“It’s like the Apple store in here,” Miley Cyrus said Saturday night, when she showed up with a friend to have her mother’s signature inked on her arm and then decided to get a second tattoo on her ankle: slang for part of the female genitalia.

For four hours, I was at the next station over, getting a bird tattooed on my arm, at a price that exceeded my last paycheck. (The New York Times does not take freebies.)

The fancy digs, celebrity adherents and notorious waits for appointments have earned Mr. McCurdy a fair amount of ire in the industry. “I’m public enemy No. 1,” he said.

Really?

Getting Into the Skin Game

In a movie about his life, Mr. McCurdy, 32, might be played by Seth Rogen: also a bearish guy who is both delightful and aggressive, nerdy and cool, stoner-ish and Type A — an empath who loves a brawl.

Although Mr. McCurdy has made millions of dollars with his craft, he has no interest in fancy watches, art or real estate. Instead, he sermonizes about simple pleasures like Popsicles and amusement parks, particularly Disney World, which he visits multiple times a year with his employees and sees as a metaphor for what America (and his business) should be: futuristic, easy, open to all races, ages and religions.

“They’re the best people in the world at tricking your eye,” Mr. McCurdy said of Disney, sitting in the lounge on Grand Street, wearing Y3 sweat shorts and a black $10 Goonies T-shirt from Target.