily exceed one million dollars.
23:43 Tattoo Completion: Tyler successfully mixes and applies the correct blue and neon green colors for the rockflower anemone tattoo, confirming the necessity of visiting the coral in person to achieve color accuracy.
25:51 Future Tattoo Plans: Anthony plans to continue the ocean theme on his leg, potentially adding a silhouette of his late friend Omar (the anemone diver) on their first dive together.
26:50 Key Takeaway: The coral hobby is highly addictive due to the huge variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, which are maximized under specialized blue lighting.