need advice on opening a shop

I don't do tattoo's but when I get out of the Army I would like to open a tattoo shop where other artist could work out of. I'm thinking Tx. but thats not in stone. Any advice I could get would help in the process

yeah go open up a hair salon don't try to live our lifestyle.

You live yours I'll live mine, I just want advice

how about not opening a shop. especially if youre not a tattoo artist. theres way to many shops and way to many people trying to make a living off of the "coolness" of tattooing. no talented artist will respect working for someone that just wants to be a shop owner. i know this from working for about 15 different shop owners and the one i least liked didnt know shit about tattooing besides the fact he thought it was a quick cool way to make money. plus why would anyone want to work for someone that has done nothing for tattooing? theres plenty of talented artists and shops that have long paved the road thru hard work and determination that people would rather work for instead of some guy just trying to live his cool dream. talk to cary hart maybe you could buy into his franchise and then be a cool guy on tv and water this trade down a little more with money sucking grubs.

amen, to the above post...

ok I understand your point but let me break this down for you. I don't give a damn about any so called "coolness." My wife and I are very much into tattoos. I would like to give something back to the tattoo indristry. Perhaps a little less taboo so artists can actually make a decent living through it. And of course continue to rid the world of scratchers

wow that was the most amazing statement ever posted. by all means go for it dude! you and your girlfriend are really into tattoos. so our all of our customers that spend hours and lots of money getting sleeves and backpieces. maybe they should open shops also cause theyre so into tattoos as well. also all these artist that need to make a decent living will surely need your help to make it since weve all been struggling without you and your girlfriend. if you want to give something back to tattooing stay in the armed forces for 20 years or so and protect us from hurting an allready flooded market by flooding it some more. also i didnt know was that the military prepared you guys to run a business.

shows what you know, but ok fine be an ass, I'll do it with out your help. I don't need advice from someone who is only stuggling anyway. And for gods sake stop crying a bout it

Look G.I. Joe, any good artist will not want to work for a buisness man. Go ahead and open it. At first you will get a desent artist but than when he realizes you are about a quick buck he'll leave and you will have a revolving door of artist. You ever thought of a gay bar? because you sound gay!

I would first like to thank all the cool ass people who have e-mailed me and given me great advice and even better oportunities to open a shop. To the rock stars here yeah, you are your own problem. Best of luck to all of you but I think your going to need more than luck

Hey I Mortal, welcome to the forums. I am not a tattoo artist, but do work with them everyday and have been making a living (after years of putting in sweat equity) in the tattoo industry for years. First up, I apologize for the responses that are not helpful at all, I would hope that the people on this board would be more professional. Even though its a bit tedious answering the same questions every day, I would expect professionals in the industry refrain from just insulting people who have sworn to protect our country and have placed their lives in danger without offering real advice that will help them understand whats going on. Its a wonder that a staunch anti-war left wing liberal hippi who wholeheartedly believes the administration has broken the sacred trust the military places in it like myself is a bit offended by the way some folks have responded to you. Alas, your a big boy and can take anything anyone throws atcha without my help. Everyone in the tattoo industry has to teach folks who want in about the difficulties and the art of tattooing many times everyday, so people tend to be curt and anonymous in their answers. I guess they forget sometimes that one of the core principals of this industry is respect, respect for EVERYONE, even those asking offending questions (or getting stupid tattoos). Unfortunately this name calling accomplishes nothing, you get frustrated because you dont know why people are hating on you, indeed you get fired up to do it in spite of the closing doors, and I have people calling our soldiers gay on my message-board. Not that thats a real insult anymore (its 2005...?) but its definitely not what I like to read when I get up in the morning. Ok, there are lots of reasons that you should not open a tattoo studio. I assume you have been immersed in the culture and this isnt the first time you've encountered resistance, though, I dont know much about your background. What is your background in the tattoo industry? Here are my thoughts. There are two forces at work here, the Business of Tattooing, and the Art of Tattooing. Tattooing is unique, and rewards respect, patience, learning, and talent generously. On the flip side, it is also very crass and it is simple and easy to make mistakes in tattooing. It is extremely difficult to fix mistakes in tattooing. From a strictly business point of view the "sales cycle" of tattooing is very small, and tattoo artists are blessed to be in a situtation where they can learn to handle all their own business from start to finish. Most tattoo artists can learn the basics of business and keep themselves building a cliental with enough energy, focus, and talent. They tattoo their friends, their freinds come back with their friends, and sooner or later the artist builds a clientel and their clients will follow them from studio to studio (wow, I oversimplified that a tremendous amount, but the trials and hard work it takes to be a professional tattoo artist are a whole different conversation). Because we are not artists ourselves, and we are working for/with tattoo artists, we can assume we want to work with the best we can. The "leverage" in a "true" tattoo studio is never with the owner, it is with the artists that work there. Talented hard working tattoo artists dont *really* need me or you. If we want to make a living from this industry, we really need to work hard and smart to offer something that tattoo artists cant get do themselves or get from the zillions of people who will do it for free. Simply finding a good location and opening a studio because you love tattoos and have the investment money is not enough, what you have is easily replaceable by the very artists you hope to hire. If you look around and listen a lot, many many studios are always looking for good quality artists. Finding someone to hack out names and tribal is not that hard, but finding a really creative good talented drama and drug free tattoo artist is extremely difficult. No one wants or needs another studio that produces mediocre work, and if you do then prepare for a lot of flack from those that do care about quality. What tattoo artists are you hiring for this studio? How do you hope to attract top talent? Now, many artists, especially young ones that are starting out, dont really understand the balance of business (thanks to our crappy education system) and often find themselves working for people who understand business more than tattooing. There are many tattoo studio owners that basically use tattoo artists until the artists learn they have the power and the studio owner isnt doing them a thing except renting out a good spot. The tattoo artist then moves onto a different studio or two or more and eventually ends up at a place where tattooing is respected more than (or as much as) business, and this happens in tattoo artist owned studios with far more frequency. Tattoo artists often know and can fill the needs of other artists more than non-tattoo artists can. Of course there are crappy tattoo artist owners too, but odds say if your a tattoo artist, you want to work in an operator owned studio. Indeed, when we are talking about the permanence of tattooing, the barriers to entry should be high, very high. Not everyone loves and knows tattoos and knows and loves business enough to deserve to own their own tattoo studio. Why do you think you do? While you may have a "right" to do anything and open any business you want(what a great country!), the "art of tattooing" is completely unique and has its own "rules". You are permanently changing peoples skins for the rest of their lives, and everything about tattooing is about patience to learn to do things right the first time. Again, mistakes are easily made, and extremely difficult to fix. As a business owner you will be responsible for marking many many people, changing their lives and appearances every day, and you owe it to the public to only produce *excellent* tattoos from your studio. As a non-tattoo artist business owner, you better have something really really attractive to offer these fantastic tattoo artists, because as we know, really talented tattoo artists can pretty much go wherever they want. Before opening a studio you have better spent years hanging out in studios helping customers get great tattoos and making the life of tattoo artists easier/better. There is a lot to learn if you are asking questions about opening a studio on a forum like this, so much in fact that that if you stick with this for another 10 years you will be very embarrassed you even asked. Building up bad karma is something really easy to do if you are reckless with the responsibility of tattooing people. Given the questions you are asking you are headed down the wrong path. It sounds like your still early in the game, though, listen up and learn quick. Answer this, why does the art of tattooing need you to open a studio? For me, the questions about opening more studios and flooding the market are more about quality than about competition. Good competition is beneficial for everyone, pushes everyone to do better and in tattooing, you always need to strive for perfection. The more *talented* folks who learn to tattoo the better, the world needs more *good* tattoo artists to push out the bad ones. What it DOESNT need, and indeed is more harmful, is more mediocre and bad tattoo artists hacking on the publics skin. Unfortunately the general population is so uneducated about how to get good tattoos, that often personable mediocre tattoo artists with good business skills can overrun good artists with bad business skills, hence the resentment. Thats a bad thing for the art of tattooing. And there are a *lot* of bad tattoo artists out there thesedays... My clients run the gamut, and it amazes me watching different artists of different skill levels (art and business) run around the industry. Just because someone is struggling, doesnt mean they deserve to tattoo any more or less. It generally means they need to tighten up their business savy and/or move. (and practice more, of course). I have never seen a talented artist who wants it not get it, though. The real trick is learning the right way without hacking on friends and family. The above posts may have been anonymous, so its easy to discount their advice, but you can cut to the chase and talk to the players at the top and you will get the same answers. Search this boards archives and you will see thoughtful answers from some of the nations top talent. It probably cant hurt to read the board for hours, there are some great posters here. At the end of the day, unless you really know your shit and have lots of experience in the industry you have no right opening a tattoo studio. Likewise, just because I love my dental fillings and teeth cleanings doesnt mean I should be opening a dentists office. Because you dont tattoo, you will have to work triple, nah quadruple, no, quintuple time to offer tattoo artists and clients something that they cant get from someone somewhere else. So, what is your experience in the tattoo industry? good luck, and thanks for your service, gabe http://www.TattooNOW.com

Hey man thats opening a new shop is a great idea and i am also thinkin bout doing some marketing and publication work down here, so email me back and well talk...texas is a great place to do it at logan

Logan, make sure whomever you go into business with opening a tattoo studio has *tons* of experiance in the industry if they arnt an artist. Good to see ya on the boards!

WOW MAN PEOPLE HERE ARE VERY CRUDE. My man my hat off to you, First of all Thank you for keeping our country safe and I really want to tell you that even as I hate the way these profesional tattoo artist spoke to you I hate to tell you my friend that some tattoo artist will have a problem working for a person that does not work in the industry him self, You may find a good artist or may be fooled by a scratcher that downloaded a lot of photos from the inter net and claims them as his own and when you see his product being produce the work don't match. But also you may find a person that is willing to work with you and then when he notice that you are only the owner and not pushing ink he may leave you and you may find your self taking about just any person in orderto protect your investment like my good FRIEND GABE says please make sure you find a good artist that is willing to work with you and to stay with you and Hey Why not learn the trade be a owner and an aprentice too even do I know that by telling you this I know a lot of people will talk crap but hey if you are really serious about opening a shop there is nobody that is going to stop you but yourself now learn the trade be serious learn it with pride, honor respect it remember not to put ink on human skin unless your Master or your tattoo artist that is taking you under his wings gives you the ok please PLEASE DON'T RUSH TO PUT INK ON A PERSON UNLESS YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE LEARN WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR. Hey Texas sounds good too there are a lot of Artist victims off Katrina out of work you can really help them you came in a very good time if I can help you I will in anyway I have been in the business for 22 years and I worked for a lot of people and the one I really did't not like working was the one that did not know nothing about the industry he tried to slave drive me and I picked up my stuffs and walk away from him he tried to over prize the customers and sometimes he wanted to under prize customers and when I try to explain to him about what he was doing wrong he told me that it was his shop and if I didn't like it I knew what to do with my self and I did. Few month later he needed some artists and ended up with a person that did not know how to properly sterilize the equipments and ended up losing more that he put in there was not one person in the world that did not want to work for him so please make sure that you always be in control of your business but make sure that you also listen to the people that mean the best for you protect your money and make sure you get the best artist you can get and one that is willing to help you help others.Take care and God bless you.

To have an artist work with me in all aspects of the trade would be my ideal goal. I want an artist that has a win/win working relationship with me. Kind of a you scratch mine I scratch yours. Thats realy not the right words to use I know but you get what I mean. For me to own a shop and if they choose to have one or more of the artist show me and take me under thier wing to teach me what it REALY takes to be a respectable owner/someday artist is my ultimate goal.

Hi there I am not a tattoo artist or a business owner of a shop but I am the one who gets tattoos. And the place i go the owener and his crew know the ropes from top to bottom. Everyone one needs to learn the trade......from desk bitch to artist. And about the person who said you were gay is out of line i mean for god sake it the internt you could be count dracula for all we know. But if you are in the services I thank you for my freedom.

Hey gabe, wow that was a great reply ,i am a shop owner and artist, and you hit it rite on the head,i have owned my business for 4 years and have been tattooing for 11 years,and it is no easy task, just like tattooing i learn something new every day,having respect for the artist you work with has helped me and letting them know that they work with me and not for me.I have seen shops come and go( in mass.) in my area that have been owned by a non artist,and have spoken with a few of the artist that made the mistake of working at these shops, the owners were just out to make money,and the ones that werenot didnt and will never know enough about this industry to do it any good what so ever.I can not understand why anyone would want to open a shop not being an artist, unless you are tattooing you could never understand everything that artist put into there tattoos, most of us we put our lives into this industry 24 hours a day 7 days a week and it still doesnt seem like enough time.I have nothing but respect for any one in the service, but i would suggest putting your time and money into another business, not one you could not put 150% into.I hope you posted on this forum to take in some of what is being said here, i know some of the post on here are not what you wanted to here but every artist is saying the same thing to you ,some in not such a polite manner, but all the same, you will not be respected opening up a shop not being an artist. thanks steve...