We were lucky to catch up with Alyssa Rios recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alyssa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

“Tentacle Ink Co” was a name that made sense to what I do, correlated to what my company does. What does an Octopus provide in an instinctual manner? “Ink.” To protect itself and its way out.

However, it corresponded with what we do at T.I.C. We go beyond just murals, freelance design, we also give people the chance to create their next permanent piece on their skin, we bring a vision to life with care and boldness.

Tentacle ink co was also a correlation with my other company “Balancedoceans” which is still up and running to this day.

Alyssa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Well, to my new friends, I am 24 going to 25. Managing 2 businesses that have no correlation besides the name.

1. Tentacle ink co is a place for the artistic expression, freelance work and tattoos that’s been my work for years, and it continues to grow as we get clients!
2. Balancedoceans is a contracting company for your demolition needs, your home renovation, welding services and yard services,

Crazy, isn’t it.

Coming from both separate fields is such an adventure, these two companies came about just from experience and where I came from in general. Coming from a family from my father’s side who’s always work their butts off in the sun to my mother’s family coming from just a creative area.

I expect to get more clients of course! Expand, I believe that we’re different in the sense that we can provide more than just a mural, more than just cutting your grass, we’ve managed to lead with being able to make the best out of what we’ve been taught to give our customers a chance to allow us to give them a hand wether it’s to change the color of your bedroom to having to make you a homemade grill for your next cook out!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

A good source.. I would say asking. Approaching. My previous job with Tentacle Ink Co was a mural for a barbershop here in Houston.

I was a customer for quite a while before I moved away from the area itself, I saw a blank area in the shop and I took a few haircuts to gather my ideas to see what could be worked into with their theme..

Until one afternoon I was able to catch both owners cutting hair and I asked.. have you gotten any idea of what you’d be adding to your wall? Their answer was quite interesting, a vinyl design. Something about it didn’t sit right with me, I told them I could give them a better service with a whole lot of free expression and a lot of detail. Took them a few second but they agree, and we got to working.

So, it’s like my mom always said, just ask worst they can say is no, and it stuck with me as a person who grew up being shy, just took a lot of guts to do. However, how else can we grow?

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Man! I love when clients come to me with an idea, and won’t know what the outcome will be until they see it.

Tattoos, murals, a simple welding job..
Their expressions change from being uncertain to this unexplainable gasp and joy in their eyes.

It makes me feel like we’ve done something right.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/tentacleinkco