Insurance has always been a pain in the a** for tattoo artists and tattoo shop owners. Thanks to Shawn Woedl, founder of InkShopGuard, getting insurance for our tattoo convention and attending tattoo artists was a breeze.
This week we sat down with Shawn and got to learn the origin story for InkShopGuard and a bit about his passion for the tattoo industry. Below you will meet Shawn and find out what makes InkShopGuard different than your ordinary insurance provider.
When did you get your first tattoo? What was it and why?
My first tattoo was my nickname on my arm. I got it when I was 16 – just to be different, rebellious, I guess.
What do tattoos mean to you or why do you love them?
Each one has a different meaning to me. Tattoos are a good way to express myself and remind me of certain times of my life. It can be therapeutic. Some of my tattoos represent a period of my life where I wasn’t in a good place, and sitting in a chair for hours helped me work through that and reminded me of where I came from and what I’ve been through. Some of my tattoos tell stories; some are just a cool piece of artwork.
If you could get tattooed by anyone in the world/ who would it be/ who's your favorite tattoo artist/artists?
This is a great question. My favorite tattoo artist is Carter Moore with Immortal Canvas in Liberty Township, OH. He’s been tattooing me for 15 years and is one of my closest friends.
But if I could get tattooed by anyone, it would be Dana Brunson out of Designs by Dana in Cincinnati, Ohio. He’s just a legend. His shop was one of the first shops I went to in my hometown when I was young. I’ve been tattooed by his son and a few other guys in his shop, and he’s done a small piece on me before. It would be cool to be tattooed by him again.
Before you started InkShopGuard, what did the insurance landscape look like for tattoo shops/artists?
Almost non-existent. That was one of the barriers I found when trying to build it. No carriers had an appetite for the specific risks associated with tattooing. They misunderstood what tattoo shops are and what they aren’t. And most insurance companies looked at them as bad risks. I wanted to change their perception of the tattooing and piercing industry. I wanted to present to a carrier why they are good risks and worth taking a chance on. And I think we’ve done that successfully over the last six years.
How did you design InkShopGuard to bridge the gap between insurance companies and tattoo shops?
Over the eight or so years before InkShopGuard, I had built strong relationships within the insurance industry, designing a program for real estate investors with National Real Estate Insurance Group (NREIG). Not unlike tattoo shops, landlords can carry a stigma as a higher risk. We were able to build a strong, profitable program, so when it came to building InkShopGuard, I leveraged my relationships with those insurance companies that were providing capacity in our investor program. We had proven our ability to provide good business with profitable results, and combined with my understanding of the tattoo industry, I basically called in a favor and presented this as another opportunity to drive good business to them. They trusted us on the investor program, and I convinced them to do the same here.
What was the exact "aha!" moment or incident in the tattoo community or insurance world that made you realize InkShopGuard needed to exist?
I was at a shop in Las Vegas getting tattooed, and the artist working on my piece asked how he could get insurance. He was an independent contractor and his shop was requiring him to get coverage. He said it was a common problem for him and the other artists to find coverage. I admitted to him that I didn’t know much about insuring tattoo artists, but I would figure it out. Las Vegas is really where InkShopGuard was born and started to grow. We started out insuring artists and worked our way to offering coverage for shops and owners as well. But it all started with a general conversation in a chair.
For you guys, what is the driving force behind wanting to protect the tattoo community?
I'm not artistic. I don’t have any artistic ability really, whatsoever. But tattoos are near and dear to my heart. So, this is, I guess, kind of my way of giving back to an industry and a group of people that have helped me along the way and meant a lot to me. So, if I can solve a problem for them and help, that's my contribution to say, “thank you.”
Why did you decide to lean into those risks instead of avoiding them?
I didn't just see risk, I saw an opportunity to change the way the insurance industry looked at tattoo shops. When I walk into a shop, I see that more times than not, they are clean, well put together, professionally run businesses. After a few initial conversations with carriers, I realized the insurance industry’s perception was much different than what I’ve seen. Trying to solve problems is what we do. We build insurance programs and solutions where there are gaps in the market or current offerings.
Why was it so important to you that your coverage follow artists outside the walls of their main studio?
Tattoo events are still so prevalent. Artists can make a good amount of money over a short period of time and their coverage needed to follow them. What good is our insurance if they work in a shop in Cincinnati and they're in Vegas to get to tattoo for a weekend and something happens and their insurance doesn't follow them?
What's one thing you hope people learn about you and your brand?
I genuinely love the industry and wanted to provide a good, affordable solution to an industry that needs it. I had the ability to do it with the relationships I’d built, so I took advantage of that and I capitalized on it.
We went from me having to have several meetings with several carriers to get InkShopGuard started with adequate coverage at a price point that made sense, to now having carriers wanting to get involved because of the reputation we have built. We aren’t a flash in a pan. We’ve been doing this for six years now, and we’ll continue to stay here.
It’s always been my goal to leave the insurance industry better than I found it, and I feel the same way about the tattoo industry. We want to allow artists to focus on what they do best, not worry about getting blind-sided by something unexpected.
Thanks again to Shawn for changing insurance from a dreaded endeavor to a simple email. If you want to work with InkShopGuard be sure to hit them up at info@inkshopguard.com or fill out their online form.
