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

Jason , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

If I was starting over, I’d start saving money sooner for sure just to move up the timeline. Everything moves pretty fast, and the faster you get your products out there the better

Jason , 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?

I got into this industry the absolute hardest way possible. I started tattooing in prison and when I got out I had to relearn everything. I didn’t even do an apprenticeship because I was either too scared or thought I was too cool or whatever. I don’t remember. Maybe a bit of both. I fumbled around for a few years and got a job in a shop in Louisiana, then later opened my own studio in Jackson, AL. Then after 5 years of that,my wife and I moved to Demopolis, AL and I started working with my current business partner Johnny, and we opened River City Tattoo Company. I’ve been tattooing professionally for 12 years now but I feel like I’ve only been making good tattoos for about 5 lol. But now I’m a published, award-winning artist, so yeah I guess it worked out lol… Anyways..then I thought it would be an awesome idea to open a supply company with a friend of mine at the time,Sean, in 2020 right before Covid started. It was called Vanguard Tattoo Supply at that time. Got off to a bit of a rough start but we got it going. So Sean moved out of state about a year into it, and I bought his half of the company, and changed the name to Pappy’s Tattoo Supply. Now my wife Ashley works with me running the company, filling orders, and promoting the brand. One thing I’ve been proud of with Pappy’s is that it’s been Tattooer owned and operated since day one. Corporate supply companies just selling a product. They aren’t using them ever day; they aren’t counting on that product to work as it should. I’m a full time Tattooer. I’m in here banging it out 5 days a week using products that I sell; products I can stand behind.

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

Consistency. In tattooing and with my supply company. That, and just putting my work and products out there. Making sure my work and products are the same good quality. You have to be dependable, and you have to be nice to people I don’t care what you do if you’re not cool to people word is going to get out.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

For my tattooing I do all my booking through my website. I have Facebook and Instagram to show my work, but the website keeps everything streamlined instead of trying to remember which platform I was talking to that person on, not to mention it weeds out who is and who isn’t serious about getting work done. I class that as a pro vs a con FOR SURE For my supply company I have a website on BigCartel that I sell through. I also do a few tattoo conventions where I promote the products. Those help as far as actually getting them into the hands of potential customers. There’s pros and cons with both of them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jaybonztattooer.com. And www.pappystattoosupply.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: @jaybonztattooer. And @pappys_tattoo_supply
• Facebook: Jaybonz at River City Tattoo. And Pappy’s Tattoo Supply