July 7, 2026 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tammy Harris always dreamed of making a living as an artist. After becoming a single mother, she traded that dream for factory work to support her daughter. Years later, she found her calling in an unlikely place: a tattoo shop.
Today, Tammy and her husband run their business with one guiding principle: people come first. Whether it's talking young customers out of tattoos they'll regret, creating deeply personal artwork that others refuse to do, or providing free restorative tattoos for breast cancer survivors, Tammy believes integrity matters more than profit. It's a remarkable story about art, ethics, and changing lives one tattoo at a time.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we're back with our American stories. Up next, we
have a story brought to us thanks to the Cincinnati
Area Better Business Bureau. Hammy Harris and her husband run
a tattoo shop in Cincinnati, and they were awarded the
BBB's Torch Award. It celebrates business owners for their ethics.
Here's Robbie with the story. Tammy Harris was born and
(00:33):
raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I went to Aiken High School. It was a vocational school,
so they had like back in the day, Oh my gosh,
it was amazing because they had like body art, cosmetology.
Commercial art is what I was in because I was
into art. Like seriously. My mom gave me my baby
book not too long ago, and it was the cutest
thing because I guess from the time I was born,
(00:57):
I've been an artist because she even wrote in there
like you know, what does she want to be when
she grows up or something and said artist. I was like,
Oh my gosh, that is so cute. So yeah, graduated
high school, got pregnant at seventeen, so I had a
baby when I got out of high school and I
had a full scholarship to go. At the time, it
(01:17):
was the best art college in America, which was in
San Francisco. But since I got pregnant, I realized it's
not about me no more. So that's when I started
working in a factory just to be able to take
care of her, because I didn't want to be on
welfare and have other people take care of my choices,
you know what I mean. So yeah, I just started
(01:38):
working in the factory, was taking care of my baby.
It was really hard because I was a single mom.
And then I decided to go to college because my
high school commercial art teacher was still contacting me and
trying to get me to go to college because he
got me the full ride scholarship, and he was really upset.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
When he found out I was pregnant and I wasn't
going to go. It's like, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Dude, but yeah, this thing comes first. So yeah, I
pretty much was going to school full time in the morning,
going home, taking care of my baby for a little bit,
trying to get a nap. And then I worked third
shift in the factory, so it was rough. So did
that for a year and then my second year of college,
(02:20):
I started in Like they said that they had job
placement once you graduated. So I was like, okay, that's
perfect because the factory that I worked in, it was
a good factory, but it was factory work.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Nothing fun.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I thought, okay, yeah, I get to, you know,
start a job that has something to do with with
what I love.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, it didn't turn out that way.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So the second year, they had a meeting with the
teacher and he was pretty much explaining that, you know,
the job placement and everything, blah blah, and I said, well,
can I ask you know what the job placement involves,
and like how much you get paid? Because at the
time the factory that I worked in, you made decent money,
especially for me to be gosh nineteen twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
He had the nerve to looking at me and said,
uh Kinkos.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I was like what what, Like, wait a minute, I
am spending all this money to go to college and
your job placement is making copies for people at Kinkos.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Like you have got to be kidding.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So he was wondering why I was getting upset, and
I'm like, dude, do you not understand like I am
working myself to death to pay for this and take
care of my baby, to try to make my life better.
And you're telling me that you're going to put me
in a job at Kinko's. When I make three times
that I'm out in the factory, So why am I
wasting my time?
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And that's when I quit there, and my high.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
School teacher got a hold of me and was so
upset because I quit, but I was like, dude, they're
just taking my money and using me, Like I'm not
okay with that. It was back in the factory that
Timmy found both a husband and an idea for a
new career path. So that's when I started thinking about
the tattooing process. I was like, oh, you know that
that would be a pretty cool way to kind of
(03:59):
put my arm to use, and it's cool. Back then,
it wasn't cool, but it was cool to me because
I got my first tattoo and I thought it was
the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Started going around to the tattoo shops and kind of
talking to all the tattoo owners about being an apprentice,
and they were extremely rude, like treated me like I
was just garbage and because I was a woman and
women didn't do tattoos twenty something years ago, so pretty
much like when you're young, you think that all tattoo
(04:30):
artists are good, all people that own tattoo shops are
good at tattooing, and that is so wrong. So we
went to tattoo shops and we got messed up. So
when you're not happy with your tattoo, that is the worst.
Like you should not be ashamed of something that you
permanently have on your body for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Like that is so not cool.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So it took us a long time to find somebody
that could fix the tattoos and cover up what we had.
So we spent a lot of time a lot of
money with him, and I became friends with his wife.
My husband became friends with him. We started hanging out
just we became friends. So, yeah, one night he calls
my husband. It's like three o'clock in the morning and
we're sleeping, getting ready to go to work in the
morning to the factory.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And my husband's like, what is he doing?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Call? Like, why is my tattoo guy calling me? And
I'm like, I answered the phone. So he answers the phone.
You know, I can hear the guy talking because it's
it's completely quiet, and you know, he said, hey, man,
you know, I've been thinking, do you want to, you know,
do an apprenticeship.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And my husband's like, dude, it's like three o'clock in
the morning.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I need to go to work in the morning. Like,
I'll call you back later and talk to you about it.
So I'm smacking him like do.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
It, do it, do it, and he's like, would you stop?
So yeah, I told he must send. You know. That
was perfect because you know, since I.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Couldn't get into it, he can get into it and
he can learn, and then once he gets good, he
can teach me. And that would be my way of
getting into it. And that's exactly what happened. He tattooed
for about two years. His first tattoo was on me,
and then two years later when I started tattooing, my
(06:02):
first tattoo.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Was on him and it went from there.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Man, We've been tattooing, gosh, almost every day for eighteen
nineteen years.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's been a good time, though. Man. We have so
many stories and.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Like most people, and I know a lot of people
know what I'm talking about because I've experienced too. Usually
when you walk into a tattoo shop, there's a little
young girl at the desk and she is pretty much
aggravated that you walked in and bothered her, you know
what I mean. So you get an attitude as soon
as you walk in the door, and you can just
feel that negative energy. You just feel like you're bothering people.
(06:42):
And it's like, this is a business, like you should
want me to come in and want to take my money,
Like okay, it's a lot of that. And just like
a lot of tattoo artists, they have that godlike mentality.
So the guy that taught my husband, he was like that.
He pretty much would say because somebody would come into
(07:03):
this tattoo shop and they would show us what they
wanted and we're like, oh, you know, that's a really
cool idea. You know, it meant something to them. It
was unique, and by the time they left they had
a completely different tattoo. And then they would come and
show us and we're like, well, I thought you wanted this,
and they said, oh yeah, well he talked me out
of it. It's like I cannot believe that, Like, why
(07:24):
would you let somebody talk you out of something that
you had your heart set on that meant something to you.
And it's normally it's because the tattoo artist scares them,
threatens them.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Just makes them feel like they don't know what they're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And what you're wanting is stupid and I don't want
to do it. It's like, no, this is permanently going
on somebody's body. You should be doing exactly what they
want to do. We put almost all of our tattoo
work on Facebook because that's how everybody sees our stuff.
But I've had people come in here and they're like, well,
I don't like everything in your portfolio. I just look
at him and I go, I don't like everything in my
(07:57):
portfolio either, But it's exactly what my client wanted.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
So like, I had a woman come in and.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
She got this huge forearm piece and it's like stick
figures in different colors.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
It was her kid's drawing.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It was the cutest thing because her kid drew it
and it was of their family. So I'm like, what,
like if somebody saw that, they'd be like, oh my god,
somebody messed them up, you know what I mean. But
that's exactly what she wanted and it has meaning to them. Like,
don't judge somebody's tattoos just because you think it's garbage,
because that could be exactly what they wanted.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You don't know, you don't know, And what a voice
we're listening to, and we're listening to Tammy Harris share
the story of her going from being a single mom
and just doing what she had to do to take
care of her baby, work a late shift in a factory,
to pursuing her dream and it wasn't a gig at Kinkos,
it was art and ultimately being a tattoo artist, but
(08:52):
not an elite, looking down, snobbish tattoo artist that says
this is the way, the one that uses their artistic
talents too well take care of the wishes and dreams
of the people getting tattooed. When we come back, more
of Tammy Harris's beautiful voice here on our American stories,
(09:39):
and we're back with our American stories and with Tammy
Harris's story. Before the break, Tammy was explaining about how
the customer comes first at her tattoo shop, Deviant Designs.
Here's Tammy again on what it takes to run an
ethical tattoo shop and put people over profit.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So we don't like the tattoo younger people where it's
harder for them to cover it up because young people
they don't think about the future, you know what I mean.
So me and my husband almost have to be like
mom and dad when they come in, so they'll come in,
and I mean, this is like sixteen, seventeen and eighteen
where their parents bring them in and you can tell
the parents are kind of like they want to get
(10:21):
their first tattoos where everybody can see them, so forearms hands.
I've had people wanting their necks for their first tattoo.
I'm like, you're out of your mind? What are you thinking?
And the first thing we ask him is is what
do you do for a living? And if they're still
in school, I'm like, well, what are you planning on
doing when you get out of high school?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You have to think about this stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Because this one kid, and this is like when I
was first learning, So this is fifteen, sixteen years ago.
He came in and his mom was with the mean
you'd tell his mom wasn't too excited about it. And
he was sixteen, no, he might have been seventeen. So
we ask him, you know, what do you want? And
he wanted writing across his knuckles like gang looking, And
(11:04):
I was like, what wait what, I asked him. You know,
what do you do for a living?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Oh, I don't do anything. I'm still in school. And
I'm like, OK, hey, well, what are you planning on doing?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
He says, well, Coastguard? I want to go onto Coastguard.
I said, dude, would you just think for one minute?
He's like, what do you mean? I said, any military police,
any of those fields. They don't want you looking like
a gang member. Like think, think for a minute, like
(11:33):
just it's really not that hard. And another thing that
kids don't understand is, yes, tattoos are more acceptable, but
it depends on who your boss is. So if your
boss likes tattoos, you're cool. If your boss does not
like tattoos, then you're gonna have to wear long sleeves
the whole time you work there in the summer.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
When it's hot. You know what I mean. I'm like,
that's think for a minute. It's really not that hard
to think.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But that mom that came in with the kid with
the knuckles, because what we did, and we do this
to a lot of people if they're not sure. So
you know how we do a stencil The stuff that
we use to put the stencils on. It'll stay on
for a couple of days. So we'll put it on
them and say, now go home, get used to it
being there. Ask your family, ask your friends, like what
(12:19):
do you think to see everybody's reaction, and if you
still want it in two days, then come back and.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Talk to us. Yeah. His mom called us the next day,
thank you so much. He doesn't want to get it now,
and it was like, yes, now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
They can go to another tattoo shop and get it
right after we talked to him, and that's fine, but
I like to sleep at night, so I had. He
was nineteen, he come in the shop. Never met him before.
He just came in and he says it was around
Mother's Day. So he says, I want to get a tattoo.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
From my mom.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And I'm like, oh, that's cool, Like where are you
thinking about getting and he says I want to do
like a cancer ripping for and I'm like, oh that's sweet.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yes, I said, okay, where are you wanting to get it?
And he real big on his neck.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So I just kind of looked at him and I smiled,
and then I look over at my husband. My husband's
already laughing because he knows what I'm going to say.
And I said, what do you do for a living?
He said, oh, I got a good job. You want
to worry about that?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, I'm good. And I said, well where do you work? Wendy's?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I just looked over at my husband, and my
husband is dying. I was like, boy, you really.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Think Wendy's is a good job?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Like no, I said, And he said, well, if you
don't want to do what, I understand Like I said,
it's it's not that I don't want to do it.
Here's the thing. I'm a mom, I said. And I'm
telling you right now, if my daughter came home with
this huge tattoo on her neck, I'm going to beat
her and then I'm going to find out who did
(13:51):
it to her, and I'm going to beat there. And
he started laughing and I just looked at him. I said,
tell me I'm wrong. He said, no, are you probably right?
I was like, boy, I know I'm right, Like, don't
put it on your arm, Like, put it somewhere, don't.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Why are you going straight to your neck?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
He just kind of laughed and like we were just
messing with him. Then he finally left. Me and my
husband were like, he probably went down the street and
got it. But Mama ain't mad at me because I'm like,
I don't want them coming and yelling at me.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
No, no, no, no no. I don't want no no
mad mama bears coming at me.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It ain't happening because I'm one of them. But I mean,
you have to have that relationship with everywhere any were
they know where you're coming from, you know what I mean, Like,
it's no shock when I look at him, like, don't
make me whoop you because I was so whoopy. Like
(14:48):
I was explaining to somebody the other day, I said,
what really doesn't make sense to me, is it's your
name walking around. Like when we do a tattoo on somebody,
if they have a good experience, they're happy, they're happy
with the price.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
They will refer all of their family, all of their friends.
So your clients hell just quadrupled in one tattoo.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So why would you want to piss that person off,
rip them off, be rude to them Because it's like,
if you have a good tattoo, a couple people hear
about it. If you have a bad tattoo, everybody hears
about it. So it's like, I just don't understand the thinking.
But I mean, that's good for me and my husband.
Though all these other tattoo artists keep treating people like crap,
you just keep sending them right over here.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
But the one thing that I do, my husband doesn't do.
That just blew my mind. So I did this.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Probably I started it like four years ago. So the
women that have missectomies. I had a woman come in
and like it was her and a bunch of friends
and they were all getting tattooed, and she was explaining
to me that she had a missectomy and like apparently
she had to have so many different surgeries to get
it right, and then she never got the nipples tattooed
(16:02):
on because that's that's the way they do it. And
I'm like, oh really. She asked me, She was like,
do you think you can do that? And I was like, oh, like.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I've never done it before.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And I'm like, oh god, like that's got to be perfect,
like you have to get the colors right, the shape,
the size, like, oh my goodness. So I told her,
I said, you know what, I'll give it a shot.
I've never done it before, I said, but I'll do
it for free. It's like, I'm not going to lie
to you. I'm scared to death, and she just lashes, Oh,
I know you'll.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Do it and you won't have any problems.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I'm like, okay, because her thing was she didn't just
want it to look like a sticker on her. So
when she came in, it was hilarious because my daughter
was working the desk at the time. So whenever I
do that, my husband gets to stay home for the day,
so he I always tell all the girls, like, well,
my husband thanks you for his day off. He gets
to stay home because he feels like that's disrespectful to me.
(16:51):
So yeah, but the lady comes in and she just
takes her top off, and I'm like, okay, Like she's not.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Shy at all.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
But what I've learned is the women that go through
that it's not personal to them anymore. It's not theirs
to begin with, so it's completely different. So it's so
funny because I have circle templates and then I have
a laser level so I do the laser leveler. That
(17:16):
way I know they're perfectly even, and I mark where
I think they should be, and I take the circle
template and I draw off the circles and then have
them look at it and you know, is it the size?
Like does that look like what they used to look like?
Because this girl she didn't even remember, like it's been
that long. She was like to me, I don't even
remember what they used to look like. I'm like, oh crap,
(17:36):
Like this.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Is not easy.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
So I drew it all on and then I tell her,
I'm like, okay, go show my daughter, like does that
look natural? And my daughter goes, they're too high. That
doesn't look natural, Like you got to bring them down
a little bit. So I'm like okay, So we wipe
them off, do the whole process again, and then it
was good. So it's like okay, so yeah, and then
at the most a half an hour to do both.
It's seriously the easiest thing. She freaked out, like she
(18:01):
was seriously standing in front of the mirror.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Like this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Oh my god, it changed her life. I was like,
oh my gosh, just seeing how it took her from
being so insecure.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
She was herself again. It freaked me out. So then
the next.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Girl that I did it was one of my clients.
I think it was her aunt I think that's how
they're related. Has no tattoos at all. So what happened
to her was she went through the surgeries and then
by this time it came time for her to get
the tattoos done, her insurance ran out, and I can't
(18:41):
remember how much she said that they wanted, but it
was a pretty good penny. So her niece gave her
my info because I was telling them like, no, I
do that for free, Like, tell her to get a
hold of me.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So she got a hold of me.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
She came in and we did it, and she cried.
She was like, no, I don't feel comfortable. I won't
even date, like she hadn't dated in a couple of.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Years because of it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So yeah, I did the tattoos on her like that
completely changed her life.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
And the last time I seen.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Her, she said grabbing going on so many dates, And
I was like, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And a great job on the production by Robbie and
a special thanks to Tammy Harris for sharing her story
with us, all of it, and stories of her customers too.
If you put the people first, the profit will follow.
I can't tell you how many times I've used people
precisely because they tell me to go home, and if
there wasn't a repair that needed to be done, and
(19:37):
ethics and profit are not at war, and they're not
at odds. In fact, they compliment each other. Tammy Harris's
story and a special thanks to the Cincinnati Area Better
Business Bureau for providing us with that story. Tammy Harris's
story a beautiful one. Here are now American story.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
An undo, an
And we're back with our American stories. Up next, we
have a story brought to us thanks to the Cincinnati
Area Better Business Bureau. Hammy Harris and her husband run
a tattoo shop in Cincinnati, and they were awarded the
BBB's Torch Award. It celebrates business owners for their ethics.
Here's Robbie with the story. Tammy Harris was born and
(00:33):
raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I went to Aiken High School. It was a vocational school,
so they had like back in the day, Oh my gosh,
it was amazing because they had like body art, cosmetology.
Commercial art is what I was in because I was
into art. Like seriously. My mom gave me my baby
book not too long ago, and it was the cutest
thing because I guess from the time I was born,
(00:57):
I've been an artist because she even wrote in there
like you know, what does she want to be when
she grows up or something and said artist. I was like,
Oh my gosh, that is so cute. So yeah, graduated
high school, got pregnant at seventeen, so I had a
baby when I got out of high school and I
had a full scholarship to go. At the time, it
(01:17):
was the best art college in America, which was in
San Francisco. But since I got pregnant, I realized it's
not about me no more. So that's when I started
working in a factory just to be able to take
care of her, because I didn't want to be on
welfare and have other people take care of my choices,
you know what I mean. So yeah, I just started
(01:38):
working in the factory, was taking care of my baby.
It was really hard because I was a single mom.
And then I decided to go to college because my
high school commercial art teacher was still contacting me and
trying to get me to go to college because he
got me the full ride scholarship, and he was really upset.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
When he found out I was pregnant and I wasn't
going to go. It's like, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Dude, but yeah, this thing comes first. So yeah, I
pretty much was going to school full time in the morning,
going home, taking care of my baby for a little bit,
trying to get a nap. And then I worked third
shift in the factory, so it was rough. So did
that for a year and then my second year of college,
(02:20):
I started in Like they said that they had job
placement once you graduated. So I was like, okay, that's
perfect because the factory that I worked in, it was
a good factory, but it was factory work.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Nothing fun.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I thought, okay, yeah, I get to, you know,
start a job that has something to do with with
what I love.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, it didn't turn out that way.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So the second year, they had a meeting with the
teacher and he was pretty much explaining that, you know,
the job placement and everything, blah blah, and I said, well,
can I ask you know what the job placement involves,
and like how much you get paid? Because at the
time the factory that I worked in, you made decent money,
especially for me to be gosh nineteen twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
He had the nerve to looking at me and said,
uh Kinkos.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I was like what what, Like, wait a minute, I
am spending all this money to go to college and
your job placement is making copies for people at Kinkos.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Like you have got to be kidding.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So he was wondering why I was getting upset, and
I'm like, dude, do you not understand like I am
working myself to death to pay for this and take
care of my baby, to try to make my life better.
And you're telling me that you're going to put me
in a job at Kinko's. When I make three times
that I'm out in the factory, So why am I
wasting my time?
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And that's when I quit there, and my high.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
School teacher got a hold of me and was so
upset because I quit, but I was like, dude, they're
just taking my money and using me, Like I'm not
okay with that. It was back in the factory that
Timmy found both a husband and an idea for a
new career path. So that's when I started thinking about
the tattooing process. I was like, oh, you know that
that would be a pretty cool way to kind of
(03:59):
put my arm to use, and it's cool. Back then,
it wasn't cool, but it was cool to me because
I got my first tattoo and I thought it was
the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Started going around to the tattoo shops and kind of
talking to all the tattoo owners about being an apprentice,
and they were extremely rude, like treated me like I
was just garbage and because I was a woman and
women didn't do tattoos twenty something years ago, so pretty
much like when you're young, you think that all tattoo
(04:30):
artists are good, all people that own tattoo shops are
good at tattooing, and that is so wrong. So we
went to tattoo shops and we got messed up. So
when you're not happy with your tattoo, that is the worst.
Like you should not be ashamed of something that you
permanently have on your body for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Like that is so not cool.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So it took us a long time to find somebody
that could fix the tattoos and cover up what we had.
So we spent a lot of time a lot of
money with him, and I became friends with his wife.
My husband became friends with him. We started hanging out
just we became friends. So, yeah, one night he calls
my husband. It's like three o'clock in the morning and
we're sleeping, getting ready to go to work in the
morning to the factory.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And my husband's like, what is he doing?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Call? Like, why is my tattoo guy calling me? And
I'm like, I answered the phone. So he answers the phone.
You know, I can hear the guy talking because it's
it's completely quiet, and you know, he said, hey, man,
you know, I've been thinking, do you want to, you know,
do an apprenticeship.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And my husband's like, dude, it's like three o'clock in
the morning.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I need to go to work in the morning. Like,
I'll call you back later and talk to you about it.
So I'm smacking him like do.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
It, do it, do it, and he's like, would you stop?
So yeah, I told he must send. You know. That
was perfect because you know, since I.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Couldn't get into it, he can get into it and
he can learn, and then once he gets good, he
can teach me. And that would be my way of
getting into it. And that's exactly what happened. He tattooed
for about two years. His first tattoo was on me,
and then two years later when I started tattooing, my
(06:02):
first tattoo.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Was on him and it went from there.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Man, We've been tattooing, gosh, almost every day for eighteen
nineteen years.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's been a good time, though. Man. We have so
many stories and.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Like most people, and I know a lot of people
know what I'm talking about because I've experienced too. Usually
when you walk into a tattoo shop, there's a little
young girl at the desk and she is pretty much
aggravated that you walked in and bothered her, you know
what I mean. So you get an attitude as soon
as you walk in the door, and you can just
feel that negative energy. You just feel like you're bothering people.
(06:42):
And it's like, this is a business, like you should
want me to come in and want to take my money,
Like okay, it's a lot of that. And just like
a lot of tattoo artists, they have that godlike mentality.
So the guy that taught my husband, he was like that.
He pretty much would say because somebody would come into
(07:03):
this tattoo shop and they would show us what they
wanted and we're like, oh, you know, that's a really
cool idea. You know, it meant something to them. It
was unique, and by the time they left they had
a completely different tattoo. And then they would come and
show us and we're like, well, I thought you wanted this,
and they said, oh yeah, well he talked me out
of it. It's like I cannot believe that, Like, why
(07:24):
would you let somebody talk you out of something that
you had your heart set on that meant something to you.
And it's normally it's because the tattoo artist scares them,
threatens them.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Just makes them feel like they don't know what they're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And what you're wanting is stupid and I don't want
to do it. It's like, no, this is permanently going
on somebody's body. You should be doing exactly what they
want to do. We put almost all of our tattoo
work on Facebook because that's how everybody sees our stuff.
But I've had people come in here and they're like, well,
I don't like everything in your portfolio. I just look
at him and I go, I don't like everything in my
(07:57):
portfolio either, But it's exactly what my client wanted.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
So like, I had a woman come in and.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
She got this huge forearm piece and it's like stick
figures in different colors.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
It was her kid's drawing.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It was the cutest thing because her kid drew it
and it was of their family. So I'm like, what,
like if somebody saw that, they'd be like, oh my god,
somebody messed them up, you know what I mean. But
that's exactly what she wanted and it has meaning to them. Like,
don't judge somebody's tattoos just because you think it's garbage,
because that could be exactly what they wanted.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You don't know, you don't know, And what a voice
we're listening to, and we're listening to Tammy Harris share
the story of her going from being a single mom
and just doing what she had to do to take
care of her baby, work a late shift in a factory,
to pursuing her dream and it wasn't a gig at Kinkos,
it was art and ultimately being a tattoo artist, but
(08:52):
not an elite, looking down, snobbish tattoo artist that says
this is the way, the one that uses their artistic
talents too well take care of the wishes and dreams
of the people getting tattooed. When we come back, more
of Tammy Harris's beautiful voice here on our American stories,
(09:39):
and we're back with our American stories and with Tammy
Harris's story. Before the break, Tammy was explaining about how
the customer comes first at her tattoo shop, Deviant Designs.
Here's Tammy again on what it takes to run an
ethical tattoo shop and put people over profit.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
So we don't like the tattoo younger people where it's
harder for them to cover it up because young people
they don't think about the future, you know what I mean.
So me and my husband almost have to be like
mom and dad when they come in, so they'll come in,
and I mean, this is like sixteen, seventeen and eighteen
where their parents bring them in and you can tell
the parents are kind of like they want to get
(10:21):
their first tattoos where everybody can see them, so forearms hands.
I've had people wanting their necks for their first tattoo.
I'm like, you're out of your mind? What are you thinking?
And the first thing we ask him is is what
do you do for a living? And if they're still
in school, I'm like, well, what are you planning on
doing when you get out of high school?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You have to think about this stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Because this one kid, and this is like when I
was first learning, So this is fifteen, sixteen years ago.
He came in and his mom was with the mean
you'd tell his mom wasn't too excited about it. And
he was sixteen, no, he might have been seventeen. So
we ask him, you know, what do you want? And
he wanted writing across his knuckles like gang looking, And
(11:04):
I was like, what wait what, I asked him. You know,
what do you do for a living?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Oh, I don't do anything. I'm still in school. And
I'm like, OK, hey, well, what are you planning on doing?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
He says, well, Coastguard? I want to go onto Coastguard.
I said, dude, would you just think for one minute?
He's like, what do you mean? I said, any military police,
any of those fields. They don't want you looking like
a gang member. Like think, think for a minute, like
(11:33):
just it's really not that hard. And another thing that
kids don't understand is, yes, tattoos are more acceptable, but
it depends on who your boss is. So if your
boss likes tattoos, you're cool. If your boss does not
like tattoos, then you're gonna have to wear long sleeves
the whole time you work there in the summer.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
When it's hot. You know what I mean. I'm like,
that's think for a minute. It's really not that hard
to think.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But that mom that came in with the kid with
the knuckles, because what we did, and we do this
to a lot of people if they're not sure. So
you know how we do a stencil The stuff that
we use to put the stencils on. It'll stay on
for a couple of days. So we'll put it on
them and say, now go home, get used to it
being there. Ask your family, ask your friends, like what
(12:19):
do you think to see everybody's reaction, and if you
still want it in two days, then come back and.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Talk to us. Yeah. His mom called us the next day,
thank you so much. He doesn't want to get it now,
and it was like, yes, now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
They can go to another tattoo shop and get it
right after we talked to him, and that's fine, but
I like to sleep at night, so I had. He
was nineteen, he come in the shop. Never met him before.
He just came in and he says it was around
Mother's Day. So he says, I want to get a tattoo.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
From my mom.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And I'm like, oh, that's cool, Like where are you
thinking about getting and he says I want to do
like a cancer ripping for and I'm like, oh that's sweet.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yes, I said, okay, where are you wanting to get it?
And he real big on his neck.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So I just kind of looked at him and I smiled,
and then I look over at my husband. My husband's
already laughing because he knows what I'm going to say.
And I said, what do you do for a living?
He said, oh, I got a good job. You want
to worry about that?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, I'm good. And I said, well where do you work? Wendy's?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I just looked over at my husband, and my
husband is dying. I was like, boy, you really.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Think Wendy's is a good job?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Like no, I said, And he said, well, if you
don't want to do what, I understand Like I said,
it's it's not that I don't want to do it.
Here's the thing. I'm a mom, I said. And I'm
telling you right now, if my daughter came home with
this huge tattoo on her neck, I'm going to beat
her and then I'm going to find out who did
(13:51):
it to her, and I'm going to beat there. And
he started laughing and I just looked at him. I said,
tell me I'm wrong. He said, no, are you probably right?
I was like, boy, I know I'm right, Like, don't
put it on your arm, Like, put it somewhere, don't.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Why are you going straight to your neck?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
He just kind of laughed and like we were just
messing with him. Then he finally left. Me and my
husband were like, he probably went down the street and
got it. But Mama ain't mad at me because I'm like,
I don't want them coming and yelling at me.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
No, no, no, no no. I don't want no no
mad mama bears coming at me.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
It ain't happening because I'm one of them. But I mean,
you have to have that relationship with everywhere any were
they know where you're coming from, you know what I mean, Like,
it's no shock when I look at him, like, don't
make me whoop you because I was so whoopy. Like
(14:48):
I was explaining to somebody the other day, I said,
what really doesn't make sense to me, is it's your
name walking around. Like when we do a tattoo on somebody,
if they have a good experience, they're happy, they're happy
with the price.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
They will refer all of their family, all of their friends.
So your clients hell just quadrupled in one tattoo.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So why would you want to piss that person off,
rip them off, be rude to them Because it's like,
if you have a good tattoo, a couple people hear
about it. If you have a bad tattoo, everybody hears
about it. So it's like, I just don't understand the thinking.
But I mean, that's good for me and my husband.
Though all these other tattoo artists keep treating people like crap,
you just keep sending them right over here.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
But the one thing that I do, my husband doesn't do.
That just blew my mind. So I did this.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Probably I started it like four years ago. So the
women that have missectomies. I had a woman come in
and like it was her and a bunch of friends
and they were all getting tattooed, and she was explaining
to me that she had a missectomy and like apparently
she had to have so many different surgeries to get
it right, and then she never got the nipples tattooed
(16:02):
on because that's that's the way they do it. And
I'm like, oh really. She asked me, She was like,
do you think you can do that? And I was like, oh, like.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
I've never done it before.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
And I'm like, oh god, like that's got to be perfect,
like you have to get the colors right, the shape,
the size, like, oh my goodness. So I told her,
I said, you know what, I'll give it a shot.
I've never done it before, I said, but I'll do
it for free. It's like, I'm not going to lie
to you. I'm scared to death, and she just lashes, Oh,
I know you'll.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Do it and you won't have any problems.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I'm like, okay, because her thing was she didn't just
want it to look like a sticker on her. So
when she came in, it was hilarious because my daughter
was working the desk at the time. So whenever I
do that, my husband gets to stay home for the day,
so he I always tell all the girls, like, well,
my husband thanks you for his day off. He gets
to stay home because he feels like that's disrespectful to me.
(16:51):
So yeah, but the lady comes in and she just
takes her top off, and I'm like, okay, Like she's not.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Shy at all.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
But what I've learned is the women that go through
that it's not personal to them anymore. It's not theirs
to begin with, so it's completely different. So it's so
funny because I have circle templates and then I have
a laser level so I do the laser leveler. That
(17:16):
way I know they're perfectly even, and I mark where
I think they should be, and I take the circle
template and I draw off the circles and then have
them look at it and you know, is it the size?
Like does that look like what they used to look like?
Because this girl she didn't even remember, like it's been
that long. She was like to me, I don't even
remember what they used to look like. I'm like, oh crap,
(17:36):
Like this.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Is not easy.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
So I drew it all on and then I tell her,
I'm like, okay, go show my daughter, like does that
look natural? And my daughter goes, they're too high. That
doesn't look natural, Like you got to bring them down
a little bit. So I'm like okay, So we wipe
them off, do the whole process again, and then it
was good. So it's like okay, so yeah, and then
at the most a half an hour to do both.
It's seriously the easiest thing. She freaked out, like she
(18:01):
was seriously standing in front of the mirror.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Like this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Oh my god, it changed her life. I was like,
oh my gosh, just seeing how it took her from
being so insecure.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
She was herself again. It freaked me out. So then
the next.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Girl that I did it was one of my clients.
I think it was her aunt I think that's how
they're related. Has no tattoos at all. So what happened
to her was she went through the surgeries and then
by this time it came time for her to get
the tattoos done, her insurance ran out, and I can't
(18:41):
remember how much she said that they wanted, but it
was a pretty good penny. So her niece gave her
my info because I was telling them like, no, I
do that for free, Like, tell her to get a
hold of me.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So she got a hold of me.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
She came in and we did it, and she cried.
She was like, no, I don't feel comfortable. I won't
even date, like she hadn't dated in a couple of.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Years because of it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So yeah, I did the tattoos on her like that
completely changed her life.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
And the last time I seen.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Her, she said grabbing going on so many dates, And
I was like, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And a great job on the production by Robbie and
a special thanks to Tammy Harris for sharing her story
with us, all of it, and stories of her customers too.
If you put the people first, the profit will follow.
I can't tell you how many times I've used people
precisely because they tell me to go home, and if
there wasn't a repair that needed to be done, and
(19:37):
ethics and profit are not at war, and they're not
at odds. In fact, they compliment each other. Tammy Harris's
story and a special thanks to the Cincinnati Area Better
Business Bureau for providing us with that story. Tammy Harris's
story a beautiful one. Here are now American story.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
An undo, an
Host
Lee Habeeb
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