An Opportunity Has Arisen To Keep Our Shop Going

Hello, I am Cooper Watts and I am starting this fundraiser in order to keep Vagabond Saints Tattoo Lounge, the tattoo shop/nail salon I started with my wife, Tonja, almost 9 years ago from falling victim to closure like so, so many other small businesses here in Hamilton.

While I know that this isn't the first time we have tried this route to help our business stay afloat since the Covid Lockdowns, this time it is a bit different.

Just over a year ago, we moved out of our $7k/month location into a smaller unit in an area we felt would be more accessible and welcoming that our John St. location had been. This move reduced our rent to $4k/month which was fine until the economy started to affect our clientele and I became the main income for the shop to keep going (the new artists brought were still green and building their client base). December started our stumbling when the total brought in to the shop was $1k. Since then it has been a game of catching up and hoping that things will pick up. It has been almost three months of wishful thinking and juggling bills. Eviction has already been spoken to me by the landlords with April 1st being the deadline.

Now, we have an opportunity to move into a new location that is on street we have always wanted to be on in the East End of Hamilton and the rent will be $1,900 plus tax. This amount will be easily doable by me and what I bring into the shop with my clientele. The only problem is getting the money together in the next 15 days to secure First and Last.

This new location will finally enable me to catch up on bills, pay off my debts, and get back to our former level of community involvement. Up until now, it has been rent eating up all profits with nothing left over. Lowering this overhead cost would let me begin actually breathing.

I believe that this is exactly what the universe wants for our shop after so many years of overcoming obstacles and unfortunate situations. We have built a name and reputation which has meant so much to the people we serve and we want to continue to be that place for them.