FEATURE ARTICLE — May 1999
ASK ZEKE
I'm looking at a couple of letters, including questions from Paul Drzemala about expanding your customer base, you know, getting more business and making more money. This is a really broad subject, and I don't think you can cover it all in just a few paragraphs. Basically, look at the examples before you—the artists in this business who seem to be busy all the time are the good artists; the guys that do the real good work. The top of the line. That's part of the secret to success. We can't all be that way. We can do real good work, real nice, real clean and real presentable. To be the one in 10,000, obviously we're not all going to make it. Only one guy will. In 100,000,000 people, only ten are going to make it. A lot of us aren't going to be there. You have to look for another angle. If your customers are happy, experienced customers when they go out the door—if you did your job right and you keep trying to improve—that is a key element. In the old days, back in the '50s, the key word was location. If somebody was on Sixth and Main Street and the bus stop was on Los Angeles and Eighth Street, you tried to get between Sixth and Eighth. Make a foot traffic line between the bus station and their shop. That was the general deal back in those days. Another thing that really happened was that a good artist was up the street, and you came into town. You've been around the block, you knew a little bit. You walk into a shop and you'd introduce yourself, "I'm Joe Blow from Kokomo. You're by yourself. You've got a lot of business. Would you like to split the place?" You'd introduce yourself, have a cup of coffee and hang out for a couple of days to see if you're on the right wavelength. Then you'd go in together. That way you could actually generate and create enough business for more than two people. That's an interesting phenomenon, but I definitely saw that happen more often than not. That's another consideration you might think of. Today it's different. There are so many different people in the business with so many different attitudes that it's tough. Also there is advertising. I never advertised very much. I didn't see anything wrong with it. It just doesn't appeal to me. Most of the time years ago—you have to remember that, when I started tattooing, names had just changed from 50˘ to $1. It had been 50˘ around Southern California for years. That's quite a while ago, and you know everything's changed a lot since then. Attitude toward the customer seems to make a difference. Obviously, the exception to that is when you're in an area where people are knocking themselves down trying to get into the shop. For example, years and years ago when I was up in Canada—I was there for a few months with Dave Shore, and they went on vacation. When I'd get to the shop in the morning, it would be just lined up with people on the sidewalk trying to get in. You didn't have time for attitudes, and you didn't have one. You were too busy working. You needed to be nice to people. You don't have to kiss their ass—I've been accused of that, although I don't think I do. Some people think it's kissing ass when you're nice to them. On the other hand, when somebody comes in who is a jerk and looking for tattoos, I talk to them. I actually had a customer come in who'd been in Philadelphia in a tattoo shop somewhere in Chinatown and asked to get some work there. Four tattoo artists were looking at some show on TV and said, "We'll be through here in 30." Four tattoo artists. It was a girl who had come in. She said, "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't get a tattoo in the place. They were all looking at the TV!"
I know you're a lot more conscientious than that. If you are having a problem with customer base, I would try to just define what it is that a lot of other tattoo shops do. Maybe you're in an area where there's not much foot traffic. Generally you need to sit down and figure out what the problem is. At the same time you've got to remember another thing too: If you have a customer base that's a permanent party, stationed there or in the neighborhood where you see the same faces all the time, you need to put up new flash, new designs. For years and years, I had customers come into my shop. I only drew my own stuff. I never ever put anything on the wall that I didn't hand-draw myself on 15 x 20, 200-Crescent illustration board. All hand watercolors; no pencils. That's another thing that'll really help you. Get that new flash in there. Today, I buy flash from all the great companies; Cherry Creek and J.D. Crowe. I think Brian Everett and Jack Rudy—when they're at the conventions—you might be lucky enough to pick up a set of their stuff, if you get there in a hurry.
If you've got a good location and you're doing good work, pushing against the best guys and adhering to real clean procedures, you should be fine. Examine yourself while you're sitting there. Don't pick up anything off the floor. All those kinds of things that some people know better about doing. If you're still not running the median or making more than everybody in the area you're in, or you're still not satisfied—you're going to have to be satisfied with it, or maybe advertise on the Internet or TV. Cable TV. Hey, Scott Jones and his brother—their shop that's up in New Hampshire, American Tattoo, was having a problem some years ago. This is a real-life thing. They spent $10,000 or $15,000 dollars advertising on cable TV in four or five different states up there, including a couple of states that were closed to tattooing—I believe Massachusetts was one, at the time. Their business improved dramatically. I mean it leaked! They even opened another shop after that. I hope this helps you. If is doesn't, hey, drop me a letter. Tell me exactly what you've found, and we'll work on it from there.
I want to take it upon myself to review a couple of neat things that I've run across in my shop over here. One is called Tattoo Tonic—"The best thing you could put on any tattoo." I had a couple of young college kids, Casey and David, came through here interested in tattoos, and I guess they got into something they feel is good aftercare. They claim the product uses no animal or petroleum products and no artificial scents. I tried it on a couple of customers. I haven't gotten a tattoo in three or four years, and I didn't feel like tattooing myself just to try this stuff out. The consensus of opinion from some of the Marines I tattooed—and they get some abuse on their tattoos when they leave here and go into the field—is good. For one thing, this product seems to stay on the skin. Keeping it in a condition they felt comfortable with. It is sort of creamy and it doesn't dry out. That's what I'm looking for. I noticed it had a distinct tea smell to it. If you've ever done any welding and have gotten one of those burns on your eyeballs, you can go and soak a tea bag in cold water for a few minutes, get horizontal and put the tea bag over your eyes. Something in the tea bag would take the burn right out of your eyes right away. All the welders know that trick. I learned from a guy named Gordy who taught me to weld, years and years ago. He was always laying around with tea bags on his eyes. Anyway, it's by Dermapure body products. Their number is (877) 69 Tonic, and ask for Casey. They were going down the coast, stopped in and left a couple of bottles for me to try. I was real happy with it. I usually use Bacitracin on my tattoos. When I'm through with them, I tell the people to use that for two or three days, very lightly. After that, I leave it up to them on what to use. I'm a great believer in aloe vera. I've used it on myself, and it works. But this stuff here is one of the better aftercare products that these kids in college have developed. Call them. Try it. See if you like it.
Now I'll tell you what really brightened me up. It's called Dispenser Three for shampoos, soaps and conditioner. It's got a little three little 16-oz top-loaded bottles and a push-button dispenser that sticks out of the cabinet. You can touch them with your little finger and get some green soap out of one side, some Betadine out of the other and alcohol or whatever the hell you want in the last one. They come in single dispenser, two-bottle or three-bottle units. It looks great and screws right on your counter. I really like it. It keeps me from putting these damn sandwich bags on everything I use all the time. That helps a whole lot.
We've gone through this thing with these people that write in that don't like the conventions. They don't like the magazine, they don't like themselves, they don't like anybody. I think I know what one of the problems is. If you look down at these guys, I'd bet they're wearing Levis, you know, the new kind of Levis with the wide cuts on the bottom. Silver Tabs or something with the zipper fly in them. I sat around and thought about what this problem might be. I think all they need to do is pull the zipper down, take off the pants and get a dime. And where the little tab is, where you pull your zipper up and down—solder a dime on that, so you have a nice finger tab pull. When you have these problems about other people that tattoo or conventions, you can get a real good grip on the zipper on your fly. Just reach in and get a hold of yourself. That's what you need to do. Get a hold of yourself!
Okay folks, see ya. Zeke.