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April 30, 2007

Ink and needles | A chat with John Biswell, founder of John Biswell Tattoos in Portland.

Founded: October 2006
Employees: Biswell
Startup costs: $35,000
Projected revenue, year one: $50,000
Projected revenue, year two: $60,000
Contact: 822-9914
24 Exchange St., Ste. 213, Portland 04101
www.biswelltattoos.com

So, you opened in October?
Yup, middle of October, about the slowest part of the year for this business.

Why is that?
Well, probably because it's cold and people don't have much money for themselves. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, people are all about spending money on family and thinking about others, and tattooing is a personal-gift-to-yourself sort of thing.

When is the busy season?
The busiest time is the summer. As it is right now, things are going well so I don't need to worry. I've gotten a few walk-ins, but I mostly work with my established clients.

How did you get started tattooing?
Through school I was always involved with art, at Deering High School. When I got out of high school, I had a big knapsack full of sketchbooks. When I heard there was a shop I ran right down there and showed them my stuff. My job was to redraw anything that was on the wall [for a client.]

How did you learn to do tattoos?
I was not taught very formally ˆ— I was tattooing and running the shop within two weeks. That was not how it was supposed to be. But that was early nineties. Everything in Portland has changed so much since those years. It's something that should take a good five years to learn from a proper teacher.

Did you know what you were doing at first?
I was shown the basics of the machines, and I was lucky enough to be able to draw and I had a lot of friends, so I tattooed a lot of people right off.

When did you decide to go out on your own?
I've always wanted to open my own business. It's just been a slow development over time. I started a list of things years ago so I would just buy things every month. A lot of equipment, books, pictures. So now I have my shop and everything's paid for.

How did you learn about running a business?
Well I had run other people's shops and then I did take some classes up at SCORE. Those fellows are really helpful. When I started being offered management positions at shops I realized I was getting closer to the time [when I could open my own shop].

Do you have a particular style or specialty?
The last two years I've worked mostly with traditional Asian and American styles of tattooing. For Americana, that's anytime you've seen an old sailor with an eagle or an angel. And Asian styles have a lot based on the Edo period ˆ— block prints, samurai, koi fish. Now I'm integrating a little more complexity as far as the colors and subject matters.

What's the process like?
Generally somebody will come in and they'll have some idea of what they want. Some people just say, "I want a lot of color and I want it on my shoulder." Some people have a direct subject matter ˆ— "I want a koi fish," or whatever. And then we go back and forth about ideas. I try to do a couple sketches to get an idea. It's a lot of drawing, color studies.

How long does it take?
Some people will want just a little tiny tattoo. It will just take 10 minutes or a half-hour. Then other people want to do a sleeve [of tattoos on their arms], which takes several sessions. A session can be on average about four and a half hours ˆ— that's about where a client and myself get tired.

How many projects are you working on now?
I must have 30 or 40 projects going on, somewhere in there.

How much do you charge?
I charge $150 an hour, or $450 per session plus a $50 deposit.

What are your plans for the business?<.b>
I'm just gonna make really, really good tattoos. That's my plan. Just pay my bills and do artwork. Now that I own my own shop, I can schedule drawing time into my days, and I can draw at home. And I get to spend more time with my daughter, and that's very important.

New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to kelson@mainebiz.biz.

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