Certified tattoo artists working with clients

Resident tattoo artists · four studios in Colorado

Your job is to tattoo. Ours is everything else.

No booth rent. No shop style. A full team working behind every chair, every day, so the only thing you carry is the machine.

Read the honest version

The number everyone argues about

Sixty percent of what?

Every shop recruits on the percentage. It is the easiest number to compare and the worst one to decide on.

Seventy percent of a chair that sits empty three days a week is less money than fifty percent of a chair that stays full.

We have watched tattoo artists leave here for a bigger percentage and earn less the following year. More than once, over twenty years.

Your percentageThe only number they will quote you
×
Days you actually workWalk-ins, paid ads, a booking team
×
How long that holds upTwenty years of reputation, four studios

Every shop competes on the first number. We compete on the second and the third, because those are the ones we can actually control for you.

Bring us a percentage another shop offered you and we will do that math with you honestly, even if the answer is that you should take it.

What is never in the other offer

Most shops run on volunteers paid out of tips. We have a staff.

  • Calls, emails, DMs and web chat answered all day, so nothing is left on the table.
  • Booking agents trained to raise the value of every conversation, not just take a name.
  • Experienced brand reps on the floor in every studio.
  • Deposits collected and no-shows filtered before they ever reach your chair.
  • Paid ads with real money behind them, plus graphic designers, web designers and SEO specialists.
  • A tech development team building the tools you work with.
  • An operations team whose whole job is making your day work.
  • A stocked, licensed, inspected room. No booth rent, ever.
Front desk
Somebody is always at the desk
Studio lobby
Clients arrive booked, not guessing
A busy night on the floor
A full floor is the whole argument

Where you would actually work

Four studios in Colorado

Main tattoo floor
Stations on the main floor
A tattoo station
Your own station, lit and stocked

From the floor

Ask the artists, not the owner

"Nando literally saved my tattoo career."

Twenty years tattooing in the Denver metro area and over a dozen studios behind him. He was thinking about quitting the trade altogether before he came here.

Ces Fresh · Resident tattoo artist

"I expanded my art more than I thought I could."

Kept constantly busy, which is what let him stay consistent in the work and push it further than he expected.

Lex Robles · Resident tattoo artist

"Nando changed my entire life."

The direction his career was going, his finances, and work he says has moved into a realm he never thought he would reach.

Luis Nunez · Resident tattoo artist

"I have refined my work and become more resilient as an artist."

Says the room connected her with artists worldwide and opened doors that pushed her past the boundaries she had set for herself.

Resa Tattoos · Resident tattoo artist

The bar

Anyone with skin is welcome. Not everyone with a machine is.

What we look at

  • Healed work, not just fresh photos.
  • Whether your clients come back.
  • How you leave a room.
  • What you did when a tattoo did not come out how you wanted.

What we do not ask for

  • Years in a shop.
  • A following.
  • An existing book of clients.
  • A style that looks like ours.

We would rather hold a chair open than fill it with someone who does not clear the bar.

The other thing artists ask about

Opening your own shop is not the next level of this job. It is a different job.

Then the rent, the insurance, the licensing, the payroll, the repairs, the software and the phone are all yours. So is every hour you spend on them instead of drawing.

Most great artists do not want that job and should not take it. If what you want is to get better at the work, a supported chair beats a business plan.

Straight answers

What you are actually wondering

What is the split?
We will tell you on a call, not on a web page, because the number on its own tells you almost nothing. Bring us what another shop offered and we will do the real math with you, honestly, even if the answer is that you should take theirs.
Do I pay booth rent?
No. Never have. You do not pay us on a week you did not work.
Do I have to bring my own clients?
No. Bringing them is welcome, needing them is not the deal. Filling your book is our job.
What happens if I am slow?
That is the exact problem the booking team, the walk-in traffic and the ad spend exist to solve. If you are slow, something on our side is not working, and we treat it that way.
Do I have to tattoo a certain style?
No. We do not want four studios of people painting the same picture. We match clients to the artist whose work actually fits what they are asking for.
Who owns my designs?
You do.

One step

Ready when you are

The application goes straight to Nando Mondragon, the owner. Every applicant gets an answer either way.

Takes about five minutes. You will hear back from Nando personally, usually the same day.