Check Out Barbara Jean McAtlin’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara Jean McAtlin.

Hi Barbara Jean, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I had a friend who was a tattoo artist who couldn’t find a station close to San Tan Valley. One morning we were having coffee and I said, “Let’s open a tattoo shop.” I’ll run the business and do the marketing and all you’ll need to do is tattoo. We didn’t have $10 between the two of us so I went hunting for funding. A friend of mine stepped up and Frontier Tattoo Company was officially born. We formed an LLC, found the perfect location, signed the lease and started buying everything we would need to open. We held our Grand Opening on February 1, 2014.

Over the next couple of years, we went though a number of artists, a couple of thieves, and a crazy here and there.

Around 18 months in, we put an ad out for a counter person. We had a number of people interested but only one who actually came in. Kristie never did work the counter. We liked her so much we hired her as a piercer and sent her out for training. She’s since turned into my right hand and good friend.

The next few years went by fairly smoothly considering the industry is fairly well known for high turnover. My business partner walked out just before our 9th anniversary. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We lost our most experienced artist to suicide in October 2024. One of our guest artists decided he loved Arizona so he’s now a house artist. Another one of our artists was someone whose work I had watched for years. We’re fortunate to have found artists who love working at the shop and have the same vision I have for the future. And, Kristie is still with us.

Besides our staff, we have amazing and loyal clients. We’ve watched our teen piercing clients go off to college, get married, have babies, get tattoos. We’ve had clients move away or pass away. We’ve had parents bring their newly 18 year old son our daughter in for their first tattoo because they trust us. We’re very much a part of our community and we care for our clients and their families.

It hasn’t been easy but we’re almost 12 years old now. We’ve had our ups and downs: economic pressures followed by days of gold followed by economic pressures followed by days of gold and on and on.

I’m a graphics designer by trade. Owning a tattoo shop wasn’t exactly on my to-do list but I honestly wouldn’t change a thing.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Graphic design, advertising, marketing.

At the shop I do what I’m best at: design, advertising and marketing.

I’m proud of the fact that our shop is zero drama, professional, clean, and fun. We’re polite and friendly.

We work closely with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Dept’s Shop with a Sheriff event every year by holding a fundraiser. Each year it gets bigger. We went from donating enough to buy Christmas for four families to seven. This year our goal is eight families. We also collect for our local food bank and animal shelter.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Service to others. Enough said.

Pricing:

• Tattoos: $80 minimum / $145 for 45 minutes
• Tattoos: $175 per hour ink-to-skin time
• Piercing: 1/$80, 2/$150, 3/$200 including jewelry

Contact Info:

• Website: https://frontiertattoocompany.com/
• Instagram: @FrontierTattooCompany
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/FrontierTattooCompany
• Twitter: https://x.com/FrontierTattooC?t=OFjEBWKMlcOJPRH3QHq2IA&s=09