I really had a hard time trying to buy these brushes locally. The pipe shop I had always gotten them at, no longer carries them. I had to travel to the other end of the city to find them. If I remember correctly, they sold for over $7. I then tried the Gum brand of go-betweens for cleaning between your teeth. I got these at Walgreens, $4.50 for a package of 8. These are really too small to clean an airbrush gun efficiently. Keep your airbrush gun clean and looking like new with a thorough cleaning using our new cleaning brushes. I really don’t think you can beat the price either.

Now your airbrush gun will no longer be embarrassed by unsightly ink build up. It will proudly hold its trigger high and show itself off with its new clean appearance and will thank you with outstanding performance.

Happy TATing!

Bonnie

Happiness turned to disappointment when they arrived at the speed way. The prime location had already been assigned to Big Bill’s Airbrush Tats. Cindy said Big Bill’s operation looked so professional and intimidating. Big Bill had a 10 x 20 space, all his staff was dressed alike with polo shirts embroidered with Big Bill’s Tats. They were already open and ready for business. Cindy looked at Dave and said “Let’s go home. “ Dave replied “We are here, let’s set up and make the best of it.”

The crowd was a fair size but not really big enough to support two separate tat artist locations. Cindy reported the morning sales were slow. Then before the big race in the afternoon, Big Bill announced over the speaker system for the next half hour they would be spraying tats for free. The mob descended on Big Bill’s booth. Being a professional, Big Bill drew the line as to where the cut off for free tats would be and told the people behind the line that they would have to pay for their tat. Not wanting to miss out on the big race and expecting to get a tat, the overflow crowd worked their way down to Cindy and Dave’s booth. They wanted to know if they were giving free tats. “No we are not” Replied Dave. To most of the people it did not matter if they had to pay for their tats. Now Cindy and Dave had a line of paying customers.

At the end of the day, after deducting all expenses, Cindy and Dave went home with over $600 in profit. They were happy they decided to stick it out and do the show despite Cindy’s initial instinct. As Cindy said “Some people work all week and don’t take home that much money.”

I guess the moral of the story is that the circumstances are not what determine your success or failure; it has more to do with your attitude. Cindy and Dave could have thrown in the towel and quit, or even quit before they ever started, but they decided to put a smile on their face and go for it. In the end they were rewarded for their effort. Who knows what Big Bill did for the day but it does not really matter because Cindy and Dave were happy with their results.

I received two tats in one day. They were done by the same person, with the same equipment, on the same place on my body (opposite sides), and with the same ink. Here are the pictures of the newly-finished tats:

For the next week, I maintained a regular schedule. I got normal amounts of sleep, exercised regularly, and showered nearly every day.

However, I did not treat these two tats the same. I sleep on my right side (the side with the sun), so I chose the butterfly to take proper care of. With the butterfly, I patted it with the washcloth in the shower, patted it dry with the towel, put baby powder on it afterward, and made a special effort to not drag my clothing over it when I dressed.

The sun was not so lucky. I dragged washcloths and towels and clothing over it, and I slept on it for 8 hours a night. One week later, these are the results:

Clearly, the sun is not doing so well. My conclusion? Not taking care of your tat does affect it. And consciously taking care of it has positive repercussions. Obviously, they both are much lighter than they were a week prior, but after being battered with daily exercise and showers, we cannot expect much better.

This is my testimonial to proper airbrush tattoo care. Do not rub it, do not scrub it, keep it dry, and you should have a long-lasting tat.

With this post each week we would like to highlight one of our outstanding Tat customers, and any interesting stories they might have. We would like to feature maybe a favorite picture of your work, any creative techniques you might have, or even how you got into the business.

If this sounds interesting to you please e-mail Ellyn@TatStore.com, or respond to this post and I will get a hold of you. I am confident that this piece will be very interesting, and also a great way for our customers to get to know each other in a bit of a different way than the forum. All TAT artists will be considered. I hope that we have our first one this week, but it may take until next week to put it all together.

Once again, make sure to e-mail if you are interested, and we’ll go from there.

Here are some health related items I have learned that could be related to the tat business:

1. The largest organ of your body is your skin.
2. Never apply anything to your skin that you could not eat.
3. Just because you can purchase something over the counter at a grocery or drug store does not mean it is safe. Google “dangerous cosmetics list” and check it out.

I guess my point is; everything seems to boil down to choices. You probably will not experience any ill effects if you get a tat that is applied with alcohol based ink, you probably won’t experience any ill effects if you use a chemical based cleaner to clean your floor once or twice. But who knows what the cumulative effects will be to you over time with repeated exposure to these products. Getting a tat is one thing but what about you, the person who is applying tats repeatedly? When it comes to our health, people today are getting more sophisticated, thank Heaven! We are demanding safe “green” products to clean our homes. Even our local, small town, health food store now has a cosmetic counter. I do not know what the real cause of my Cancer was, but I do know my reaction to hearing the news in my doctor’s office. My first reaction was panic stricken fear; the next was how could I have prevented this? If, at that moment I could have gone back in time and changed all the dangerous behaviors that I thought, for one moment had contributed to my Cancer, I would have done it in a heart beat.

This brings me back to the Duratat ink. Duratat ink is safe, non toxic. It is water based ink and has all FDA approved ingredients. Although we do not recommend it, you could drink a bottle and not be harmed by doing so.

So in conclusion, be smart, be safe and start to take good care of yourself. Keep making small healthy changes in your life and eventually they will add up to big, life changing events. Your body will thank you with good health.

I am not asking you to switch to Duratat ink, but I do recommend it and I am pleased to be associated with a company that offers this awesome alternative to alcohol based ink.

Stay healthy!

Bonnie

PS. I must say, the new black Duratat ink we got in from the lab is a luxurious, deep, rich, black, the best I have ever seen! Awesome!

We have a lot of customers who are interested in the Swarovski crystal Bling Your Thing Kits. These are the kits that contain a jar of crystals, glue, bees wax, toothpicks and instructions. The crystals in this kit do not have any adhesive on them and are designed to embellish items, such as cell phones, pens, etc. One question customers all seem to ask is weather these crystals can be applied to the body. The answer is yes they can. You can apply the crystals to the body by using eyelash adhesive. The glue that comes in the kit should not be used on the skin. Eyelash adhesive can be purchased at any cosmetic counter.

This is causing quite a stir as tattoos are still largely associated with less than savory figures (which as you all know unfortunately spills over to our products). In fact, the Chicago Tribune reports it as the third top google search trend last week. I just wanted you to know, so that you can use this information. Its really a nice way to illustrate the demand potential for temporary tattoos, and the best temporary tattoo there is, temporary airbrush tattoos. Also, it shows a highly paid marketing giant feels that the time is right for tats to go mainstream.

• Toys’R'Us – Barbie Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Doll
• LA Times – At 50 years old, Barbie gets tattoos — and a Megastore in China
• Entertainment Weekly – Tat’s all, folks: A&E, Mattel get inked
• Yahoo! Buzz – Tattooed Barbie Rocks the Web

We have had all of our employees sign our Affidavit, stating that they will not place a tat in an improper place on the body. Failing to follow these guidelines could result in prosecution. As a guide line, a tat can be placed on any area of the body where the customer could walk around the mall with the tat exposed.

We have made copies of the care instruction sheet provided in the marketing portfolio. On the reverse side of the care instruction sheet we have added our business name, phone number and in bold, black letters we state “We Do Parties“.

We placed a sign on our kiosk stating “If you do not get a receipt, your tat is free”.

We have $100 in our cash register for a start drawer.

We have placed an “evidence book” at our kiosk with pictures of some of the tats we have sprayed on other customers. If you don’t have any pictures for this book you will want to have a camera at your kiosk to take pictures of your customers’ tats. Always ask the customers’ permission before you take their picture. The evidence book gives people waiting at your kiosk something to look through while they wait.

We are now open for business. It’s a little slow at the mall but people are beginning to wander about. To get things started we ask the worker at the next kiosk if they would like a free tat. They jump at the opportunity. We begin spraying and now we have a show going, people are coming over to watch and ask questions. We are in business!

Since we have hired outgoing people they are interacting with the people who are getting a tat and people waiting in line. They point to the framed tats with crystal accents and ask if they would like to add any extra crystals for $1 per crystal. After spraying the tat, the money is collected and the customer is given a copy of the care instructions.

We keep our kiosk neat and clean. We clean each stencil before we place it back in the file. The waste basket is emptied when the maintenance person comes by to empty the trash. If it gets full before that time, we simply empty it in the trash container placed in the mall. When business slows down a little, we check the appearance of the kiosk and make sure it looks clean and appealing. To get business to pick up again, we announce a mini special to the people who are “just looking”: $3 off the next tat, $2 off the following tat and $1 off the third tat.

To close the kiosk at the end of the day we will need to run an X tape from the cash register. Most malls require a Z tape once a week but an X tape will give us our daily cash total. We always keep $100 cash in the drawer as a start for the next day. All money over $100 is counted and given to the kiosk manager. We check to see that the actual cash total agrees with the total number on the X tape for that day. We lock and cover the cash register, take all the items sitting on the counter of the kiosk and lock them up in one of the drawers.

All equipment is cleaned, shut off and placed in a locked drawer. Here is where the Power Palette is an advantage. We simply run alcohol or cleaner through the airbrush gun and turn the dial to the dead spot and we are done. When Andria first started out with our kiosk at the mall we had a seven gun system and the workers always had to start to clean up one hour before closing time in order to be out on time. That is one hour of lost revenue. But that’s another story…..

Turn off the lights and we’re done for the day.

I was watching the reality show True Beauty a couple of weeks ago. I know it’s sad but what can I say, I got hooked. In the segment the contestants were divided into groups of three “beauties” per group. They had to prepare for a fashion show and were required to go out and purchase the clothes and shoes that they would be modeling on the run way. The catch was that each group would only be given $100 to buy three outfits and they had to restrict their shopping to exclusive Melrose Ave. This task would be next to impossible even if they were shopping at Goodwill.

Of course they let us watch each group’s brain storming session and the one group that stood out came up with the ingenious plan of simply finding a store that would loan them the outfits. Oh sure, like that pie in the sky idea is going to work. But it did work! They got everything they needed to look positively outstanding on the runway, free of any charge.

The point is – THINK BIG and don’t be afraid to ask for the moon and the stars.

Let’s now move on to setting up the kiosk.

I think a picture is worth a thousand words. Check out our entire picture display of carts in malls. Go to the home page and click on “information”, then click on “carts in malls“. I have chosen this one because I think simplicity is best. On this cart we covered the posts with black felt and wrapped them with chicken wire. All the posters are hanging from the center of the cart. This leaves the surface of the cart available for any additional signage or other merchandise you may want to add to your cart. I would caution you to keep your focus on tats, anything else you are selling can be a distraction for the customer and they may walk away from your cart without having purchased anything. The cash register fits nicely on the end of the cart, leaving the sides open for clear viewing of the posters. The work area for applying tats is at the end of the cart by the cash register. You will not want to be too far away from the cash. You never know what can happen when you are swamped with customers and everyone is milling around your cart. Expect the best but prepare for the worst. Purchase some nice looking, unbreakable containers for your cotton balls, make-up squares, powder, Q-tips and alcohol. These containers will sit out near your work area.

A nice way to display additional tat designs, for example, the children’s stencil designs, would be to spray several designs on a piece of heavy weight 8½” x 11″ paper and place the paper in a simple, inexpensive black picture frame with no glass. Place the framed designs around your cart on the lower shelf so the kids can easily see the designs. If you do this, remember to add the stencil number and the pricing dot to the picture.

Following the same display idea as the children’s stencil display, I would also spray some tat designs and add crystals to the designs. Check out the picture! This simple idea worked so well for us at the New York Beauty Show. I hope everyone will implement it for their tat business.

Most kiosks have a few extra large drawers for storage. In ours, we put the compressor in one of the drawers and the cleaning and tat supplies in another. One item you will need to add to your supply list is light bulbs. The mall will usually supply you with your first set of light bulbs for the cart but since the lights are on all the time they do burn out fast. Lighting is very important for your cart. It helps to keep your cart bright and cherry and this attracts customers. Most of the lighting on the carts is adjustable. Adjust your lights so they are not shining directly on the posters so they won’t reflect a glare. I would also purchase a Swiffer dust wand. You will be surprised how dusty your cart will get.

With the simple cart set up that we used, we did not need to purchase a tarp to put around the cart and lock it up at night. When we closed up the cart, all we needed to do was close out the cash register, lock it, put our Power Palette in the drawer and lock it up. If you use picture frames for some of your tat displays as I suggest you may want to put those in the locked drawer also. The less work you have to do at the end of a long hard days work, the better. Keep it simple.

Next week we will look at hiring extra help.

Now we will begin asking for the sun and the moon before we sign the final contract. Let the leasing agent know that you have not yet decided if you will be going into their mall or the other mall in your city. Use the other mall as one of your negotiating tools.

Ideally, you do not want to sign a three or four month contract with the mall. Since the mall makes money by charging its customers for rent, it is in their interest to lock you in to a contract. Let them know that you really do plan on staying for three – four months but In view of the economy, the fact that this is your first time spraying tats in a mall, and you are just a small business person, you don’t know what to expect, therefore, you feel very uncomfortable committing to any long term contract. You may have to pay a little extra in rent for going month to month but I do believe it’s worth it.

You will want to negotiate on the amount you will be paying for rent. Like I said last week there may not be any wiggle room from the mall on the rent but it’s worth a try. If you cannot get them to budge on the rent, you may be able to get something else from them, like setting up one or two weeks early, rent free.

Walk the mall with the leasing agent and select your spot. Remember, the area by the food court is the best location for spraying tats. This is where you need to be. If that location is not available, your second option would be to locate close to the food court. Since this is not prime time for the mall, you have a pretty good chance of getting the location you are requesting.

Getting insurance is next on your agenda. As I said previously, check the article by Kirk on our website for agents. You can also check the Forum to see who other customers are recommending and ask the mall leasing agent for referrals. Get a few quotes and search for the best price on insurance.

If you have our Starter System, then you have the basics you will need to get started. You will have to purchase a cash register. The mall requires a cash register and will want to see proof of your weekly sales totals. Before purchasing a new cash register, check around to see if you can find a good used cash register. In addition to the cash register you will want to get a small stool for applying ankle tats. The mall usually supplies one tall stool for the cart, request two for your cart, one for you and one for the customer, at no additional cost, of course. You will also need to supply your cart with your own waste basket and hand mirrors. You already know that you will need to supply your own cotton balls, make-up squares, rubbing alcohol and powder as well as simple cleaning supplies to keep the cart looking neat and inviting.

Take a good look at the cart your mall is offering and think about how you will be setting it up. Next week I will be addressing the issue of designing your cart. See you then.

Bonnie