Often on the Tattoo Blog I try to provide some decent advice, whether it’s about getting tattoos or running your own career as a tattooist. Today after reading this article from Jacksonville, Florida, I have one strong piece of advice to give to the guys and gals out there who might be starting up their own tattoo studio: before you’ve found your location, signed the lease, bought the equipment and are ready to roll, get insured. True, insurance might be a costly venture, but so is operating a business. If you don’t have the cash to get insured, then I would strongly suggest that you wait until you do before thinking about taking the leap into the world of running your own business.
Too many times in the past I’ve seen news articles about tattoo studios that have either suffered fires, or robberies or damage of some sort, and every time that I’ve seen these incidents, the owner of the tattoo studio is never insured. That’s a pretty bitter pill to swallow, especially when you lose everything you have like Eric Curtice and his wife Shavon Ramos did.
Curtice and Ramos had opened their Jacksonville tattoo supply, Sparrow’s Ink Tattoo Supplies in September of this year. Things were going well until this past weekend, when someone backed up their van to Sparrow’s Ink and filled it with everything that Curtice and Ramos had. The end results were devastating.
‘”The value was about $20,000 worth between the jewelry, tattoo supplies and everything else that we sold,” said Eric Curtice, co-owner of Sparrow’s Ink Tattoo Supplies.
Police said the robbers took 280 tattoo ink bottles, 270 tattoo needles, 10 tattoo kids and four tattoo machines. Ramos and Curtice said with all their supplies missing, they couldn’t conduct business Monday.’
Obviously I’m not pointing my finger at Curtice and Ramos and chastising them for not having insurance in the first place. What I am saying though, is that this is precisely the sort of thing that any aspiring tattoo studio owners should very much take into account before opening up their business. Hopefully Curtice and Ramos will get at least some of their equipment back, but the chances are most likely very slim of that happening. That being said, if anyone in the Jacksonville area should see or hear anything unusual regarding tattoo equipment, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.