Corpus Christi Originals Podcast
The Corpus Christi Originals Podcast showcases the stories, talents, and perspectives of Corpus Christi and South Texas. Featuring engaging conversations with local personalities, entrepreneurs, and artists, the podcast explores trending topics, culture, and community. Tune in for a fresh take on what makes Corpus Christi, Texas unique!
Corpus Christi Originals Podcast
EP109:Corpus & Coffee | Dani Powers of Powers Tattoos & Body Piercings Studio
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Fourth Corpus & Coffee: Danny Powers, owner of Powers Tattoo and Body Piercing (30 years), discusses meeting Don Powers as a customer getting naval piercing, marrying the shop owner, husband dying in 2003 leaving her with 5-year-old son and active shop, choosing to fight and run it 30 more years, moving from McAllen to Corpus after meeting second husband Steve on Facebook, CPR and bloodborne pathogen certification, health department inspections, social media frustration, boutique dreams, selling gloves to other shops, wanting RV mobile tattoo life, and legacy lasting beyond the owner.
Thanks to Premier Hearing Solutions Of South Texas for making this content possible! premierhrg.com
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Disclaimer: Views expressed by guests are their own and do not reflect the podcast, sponsors, studio, or affiliated entities.
What's going on, you guys? Welcome back to the Corpus Christi Originals podcast. Uh this is the Corpus and Coffee edition. We're here at um Danny Powers, right?
SPEAKER_02Danny Powers, all of us, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yes, we're at uh powers tattoo and body piercing shop.
SPEAKER_02And this is this part of that or uh this well yeah, this is my boutique, so it's called the the powers boutique now. It used to be called back in McCallan. Okay, the underworld boutique.
SPEAKER_01McCallan. So you're from McCallan?
SPEAKER_02I guess you could say so, yeah. I was there 24 years, I guess, somewhere around there.
SPEAKER_01Right on, that's cool. Yeah, if you guys want to participate in the chat, the chat's going on right here, it's live, so just leave a comment there. If not, we can always uh we'll put we'll put it on uh on the live stream. There you go. I'm sorry, on the on the podcast. So we're all nervous here. Uh we got the coffee going. I got a coffee from uh the coffee mug, which is the last place I went to yesterday. Try out the Malfoy. Uh if you like white, if you like white mocha. So what's going on, Danny? How you doing?
SPEAKER_02I'm good. Starting my day off at we got I get over here, usually I get over here about two o'clock.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, you're nervous?
SPEAKER_02Not really nervous.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm I'm not nervous.
SPEAKER_02I'm just trying to make sure, you know. Uh I don't know, like I can barely see myself on there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's all good. So you mentioned that you um you have been wanting to have somebody interview or something like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, interviews are always fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Just uh just to get to know people and people get to know me. And I mean, I don't know, I like to talk a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. So yeah, so so why tattooing? You got into tattooing. Well, you body pierce, right?
SPEAKER_02I'm a body piercer for 30 years, yeah. Okay, yep. Um, so when I was little, I mean I I never in my wildest imagination was like, Oh, I want to be a body piercer. Oh, I'm gonna have a tattoo shop. Yeah, I never knew that. I just came along with the people that I met in my life when I started growing up and I was 19, 20 in that you know, time frame. Yeah, and so I met a man called Don Powers who was the original owner of Doc of Powers tattoos, but which back in the day used to be called Dr. Powers, and it wasn't a doctor's office or anything like that, but his name was Donald Richard Powers. Okay, so they nicknamed it because outside on the sign it said DR Powers.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02So and it was cool, you know, it kicked in real badass, like for everybody to see, like, oh, let's go to Dr. Powers, you know. So that's that's what it was back in the day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was wondering like what uh powers is. I was thinking, was it your last name? Because you got married right or something like that.
SPEAKER_02I got married uh back in 1998, I believe, um, to Don Powers, and that's how that started. So when I met him, I started um you know hanging out at the shop a lot because he owned the shop. He had been there 10 years before me, before I ever knew about uh him himself. But I went in to go get a uh navel piercing. Okay, because me and my girls all wanted to go get piercing. So I went in as a customer, and then eventually it turned into getting a tattoo. And then, you know, just McAllen's kind of small, it's grown a lot now, but back in the day it was small enough to you run into the same people all the time. So I would run into him all the time, and I don't know, we just you know, so and we ended up getting married. We had a kid, uh Donnie Donnie Powers is my son. He's over at Buena Suerte and Farr. Okay, uh, great tattoo artist over there. Um, he's 27, he started when he was 15. And um so back when I 98 I got married to Don, but then you know I started learning the ropes around the shop, yeah. And of course, I needed to do something, I didn't have to work. He had a shop, so I was like, what do I want to do?
SPEAKER_00Oh, sure.
SPEAKER_02Of course I wanted to learn how to tattoo, and I'm always wanting to learn how to tattoo, but piercing was just something that that that shop needed at the time, a female body piercing. Okay, and so it just stuck. So I've been doing it for 30 years now.
SPEAKER_01Well, so you know the so you know kind of the ins and outs of the business.
SPEAKER_02Uh I know the old school ins and out of the business. There's always a lot of new stuff coming up, there's new supplies, there's new techniques, there's new, you know, people that are are doing it better than any of us old schoolers are because there's more resources nowadays, you know. But so I feel like I I make my way through just fine. I still I still have to do a couple of old techniques, I bring in a couple new techniques, yeah. Um, and it just so far it's worked for me, thank god.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's cool. How do you find yourself like having to learn that new stuff?
SPEAKER_02And do you feel like you need to learn that new stuff to sometimes there are certain things that I think to myself, like, I'm not only to learn that because you know I'm gonna stick to what if you don't if it's not broken, don't try to fix it. But there is some cool techniques that you see out there with a with a bunch of new uh supplies.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_02There's some people that I really look up to as far as you know, piercers or what they're doing. Okay, so it it it intrigues you, it makes you feel like you know, I want to buy that supply and I want to try it. If it's gonna make it easier, it's gonna make the customer a little bit more comfortable because they see it on videos, whether it's TikTok, YouTube, whatever. People are always looking things up before they get something done now.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's amazing. So what yeah, so how's that learning curve going? Like as far as doing the social media stuff.
SPEAKER_02No, I mean social media back in the day when I started 30 years ago, we didn't even have it yet. We didn't have it. We barely had phones still on the walls and you know, those big old phones, you know, back in the day. So now social media is something completely different. It's fun, sometimes it's frustrating. I try my best to keep up with it. I feel like I could be doing so much more if I really knew how to do it, but the y the newer generation is the one that that I feel like really um gets to utilize that. You know, I need to probably sit down with some young kids and or hire some young kids to come in here and help me do some social media.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, for sure. Definitely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I love social media, it's it's it's very um helpful around here, but at the same time, it's a little frustrating sometimes too.
SPEAKER_01Wow, man.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I'm not getting my full potential out of it because I don't know how to use it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no kidding. Wow, that's interesting. Yeah, I think I had an eye piercing on my eye one time, right here. The eyebrow. And then I had I had one here. I still have to hold it.
SPEAKER_02What happened to it?
SPEAKER_01I have to work in the refineries, I gotta take them off all the time.
SPEAKER_02So I just left them on being outside, yeah. But that'll all that dust and this and that, that'll definitely kind of irritate your piercings. You have to be real careful. Yeah, and you wear the helmets and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and the piercings too, like it's not really permanent unless it's like gauges or whatever. Yeah, as like the tattoos and stuff like that. Like the tattoo, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02So tattooing, like I mean, I dabbled here and there, like I still dabble here and there. Um, but I gotta lie, like I'm the type of person, like I have a lot on my mind as far as you know, running the shop. Um, I have grandkids now, so okay. At this age in my life, I'm 52. I mean, I'm not scared to say my age, I'm 52, so I think you're not scared to say your age. Because I feel good at 52. A lot of people are like, oh, they're scared to get you know older or whatever. But I feel good. I feel like I've challenged myself a lot in life, and I feel like 85% of what I said I wanted to do, I've done it.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02So I feel good, I feel happy about that. There's still a lot of things on my bucket list that I haven't, you know, completed, but um, I have to be in the mood to tattoo. Like I have to be uh relaxed and I have to like you know be yeah.
SPEAKER_01Did you feel like you had to learn to tattoo?
SPEAKER_02Because it seems like body piercing is your first yeah, body piercing is my my my main thing, but no, I don't feel like I have to learn how to tattoo. I would love to be a tattoo artist, you know, just like everybody else that I have working here because I want to be in the middle of the mix, and you know, when it's slow, I want to be able to make some money too by doing the oh cool for sure, for sure. I feel like I have to. I've always had a great team, and more than usual, I've always had at least four people working for me. So I get to to concentrate on the piercing part of it while you know everybody else concentrates on the tattoos.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. So that is wow. So how many piercers, how many tattoo artists do you have?
SPEAKER_02Right now we have we have six active tattoo artists plus my husband who he tattoos. He's kind of self-taught, he's trying to learn off everybody here, but he works in the refinery, so he's not always here. Oh, yeah. But we have six active artists here on a schedule, and then we have myself and Dom. So we have a female and a male piercer. So we have two piercers.
SPEAKER_01Oh, cool. Wow. What is the what does the hiring process look like? Did it like for the tattoo artists? Do they need to know art or like how do you find your way navy? How do you find yourself navigating that area uh aspect of business?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's usually by word of mouth, it's by like recommendation, a friend of a friend or a family person, a friend of a family or something. But um for me, like I don't mind hiring people that are young and fresh to the industry. I don't mind people that have a lot of experience also, but sometimes when you hire the elder people, they're set in their ways. And sometimes, not that I have my own way to do things around here, but you know, we all have to get along and we all have to run a business. Yeah, we all have to like you know, kind of like have some kind of an agreement of how we're gonna run the schedule. So it's easier to have the younger kids that are eager to come in and want that chance or whatever, excited to have a new tattoo family to come in and kind of mold with what's already going on.
SPEAKER_01Wow, it's easier than you mean tattoo family like uh the relationships with clients.
SPEAKER_02No, tattoo family like the people that work okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, right, right, right. The works I mean culture or whatever.
SPEAKER_02My shop in particular, I don't know how everybody else runs their shop, but I feel like we try to make it like a family environment as far as we care about each other, you know. We try to like how is your weekend? Um, you know, what do you got going on lately? Like, I don't know. I just I like to I like to know who I work with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. Definitely work with them. Yeah, and it's like you don't think about that stuff when you're thinking about tattoo shops, you know what I mean? Who thinks about that? You just think about oh, they're tattooed or they're this you already automatically label them as certain type of people without even trying to go into their world and figure out what we spend a lot of time together, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02It's like our second home, yeah, for sure. So it is nice to to say that we can have a good time together or have a couple shots when we close the shop after hours. After hours and hours.
SPEAKER_01What does it say?
SPEAKER_02After hours and powers.
SPEAKER_01Noe Davila says he look good at around 52 because his knees are bad at 37. What's up, Sasha and Noe? Thanks you guys for joining the the chat. Oh, that's you right there, right? Thank you. Yeah, I gotta let me let me give a shout out to uh Sasha back here. Get her some business. Sasha, right here.
SPEAKER_02Sasha Sins.
SPEAKER_01Sasha Sins at uh Tats by S dot by Sasha. Uh yeah, she's up, she's on this side here repping the uh the podcast with us. Thanks a lot. Man, so so you've been in the corpus culture, tattoo culture. What's it been like here in Quark?
SPEAKER_02So I feel like I've been here 10 years. Um, I mean, it might not be exact, but I feel like I've been here 10 years. I was in the valley, and go back to like like I said, I was married, my first marriage, that man, he died in 2003. So I had that choice of what am I gonna do? Like I was barely learning how to um not barely, but I was like into the beginning part of my my piercing career. I had a five-year-old son, which is Donnie. I had my daughter, which is Hazel, she was like 12 or 13, and I had to make that choice. We had an active running shop, even though he had passed away, but I had to make that choice. Am I gonna dive in and just go with the flow and just you know figure it out, or am I gonna like let it go away and you know do something else? So um, so I was like, no, I'm a fighter. And so I thought, no, I mean, this is a a a really good shop in McAllen called Dr. Powers. Um, so I just hired people and kept the people that I had and just got really into my piercing career. And then um, like I said, he had it 10 years when I started, and then now I've ran it 30 more years. Wow. So powers has been in existence for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02We started off in McAllen, Texas, um, on 10th Street, and so now I was kind of tired of living in McCallan, especially after he had passed away. I needed a fresh start. So I met my husband now, Steve Avalos.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_02Uh, he's from Corpus, he's uh born and raised here, and we met on Facebook. So um we started talking or whatever, and so we were doing that commute back back and forth for a while, and then it was just I wanted to get out of town and I like the ocean, so I really liked Corpus. Nice, so I like it. I've been here 10 years, I feel feel like it's been treating me really well. Um, Steve, obviously, he's an amazing husband. I've met a lot of really good people here, so I love it. I love hearing this. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Wow, so uh I has there been any type of community impact on your end or peep people showing love to you guys? What has that been like for you? For you, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I saw what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01Community impact just community, like uh like I saw a piece that was on channel three or whatever. Oh, yeah, we've been on the news a couple times.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I mean, I don't I don't know how the direction comes towards us, but one way or the other, like it feels like yeah, the love is coming towards us because I feel like the people that I have here, they're good people, you know, they they're honest people, they're responsible as much as they can. Yeah, some of my artists here that have two jobs, so you know, everybody tries to stay on their appointments and be honorable like on time and stuff. So I feel like the community has responded to us nicely because we try to care about what we're doing, whether it's tattoos, piercings, or take care of the shop, the presentation of what we the shop looks like. You know, um, we ain't you know that's huge, that's huge for you. Make sure it looks nice and it smells good, everybody's sober while they're working. And I mean, like we we run a good ship here, you know. We're not perfect. There's a lot of great shops out here, and I see a lot of great artists out there, but in particular, I'm proud of my artist, you know.
SPEAKER_01Wow, so what made you make that that shift to having because it seems like the history of tattooing, there's it's associated with a certain type of people, could be alcohol or whatever, like you're saying. What made you what made you want to make that shift to have people like Silver during during the you know what I mean? Like what's the difference between then and now as far as I mean back in the day, I mean you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02The regulations were different, and I don't know. I mean, I can't speak for that because back in the day was back in the day, people did what they did, and yeah, I don't no matter what, I still thought it was cool back in the day too.
SPEAKER_01Or even like like health, like uh, like health regulations, like tattooing, you gotta be sterile and all this other stuff. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02We just try to follow follow protocol, like when the health department comes in here and says you need to do this. Oh, health department comes in here? Oh yeah, really? They come and inspect once a year on most on pretty much all the shops.
SPEAKER_01What is that day like everybody makes everything's clean?
SPEAKER_02It's bitter sweet because it's like, okay, come on, let's do this because we we feel like we're doing the right thing, but at the same time, anytime somebody's gonna come and check out what you're doing and they're gonna come in with a chart list of whatever everybody I'm like, hey y'all be on on top of your game, you know. But no, it's cool. Like, I I'd I'd rather get it over with and know that we passed for that year. We've never had a bad, yeah, bad inspection. So that's good. That's good. I feel pretty confident about that.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. Uh so yeah, so South Texas, do you see any any uh trend like styles here that are like I guess what are what are the styles that you mostly see see here?
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, there's so many styles. I mean, there's so many, there's so many different artists besides our artists. You know, you see a lot of realism nowadays. I feel like uh and the horror tattoos are real in, you know, when you get like your favorite horror uh characters. Um portraits are never gonna go away because you know, people love whether it's their their pets or their loved ones, they're always gonna get portraits. Um, just I mean, names and dates and symbols, and you know, people just want to put something that's a memorable thing on their body. That's what I would think too. Because when you die, you come in this world with nothing and you leave this world with nothing. But when you die, you're gonna take those tattoos with you, yeah.
SPEAKER_00For sure.
SPEAKER_02So I think that's a beautiful part of it. Like, just make sure and put tattoos on you that mean something to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02Don't be scared of that, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and some people do, some people just put whatever too. Like, I've seen some, like, okay, that's cool. Uh wow. So the creative process, like, so when you're doing tattoos, you said you you're learning how.
SPEAKER_02Uh I'm always learning how. I mean, I've but I've done tattoos back in the late 90s, early 20s, uh 2000s, but I mean, you know, and I used to do really good tattoos back then, but then there's a time where I'll stop for a long time. So I feel like I always have to start off. You'll lose it, you'll lose I don't lose it, but I'm super duper shaky. Like I just start back with the little ones again.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02But there's people walking around that have like 20-30 tattoos on them for me, and they're all like little bangers, or there's some people that have like a palm-size tattoo from me on them. But it's just like in the the time of my life, whatever's going on in my life, can I sit down and just relax and tattoo and pierce and run the shop and you know, run my household. Now I got grandkids, you know what I mean? My my two uh grown uh kids what's that like being a grand grandparent? Oh, it's it's good. It's it's it's a little even that too, it's kind of hard for me because I'm still in the middle of my career. Okay. I'm actively in my shop, so it's hard for me just to take off and and go and be with my grandkids all the time, which I wish I could. Wow if I was retired.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, do you ever feel like like do you ever feel like maybe I should have started this sooner?
SPEAKER_02Well, no, I started it pretty soon.
SPEAKER_01You did, right?
SPEAKER_02I was like 24 when I started this or 25. I don't know. I can't remember how old I was.
SPEAKER_01Were you like got around it? Okay, oh so so you knew you wanted to be around it.
SPEAKER_02I didn't know. Wow, I didn't know until I like I said, until I I came in the shop and got a tattoo, got a piercing, yeah, and then ended up marrying the owner of the oh wow, so it had to be so we became part of your work. No idea.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you got immersed in it, whether you work.
SPEAKER_02And then piercings was just so um prominent, like there was piercings coming in and piercings coming in, and I knew that I could do it, you know. Oh wow, and I wanted to make sure and give people the best piercing that I could. No way.
SPEAKER_01Is there any other parts like of your life where you felt like there was a need, and you're like, Well, I could probably do that. I'm gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, definitely. I still think that right now. I'm only 52, I still got another 40-something years in me. Wow, hopefully. So, yeah, I mean, I in my mind, even right now, I would like to have a different career path.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. Um, uh, who's in your uh Noe and Sasha are blowing up in the chat? Thanks a lot, you guys. Uh Noe says last time I went to Tattoo Place, it was purple ink.
SPEAKER_02Jay's over there, he's always sending me piercings. Okay, good people. Purple ink is just a purple ink is down the road, they're on um where are they on staples.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's a tattoo place.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, here in Corpus. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, so they're cool. We went in there and I sell gloves down by the case. I have a a bunch of gloves that I sell for a girl that connected me with the cases of gloves. So I go in there and I ask them if they need gloves or whatever. But okay, I don't know all the artists in particular personally, but Jay himself, he's always been really nice and he sends me a lot of piercings.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you sell gloves so gloves.
SPEAKER_02Do you sell any other types of equipment for um I have a little bit of tattoo equ uh supplies here?
SPEAKER_01You feel like you need to?
SPEAKER_02I only have a little bit. I I wish I had more.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_02But I just haven't financially had you know money to buy like a lot of tattoo supplies. Okay, yeah. And then on top of that, like to know what everybody's really gonna buy. Like, that's the tricky one for me. I don't want stuff to just sit there. Yeah, so I mean, and I sell my boutique, I have you know, t-shirts, selling t-shirts. I have lots of body jewelry, titanium, more surgical steel, a little bit of 14 karat gold, shoes, purses, you know, novelty gifts. Nice. I want to get your stuff in here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, for sure. You're the second person to ask me.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, your clothes are cool.
SPEAKER_01Shout out to Hype Bike out there. She wanted to have it at her shop. I don't know why I didn't. Uh I don't know, maybe the copyright issue. Um, I mean, I was still dealing with that, like trying to figure out how to copyright stuff, and I'm trying to figure out which steps, which steps I need to take, you know what I mean? That's kind of and that's another reason why I have it online too, is because I can control my inventory a lot more.
SPEAKER_02And even that, like what you're doing, I would have liked to have like a clothing line too. Because I mean, I could get the artist to draw stuff and put it on t-shirts, yeah. But it that's like a whole nother thing that I haven't been a whole nother project. I've always got all kinds of stuff in my head. I'm one of those people that I I just don't stop.
SPEAKER_01That's the thing I like about entrepreneurs, man. There's always like, I oh, I got all these ideas. Yeah, that's awesome. Do you think you felt you you've like developed that kind of uh maybe work ethic from like your parents? Because I'm always like, How is this person like this?
SPEAKER_02Well, my parents, my my dad definitely put worth ethics into my my brain, my routine, my heart. My father worked for HEB for I think like 40 years. I don't know. Wow, but he was I was an HEB kid growing up, you know. We always went to all the events, whatever. So my dad always got dressed and got up and put a suit and tie on and went to work, and he, you know, worked all day hard. My mom stayed home, but still she had four kids, so she she was still running the house.
SPEAKER_01Well, we what did she say when you were like when you got into this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, at first she kind of like you know, like, what like what do you mean you're gonna be like stuff? Or I had never talked about it when I was young, so it was come something, but she also saw that the relationship that I started out back when I was with you know Don Powers, that's what influenced me to get into this. Oh wow came from that, you know. Cool, but at the same time, um when she you know saw the shop and then she saw the the lifestyle that that person led, there was nothing wrong with it. It was you know an upscale lifestyle too. You know, it was it was a very um sophisticated lifestyle, you know. People like us that get tattoos and stuff, yeah, just because we look the way we look, or we're in a tattoo shop, we still go to nice restaurants. I still like to drive a nice car, you know what I mean? So you know, so there was still like a whole level of of upscale net upskillness to it at the time. So she was like, okay, well, this might not be that bad after all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then when I got married to my my second husband, which is Steve, I remember he told me he's like, you know, my parents aren't really into tattoos. I'm all tattoos. Oh wow, so he's gonna take me home. And it for a little sp split second there, I kind of like, oh man, you know, should I cover up or what should I do? But then I thought to myself, nah, people are gonna love me no matter what.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, either they are or they aren't.
SPEAKER_02And they did, and now he's tattooing, yeah, and he's doing really good. Oh wow. He's been tattooing like probably two, three years. He's doing really good. His his parents are so proud of him. They're like, Man, check it out. My son did this tattoo. So we we get past all that. So my mom, my mom eventually she she saw the potential and she saw the purpose behind it, and 30 years has given me a beautiful life.
SPEAKER_00That's cool, you know.
SPEAKER_02So my mom's, I mean, I don't know, she's 100% down for it. I don't know if I could say that, but she definitely goes with my flow and she loves me no matter what she kind of respects and she respects me. Yeah, I'm sure she does.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02So my mom's cool, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So uh, so behind the scenes of the industry, uh what's something that people don't see or maybe don't understand about your your industry or what you do here?
SPEAKER_02The biggest thing that would come to my mind would be the stress, people people. Will think that oh, you know, me, anybody else that I know that have shops, and I know a lot of shop owners, but people think like, Oh wow, they got this shop, and you know, they they tattoo all day, and you know, they they're making all this money, but there's a lot of stress to having a sh a business, whether it's tattoo shops or anything, where you have to wait for people to come in and spend the money, and you don't know if you're gonna get a check at the end of the week, you know what I mean? It's it's it's like a car salesman, you know what I mean? You have to um present yourself, sell yourself, earn the trust from people. So at the end of the day or the end of the month or whatever, you know, I feel like the tattoo industry, we don't make a lot of money, we're not rich off of this. Most people aren't. There are some artists that are you know really rich off certain things, but in my everyday uh where I see the shops and the people, we're just regular people that are trying to make our bills, you know, and we have to balance our our money. And yeah, so the stress of it is if wondering if what we're doing is gonna work, uh, or we're gonna like be able to make the rent, you know what I mean? So we have that stress too.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Yeah, I can imagine it'd be stressful.
SPEAKER_02We love the support from the people that's cool in our community or anybody that wants to come and travel and come see us, you know. That's always fun.
SPEAKER_01So support in terms of monetary monetary support.
SPEAKER_02At the end of the day, it's a mom and pop shop, you know what I mean? So we have to um just that's that's what I find in the middle of the night when I start a new project or a new shop. I have to I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm just like stressed, you know what I mean? I'm struggling and I'm like, oh my god, am I gonna, you know, did I do this or did I do that? You know, so it's a lot of stress.
SPEAKER_01How do you so how do you find yourself maintaining that being like being in stressful situations? Because sometimes it we like we give up.
SPEAKER_02I just gotta breathe. Yeah, I just gotta breathe and I just gotta trust myself. And now back then, you know, I had good people around me, but now my husband is my ride or die, he's my backbone, and he's very uh helpful with whatever crazy stuff I come up with. Sometimes I I throw too much at him, but he still does it because I'm the type of person like if I'm gonna say I'm gonna do it or I want it, yeah, I want it. You know what I mean? I want it. So he's he's very compassionate about helping me get to that. So that helps a lot now. Um, and my family, you know, they're pretty supportive. I mean, as far as emotionally, they're supportive. Yeah, and then um the sense of pride of just myself, I'm proud of myself, you know. I I'm not a quitter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you gotta encourage yourself for sure.
SPEAKER_02At least not in trying to make money, I'm not a quitter. Okay, I might get tired of something else, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But when I need to make money and pay bills and finish what I started, I try my best.
SPEAKER_01Wow, man, I can see how it can be nerve-wracking to try to depend on uh uh your own business because I'm a truck driver, like my money comes from that, you know what I mean, and to having your own business and like sometimes it's this much, sometimes it's this much.
SPEAKER_02And how do you that's why I think to myself too? I'm like, damn, Danny, for 30 years you've been doing this, and I don't get a solid check. It's just month to month you just have to you know be ready for to give the best you got, and and to you know, hopefully the people will see that you're trying to be the best that you are, and they come in and they they let you do something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure, to see past the so yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But now in my my life now, I feel like I've been blessed, you know. Like I feel like something that I did was was right because I got good people still, I got a nice location. This is the biggest shop I've had, and this is the most expensive shop I've had. Okay, which is kind of good and kind of bad because you know it comes with its good and its bads, but um, I was telling my husband, you know, like I probably want to sit in the shop maybe four more years, and then after that, like it's not that I don't want to do what I'm doing and not have the shop, but I want to move around and be mobile. Oh wow. I mean, we have a house, our family has a house in Puerto Rico. I want to go to Puerto Rico and I want to stay there for like two, three, you know, months at a time if I can and go find a shop out there to go pierce. Oh, wow, crazy. So I want to move, I want to move around. I want to have my house here locally incorporated, but I want to be mobile.
SPEAKER_01That's just a personal personal drip something that you want to do. Yeah, right on.
SPEAKER_02I would always like to have a mobile tattoo shop and like buy a toy hall.
SPEAKER_01No, are they doing it now?
SPEAKER_02I don't think it's licensed. We kept talking about that. So crazy. I don't think it's technically licensed in the state of Texas. I haven't looked into it, and we were just talking about that because it's like you have um blood drive buses that drive around, you have clinics that drive around. Yeah, so you know, I'm wondering like how how a tattoo shop can't be mobile.
SPEAKER_00Wow, no kidding.
SPEAKER_02That's something that I gotta like look into. But that was always a dream of my to retire and do the RV life. Hey, but I still want to work, so I want to like, of course, put a spot in the in the RV where I can tattoo and pierce.
SPEAKER_01What's going on, you guys, on the live on the live stream? Join us in the chat. You got any questions for Danny uh for uh powers uh tattoos and body piercing shop? Leave them in the comments. Appreciate you guys. Uh, this is another edition of Corpus and Coffee. I'm drinking um Coffee Mug, the coffee mug's Malfoy drink right here. Go check it out, try it out.
SPEAKER_02Their new location, right?
SPEAKER_01New location. Um, this is episode four of the corpus and coffee edition of the Corpus Christi Originals. We're here drinking some coffee and chatting, talking to Danny about her business, and uh it's pretty cool to have her open up her shop so that we can come in here and and record this uh this uh episode with her.
SPEAKER_02So we started off on Castores.
SPEAKER_01Y'all did okay, and on Horn near Horn, right?
SPEAKER_02Okay, and we were at that top tattoo shop next to the laundromat in the car wash, and we had that by Yoli's tacos across the street. Yes, yes, and we had that big old mural on the side. One of my homeboys from the valley, Dopey, Dopey, he came by and he from he's from McCallander farm. He came out here and he painted that bureau big old mural on the side.
SPEAKER_01So, why do you mention you started there in Costosa?
SPEAKER_02That was my starter shop. There was only 800 square feet, and that was an awesome shop. We had a lot of good memories there, and then we started getting so busy that I remember, I guess for me, the reason I wanted to open another shop is because the piercing room, we had one piercing room, yeah, and it was like a 10 by 10 room, right? And Dom is the other piercer, so people would come in and we would always have to wait for the other two people. So I was like, okay, well, we're we're we're so you needed some more so okay.
SPEAKER_01So at that point you had you had the customers, you had the customers.
SPEAKER_02Then we went, then I took off and hired more people and took like two people with me from Castores, and then we went to Yorktown. Okay, so we had a shop over there by Chops and Eggs.
SPEAKER_01While you had the one in Costores, wow, yeah, two I had that for two years. What? So you had two locations, yeah. You how many do you have? Just a second.
SPEAKER_02And then now and then after two years, the landlord at Yorktown wasn't really doing nothing different, but he wanted to raise the rent. So I kind of kind of got tired of going back and forth. So I decided to go ahead and um look for uh one location, and I wanted to be in the middle of Costores in the middle of Yorktown, so I found this location on Saratoga, and um, you know, we had to negotiate the price because this area is very expensive. Oh wow, but uh I finally came to a to an agreement with the the landlord and he gave me a little deal to get in here and start it going, and so we've been here going on two years. Well, we've been here a year and a half.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02So I consolidated the two shops and then um came over here.
SPEAKER_01Nice. So also all the artists, well, the artists that you had at both shops, you brought them over.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, some of and some of the people are new. I mean, you know, it's been a year and a half since I'm I I've hired some new people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what's that? What's so what's that like having different what's what does it look like, I guess, to turnaround as far as artists or tattoo artists or piercers that come into the turnaround? Yeah, like yes, because that is a question, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's a question, right? Yeah, in my experience as an owner, I feel like when people are with you for three to five years, okay, after a while they want to do something different. You okay whether and that's acceptable because whether it's they want to go open their own shop or they move or they go to another shop. I mean, you know, sometimes you just need a change, sometimes you just need a change of pace.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02To dedicate yourself to five years to something, and you know, their tattooing is gonna get nothing but better and better, but sometimes people just need a change of scenery.
SPEAKER_01Interesting, yeah, yeah. Uh so uh Sash says, What's the shop minimum? And Noe says, Where's the shop located in Corpus?
SPEAKER_02We are at 5017 Saratoga Boulevard now. So we're at the Regal Plaza, which is if anybody knows where the on Saratoga, where the Whataburger or the Smoothie King is, that's where we're at in that plaza there. Um I would say close to Staples and Saratoga where the big H E B plus is between between Everhardt and Staples, yeah.
SPEAKER_01On Saratoga. You'll find it.
SPEAKER_02Shop minimum, I don't know, I don't want to say the wrong answer, but I want to say it's somewhere like starting around 70. Everybody has different shop minimums. Okay, because they have different levels of experience.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay, so depending on the artists that determine the shop minimum.
SPEAKER_02Yep, but I would say like maybe 60 to 70 be would be like you know the shop minimum for certain artists.
SPEAKER_01And so do so, I I noticed that do some charge by the hour, or do they all charge by the hour now? Because it used to be like, oh, forty dollars, you get this or whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, so if we have events or we have like specials, yeah, you can definitely get something for $40. You can even get for $20 with the apprentice. Okay. Um, and then mostly the way that I see it, if somebody says it's by the hour, the way that I see it, okay, they'll charge you by the hour and that's that's fine. But some people can say, I'll give you this uh tattoo for this price, but in their head, as an artist, they know how long it'll take them to do it, right? So they're kind of charging you by the hour, but they're giving you a set price.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02So sometimes that's better because if you take a couple of breaks, or you know, maybe the person feels like they want to faint, or you never know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01That's real, right? That somebody will faint.
SPEAKER_02It's not like, oh my gosh, or somebody's always on their phone or something. Oh, crazy. Like there's customers that do that too.
SPEAKER_01Have you ever had like an ambulance come to your shop or something like that?
SPEAKER_02No, thank god. I've had people pass out before, like you know, even with the piercing, yeah, but they've always came right back, and then we're CPR certified, and you know, cool. Um, not that I'm a nurse or anything like that, that I would, you know, know what to do for the whole entire episode of that happened. Okay, but I know the minimals of you know what to look for before you need to call 911.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, let's talk. So so safety, what what what are the professional standards and safety that that you're concerned about for your shop? And like you said, all of you guys are CPR certified professionals standards.
SPEAKER_02I would say like everybody needs to be bloodborne pathogen certified also, so they can know how to not cross-contaminate, you know, they can bloodborne path.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, what is that?
SPEAKER_02Bloodborne pathogens, that's like a course that you can take so you can learn about bacteria, okay. Oh, infections, and you know, right, right. If blood is exposed, because you're using needles and all that. We don't want to get, you know, poked by a needle, or you know, stuff happens, you know, and you're not gonna sit there and ask the person, you know, like, are you healthy? Are you you know, are you safe? You don't ask people that you just treat everybody like you don't want to, you know, uh share blood, you know what I'm saying? Wow, so blood borne pathogen certification that is a whole course you can take that you read about it or you watch videos, or you can go someplace and take an actual course for sure. But nowadays it's really easy to do it online.
SPEAKER_01Um, but so that's one of the things that your artists yeah, they're certified. Certain okay, cool.
SPEAKER_02And then that that way they know uh how not to cost contaminate. Yeah, and just to take your time and you know, take your everybody's pretty experienced and professional. Um, you know, don't poke yourself or don't be moving too fast or you you know you interesting actually scratch yourself with a needle or something. So even me myself, you know, yeah, wow. Um wow have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01So obviously the needles gotta be sterilized and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, they're single used.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you you purchase those from a certain company or whatever? Yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER_02I purchased my piercing needles, but yeah, it's something that's pre-sterilized.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02And then you know, you just open them, use them on that that service for that person, and then dispose of them in a shot container.
SPEAKER_01Is there still a an age limit? Because I remember for tattoos?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you still have to be 18, okay.
SPEAKER_01And that is that state of Texas or US? Does it matter?
SPEAKER_02No, that's state of Texas, as far as I know. I'm sure I don't know the other states, but there's different uh regulations or something in different states, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's definitely got to be mindful of wow, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02In the state of Texas, you have to be 18 to get a tattoo. You can be a minor to get a piercing, but you have to have parental consent, parents have to be here, you have to have proper documentation, and then it's up to the piercer of which piercings that you want to be able to do on some people.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because me personally, like if somebody comes in and wants a tongue piercing and they're under 18, I'm not gonna do it. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I can't imagine getting my tongue. Oof.
SPEAKER_02I got my tongue pierced back when I was like 25. Oh wow, yeah, it was pretty crazy. I don't even know why I did that, but I did it and I wore it for a while.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it seemed like it was a trend, like it was right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was everybody had it back then. Now it's coming back.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no kidding. Do you see any trends right like now that are going on? Um I know I've seen a lot of the blackout tattoo like online.
SPEAKER_02I I don't know if that's uh the staples are in, you know, where people instead of getting a surface barbell, okay, uh curved barbell or something like that. Now those staples where they literally look like the shape of a staple, but they got diamonds or something on the ends.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02So those are better because if you're gonna get a surface piercing instead of using a curved barbell back in the day.
SPEAKER_01Surface piercing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like that's like when they non-cartilage well, it's like it'll be like right here on your just on your skin, like your cheek area.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um crazy. Sometimes I'll put them above their eyebrow.
SPEAKER_01Wow. But the staple is there any that is there any like unheard of, like like, oh, I want it like somewhere like like on my hands or something. Oh, are you kidding? Oh shoot.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, I'm not doing that. That's kind of crazy. Yeah, and then even me, like I know the frog eyes are out there and stuff like that. Um, but I don't I don't want to do that piercing. That's where you do it vertically. I'm sorry, horizontally on the top of your tongue, yeah. And that's that's to me, that's a little too close to veins and all that.
SPEAKER_01I can't imagine like like having one on the nose, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Septin that one's pretty popular, yeah.
SPEAKER_01A lot of a lot of people I like this fact. The coffee lady, um Susanna, she had one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, those are cute.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's nice.
SPEAKER_02Those are super cute, super cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so running a local business. Uh, we're at 37 minutes. Um running a local business. Uh we talked about entrepreneurship, challenging. So, what are some challenges of owning a shop? I guess we kind of talked about that a little bit. Uh building a team. You feel like you have a reputation in this city?
SPEAKER_02I I think I do. Yeah, yeah. That's a tricky, tricky uh question to ask you.
SPEAKER_01It is, right?
SPEAKER_02Because you don't want to come across across, like you know, but okay.
SPEAKER_01Well, how many times have people told you, hey, I've heard about your shop or whatever.
SPEAKER_02A lot, and I'm pretty proud of that because for me, only being in in Corpus, I've been here 10 years, but I think I've been open going on eight and a half years, somewhere on there. Because I know Steve and I were were dating for a year, we got engaged a year, and then during that time somewhere we opened a shop. So I want to say about eight and a half, going on nine years, maybe. But yeah, no, I go places and people like you know, they already see my wife, she recognized, she's like, Oh, is that that lady?
SPEAKER_01Yes, and I showed her she's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because in the valley, when I was there, it was something that you know was I guess how do you say when somebody passes down, you got to take it over. So that was the the marriage that I was in. So that was it wasn't given to me like you know, here you go, everything's paid. No, I had to make sure there was no bills paid at that point, so I had to make sure that that shop worked and kept it open. So I'm pretty proud of myself that I made it work for 30 years. But now that I'm in corpus, I didn't know anybody when I would got here. I knew my husband, yeah, and I was dating him at the time, so he introduced me to his friends, and that was fun. We had a really good time, you know. I got I got to meet a lot of people, but really I didn't know anybody. So for me to come over here and and bring powers tattoos over here to corpus and then have the response that we have in in the eight and a half, nine years, I feel like you know, I I must be doing something right.
SPEAKER_01That's cool.
SPEAKER_02I am my worst critic.
SPEAKER_01Really? Yeah, so you feel like you're too hard on yourself sometimes.
SPEAKER_02Sometimes, sometimes. That's uh yeah, sometimes, but you know, I I feel proud of us that you know we we're we're going forwards and not backwards.
SPEAKER_01For sure, for sure. Yeah, I always wonder, like, because there's other tattoo shops out there, and obviously in business in general, there's always competition or negative thoughts or negative words being said and stuff like that. What what are your thoughts on that aspect of owning a business? For negative thoughts, negative thoughts, or like, or are there tattoo shops that you've worked with before in the past, or you know, what are your relationships? What is your your relationship like with other shops locally?
SPEAKER_02Um, I I know a handful of other shops. I don't know all the shops, but I feel like you know, we try to be as polite as we can or we gotta support each other. I'm not the type of person that um I have rivals or anything like that with anybody. I don't I don't have enough time or energy for that. Yeah, but um there's a lot of good shops that you know I talk to owners um here in Corpus. I mean, I don't know if we hang out to where we could say we're we're best friends or anything, but yeah, um yeah, no, we we go to I go to other shops and especially now that I'm selling the gloves, I walk in there and that's a lot of fun because it kind of like eases the the awkwardness of looking. Yeah, and I get to go talk to the other stuff.
SPEAKER_01So the glove, the black gloves, right? They gotta be the black gloves, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I got black, purple, blue. Um I think I had some white, so yeah. So if you need a case of gloves, yeah, yeah, we carry them over here at Powers Tattoos.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what's up.
SPEAKER_02Um, but no, I mean the other shop owners who out and about, I feel like they've been the the response to me. I feel like they've been nice.
SPEAKER_01That's cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they've been nice, so that's cool.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Yeah, and so you opened this boutique as part of what so why'd you open the boutique?
SPEAKER_02Well, because in McAllen, back in the day, I had my tattoo shop, then I I opened the underworld boutique, and that was when my kids were small. Okay, my daughter was in high school in the drill team and stuff. So I really felt like I only I had it for five years, but I didn't really have the the attention span to like really be there. Okay, okay, and have it open and and you know, put all I could in there. So I wanted to try it again, and I've always wanted to own a boutique, and it's kind of like tattoo apparel, like oh yeah, dispensers kind of there's definitely a market like for for this style of yeah, for sure. Yeah, I I know that Corpus didn't have a lot of that um on the streets in the mall, they have it what they got, but on the streets, and so I don't know, I just wanted to try it again. Cool, and I'm trying it again, but I am seeing that the economy is not as good as it was back in the day, and everybody's ordering online. So when I had my boutique back in McAllen, we didn't have that. You didn't buy online. So I wish I could have done what I'm doing now back then because it would have been easier to buy in store, and now it's a little tricky, you know, um, because people buy online a lot.
SPEAKER_01Do people ask you, like, oh, do you are you online? Do they ever ask you?
SPEAKER_02No, I'm not online yet, but I want to.
SPEAKER_01No, but do they ask you that? Can I order? They do?
SPEAKER_02And I want to, and and I need to um reach out to people that can reach out to me that would be willing to help. Um, I'm you know, obviously I'm gonna start off with a small budget because I I'm not even online yet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So um, but I definitely want to learn that because if I get if I ever make that dream of me getting an RV and tattooing code, online needs to be with me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02You know, that's so cool. So I go to art walk. I'm trying to go like to the shrimpery, I'm trying to go to all the festivals.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you post up at the artwork to sell? Really? Wow.
SPEAKER_02I'm at a booth, yeah. I'm gonna be on People Street of Mesquite again this this coming March. Um, I had taken a couple of months off uh because of the grandkids or because of the holidays. I don't really do it during the holidays, it's cold out there, and it's super windy out there.
SPEAKER_01Well, shoot, the summer is hot too. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't mind getting out there sweating. I mean, I'll get I'd rather get out there and sweat all day and work. I've done that plenty of years already for artwork, but uh when it's cold and windy, that's what I don't like.
SPEAKER_01Wow, wow. Well, we're coming up on 45 minutes. Um, is there anything you want to share? Anything you want to talk about?
SPEAKER_02Um, I don't know. I'm just excited to be in corpus. I really love it here. Um, I just want to say, you know, I know there's like people ask about corpus, and there's some people that want to say negative things about corpus, but I personally love it. Nice coming from from I was born in Illinois. I lived in San Antonio all my elementary through high school years, and then I was in McAllen my college through 45, I guess, I don't know, 42, and now I'm here. But I really like Corpus. Wow, I think the the island is beautiful, the water, the bay. Um, we have so much potential here, and you know, and I really hope that the city does a lot of things that they're talking about because the growth here is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_02Um I'd rather be in a city that's growing than a city that can't grow anymore.
SPEAKER_01So I feel like the city is is growing.
SPEAKER_02I feel like it's definitely growing. Yeah, I'm excited to see that new synergy place coming out there on Broadfield or wherever that is. Yeah, I love to see the growth. So um, I just thank you for corpus. You know, like the people that are doing the right things out here, I think they're doing a good job. You know, I I really enjoy being here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot of like people like yourself that are just out here doing their thing, man.
SPEAKER_02And I've I've traveled a lot of places, you know. I haven't gone to like Europe or anything like that, but I've traveled traveled a lot of places in the United States, obviously Mexico and Puerto Rico. But I mean, when I'm somewhere, I'm like, man, I want to go home already, you know. So that's a lot to do. Wow. If you know what to do.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, do you have a do you have a favorite HUB?
SPEAKER_02Favorite H E B? Yeah, I mean I like that one right here in Saratoga because you can get whatever you need there.
SPEAKER_01Uh staples, staples and okay. HB Plus. Yeah, the H B plus.
SPEAKER_02Um I like the big ones. I like the big H E Bs. The flower bluff H E B is cool when you're when you're headed to the island, yeah. But in particular, like Alameda's cool too. I like that one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was thinking. I was thinking I can go to H E B and shop for a TV from H B Plus online. You can don't pick it up, curbside.
SPEAKER_02You can get furniture there, you can get jewelry now. Yeah, no. Hv is cool. Like like I said, my sister works for H E B.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, right on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so H B is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Hv. What what about what About a favorite taco spot or a favorite uh local place that you like?
SPEAKER_02Taco spot. I like uh vaquettos on on airs.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02I don't know why I like that little spot right now.
SPEAKER_01Airs and uh I'm bad with Galahart. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02Next to that little car wash.
SPEAKER_01Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_02Where the the new bus stop spot is okay, okay. Oh cross where it intertwines or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01By the by the old Peter Pipe, uh not Peter Pipe, uh Pizza Hut.
SPEAKER_02I don't know, but there is a Peter Piper airs between uh horn and gullah, but on airs. Okay, okay. The vaqueros. Shout out to vaquetos, yeah, shout out to the phone. Every time I come here, they got good food, the prices are awesome, nice and clean. Yeah, the food is delicious.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02And they have posole, that's what I like.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, not a lot of people carry that, so and that's the like uh menudo with meat, or which one is a posole?
SPEAKER_02Pozole has chicken, okay, and then the chickpeas or the hominy, I think.
SPEAKER_01Hummy, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like kind of I'm thinking chicken, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, it's like shredded chicken, and then yeah, but it's kind of like a menudo style soup.
SPEAKER_01Nice, I like that. Yeah, uh, so last thing, advice and perspective. Uh, is there any advice for first-time clients?
SPEAKER_02To get a tattoo or to get a tattoo?
SPEAKER_01Tattoo, either or.
SPEAKER_02Well, make sure you eat something, not right before you come, but make sure you eat something, you know, and you got you're you don't come on an empty stomach. Uh, make sure, and if you're gonna get a tattoo, if it's your first time, don't get something too big because you need to see how your body reacts to it and your mindset reacts to it. Um, piercing-wise, make sure you're ready for the healing process of a piercing. If you come in here and you've never gotten a piercing and you want a tongue piercing, that tongue's gonna swell up. If you come in here and you work in the refineries and you get an eyebrow piercing, you're gonna be in the dirt, you're gonna have your helmet on. So think about the things that that go along with your lifestyle before you get something done. If you work in a fast food restaurant and you get a lip piercing, you know what I'm saying? Like you're gonna be sitting there and and the if you work in the kitchen in particular, you're in the back and the steam and the hot stove, your piercing's not gonna heal.
SPEAKER_01That's good.
SPEAKER_02So you just gotta think about stuff, you know, before you get it. And the time of the year is important too.
SPEAKER_01Time of the year, really.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it's best to get it at certain time.
SPEAKER_02Well, a tattoo to me is always best to get it in the wintertime because it's true. Because you're not out in the sun, you're not out in the water. Not normally, but I mean, all all year round is fine, but just you know, um, you don't want to get a brand new tattoo and it'd be like on your leg and you have to wear your jeans, and then your tattoo's all sticky. You know what I mean? Like you just it's such a so you're thinking about the healing factor after.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, tattoo to get the tattoo, whatever you know, we'll we're gonna do that part. But the part you when you leave is what you got to think about. That also sets the tone of how your tattoo how your experience is gonna be.
SPEAKER_00Right on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I want to give you you have to know how to take care of your tattoo or your piercing, and and you know, if wherever you get it or whatever you're gonna get is gonna go along with your daily activities.
SPEAKER_01Wow, because it could get infected or whatever.
SPEAKER_02It might not be something that the shop does, it's something that that the person. Yeah, the care that you take.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, yeah, for sure. I forgot about that aspect, yeah, definitely. Yeah, because I have yeah, no, for sure. I've got a couple of tattoos on my arm, and I had a couple piercings, and I do remember that, like, dude, it's open skin. It's even with the piercing, too. Like, it's brand new poke in the cartilage.
SPEAKER_02And hey, but what about you? How did you get into what we can we do a couple of questions on you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_02How did you get into the podcast?
SPEAKER_01The podcast uh through the brand. I had a clothing brand. Okay, and I needed to generate more content for the brand, so I was like, Well, let me just do a podcast. And then I did that, had more content on the brand, and then it just kind of had a separate audience. That's when I just separated the two.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Yeah, um, people have told us they've just thrown it out there before. Here in the shop, they're like, Well, we should make a podcast for powers. Yeah, and I was like, How would that even work though? But I guess it'd be cool to interview customers that would be willing to say their story of why they're getting their tattoo or something.
SPEAKER_01For sure, like you can specialize in your in your craft, like you can have artists, you know, say if there's traveling artists, have them share their story, how maybe about their techniques or whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true. There's definitely a market for interview the clients that come through, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or or piercers, or uh, you know, their knowledge, your knowledge about it, and stuff like that. For sure. Yeah, yeah. Uh but everybody's getting there's everybody's getting in the podcast, and it's so crazy like nowadays. And it's it's you once you get past they say once you get up to 10 episodes and you haven't quit by then, you're you're past more.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. And you know what I mean. You have to look for how many followers or what your audience looks like, or oh yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01And the way the way I found my audience is through clips. So because this is long form what we're doing, it's like 40 we're at 45 minutes to almost an hour.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Most people won't listen for a whole hour, you know what I mean? So I put clips of each each uh episode, and that's so you go back and edit it. I go back and edit it. There's AI that I use called Opus Clip. I throw it in there and it kind of chops it up and tries to pick the best clips of that episode. Okay, and I'll kind of judge them. Okay, uh, that one looks good, I'll post it. Yeah, there's so there's a whole economy, a whole workflow that I have that goes behind it. But yeah, you'll definitely find your audience. Okay, and then two, you've already got an audience basically with your customers, and they'll hey I got a podcast. Oh, check it out.
SPEAKER_02That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Definitely.
SPEAKER_02No, yeah. So it looks like it's fun what you get to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I like it, definitely. And yeah, for sure. Uh, is there any last couple couple more questions on advice and perspective? Is there any advice for aspiring aspiring tattoo artists or piercers or any business owners?
SPEAKER_02Advice, let me see for like the young people trying to come up, yeah. Um I'm all for the old school and you know, like the people that that went through the old school process of tattooing and piercing, and it was a lot harder for us to learn back in the day. We didn't have the resources like YouTube and um digital stuff that you can buy that people can take home and do research. But now that that's out there, I would tell like the young people not to be scared to use it. Like the AI and this and that, like you know, all these apps, it makes it so much easier for these people to learn how to pierce or tattoo or whatever. Back in the day, you didn't have that. People would either teach each other or they would teach themselves, but you didn't even have a video to go look at, you just had to kind of figure it out. So it was a little harder, and people made it through. So we can make it through back then, but now there's so many resources that you can watch now. A lot of the old school people would say, you know, how the new new school generation people have it so much easier, but I mean that's not their fault. That's they're just they're just born into this new generation. So I would just say, like, if anybody's trying to tattoo Pierce, you know, try to do it by the by the books, do it by the regulations. I'm not saying, you know, be at your house and tattoo without a license. You know, for people like myself that we pay for a license, I would like to think that everybody would do it the right way, right? But don't be scared to use the tools that are out there. You can learn a lot of good stuff off YouTube from a lot of good artists. Just research who you're watching. You know, a lot of good piercers just research who you're watching. Nice. Look at their reviews, look at their following, look at you know the the health department uh inspections that they've had at their shops, make sure they're licensed, and then what you know, like study them.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. So you have so so you brought up one thing that I didn't know. You have to have a license.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, you have to have a tattoo. The shop has to have a license.
SPEAKER_01So the shop do the artists have to have licenses?
SPEAKER_02Not in the state of Texas. Um they they talk about doing that individually, uh licensing people, and I think in other states they do do that, but so far here they have not. Okay, so the shop itself has to have a license.
SPEAKER_01Texas, baby, you gotta love it.
SPEAKER_02So I have to be responsible, or anybody that is has a shop in Texas, the owners are responsible for the actions of the artist. Well, so you just have to you know make sure you pick good people to work for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, amazing.
SPEAKER_02And so, I mean it's not that hard, but you know, it's not that easy either. But it just it comes naturally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02It's yeah, you're used to the do a little small interview on people that come through and want to work.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. So nice. Uh uh last thing, what legacy um do you hope to leave your shop your shop to leave, or what legacy would you like to leave uh here in Corpus Christi?
SPEAKER_02Well, I I heard a saying one time when I was watching a show, and I I want to say if I say it right, um it's something where somebody said something like the business was built to last, but not outlast the owner. So when I heard that, I I've always wanted this business to out outlast me. And I would love for my son to take over this legacy.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure if he's ready for that. We've talked about it, but he's kind of doing his thing right now. He's got a family, he's got a shop he really likes that he's at. So that would be my number one choice for my son to come and take over the legacy. But if that doesn't happen, I'm okay with me knowing or anybody else knowing that I made a promise when my first husband passed. Excuse me, and I've came this long with this shop 30 years after he passed. And so I'm okay with that. So when when if you know when I do have to leave this world, if uh the shop only lasts a little bit until somebody just says, Okay, well, that's you know, that's it. I'm okay with that now.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_02But if the shop can live without me, I mean that'd be great too.
SPEAKER_00That'd be cool. Yeah, it'd be great too.
SPEAKER_02But I feel like the legacy would just be what I did while I was here. Nice, and people can just remember what I did while I was here, or what you know, the people that worked with me, we did as a team, you know. Yep, and I I had a uh good tattoo family. I've had a lot of people work for me, and a lot of people in McAllen own their own shops, and you know, they learned a lot, not necessarily straight from me, but they learn from each other, they learn from the environment. We went to conventions, so they learned from you know things that they saw. And so a lot of people have uh they've branched out to have their own shops because they worked with me. Because I'm always like, hey, you know, yeah, go open your own shop, you know. But after a certain amount of time, I want you to stay with me for a while. But I'm super proud of seeing the growth of people that hang out with me. Yeah, I like that. So cool. I like to help people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh sorry, yeah. Man, I know that was the last word. Uh this is the Mexican goodbye. You say goodbye and you keep talking. Uh I had a question. Um, so uh your customers, how do you you how do you get your customers now mainly? Is it walk-ins? Walk ins, yeah. It's social media now, social media, right?
SPEAKER_02Big time. Um, I do commercials with uh twins media. Okay, we they make some videos for me.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I saw your commercial. That's dope.
SPEAKER_02We we have commercial on social media, plus we get into like Bubba's. We have a commercial at Bubba's like here with Oh, I saw that. Wow, to have a commercial up there. Um, I'd like to be more involved, like with the Chamber of Commerce. Back in McAllen, I was with uh NHPO, okay, which is a national professional organization of it, was like I guess uh entrepreneurs or businesses. Yeah, so I like to mix with uh business uh luncheons and stuff like that. Just you know, go out and introduce myself to people.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's amazing, man.
SPEAKER_02I like to do the footwork, you know. That's why I like to go to art walk. I want to go to more rallies, more festivals. And while these guys are here working, I'm gonna be out there passing out cards and telling people to come in.
SPEAKER_01Wow, you know, so cool. Man, well, thanks a lot, you guys, for being in the chat, everybody uh that are still there. Two people for lasting this long. Thanks a lot, you guys. Uh Sherogan, one more time your address.
SPEAKER_02So before 5017 Saratoga Boulevard, Corpus Christi, uh powers tattoos and body piercing studio.
SPEAKER_01Nice. You guys visit if you want to get a tattoo or piercing. Um, and also check out the boutique. You guys are gonna, it's nice in here. We're actually sitting in it. She's got shirts and all kinds of stuff for the I guess the goth style people, which is which is definitely there's definitely a crowd in corpus.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like tattoo apparel, tattoo bike, biker apparel in here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, it's nice stuff, you guys. You like skulls and roses and the type of stuff that I like with Corpus Christi originals, you guys would like this. But, anyways, thanks a lot, you guys, for watching. Uh, stay tuned for the next uh uh the next Cupus of Coffee. Uh, shout out to Coffee Mug for the the the drink today. Uh thanks for having me. Try it out. Cheers. Cheers. Thanks a lot, you guys. Take it easy. Bye.
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