what started as a conversation about tattoos became a conversation about life and business in lebanon, mo
- Ramsey Stewart
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
What started as a conversation about tattoos turned into a conversation about parenting, reputation, business in lebanon, mo, community, and growing up.
That tends to happen on acrossfromme.
The best conversations usually stop being about the thing you thought they were about.
The main takeaways:
• Tattoo culture has changed dramatically
• Reputation still matters in a small town
• Parenting changes perspective
• Community support leaves lasting impact
• Authenticity is hard to fake long-term
The conversation started with tattoos
Pain.
Bad tattoos.
Good tattoos.
The old-school reputation tattoo shops used to have.
The way tattoo culture has completely changed over the last 20 years.
At one point Mitch joked that 50 years ago tattoo artists were basically viewed as criminals.
And honestly, there’s truth in that.
Tattoo culture used to feel underground.
Now it feels normal.
Teachers have tattoos.
Nurses have tattoos.
Parents are calling tattoo shops asking if their teenagers can get tattooed.
That shift alone says a lot about how quickly culture changes.
But the conversation slowly became about something else
That’s usually when acrossfromme gets interesting.
The topic starts here…
Then drifts somewhere deeper.
At some point the conversation stopped being about tattoos and became more about people.
About growing older.
About identity.
About raising kids.
About business pressure.
About trying to build something meaningful in a town where reputation still matters.
One thing that stood out was how much Mitch cared about community
Not performatively.
Not “look at us helping.”
Actually cared.
There was a moment where he talked about how local businesses helped him during one of the hardest periods of his life after the loss of his child’s mother.
And you could tell those moments stayed with him.
That experience clearly shaped the way he approaches his own business now.
Not just tattooing.
But giving back.
Quietly helping people.
Doing fundraisers without needing social media credit for every single one.
That part of the conversation probably stuck with me the most.
Reputation still spreads the old-fashioned way in Lebanon
One of the funniest parts of the conversation was Mitch explaining how tattoo business still spreads locally.
Someone sees a tattoo at Walmart.
They ask who did it.
Now there’s another client.
Simple.
And honestly… that’s still how a lot of small-town business works.
Word travels.
People talk.
Consistency compounds.
That’s something we’ve learned through Jacket Nation Sports too.
You show up consistently long enough and eventually people stop asking if you’re legit.
They just assume you are.
There was also a surprising amount of parenting conversation
Which honestly makes sense.
Because becoming a parent changes how people talk.
Changes how they think.
Changes what matters.
There was a moment where Mitch talked about picking his son up early from school thinking they were going to go have fun riding dirt bikes…
…and his son got upset because he wanted to stay at school.
It was funny.
But also weirdly human.
That’s the stuff I tend to remember most from these conversations.
Not the “big moments.”
The little real ones.
The AI conversation was interesting too
At one point we talked about AI entering the tattoo world.
Mitch mentioned how people now walk in with AI-generated tattoo concepts that are completely unrealistic to tattoo on actual human skin.
Which honestly feels familiar across almost every creative industry right now.
People are seeing perfect digital concepts without understanding real-world limitations.
But he also acknowledged something important.
AI can still be useful.
Not as the artist.
But as a tool.
That feels like where a lot of industries are sitting right now.
Trying to figure out where the line is.
The best businesses usually feel human
I think that was probably my biggest takeaway from this episode.
The businesses people trust usually feel human.
Not polished.
Not perfect.
Human.
You could feel throughout the conversation that
isn’t just trying to “look like a brand.”
It feels like a reflection of the people inside it.
And honestly, I think people are craving more of that right now.
Final Thought
The best conversations usually end up being about more than what’s on the surface.
This one started with tattoos.
It ended up touching on community, fatherhood, reputation, growth, creativity, culture and life and business in Lebanon, MO continues to evolve.
That’s what acrossfromme is really becoming.
Not interviews.
Conversations.
You can watch the full conversation here.