This year NatureTats has been through a lot, here's a lengthy recap by Allison - NatureTats owner and designer. 

At the beginning of this year, I signed a lease and walked into my first studio/office space! Previously operating out of my house, I had outgrown the tiny extra bedroom, so I brought all my gear from home, bought a few tables and it felt so good! Terrifying but good. 

I made a new year's resolution which was to do something big each month and follow through on a single game-changer for NatureTats. After the office, the first thing I wanted to do was get onto a new wholesale platform. I spent time taking product photos, refined my listings, then launched in January. I had absolutely no idea how it was going to go, and quickly found that I had not prepared quite enough! My shop was featured as a new shop, and retailers jumped on quickly, which was a beautifully chaotic way to start in 2020.

One of my next moves was to create our temporary tattoo display stand that holds collections of NatureTats for our retailers. I talked to a friend of a friend, who mentioned he had a machine to laser cut wood, I imagined it would be a nice material, so we worked on a simple design then fired up the laser! It has also been a hit! I plan to make various sizes and colors of these in the future.  

NatureTats needed extra hands, so I brought in Michelle, who is the perfect person to help me keep the wheels turning. She is a wonderfully creative person, super smart, strong and motivated. We're learning as we go, talking a ton about what NatureTats stands for, what kind of culture we want to develop, where we are headed, and what we can improve on. 

Then covid happened and almost everything came to a halt. Shops closed, so many people out of work and shifting around trying to find a way to take a little bit of control and stability back into their hands. For NatureTats, things were shifty but still good for a while. I wanted to press on, safely of course. I connected with two fantastic lady tattoo artists, also based in Austin and we featured temporary tattoo packs of their artwork, it was a great experience. 

In late June, unexpectedly, we lost connection to our product material, which halted us too. Looking back, I could have been more prepared, I was only ordering as needed, and we were growing still, so it only took about 2 weeks to completely run out. I had been thinking about making big changes to the product and packaging for a long time and now I was forced to shut down all of my shops and do exactly that. 

I sketched out concepts for newly designed packaging and researched my options for starting again. It took weeks to get all of my ducks in a row as I struggled with worry about investing further into everything and tending to my own mental health. We tested new materials and finally found one we were confident in. I had been rocking 70+ designs and with this shift, had to make some hard decisions about which ones were going to make the cut for the first round. We decided on fourteen of most adored tats and jumped in. 

We are looking at it as a fresh start. All new product material, which lasts longer and is more comfortable to wear. A refreshed logo. A new modern color pallet. Updated packaging that will stand out in retail shops. All new product photography and lifestyle shots. Lots of exciting work ahead!

Allison Wilcoxen

Owner and Designer of NatureTats