We were lucky to catch up with Emily Penney recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emily , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I absolutely love having a studio but it’s still a little weird for me being a business owner because I never thought I would be. as far as a regular job, I don’t think I could handle it to well because I am a workaholic and I always have my hands into different crafts. I know for a fact I couldn’t handle a 9-5 just because I get up, go to work, come home, and work more. at the end of the day, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love what I do and I truly enjoy working the way I do

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

so my nickname is Tiny, I am 26 years old and I have been tattooing for almost 8 years. I run an all female tattoo studio in the downtown area of Lyman SC called Sacred Magnolia Tattoo. My studio has been open since September of 2021, I was just turning 24 and had no idea what I was doing!! when I started to plan to open a studio, I wanted was a more relaxing and comfortable place. since I spend most of my time in the studio I wanted to make it feel like home. my goal for the studio is to have people walk in and not feel like their ideas matter and want them to feel at ease being around us like we are all friends. when I was opening up Sacred Magnolia, there was no plan to make it an all female studio, but since its worked out that way, I absolutely love it! its just easier to work with the girlies. here recently I started another company called 1/2 Sad Apparel and its just an online clothing store. funny thing is, I have wanted to have a clothing company for a while just to put cool stuff on shirts but I never knew how to start it nor did I ever bothered doing it since I was primarily focused on tattooing. 1/2 Sad is just for fun and now gives me a small break for drawing what others want and just have fun make stuff I like.

what I specialize in Neotraditional, geometric, and florals. my style of tattooing is very contradictory because love tattoo bright colorful stuff but I also love tattooing dark creepy things. the style I love tattooing the most is geometric pieces with a lot of line work and dot work. Its hard to pick my favorite tattoos but I would probably have to say a cartoony blow fish. I was doing a guest spot in North Carolina and one of my buddy’s wanted to get his head tattooed, so I designed a super cute blowfish with a purple bowtie!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

opening up a studio was never in my “life goals” so getting the ball rolling was just to work even more than I already was. one night I was talking to my husband and my friend Mandie in the kitchen and they basically just had to yell at me to just do it. its kinda funny because apparently that was the only way I would listen. I told my husband if I was going to actually do this then we are on a Raman noodle and sandwich budget. not really but I put everything into a shop savings account to get ready. I had no clue how much money to save for or anything like that. I just knew that I like simple but nice things so I needed to work really hard and have a good bit saved. so from February thru July I worked tirelessly. I Never thought about getting any loans and refused any financial offer from others because I’m stubborn and wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

not everything is going to be best for you. I was told we needed to have a phone, website, a card reader, this and that. the thing is, the studio is appointment only. so why do I need a shop phone?? thankfully the girls that work at the studio agree that our clients are our priority, so we didn’t want to stop what we were doing to answer the shop phone or messages. so one day we all where incredibly busy and the phone just kept ringing. I got annoyed and unplugged the phone and it felt so good to not hear it ring! yes, I’m sure we might have lost clients or seems like its harder for clients to get a hold of us, but at the end of the day I want what’s best for our sanity. we have listed what’s best to reach each artist on our social media, I don’t want a shop phone and turned off receiving messages. over the past 2 years we have made a few changes in the studio and love that I don’t have to feel like what I’m doing different is right or not.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @tattoos_by_tiny @sacredmagnoliatattoo @halfsadapparel
• Facebook: sacred magnolia tattoo

Image Credits
Chelsea marne photography llc memories in a shutter photography