Storyline Ink Has a New Home!

I never imagined that our family would have a second home, although I did hope that if we were to ever were to have a second home that it would be by a lake! That being said, having a Tattoo House must be just as cool as a lake house right? This has been a long journey for my family and I, but we are so, so happy to finally be able to invite you into our home and share our space with you! I want to share what this process has looked like for us and also share some pictures with you!

Let’s Rewind to August 2023

I felt like I had failed as a tattoo artist and business owner. I was burnt out, exhausted, emotional, and like Tolkien once wrote, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” I wasn’t sure if I would ever tattoo again. Although so many around me told me that I had talents, gifts, and God-given abilities, I struggled to believe it myself. It is wild how the voices of a whispering few can overpower the voices of a shouting many. Maybe you can relate to this? Maybe the whispering voices in your mind overpower the shouting encouragements of those who love you as well?

October 2023

I was starting to heal. I was starting to recover. I was starting to believe in myself again. That is when some good friends of ours reached out to me. They believed in my abilities and in me as a person. They offered their rental to me to use as a tattoo studio if I was interested. After much thought and consideration, my husband and I said yes and jumped into this process of creating something new together. We thought that maybe, just maybe, we might get to launch our new business together before the end of the year. We were right and wrong.

December 2023

We soon realized through working with our local health department that it was easy to start a business locally, but through the state, it was not. The money that we had saved up was gone and we felt like we had reached the end of our journey with this new business. That is until a good friend, Kylie Towns, owner of a local salon (Elora Belle Salon) invited me into her salon to tattoo. Did she have a body art license with our health department? No……but do you know what she did? She made it happen for me. It breathed so much life into me to have a fellow female business woman to say the words “I belive in you”. This was what helped fuel me and kept my business afloat and moving forward.

February 2024

By this time we had submitted the required architectural drawings of our property to the state as we were changing our building from residential use to commercial use. Our wait for the State to respond started.

April 2024

Still waiting on the state. Their self-imposed “deadline” for responding to us has come and gone.

May 2024

Still Waiting on the State.

June 2024

Still Waiting on the State.

July 2024

The State let us know that we needed a parking pad with specific dimensions to accommodate a van-accessible handicap parking space. We set everything up to have the concrete poured. A company put the forms up to pour the concrete. Then the State came out to inspect it prior to pouring. It was approved and the following week, the pad was poured and painted.

July 31st 2024

The State came out for our final inspection and we passed “with flying colors”. Yay!

August 5th 2024

Storyline Ink has it’s first official full business day! Enjoy some pictures of our Tattoo House below!