New shop opening in my small town

[Scott R]

deb, that really blows. it's amazing. even way up there in alaska, this is happening. waaaaaay too many tattoo shops.

in oklahoma city area we have about 38 shops according to the yellow pages. In the college town of norman I live in ~90k There are 4 tattoo shops in whats considered west norman. If the customer doesnt take time to educate him or herself the potential for getting bad work is really high.

edit: after reading rest of thread I see this is common. In alot of cases people will blindly follow what someone with similar knowledge to themselves has to say on the subject.

[Deb Yarian]

So it's been 5 months since the shop opened.

The owner is an apprentice and the teacher is now incarcerated or in rehab .

So the apprentice/owner has had to go to another town to finish his apprenticeship.

Will keep you updated.

[Fancher]

Sorry to hear that Deb. I made the same choice as you...opened in Missouri in a town of 15,000. It's nice because there's no other shops but a Few have threatened to open. Sure the will fade away over time...but at what cost. It would hurt my business enough while they were open that I may not be able to pay the bills. It's a scary thought....but I'm over tattooing in city's with 60+ shops...kinda a double edged sword. Traveling is always an option..but being away from the family sucks.

[slayer9019]

I wish shitty shops would never open and we would only have the select shops. This would help cut down on bad tattoos considerably.

[Tight-Lines]

A shop opened up in a small town I was living in for a while. It happened to be inside the mall and the dude who owned it would tattoo in the window so people shopping could watch.

It was also a smoke shop/clothing store.

Oh, and had a monster drink fridge.

[Aahzz]

Oh, and had a monster drink fridge.

Yeah, because being wired on energy drinks makes it so much easier to sit still, or have a steady hand....

[David Flores]

A shop opened up in a small town I was living in for a while. It happened to be inside the mall and the dude who owned it would tattoo in the window so people shopping could watch.

It was also a smoke shop/clothing store.

Oh, and had a monster drink fridge.

There is a place called the Alley around the corner from Chicago Tattoo that reminds me of what you describe. It's not in a mall but it might as well be, think it started out as a clothing store, then started doing piercings and of course now you can get a tattoo there. There real gimmick is if you are cool you can use the entrance from the back alley hence the name, pretty sweet. I can't imagine how many people get tattooed in that place when you can throw a rock and hit one of the best shops in the country.

[Ursula]

I go to Toronto about once a month now and every time I go I see at least two new shops. 99% of them are complete shit. On my most recent trip I noticed a new one on Queen St (the main downtown street with all the 'cool' shopping places). It's a tattoo shop that also sells goth clothes and t shirts. I saw the tattooers who work there standing outside, they both had black out style coverups on large portions of their arms, def didn't make me want to get tattooed by them. Not that I'd ever go into a shop like that in the first place.

So, what ever happened to the good ole days when people like those mentioned in this thread would show up to work and find their shop had been fire bombed?

Where I live (Brighton, Ontario) there are zero tattoo shop. Not one. I haven't even heard of anyone tattooing out of their house lately. I'm thankful for it. I'd rather live someplace with no shops than 50 shit shops. The next town over (Trenton, Ontario) has two shops, one is the first place I ever got tattooed (it's called Jonzie's), more than 10 years later they still have the same awful staff, still selling tattoo set ups (everything you need 'cept talent for $500). The other shop is called "It's YOUR Body" they also offer sunless tanning and hair cuts, I'm sure you can tell by the shop name how awesome it is. They also did piercings on me when I was 15 or 16 years old without adult consent. The reason I named the shops is because I know there are people here who live in my area and I hope they can see this and know not to get tattooed there.

Anyways, Deb, I know it's shitty right now but it sounds like the new shop in your town is well on it's way to driving itself into the dirt. Hopefully your customers will have the sense to realize how great your shop is and how shitty this new one seems to be.