Liam Mays

A small tattoo shop located in the West Bottoms in Kansas City, Missouri, is beginning its rebranding process, hoping to create a safe, comfortable place for women, Hispanics – and anyone else who hasn’t felt welcome in tattoo shops. The shop is owned by Ana Marcela Maldonado Morales, who is also one of three artists that work there. Morales hopes her different take on offering tattoos – by being appointment only and having only female artists – will help differentiate her brand from the pack.

The shop was originally named Box Turtle Tattoo but Morales said she thought “that the name ‘Tintoretta’ would be more accessible to people that are Spanish speakers – because the word ‘turtle’ is kind of hard to say for a Spanish speaker.” Morales’ family is from Mexico and she is bilingual. Another reason for the change is the limitations for logos that the name “Box Turtle Tattoo” creates compared to “Tintoretta Tattoo,” said Morales.

“It’s a difficult industry for women,” said Morales, “It’s kind of a private studio so I kind of made it so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the industry.”

The tattoo industry is worth around $2 billion annually with more than 47,000 tattoo shops in the U.S. according to Ibisworld. Tintoretta is attempting to disrupt this rapidly growing industry by being one of the few that doesn’t have walk-in clients and only female artists. According to the New York Times, women have more tattoos than men yet only one out of six tattoo artists is female. This was important to customer, Baylee Childress who said Tintoretta tattoo is “committed to empowering women and others through art and self-expression.”

“There are so many excellent artists out there, but few who have the inclusiveness and commitment to the local community that she does,” Childress said.

Childress said she was also impressed with her line work and that she was able to make such a beautiful tattoo by free-handing.

Morales said she’s no longer giving tattoos that people like on the internet and is now only doing original illustrations that can show her artistic skillset. This is something that a lot of shops are doing because copying someone else’s design takes the artist out of tattoo artist. Prices at Tintoretta tattoo can vary from $60 to several hundred dollars depending on the size.

Morales said she’s building an official website – which she hopes will help advertise the shop – where potential customers can go to see the artists’ work and schedule appointments. She’s also trying to think creatively about marketing Tintoretta in unique ways. For example, she wants to create fun videos of the tattooing process at the shop to showcase how peaceful and welcoming it is compared to the average shop. On top of that she had the idea of having a Super Smash Bros tournament in her shop where the winner would receive a free Nintendo tattoo.

“That’s part of what sets Tintoretta apart, in my opinion,” said tattoo artist, Amy Wilson, who works at Tintoretta. “Our environment is one in which people are able to relax and have a much less stressful tattoo.”