We were lucky to catch up with Caleb Steffes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Caleb, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

My friend Chris and I started work on opening our shop, Promised Land Tattoo, in July 2020. It took several months of work to get things ready and legally able to be open. We built out the inside of the studio, including the walls of the piercing room, and the front counter. We had to paint the entire shop and move in lots of heavy furniture. After doing all this, we still had to go through the usual red tape with the local government of getting several inspections and a couple of hearings. We officially opened for business in January 2021.

Things went very well, and over the course of a year and a few months, we hired staff and significantly grew our business. We were going to partner with a friend to open an additional location.

Unfortunately in June of 2022, the building our studio is in suffered a very large fire. Many businesses in that building were completely destroyed, and ours was very badly damaged. We lost lots of property and a significant amount of revenue. We were at a bit of a crossroads. We could give up and close the business that we had built from the ground up, or we could go 150% and rebuild it even better than before.

It took a few months to get things back on the right track, but we are set to reopen in the next few weeks in a brand-new location. The new studio will be brighter, more open, and more accessible than the previous space. Our original shop was on the second floor, so it was a bit hidden from the street. The new location is on the ground floor in a busy neighborhood with lots of foot traffic. In the coming weeks, we’ll have a new shop that will still have the upscale feel we built previously, but in a newly renovated space. In January of 2023, we’ll be celebrating the 2 year anniversary of our business!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Caleb Steffes, and I’m 35 years old. I’ve been a professional body piercer for about 15 years. I’ve been interested in piercing since a very early age and jumped at the chance to get into the industry in my early 20s. I apprenticed under a piercer in New Orleans named Kevin Coleman at a shop called Electric Ladyland.

My business partner, Chris Boyle, and I own a shop called Promised Land Tattoo and Piercing. I sell high-end precious metal and precious stone body jewelry and provide clients with a comfortable, upscale experience. I pride myself on having one of the largest selections of gold body jewelry in Saint Louis. I carry a wide range of high-end jewelry brands, including BVLA and Modern Mood. I feel that my unique aesthetic and decade and a half of experience allow me to bring a unique perspective when recommending something to a client that is truly one of a kind. I’m very proud of how much we’ve accomplished in such a short time. We went from a pretty small and barebones selection of jewelry when we initially opened, to a very impressive offering, and we will continue to expand. We want every client to know that no matter how simple of a piercing idea you might have, every piercing is very important to us. From piercing a kid’s ears for the first time to creating an elaborate ear curation, we want every experience with us to be fantastic from start to finish.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The fire that happened in June really threw us for a loop. We had been steadily growing our business and had plans to expand. The previous day when we closed the shop was just a normal Thursday, and when we got the call from our alarm company at 2 am, we thought someone was breaking in. Little did we know that the alarm was the fire department was kicking in our door. We waited several hours for them to clear our unit as safe to enter. We went in and saw that almost everything inside our beautiful studio was ruined by heat and smoke. In the next couple of days, we had to make a decision. We could rebuild, or we could give up. We decided to go even harder than before and make it even better than it was previously. There certainly have been some ups and downs since then, but we have secured a new location, and are nearly ready to reopen.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Chris started working at Iron Age with me in 2014, only a couple of months after I moved to Saint Louis. He got the job from a mutual friend of ours and really worked hard. After a while, the booth next to the piercing room became available, and Chris moved into it. We became good friends over the years of working closely together and decided a few years back that we wanted to open our own shop. Chris wanted a tattoo shop, and I wanted a piercing studio. Both of us brought something strong to the partnership that the other didn’t. It’s been a very good partnership in that respect because we each have different strengths, and are able to make a very good team.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stlpiercing.com www.promisedlandtattoo.com
• Instagram: @stlpiercing @promised.land.tattoo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PromisedLandTattoo

Image Credits
Susanna Steffes Caleb Steffes