Over the past couple of weeks, the Source Tattoo Supply Team have been busy visiting over 100 shops throughout Southern Alberta.
We know tattoo artists are busy and don’t always have the spare time to check out up and coming supply companies who sell awesome quality products (ahem… us!) … so we decided to hit the pavement and go to them!
Our first stop was our home base of Calgary, and the surrounding areas. We got the chances to see familiar supportive faces and meet many new ones. Most shops were already bustling by the time we popped in, but everyone gave a few minutes of their time to chat with us. A couple of shout outs to Larkin from Flipside even made sure to sit down for some one on one face time. Nikki from Electric Odyssey couldn’t help but pop out from the back to introduce herself while we were chatting with Danny up front. It took a few days, but we managed to hit most shops in Calgary, Airdrie, Strathmore and Chestemere.
Second on the list was the Windy City to the south, Lethbridge. Now, let me tell you, Lethbridge is a friendly city! We started the day off with a warm welcome from Will at Peppermint Hippo Tattoo and it only continued from there. When we stopped in to Jaded Body Arts, Kurtis gave us the grand tour of his shop! By the end of the day we’ve decided that Lethbridge, we like you! See you in September ;)
The city of Red Deer was next. Just as friendly as our neighbours to the south, we were charmed by this city. We needed an extra cup of coffee for this trip since most shops in Red Deer open between 9 – 11am. We managed to catch the crew at Electric Tattoos before they opened for the day, and caught the guys at Dark Days and Native Arts for a brief moment in between clients. Overall, it was a busy day for all the shop in Red Deer, but we managed to sneak in to say ‘Hello’!
Finally, we spent a couple of days touring around our provincial capital, Edmonton. We started our day by being welcomed to ‘crash’ the afternoon Tattoo Artist meeting at Pure Artistry Hair and Tattoo. It was great to be able to meet all the artists at once. We would find ourselves admiring all the gorgeous shops in the city. From Bombshells Tattoo Galerias taxidermy to Lucky Strikes cozy atmosphere. Shane at Shades of Grey was incredibly welcoming as we chatted about their recent success with their booth at the Calgary Comic Expo. As we made our way around the city, each shop became more and more welcoming and we found ourselves hanging out to chat a little longer each time. However, we finally had to pull ourselves away, call it a day and head home.
Overall, the response from our Southern Alberta tour was overwhelmingly supportive. Shout out to everyone we’ve met along the way! We are feelin’ the love! Keep it up Alberta and we will keep sending the love back!
- STS Team
