Keeping a good rep
The shop I work in, Top Gun Tattoos, is located immediately outside the Fort Leonard Wood army base in St. Robert, Missouri. So immediately outside the Fort, that the only thing between the Fort's entrance and our shopping center is another smaller strip of stores. You might think that this would be a perfect location for a tattoo shop, but there are actually two other tattoo shops in the smaller strip of stores between us and the Fort. Oddly enough, that doesn't keep us from being busy. However, being two miles down the road doesn't stop one of the other shops from being busy, too.
The unique thing about Fort Wood is that if you are in the armed forces, you will end up there at one point or another. It serves as a training center for all branches of the military, so you're pretty much guaranteed to spend at least some time there during your service. With so many people going through the Fort, it's not hard to imagine why all of the shops stay busy.
Every week I hear from at least one of the GI's that they got a good recommendation about the shop from someone on Post, or the guy across the hall got a great tattoo from us last week, or something like that. This weekend I even did a new tattoo on someone who got a tattoo last weekend at a different shop on the strip and decided to come to us for this one. I think all three of us do great work there and we're so laid back and easy to talk to, so it doesn't surprise me that people give good references for the shop. What does surprise me is that even though every 8 weeks there's a new shift of trainees Top Gun still has a great reputation for our work. With as many people going through Fort Wood as often as they do, it always amazes me that word gets around like it does. Almost like a collective unconscious, a subconscious mindshare.
Maybe one day all will be revealed. Probably not. I think I'll just sit back, make great art and enjoy it.
-Alex
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