Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosemarie Andlauer and Jesse Fiske.
Rosemarie and Jesse, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Our company started in a small room in our apartment in Brookfield in 1992. I quickly decided to open a small shop in Worcester. At that time tattoos were illegal in MA so I opened as just a piercing studio and body jewelry store. I found a great little spot on Green St that I could afford. It was an extremely controversial business at that time and everyone told me I was crazy. They said it would never make it. As I prepared to open in Worcester I made fliers and went around to hang them on store bulletin boards that were there for this purpose. But I was often refused to hang mine. I was accused of all kinds of crazy things. I also tried to advertise in small local papers and some of them refused my ads. It was pretty rough and I wondered if I did the wrong thing. But opening morning arrived and I drove by to park my car and say a line of people waiting outside. I started to cry with relief and went to work. It was crazy busy every single day! I quickly started training another piercer and hired a receptionist. We took everyone by storm by changing the face of what body art was thought of. We were clean, friendly, knowledgeable and kind, we treated people well and they responded well.
One year later when our lease was up we moved to Park Ave to a shop that was at least twice as big. The business grew with the shop size. My ex-husband and I had started the tattoo legalization process in MA and worked on it a total of 8 years before it had finally been legalized. At that time we were going through a divorce so I added tattooing to our services. I hired 2 tattoo artists and we had 2 piercers, all working full time.
Shortly after we moved two blocks down into a space that was bigger and added a third tattoo artist. We stayed there until a building came up for sale at 387 Park Ave and we decided to take the plunge and buy. I had remarried by then and was living in NH and my son Jesse was running the shop. Jesse is an only child and was raised in the business, he was only 9 when I opened. We completely gutted the building and built it out to be a body art studio as opposed to working with what you have. We made a large jewelry and novelty store, private tattoo and piercing rooms, a really nice waiting room and consultation areas. Since then we’ve grown to 5 tattoo artists, two piercers, 2 micro-blade eyebrow artists, two permanent make-up and medical tattoo artists, two receptionists and Jesse managing.
My son Jesse Fiske, myself and my husband Phil Andlauer are equal owners, but at this point, Phil and I are backing out slowly and Jesse is running the shop now. Just as we thought we had grown as much as possible, Jesse has purchased a new very high-quality tattoo removal laser to add to the business. This will allow him to offer tattoo removal as well as tattoo lightening. We do many cover-ups of old tattoo’s, jail tattoo’s, home done tattoos, names, and just regrets. If the tattoo is dark it will show through the cover-up. so being able to lighten them will allow for full coverage with a cover-up. We are the only tattoo studio in the area that offers laser removal and lightning, which gives us a huge edge over the competition.
Since I am now living in NH, I will be starting to offer my services in Koko’s Tattoo & Piercing in The Fox Run Mall in Newington NH and Jesse will carry on at Miraculous Creations.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We’ve been open nearly 26 years and we have gone through many ups and downs over the years. But we’re a tight-knit family and we get through everything by working together and with our awesome staff. We’re fortunate to have a really great group of artists that work well as a team. We deal with everything other businesses do such as the economy, building repairs, staff issues and so on. But our industry has issues of its own as well.
I think the most difficult problem we deal with is the behavior of some competitors. Some of them are quite nice and friendly but some are insanely competitive. It’s been 26 years of some shop owners spreading rumors and lies and doing dirty deeds. We have a strict policy at Miraculous Creations that we do not bad mouth other shops but there are times that taking the higher road can be frustrating. But we just ignore it and continue doing great work and offering great customer service to back it up. We’re hoping having the laser will help bring the areas shop owners and artists together. Working together to improve the industry and helping each other would be a wonderful result.
Miraculous Creations – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
What sets us apart is how many services and artists we offer. You have so many choices with us. We offer numerous tattoo artists, which means whatever style of tattoo you are looking for we have someone that can take care of you. We also have 2 great body piercers and we carry a huge selection of body jewelry. We also do permanent makeup, medical tattoos, micro needling collagen facials and body treatments. branding, hair follicle tattoo’s, microblade eyebrows and even eyelash extensions. Jesse has also just added a new Astanza laser to do tattoo removal and lightning. We are the only tattoo shop in the area that offers all of this.
Do you feel like our city is a good place for businesses like yours? If someone was just starting out, would you recommend them starting out here? If not, what can our city do to improve?
I think it’s a great area to do business. We’ve been very successful and have so much appreciation for our customers. However, when tattoos were legalized so many artists rushed to open shops in the area, and new ones continue to open all the time, the area it’s so overloaded that it’s become more difficult for any of them to survive.
Pricing:
- Our tattoo minimum is $80. We charge a deposit of $80 to schedule a tattoo appointment which is applied to your tattoo cost the day of the appointment.
- Most piercings are $30, jewelry prices range
Contact Info:
- Address: Miraculous Creations
387 Park Ave Worcester, MA 01610 - Website: www.MiraculousCreations.com
- Phone: 508-755-1379
- Email: Office@MiraculousCreations.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/miraculouscreations
- Facebook: MiraculousCreationsWorcester
- Twitter: TattooShop
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/miraculous-creations-worcester
- Other: https://plus.google.com/+MiraculousCreations
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