We were lucky to catch up with Chris Gonzalez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Well life pretty much forced the idea of opening a shop on me. Although I knew that I eventually wanted to open a tattoo shop at the time I had a full time job where I worked at and was tattooing after work on week days and on weekends, Eventually it came to the point where I was losing more money being at that job instead of tattooing and I realized that it was finally time to make the move so I ended up quitting my job and started tattooing full time. At first I was a bit worried to quit the job I was working at since it was my primary source of income and how I was providing for my family but looking back now it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I feel like a lot of times we hold on to things that we feel are certain or guaranteed and a lot of times the fear of losing that prevents us from better opportunities that lie ahead but what I’ve realized over time in my life as well as in the lives of others is that these types of decisions almost always lead to bigger and better things.

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 Chris Gonzalez I’ve been an artist all of my life. I’ve been a tattoo artist for 21 years and a body piercer for the last 9 years. I’m also the owner of The Shop Tattoo Studio located in Hialeah ,FL where we do custom tattoos and body piercing for the last 7 years. I got into tattooing because I’ve always loved art and tattoos where always something I was always drawn to, doing them as well as getting tattooed. Originally it just started out as me tattooing my self and my friends for fun but eventually it evolved into people seeing my work and wanting to get tattooed by me which eventually led to me becoming a full time artist and opening my shop. I love tattooing and being able to meet people and talk to them about they’re tattoos and some of the reasons behind some of them I can say I have met some pretty cool people over the years some of whom have become good friends of mine. I also enjoy seeing peoples reactions once they have finally brought they’re ideas to life, Its a great feeling to know that people trust me enough to give them a permanent art work that they will carry forever. I think what sets me apart from other places is our attention to detail as well as trying to make unique art for our customers, hearing out they’re ideas and wants for they’re tattoos and trying to perfect those ideas and bring them to life. One of the things I am most proud of is our reputation for being clean and detail oriented we have been a 5 star google rated business over the last 7 years and I really enjoy seeing our customers positive reviews and hearing how happy they are with our work and service. It really is a good feeling to know that people care and appreciate you enough to take time out of they’re day to say a few good words about you and recommend you to they’re friends and family.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Putting the money together to open my business was pretty challenging. at first I would try and save as much money as possible but it wasn’t easy to save up between day to day bills and responsibilities, I was also a young father with 2 small children so being able to work a fulltime job , tattoo on the side, provide for my family and save money was not easy but it was possible. The first part of it came from my stepfather who gave me $5000 and told me to use that money only for my business, Even thought it wasn’t enough to actually open the business it was a start in the right direction and it was exactly what I needed because it created a spark in me and showed me that there was also someone else that believed in my vision enough to invest in me. I felt like I had an obligation to succeed I remember putting that money into a savings account and making a promise to my self to never touch that money until it was time to open my business and that was exactly what I did. I remember falling on hard times and needing that money but I never touched a dollar of it because of the promise I had made. It took me a few years from the time that he gave me the money and having my plan drawn out until I actually opened my shop. I was able to save a bit more over the years but not enough to open. I’ve always been a car guy and I had a 1996 chevy Impala ss that I pretty much rebuilt from the ground up with a friend of mine I really loved that car and told my self once it was finished I would never get rid of it … Well that didn’t happen, I was sitting one day thinking of a way to come up with a good chunk of money that wouldn’t involve me going to jail and decided to sell the impala for the remainder of the money I would need to open the shop. I posted it for sale and sold it right away and the rest is history it did take a bit of hard work and sacrifice but in the end it was all worth it.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

I think Covid was a tough time for most small business owners as for me it was pretty bad at one point the state of Florida was on full lock down. All tattoo shops , barber shops , nail salons where ordered closed by the Florida Department of Health so I wasn’t able to tattoo or come to my store for 3 months but was still obligated to pay my rent and utilities for the time that I was closed. My landlords said that they would help with rent if we where closed for 3 months or more but they never did. Thankfully once we reopened we did pretty good and went back to business as usual but there was a moment where I considered potentially having to close my business if the lockdown went on for another 3 months like they where saying could possibly happen as there was no way that I would have been able to pay 6-8 months of rent if I wasn’t able to work or make money but thankfully we where allowed to reopen after 3 months and where able to stay afloat

Contact Info:

• Website: Theshoptattoos.com
• Instagram: theshoptattoos
• Facebook: The Shop Tattoo Studio