Custom Tattooing & Fine Art

I am back to square one having only lost one calender year and on the verge of being where I should have been a year ago: working in a shop owned and operated by tattoo artists, people who understand the nature of the tattoo business. This is important to me having owned an operated a very successful business for over a decade before the bottom fell out due to the economy taking a shit. The only problem I had during that time was trying to run the shop AND focusing on the quality of the product I was executing. I juggled both for many years and had resigned myself to just doing one or the other since selling the shop, given I enjoy creating work more than overseeing it, I just wanted to work somewhere that I can focus on the work and let someone else deal with the rest of the bullshit. That's it, I don't need or want the stress that comes with owning/operating a shop, I just want to focus on my work and nothing else, I honestly believe my work can only get better if I can just focus on my product. I can still utilize all my business experience for my fine art and I have no worries about those products, it's second nature at this point.

In a way I am glad things didn't work out at my home, though I did manage to create a great deal of art with all of the down time, I have too many ideas for body art that would never come to fruition without the opportunities a shop will provide me with.

I am amazed that it's been a year now that I have been back to working back in NYC, and I don't think anyone could have imagined how that year actually turned out. Far from what I expected is the only way I would describe it, had I known how it was to be I certainly would have done things differently but who can't say that about their lives. It's been a learning experience to say the least but the bottom line is that I am still here and have taken all the lessons from the past year to heart. Either way I am grateful for the experience/s and that I have endured them, not that I would care to repeat the last year. I still have much to accomplish and have no doubt that it's only a matter of time before I will since I'm not too far off course from what I had set out to do a year ago. Currently I'm working from my home studio but the days may be numbered as I want and need a greater audience to reach to insure my success down here. As much as I would prefer to work at home just for the volume of art I have been working on to say nothing of how enjoyable I have found working without the distractions I get working in a shop, I am just not working often enough to cover my costs. I wish I was doing half as well as people think I'm doing, the reality is it's been a struggle from day one and continuing on at this pace would only serve to insure another unstable Winter - and there is no way I am willing to suffer through another one like this past one ever again.

Without a sudden influx of steady work that would help the growth of my small enterprise I am bound to find a shop where I can ply my trade on a percentage of a rate set by the house, let them set the hourly rate and prices. And once I do hang my hat at a shop that will be the only place I would tattoo, I had to rearrange my habitat to accomodate the tattooing, and am ready to put things back and sell off my excess equipment and use the room as an art studio as I originally intended and why not, it's only being used part time for tattooing, not often enough for me to continue overlook living like this in such a small space.

I am starting to look and don't know how long it may take to secure a spot in a decent shop - but for now I am here looking forward.