Having just celebrated their one year anniversary this month, Yardley Tattoo marks a new beginning for the future of the Yardley Borough. Lisa Edward and her husband Maximo moved to Yardley in February 2021, opening the doors to their tattoo shop shortly after. “We didn’t have our boxes unpacked and we opened the business,” remarked Lisa humorously. She explained that she and Max had been inspired to open their business as a result of seeing the vacant store spaces left in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For Max, as a tattoo artist, the end goal and dream was that he would have his own shop,” said Lisa. “When walking around the borough, we would notice in the business windows they had a lot of ‘For Rent’ signs and vacancies. Things weren’t great with Covid, which could have contributed to that.”
Lisa and Max began calling the numbers for those spaces, and eventually found one that was available. “It just made sense for us to rent our own space,” said Lisa. “People outside of the industry might not realize, but every artist is their own independent contractor. You pay rent to the shop to work there, or some fee from your work goes to the shop. Owning a shop ourselves made more financial sense, and gave us freedom to set the tone of the place. Anything from the core, to the music, and the feeling you get when you walk inside.”
YARDLEY TATTOO
Currently, there are three artists who are available to book with at Yardley Tattoo. Owner Maximo Edward with seven years of experience in black & gray and color tattoos, Brooke who specializes in fine line and dot work, and Paige, a neo-traditional artist with an illustrative style. Lisa claimed that they plan on adding one or two new artists to their roster this fall.
Maximo had transitioned to tattoo art from previously being a creative director for a Manhattan television company. But after spending years with the company and having children, he’d felt that he was not creatively stimulated with new projects and did not have enough time to spend with his kids. “He spent years at art school, he loved creating, and not having new projects or enough time to spend with his kids was soul crushing,” said Lisa. “He wanted to be hands on with his art and close to home no matter where we lived.” It was these desires that led Maximo to tattooing, where every day he was working on new artistic projects and collaborating with clients and other artists.
“We understand tattooing might not be for everybody and that’s okay with us,” Lisa said. “We are just another family business. We love art and self expression. We don’t expect everybody to suddenly want a tattoo just because we’re here.”
WORKING DIRECTLY WITH ARTISTS
Clients can only get a tattoo at Yardley Tattoo via appointment only. Booking can be done through their website. After looking through artist portfolios via instagram and choosing who you would like to work with, clients remain in direct communication with their artist to cultivate a relationship built upon trust and communication. “We don’t control the communication between artist and client,” said Lisa. “They exchange ideas and build relationships with their clients directly. We expect everyone to feel welcome, comfortable, and know they are in an inclusive environment. We don’t want anyone to feel like they’ve walked into the wrong place.”
Lisa emphasized that communication is the most important part of maintaining excellent customer service. “At the end of the day, if I were the client, I don’t care how beautiful your work is if I don't feel like you're hearing me,” she said. “If you can get that conversation and first impression going, you’ve got customers for life. They’ll recommend everyone they know to go to you.”
While there is a required deposit when booking a tattoo to protect against last minute cancellations, the price of a tattoo is charged by the hour once the client is sitting in the artist’s chair.
STARTING A NEW BUSINESS TODAY
Starting a new business is not easy, especially in the era of post-pandemic America. Luckily, the Edwards have experience in this, and Lisa was able to share some wisdom about her struggles and offer some advice to anyone thinking of doing the same.
“Our biggest struggle and one that we understood was that coming out of the pandemic, everyone had their own individual concerns,” said Lisa. She noted that this was particularly seen when it came to finding a landlord willing to rent out a space to them to open their business in. “To see a new business coming in to inquire about a space could be a risk,” she said. “We don’t have prior [store renting] references or a history to show, so there was a lot of negotiation back and forth to land on a rate that we were happy with for the extent of our lease and getting the landlord to feel comfortable bringing a new business owner.”
A flexible timeline is also important. “Every business owner needs to know they should take whatever timeline they have for renovations and pad more time than they think it's gonna take to get those things done,” she said. “Don’t go all in with promotion, take a step back. If you’re done early, no one will complain about that. Be conservative with the turnaround just for getting our sign up. We had our sign taped up on paper for a little bit!”
Lisa said that reaching out and talking directly to the borough was also incredibly useful to her. She explained that it is fundamental to know the standards and limitations of one’s industry in the area before committing to leasing a space. This helps to pave the path forward and starts the process of building a relationship with the community.
COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP
Despite these struggles, Lisa has said that the biggest reward in her family’s business endeavor has been the relationship they’ve built with the community. “Most people wouldn’t find Yardley Borough and a tattoo shop to be synonymous,” she joked, “but we’ve had a lot of support and felt very welcomed by the community and our customers.”
While there are some clients who travel to get their tattoos done at Yardley Tattoo, analytics from social media shows that their followers are heavily localized within the area. “We didn’t know anybody here, so that was all word of mouth,” said Lisa. “We’re really happy we’re building a relationship locally.”
Yardley Tattoo has been involved in multiple community events. Previously they donated proceeds from their business to the Doylestown Rainbow Room, an LGBTQIA youth program. “We do anything we can do to give back to the community, building relationships so we can do things like that,” said Lisa.
In June, Yardley Tattoo will be the tattoo vendor at Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company’s 10th Anniversary Party, where there will be first come first serve flash tattoo offerings.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BUYING LOCAL
Supporting a local business goes beyond the benefit of building close relationships with clients. Many customers may not know that supporting a community locally can have a larger effect than meets the eye. “Money can circulate in the community,” she said. “Going to your local coffee shop instead of a big name place supports them and all of their distributors, causing a domino effect of other local businesses by choosing to go to one.”
Lisa claimed that she is always promoting Yardley Borough to her customers, especially those that have traveled some distance to get their tattoos done there. She encourages them to go buy local food, local jewelry, or simply walk around the area and browse what it has to offer. “They can make a day out of it,” she said.
