We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aaron Moonan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Aaron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?
No, I don’t really take a real vacation. I travel for work constantly so I kind of kill two birds with one stone. It allows me to travel for longer periods of time so I’m able to really experience the place that I’m going to as well as create profit for myself. My advice to any entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away for a short while would to be to find a way to do both simultaneously. I know it sounds intimidating Or near impossible, but it’s totally worth trying to figure out the logistics to make that happen if getting away is something that you’re struggling with. With my business specifically constantly traveling creates a demand for my product in various cities, so I’m able to keep the hype which allows me to keep traveling and exploring.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Aaron Moonan. I’m 28 years old, from New York. I’ve been a tattoo artist for six years and I own my own private studio with two partners In Huntington, New York, it’s called Black Book Tattoo. I also work at EverBlackTattooStudio & various prestigious tattoo shops throughout the nation for traveling for work. I got into my industry back in 2018 by being hard-working and very persistent and dedicated to the craft. I was searching for an apprenticeship basically since I was 14 years old, couldn’t find one until 2018. It was more difficult to find an apprenticeship back then so I’m very grateful that I found mine. I provide elaborate, custom, black and gray, and or color, tattoos for my clientele, usually in the dark surrealism style. I also do many other styles of tattooing. The kind of problems that I solve from my clients are when they can’t really make a decision on what they want or where they want it. If they have a specific theme that they want, but don’t necessarily know what to choose, I kinda lay out the land for them and show them what their options are and also tell them where specific pieces might look best on the body because all these details matter. I think what sets me apart from others is my attention to detail and my original creativity because I like to draw on most of my tattoos with sharpie markers also being able to be very thorough with each client. I’m also proud of the fact that I have accomplished the ability to travel around the nation and have people want to get tattooed by me. I think that’s amazing. I used to just want to do tattoos in my local hometown and that filled my cup and now my cups way bigger, so I’m definitely proud of that.
I’d like potential clientele to know that if they’re Looking for an artist that cares and loves to work with others to collaborate and bring their body art dreams to reality, Then I’m their guy! I also like to bring peoples nightmares to life too ha ha
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I’ve know my business partner, basically my entire life. We were childhood friends. We grew up together. We did everything together even tattooing was a shared passion of both of ours and creating art as well. We finally got into business together after both gaining our own clientele within tattooing and we put our heads together and combined forces and made Black Book Tattoo and now it is what it is. His name is Brandon Santangelo. You also Tattoos at Black Book Tattoo in Huntington New York.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
word-of-mouth has always prevailed and always been the best new source of clientele. It will always work and it will always be within your immediate community because those are people closest to you And they will be the ones wanting business from you regularly. Social media is cool, but it’s not good to completely rely on it for your small business. They did it back in the day before the Internet, and we can still do it now. Social media makes it a lot easier, but practicing old ways will make you a stronger business owner in my opinion. Go to your local bar and talk to the people go to your local restaurants and make conversation with the waitress or waiter. That’s the best way.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/Aaronmtattoos
