Part Two:

The only logical thing to do, we thought, was to open our own place. We had thrown the idea around several times throughout the years and decided this couldn’t have been a more perfect time to do it. So, we sat down and made a plan of action.

Augie already had a lot of his own equipment that went beyond the scope of just the machines and all the goodies that go along with those (needles, power cords, power box, ink and so on).The items we did need belonged Doc. All of that went to his family, as it should. They were items such as displays, an autoclave, flash (the designs on the walls), and so on. Not a big deal.  We could get the equipment we needed online. The big deal was finding a place.

You would think that we could just rent the same place he had been at for over 15 years and we’d be ready to go, but that wasn’t the case. The landlord had told all of us about the possibility of selling the place to the village the previous year. There had been talks between the neighboring towns about putting in a road that connects Rt. 31 and Rt. 25. This would mean that the building and surrounding structures would have to be knocked down.  Suffice it to say, there was a good chance he would sell. We had to find other options.

Let me tell you…..finding a place sucked! One place was so off the beaten path that no one would ever find us. Another one was practically in the parking lot of a bar……HELL NO! The last thing we need is to have a bunch of drunken idiots coming in and signing consent for a tattoo of a pink polar bear in a flowered tutu playing the accordion while dancing on a rainbow and regretting it in the morning. No thank you!

The rest of them would either flat out say no or they would spout off the most outrageous rent amounts to make us be the ones that say no thanks. I kid you not……we had on guy tell us that rent would be $4,500 a month for a place smaller than a three car garage. Dude, really? Grow some balls and tell me you don’t want our kind.

We searched for about two months for a place when we got a phone call that changed everything. It was the old landlord. Talk of the new road was fading, so he decided to keep the building. He offered us a great deal on rent and told us we could have the keys the next day. I’m not a religious person, but I gotta say Amen, hallelujah! And on July 18, 2006, Augie’s Place Tattooing and Piercing was open for business!

Business was good. A lot of clients didn’t even know the place had been shut down for a few months. They would come in and ask about the name change, but other than that, it was business as usual. It was a great transition. Now, if only somebody would do something about this dang economy……!