Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kirsty York . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kirsty , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

There are pros and cons to every job and that doesn’t change when you become your own boss. Being a business owner can be really hard and sometimes it can be easy to catch yourself daydreaming about having a “regular” job again. Being a business owner doesn’t mean just doing your job and then clocking out, you never clock out. There is endless work you have to do even after you leave the office. You are your own schedule maker, web developer, social media manager, and more. Especially in the tattoo industry, after leaving the shop I still have hours of drawing and email answering to do at home. It is easy to think about what life would be like if I had a job that I could leave at the office and have no responsibilities at home. But once I start to think about it I realize I would never go back to having a “regular” job! Sure there is a lot of extra work that comes with being your own boss, but there is also so much freedom that comes with it. I can make my own schedule, give my self much needed time off, and most importantly do the kind of work I want to be doing. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

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 Kirsty York, I am a tattoo artist and owner of Blackbird Ink, an all female tattoo shop in Lafayette Colorado. What sets us apart from other tattoo shops is probably the fact that we are all female, but that hasn’t always been the case and it wasn’t fully intentional. Over the 4 years we have been open I have seen a lot of artists come and go, I have finally found a team of talented hard working artists that I am proud of. Together we try every day to make the shop as welcoming as possible for our clients. Due to the fact the we are an all female shop, we find that we mostly have female clients. Unfortunately a lot of our clients fell intimidated to go into the more “traditional” tattoo shops but feel comfortable here at Blackbird.
Another thing that sets us apart from the traditional tattoo shop is the importance we put on the art work its self. With myself and another artist at the shop, Destiny Humrich, having a background in art school. We have moved away from the traditional “pick a design off the wall” approach and create more artistic illustrative designs for our clients.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for us is social media by a long shot. More specifically our social media presence on instagram. I would say at least 75% of your clients find us on Instagram. Instagram is an extremely important platform for artists, once we got a good instagram following the shop became super busy! That being said, growing our social media following was not easy. The best advice I can give is to follow the trends, use lots of hashtags, and pay attention to what time your followers are on online to time your posts correctly!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

A story that illustrates my resilience would be how I stuck with the shop even when it was at its slowest. Starting a business can be tricky, especially when its your first one. When I first opened the shop I wasn’t a well known artist, and obviously no-one had heard of my shop yet. It was really difficult to both build a clientele and find other artists to work with me. I spent almost the whole first year in the shop alone. Every time I would get a new artist, they would eventually leave to a more well known shop where they could get more clients and build more of a name for themselves. I would have done the same in their shoes! But when others may have given up, I stuck with it. Slowly over time my shop started to get more known, both by word of mouth and social media presence. More clients where coming in and artists where finally staying at my shop. Now we are busier then ever! Sometimes things can progress slowly and that’s ok, just stick with it no mater the hardships you eventually get to where you want to be!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blackbirdinktattoo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackbirdinktattoo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Blackbirdinktattoo/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/blackbird-ink-lafayette
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/yorkietats/

Image Credits
Photos by Mia Griggs