We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Craig Necker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Craig, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

In 2009 my then wife abandoned myself and our 1 year old daughter. I was a telecommunications engineer managing projects for Verizon in the state of Delaware. We were by ourselves so I decided to move back home to Nebraska so that family could help with my daughter Raylyn. I accepted an engineering position for a firm in Omaha. They offered me a local position but wanted to use me first to get a project running in Nevada. I let my daughter go to her birthmothers while I worked in Nevada (it was only supposed to be 1 month) After 3 months I spoke to the owner and he informed me that they hired someone else for the local position back in Nebraska. I wasn’t about to lose custody of my daughter so I put in my notice, and drove back home and got my daughter back. I took on a local factory job only making $12 hr and wasn’t getting child support so after a few months I was struggling to stay afloat. I decided to start tattooing to supplement my income. I practiced in my garage working on friends. Within the first month I obtained my license and was busy enough to quit the factory job. I saved some money and got a small loan from a close friend and opened my first shop, Under Your Skin Tattoos; in Central City, Ne. My business took off, I started going to seminars to learn techniques from some of our countries best and well known tattoo artist. I operated my second shop in a small town of 400 people in Palmer, Ne. Customers from all over the state traveled to get work done for the 4 years I was there. Business was a success but I wanted more. I wanted to grow, I wanted to evolve and I wanted to surround myself with other talented artist. Now 14 yrs later after starting my business I have moved my business to Green Cove Springs, Florida. My schedule remains busy and I have a full shop consisting of 5 other artist, one apprentice and a body piercer.. I’m now a single father with my daughter Raylyn (now 17) and my 11 yr old son Ziggy. I’m constantly busy managing my work, my shop, my house and family. God has blessed me and my family and I honestly couldn’t ask for a better crew at my shop

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.

I explained earlier how I took the risk in starting into my industry so I’ll elaborate more into what it took and what I do to succeed. Working for yourself takes discipline, lots of it. You are your own boss and to be successful you have to be a boss you don’t always like. I work all the time, it doesn’t stop when I leave the shop. I’m constantly communicating with clients, working on scheduling, drawing designs and advertising/ posting work on social media. You work when you don’t feel well, you work when you go through problems, you can’t take breaks. There’s no paid vacations or medical so everything and everyone in my life relies on me.
I’m constantly seeking to evolve my craft. I never want to settle and I never want to reach a plateau. With the other artist in my shop we share our skill sets, techniques and ideas with each other everyday. I strive to be versatile, providing all different styles for my clients. I specialize in black and grey/ color realism, watercolor and fine line tattooing. I help my clients throughout the entire process from conception to completion. I think what sets me apart from others is my persistence to provide quality work combined with excellent customer service. I treat my clients as I would want to be treated. I also attend church, praying and praising God for all that He’s blessed with. My clients know I care not only about my work but also about them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

This will cover not only pivoting but also resilience. I decided to move my business from Nebraska to Florida during the end of Covid in 2020. To decision was to close shop, move and reopen the shop in Florida leaving all my previous clientele behind. To do this I advertised my business on social media platforms months in advance, targeting the surrounding areas of which I was moving to. I did this to attract followers and start building clientele before I even moved. I then wanted to work at an existing shop when I got to Florida so that I could continue building clientele and research the area I wanted to reopen my shop at. I flew to Florida and met a few different shop owners and built relationships with them prior to moving. My family moved to Green Cove Springs in Nov, 2020. I started working within the first month at a shop in Orange Park, Fl. I worked in Orange Park for a couple months then started working for a shop in Jacksonville Beach expanding my clientele. I reopened my shop 9 months after relocating to Florida in Orange Park. Before I was able to open my shop, my wife of 9 yrs at the time, left without notice, moving the kids and everything out of the house while I was gone for the day. I came home to an empty house. My world was shattered, again with no family or friends around to help. I had only the fight to succeed, make my business succeed and get my children back. I had to balance work between dealing with divorce, my wifes shenanigans, lawyers and my children. There were many hard days, as focusing on work was difficult while dealing with all the emotions and stress. I was transparent and honest throughout the process with all my clients. I persevered and after a few months I had 4 great artist in my shop and got awarded my children full time. In the early part of 2023 our shop was awarded best tattoo shop in Best of Clay. This was huge since the shop was just a little over a year old in Florida. Shortly after in June, 2023 I decided to move my business to it’s permanent location in downtown Green Cove Springs on their historic Walnut Street across from city hall. We are the first tattoo shop within the city limits. I chose this location because there wasn’t a flooded market there and the area was expanding with dozens of new developments, with thousands of new homes being built. An expressway is also in progress of being completed a couple miles away and I wanted to get established there and plant our roots for the populations to come.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Building my clientele and my reputation go together. Both are built by how I communicate and treat my clients. Like I said before, I treat my clients the way I would like to be treated. Communication, respect, understanding, patience, transparency and humility. A lot of those traits are hard to come by in todays world, especially in the tattoo industry; so clients really appreciate it. Facebook and instagram do great for marketing but the best strategy for building clientele is treating your clients well and giving them quality work. Your clients are the best advertising available, and its free. Your quality work on their bodies with their positive word of mouth testimonies are the best and most effective way of growing clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.underyourskintattoo.com
• Instagram: @underyourskintattoos
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnderYourSkinTattoo