Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Matalon.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Scott. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started Stingray Body Art in 2005 with two friends because we wanted to create a modern, friendly tattoo shop with a strong customer service experience that included “Service, Selection and Guarantees,” We had all had poor experiences at other shops and we wanted ours to be different; a welcoming environment where anyone could come and get a great tattoo!
We engineered our business to include highly-trained front-desk staff, online computers and Ipads with an in-house image library plus the ability to search the entire internet for photos, images and artwork, plus a large collection of body jewelry to choose from. And, we always offered student and military discounts plus a free touch-up for any tattoo done at Stingray if needed (sometimes the healing process requires a touch-up and we wanted to always guarantee our work!)
At first, we even featured hand-made fashions from local designers to round out our offering, but have since switched to local art and host art shows at our shop twice per year.
We started in 2005 with only two tattoo artists and two piercers, and quickly added permanent makeup services. Over the past 11 years we’ve grown to 9 tattoo artists, 3 piercers, permanent makeup, laser tattoo removal and laser-tattoo-lightening for easy and beautiful cover-ups of old or bad tattoos.
We brought on a full-time Director of Marketing very early on, and we have always taken a large role in the civic life of our community – working with local charity organizations such as Allston Village Main Streets, the Allston Board of Trade, the local food pantries, Kiwanis Club, Sisters of St. Joseph’s and many more.
Our health code and cleanliness levels are the highest, and we are the shop who trained the Boston Public Health Commission on how to inspect all the tattoo shops in the city of Boston.
Our motto is “We are in the Happiness Business!” and Stingray is open 7 days a week from 10am to 10pm, 360 days a year.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No successful business enjoys a smooth road!
Along the way we have struggled with numerous issues, including standard business issues like financing, the number one reason small businesses fail is because they don’t last long enough to truly establish themselves, and this was a great challenge to overcome.
Banks don’t make business loans like they used to, so when making large purchases of jewelry (for example) I was forced to borrow money and I spent the first couple of years consulting on the side to a number of companies with my business partner from my former technology company, I also sold my house and my 1964 Corvette Stingray (hence the name of the shop) – anything to keep the business going through the growth curve to profitability.
One of our greatest struggles was finding quality artists who didn’t have the ‘old school’ bad attitude mentality; as tattooing moved from the back streets to Main Street we searched for artists and apprentices who are not only great tattooists and artists, but are also friendly and willing to work with customers to help realize their visions. You might be surprised how difficult this process was!
Now we have a great team of talented people I am extremely proud to work with, and the ‘Stingray Way’ of providing friendly Service, Selection and Guarantees is fully established. In fact, the largest challenge we now face is continuing to grow by adding more tattoo and piercing rooms – we service over 1,000 customers per month and Saturdays are all walk-ins, all day long!
Stingray Body Art – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Stingray provides the best body art experience possible, and combine Friendliness, Service, Selection and Guarantees in a way no other shop does.
We offer a large selection of artists to work with, each with their own unique style and artistic “look” – which enables us to help match customers up with the perfect artist for their piece. We use the Internet extensively and incorporate any type of imagery (except hateful or racist images, which we will not do) from photographs, portraits, illustrations, classic art and fantasy designs.
We offer comprehensive piercing services and feature a large selection of the highest-quality mix-and-match body jewelry plus several lines of one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry,
We have in-house laser tattoo removal, plus tattoo “laser-lightening” to help make cover-ups of old or poor-quality tattoos easy and much more beautiful than ever before.
We also provide beautiful and natural-looking permanent makeup services.
I’d have to say I’m most proud of our employees and artists, who have made it possible for our business to grow from 4 people to 19 without compromising our core mission to make people happy by providing the very best in body art services,
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally define success for Stingray Body Art as providing services that make our customers happy and brings them and their friends back for more. The amount of repeat customers we have is a testament to that success.
We keep a close eye on our online reviews as a means of feedback. When doing annual employee work reviews we always look at their upcoming calendars together to see if they are booked out in advance and whether or not customers are returning to them for more work. We work with our artists to help correct any issues together and we always strive to help make our artists as successful and happy with their work as they can be.
Long-term success has always been our goal, and that means much more than just billing numbers or short-term profits; it’s about establishing successful relationships with people, one customer at a time.
Contact Info:
- Address: Stingray Body Art
384-386 Cambridge Street, Allston, MA 02134 - Website: www.stingraybodyart.com
- Phone: 617-254-0666
- Email: info@stingraybodyart.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StingrayBodyArt/
- Twitter: @StingrayBodyArt
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/stingray-body-art-allston
Image Credit:
Photo of owner Scott Matalon by Mary Desmond
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
