We recently connected with Stephanie Mathis and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

We opened our business in 2012. My husband, Dustin, and I decided to join forces to create our business, SB Body Arts. My husband is a professional body piercer and at the time had been piercing for approximately 15 years. I graduated from Oklahoma City University in 2005 with a degree in Entertainment Business. Originally, I had pursued working in the music industry, but at this point nothing had really taken off. Dustin worked at a piercing studio in OKC for a few years. Around 2008, Dustin decided to start his own Piercing business, Sick Boyz Body Piercing, and leave the shop he was at. He teamed up with a couple local tattoo shops to run his own Body Piercing studio within the shop. Things were going well, and Dustin was building up his piercing studio and reputation. Our next natural step was to invest in our own location. In 2010, we started making plans to take that step and open our own Piercing and Tattoo Studio. We found our location in March of 2011. We talked to the landlord about leasing the space. He turned us down and said he didn’t want to rent to a tattoo/piercing studio because of the reputation that tattoo/piercing studios had. We kept looking, but really didn’t find a space we liked as much as that one. A year had passed, and we still hadn’t found the location we wanted. We drove by the space and it was still available. I was sure that since the property was still available, maybe the landlord would have a change of heart and agree to let us rent the space. When we talked to him, we assured him we were here to build a high-quality professional studio to compete with the top studios in the city. He agreed to let us take the space and open our new studio. We made a plan and went to work on opening the doors.

We wanted to open up sooner, but I feel the path we took was the correct one for us. Oklahoma was still a very young industry in the tattoo world having been the last state to legalize tattooing in 2006. Oklahoma legalizing tattooing is what gave us the option to branch out in 2008 to start what would eventually become, SB Body Arts. I’m glad we opened when we did and didn’t wait any longer. Looking back, it would have been nice to just open our own location right off the bat and take that leap a little sooner. I can’t predict where that would put us today, but our journey is one that has grown organically, and I am very proud of what we have created.

Stephanie , 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 the tattoo and piercing industry through my husband, Dustin. When we met in 2005, he had been a body piercer for a little over 10 years and was working for a local body piercing studio in OKC. At that time, tattooing was illegal in the state of Oklahoma, so the piercing industry was really all we had at that time. In 2006, Oklahoma legalized tattooing. Shortly after that is when Dustin and I started talking about opening our own studio. 2008, Dustin made the decision to leave the shop he was at and started his own body piercing business, Sick Boyz Body Piercing. We partnered up with a couple of local tattoo studios and offered piercing out of their studios for the next 4 years. In 2012, we made the leap to open our own studio offering our clients a professional body piercing experience with quality jewelry options. We teamed up with friend and veteran tattoo artist, DJ Richardson. He jumped on board to come work at our new studio. We tweaked the name from Sick Boyz Body Piercings to SB Body Arts and our studio was born.

The modern age of piercing really came of age in the 80’s and 90’s. Before that there really wasn’t a standard or even piercing studios to get pierced. The concept of being a Body Piercer really wasn’t a thing before then. We have all heard the stories of moms or grandma’s using a sewing needle and a potato to pierce young girls’ earlobes at home. This followed with the popularity of getting pierced with a piercing gun that overtime expanded to be performed in malls at trendy jewelry stores. When it comes down to it, these methods of getting pierced are just not safe and can cause damage to the ear and risk of infection is high. Through the 80’s & 90’s piercing studios started to open aimed with bring new safety standards and starting the explore standards within piercing industry. The piercing industry has come a very long way over the past few decades. Piercing standards, high quality jewelry, proper training and safety protocols are extremely important for us and our customers safety, plus they ensure success in piercing performed. Getting pierced by a trained piercing professionals is hands down the best and safest way to get pierced. Whether you are coming in to get your nosed pierced or you’re a mom wanting to get your daughter’s ears pierced for the first time. We strive to be a trusted studio in our community that clients and parents feel safe coming to, providing our customers with a friendly, safe and clean environment they can trust.
The stereotype for tattoo/piercing studios is one that is unwelcoming to the average person. When we opened, we really wanted to switch that around and create a welcoming environment that is safe, clean and professional for all our clients. Customer service is an important part of our business model. We want customers to feel comfortable coming into the shop for their tattoos, piercings or just for any questions or concerns they have about getting pierced or tattooed. One of my favorite comments that I hear from our customers is ‘You guys are so nice’, and a lot of times it is followed by a story about a negative experience they had at another studio. Our customers and clients are the key to our success as a business.

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

In 2017, with the possibility of Medical Marijuana being legalized in the state of Oklahoma, I decided to open a CBD store. We opened next door to the tattoo studio and really invested in understanding the ins and outs of CBD and medical marijuana to grow the business. 2018, Oklahoma passed 788 and legalized medical marijuana. We expanded the store to bring in Medical Marijuana and open a dispensary within the CBD store. Everything was growing and going well, until November 2019. Early Sunday morning, the week of Thanksgiving, our dispensary was broken into. Not much was stolen as the young thieves were caught in the act and arrested. 2 days after the break in one of the young assailants came back and basically threw a Molotov cocktail through one of the back windows of the building. The building instantly went up in flames and the fire spread quickly. The fire department showed up and within an hour or so had the fire contained but the damage had been done. The fire took out the new dispensary/CBD store and our tattoo shop all in one swoop. Everything that my husband and I had built over the past 8 years was gone.

We were in shock and really had no idea what to do. We went from running 2 businesses with a full staff to nothing overnight. We did have insurance for both businesses, but if you have every delt with insurance companies, it is not a fast process. We started the process of filing a claim and started trying to figure out a game plan on what to do next. This point was one of the biggest challenges in our chapter as a business owner. It’s kind crazy to say we went through a grieving process after we lost the shop, we had put our heart and soul into both businesses. Losing the dispensary was a heart breaker but losing the piercing/tattoo studio really hit a lot harder. At times we weren’t even sure about reopening, it was really a challenge to work through the loss. We persevered through and started making plans to reopen SB Body Arts. We made the decision to not reopen the dispensary and left the Cannabis industry. To add to the madness, Covid hit shortly after, but since we were already shut down from the fire, the shutdown of covid didn’t really affect us. April 2019, we secured our new location. Dustin took on the role of getting the new space open and I took on a full-time gig with Shipt till we could get back on our feet. June of 2019, we finalized the new shop and got the approval from the health department to get our Piercing and Tattoo license for the new location. When we reopen, our community showed up for us and it felt like we had never shut down.

As challenging as this experience was for us, we learned much about ourselves and our crew. This whole experience really reinforced the mission of our brand. The response from our community when we reopened was bigger than we had imagined. We thought we would have to go through a similar process when we initially opened with of a drop in customers since we moved locations, but that was not the case. Once we updated all our social media and google to our new location, it was like we never shut down. It was a great feeling after everything we had been through.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

From early on in our company’s creation we have always held a high standard of customer service. Providing our customers with a positive experience has always been a top priority. Tattoo & Piercing studios over the decades have built a reputation of being rude or unwelcoming. I wanted our brand to flip that stereotype. I wanted to be a business known for being welcoming and give our customers a positive experience. One of my favorite things to hear from customers is, ‘You guys are really nice!’ I want my customers to feel comfortable coming in and asking questions about their next piercing or tattoos, plus we always encourage them to stop back in after they get pierced or tattooed if they are having concerns during the healing process.

Over the years, we have combined our positive customer service with our professionalism, safety protocols, our experienced staff to create a successful business. This combo helped secure our place in the community as a trusted brand that clients can rely on for themselves and for their kids. We have even adopted the phrase in our advertisement, ‘We treat you like family’ to let customers know they can expect a friendly welcoming environment when they come into our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sbbodyarts.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sbbodyarts
• Facebook: facebook.com/sbbodyarts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sbbodyarts
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@sbbodyarts3588
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sbbodyarts

Image Credits
Photography by Torrey Purvey