Mel Angst/Artisan Tattoo Gallery

A Pittsburgh-area tattoo parlor owner says she saved some money by using real money to tile her space - with 250,000 pennies.

Mel Angst was looking for an inspired way to tile the floor of the Garfield, Pa. tattoo gallery, Artisan, which she runs with her husband, tattoo artist Jason Angst.

"My floor is made out of about 250,000 pennies," Angst told ABC Pittsburgh affiliate WTAE. "Amazingly enough, it's a lot cheaper to glue money to your floor than to actually buy tile. It's about $3 a square foot."

Angst said that after she found the appropriate adhesive to affix the pennies to the floor of her shop, she then found people via Facebook to log the man hours. She bartered tiling labor for $10 off per hour on tattoo work, she told ABCNews.com.

"Some days it was just me," she said. "I think the most we ever had was 7, but on average, (we have) 3 or 4 people a day for about 10 to 16 hours a day for about three weeks straight, gluing these down … People are just shocked that we did it because it took about 300 man hours, which was crazy."

In total there will be approximately 800 square feet of Lincoln profiles.

Artisan had a gallery show last week where people could view the new floor, and Angst looks forward to next week, when it will be grouted, shined and completed. Once it is done, everyone that logged 30 hours of penny-tiling is promised a free penny tattoo from the shop.

The gallery plans to partner with Tazza D'Oro and open a coffee shop inside the space this spring.