Flagstaff's “Tattitude”

MAKAYLA RICHARDSON

In spite of the stigma surrounding individuals with tattoos, tattoo culture is evolving. In 2023, it was reported over 145 million Americans have a tattoo.

Flagstaff serves as a prime location for a diverse tattoo community to develop: It welcomes over 6 million tourists annually. Its location on Route 66 has brought myriad artistic influences into the industry. Upward of 13 independent tattoo shops are providing their services to the abundance of tourists, college students and locals.

Many of Flagstaff’s artists make it their goal to welcome each guest with hospitality.

Tim Sena is the owner and a tattoo artist at Avail Tattoo Avail was founded in 2013 and is located in Woodlands Village, about a mile from NAU. Their studio has an open concept floor plan that allows clients to speak with each other.

Since the shop is located away from the heavy foot traffic of downtown, Sena said he realized hospitality may be the most important characteristic of a tattoo artist.

After receiving tattoos by other artists across the country, Sena said he experienced firsthand what it was like to be treated poorly by a shop. When it came time to open his establishment, he said he wanted to make sure the customers were greeted with a friendly and inviting environment.

“The fundamentals of our culture are our hospitality, customer service and obviously good tattooing,” Sena said. “I feel like we built a culture on those small fundamental things. My guys that work for me, they’ve adopted the same mentality that we don’t have to be the typical tattooers that are not welcoming. So, when people come to the door, they feel like they’re a part of the family immediately.”

His belief in having a tight-knit culture expands past his business, he said. Sena said he makes the effort to build a connection with other local businesses and grow relationships with his neighboring competitors through paint nights and art showcases. He said he is trying to change a community that has a history of seclusion and competition.

“It’s just very competitive in a small town like Flagstaff,” Sena said. “Obviously, that’s not my mentality, because just like an open concept in a tattoo shop, I have an open concept in the tattoo community. We should be trying to get to know each other and trying to get together.”

Avail Tattoo is not the only company that is working to develop a healthy tattoo community. Woody’s Old School Tattoos and Piercings also recognizes the importance of unity in a small town.

Woody’s has been in its downtown location for 12 years and was founded by Woody Stone. Stone is a tattoo artist who has been working on his craft for over 20 years after his previous career as a musician in Los Angeles, California.

Stone said customer service is very important in his line of work because he wants to be known for treating clients well, and clients look for recommendations on which establishment to visit.

He said he credits his steadfast beliefs to the lessons he was taught by his mentor Jay Byrd, a local artist who specialized in tattoos and oil paintings. Though Byrd recently passed away, his influence has not eluded Stone.

“You want to be a good person, because what comes around goes around,” Stone said. “He was really good with people. That taught me a lot, and he was really giving. He didn’t like to let them fluster his ego, so he would always be really polite and nice.”

The tattoo community in Flagstaff is a tight-knit group, Stone said. He is friends with artists at other studios, like Patrick Sans who owns Burly Fish Tattoo & Piercing, he said.

Building close relationships with other tattoo artists in the area is a sentiment shared my many artists in town.

Robert “Blue” Benson is a tattoo artist who works at Woody’s alongside Stone. As an established tattoo artist, Benson said he has built relationships with other local artists and has observed something he calls “tattitude.”

Benson said he regularly has other artists over for family celebrations.

“People think because they’re tattoo artists with their rock-star look, they’ll treat their clients like s---,” Benson said. “They charge too much, and they just think that their art is the best art.”

Benson said avoiding this “tattitude” is paramount to maintaining a good customer relationship. To prevent falling into this mindset, Benson said tattoo artists must maintain fair prices and treat their clients well.

To keep his clients returning, Benson said he learns about them instead of making them feel unwelcome.

“If you remember a client’s name or you’re doing a memorial piece for somebody, ask about the person and get to know your clients,” Benson said. “You treat them well, and that hospitality goes a long way.”

Putting in the effort to make customers feel comfortable while getting a tattoo is a method used by tattooers of all experience levels.

Dyson Navarro is a tattoo artist at Avail Tattoo and has been professionally working at this establishment since last fall. At 20 years old, Navarro was able to skip an apprenticeship to work regularly as a guest tattoo artist at Avail. After, he was offered a full-time position.

Navarro said although his coworkers treat him like family, he has seen examples of “tattitude” in the tattoo community — particularly by other artists who underestimate him due to his age. While it may be intimidating at first, he said he works to disprove their expectations.

“I like to think that I’m a fast learner,” Navarro said. “I’m able to put out artwork that I’ve been told is as good as four-year tattoo artists, and once they see your work, they give you that respect.”

He said he has seen artists blinded by their pride increase their prices and judge those with less experience than them. Navarro said he thinks artists within the community should come together to develop a better tattoo culture.

A closer tattoo community can be developed through practicing humility and hospitality, he said. Navarro said his goal is to make sure his clients feel they are in a safe space while they are getting a tattoo.

“You can learn from every single tattoo,” Navarro said. “Always be humble about learning, and never take destructive criticism as attacking towards you personally. Always be able to learn, and never stop learning, because then, that’s when you plateau.”

Navarro said no matter an artist’s experience level, they should have an apprentice’s mentality to avoid losing their humility. This way, he said, the community can come together and grow.

Back2Basics: a local recovery program

ROSE BAILLIE

Located in three houses across Flagstaff is Back2Basics (B2B), an outdoor adventure rehab and recovery program for young men struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

B2B combines wilderness therapy and addiction treatment for the duration of six months to one year, building an innovative and alternative approach to a traditional recovery model where patients do not leave the premises until they have completed the duration of their stay.

After having personal struggles with alcohol and eventually getting sober, Roy J. DuPrez founded B2B in 2010.

While DuPrez’s program still focuses on a therapeutic and clinical approach similar to typical recovery programs, it also provides clients with healthy outlets — like time outdoors and mindfulness practices — and an opportunity to learn how to enjoy life while emphasizing recovery. Some of the benefits of this structure are bonding with nature, finding self-awareness outdoors, connecting mind-bodyspirit and developing community.

“We’re not the traditional 30-day model, although we’re just as comprehensive in the clinical capacity, and just as [protective] in the sense of keeping our guys safe and within the confines of the program itself, it’s just that they have a little bit more exposure to real life, rather than being in some sort of cinderblock hospital setting,” DuPrez said.

He is an NAU alumni and received a Master of Education in counseling. He has lived in Flagstaff for over 20 years and said it has been an organic environment to establish and navigate B2B. He said he believes the location is ideal for executing his program.

“Flagstaff just always, for me, had a vibe to it as far as a healthy environment, a lot of outdoors [and] community stuff going on that I didn’t have exposure to when I was growing up,” DuPrez said.

For the first six months, clients spend their weekdays on the B2B campus in Flagstaff, participating in meditation, exercise, individual and group therapy, community service and 12-step addiction recovery meetings with alcoholics and narcotics anonymous. They volunteer weekly at organizations like Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona, local food banks, Grand Canyon Trust and Catholic charities.

Derek Burdine, who attended B2B in 2017, described this part of the program as therapeutic and restorative.

“It’s a lot of emotion and inventory and repair, therapeutically and through overcoming physical challenges,” Burdine said. “And also, they integrate family work in those first six months, trying to bring some cohesiveness and understanding back.”

The weekends are spent on wilderness excursions — hiking, camping and kayaking — to nearby places, like the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.

In this phase, clients learn how to find a better sense of self and start to develop a relationship with sobriety.

DuPrez said the outdoor adventure component is an opportunity for clients to begin to appreciate what life has to offer.

“It’s an opportunity to learn, I feel like, relearning what’s rad, you know?” DuPrez said.

DuPrez said B2B wants to show their clients an alternative to their unhealthy lifestyle before the program and before sobriety. DuPrez said he wants to show these men how great life can be without the struggles that come from living in addiction.

“[B2B provides] these guys an opportunity to see like, ‘Hey, fun doesn’t need to be so catastrophic, bottom line, and I can gain opportunities that can continue to grow, and I can continue to develop as a human being without all these consequences,’” DuPrez said.

Reed McCaskill, another B2B alumni, said this time outdoors not only provides clients with fun, but it is closely related to recovery.

“You go out there,” Reed said. “You’ve got this heavy pack on your back. You’re hiking [with] 50 to 60 pounds on your back, and you’ve got to push, push, push and then, finally, you get to this great destination, and you’re on top of this cliff with all of your buddies looking over this beautiful canyon. And so, I think there’s a lot of little lessons in that.”

The outdoor component is intentionally implemented into the program, McCaskill said.

Once clients have completed the first six months of the program, they enter the next phase which is known as Beyond the Basics. This part of the program typically lasts an additional six months.

Beyond the Basics is when these men begin to integrate back into the “real world” by getting jobs, internships or going back to school. They continue to live at B2B in the Beyond the Basics house and participate in therapy and groups.

McCaskill, who now works at B2B, said this part of the program is a safety net for the clients to deal with the struggles of everyday life and put thier new skills to practice.

“It really is a chance to go make mistakes and come back, and then, we process it and kind of do that over and over and get them as close to a place of what life will look like whenever they get out of transition,” McCaskill said.

Both DuPrez and McCaskill said this part of the program provides a foundation for the clients to be successful in their recovery and life in general.

DuPrez said he and his team do not just push their clients through the program, but rather focus on each client and provide a quality, individualized experience.

“We’re a small enough program that nobody’s slipping under the radar,” DuPrez said. “And all of that is very intentional, you know, we’re not bottling Pepsi here … not everybody’s on the same trajectory.”

Both Duprez and McCaskill said community is at the heart of Back 2 Basics and is a fundamental aspect of sobriety.

“Community is really what it boils down to,” DuPrez said. “Most of us alcoholics, and people struggling with addiction, tend to isolate. Within those community environments, there’s accountability, there’s expectation and obviously that we’re a team. You’re part of that, you’re a spoke on this wheel.”

Within their community, B2B focuses on fostering a healthy environment with vulnerability and humility — these characteristics and mental health, in general, are often stigmatized for young men.

“As far as being a mens-only program, we’re really trying to minimize that fraternity-type culture, because it is important that these guys have a platform to be vulnerable, rather than bravado,” DuPrez said. “The bravado can keep us from helping and healing ourselves, so we try to weed [out] that kind of energy.”

McCaskill said many of the B2B clients make life-long relationships with one another and stay a central part of each other’s lives.

“The guys that went through the program with me are my best friends to this day,” McCaskill said. “Those are the guys that’ll be in my wedding years down the road.”

Once they complete the program, many of the B2B men stay in Flagstaff and live together. Some end up working there as well. They have people they can rely on — both at B2B and in the local 12-step recovery community.

“One of the biggest things is taking us to 12-step meetings and getting incorporated with the community out here,” Burdine said. “So then, when I got out, I had a sense of belonging here in Flagstaff.”

Both McCaskill and Burdine work at B2B and have remained a part of the community. McCaskill is pursuing a degree in social work with the intention of becoming a therapist, specializing in substance abuse.

Burdine said once you are a member of the B2B community they will continue to support you.

“The cool thing is, after you’re out of the program … they’re still more than willing to help you out through your process,” Burdine said.

“AS FAR AS BEING A MENS-ONLY PROGRAM, WE'RE REALLY TRYING TO MINIMIZE THAT FRATERNITY-TYPE CULTURE, BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THESE GUYS HAVE A PLATFORM TO BE VULNERABLE, RATHER THAN BRAVADO. THE BRAVADO CAN KEEP US FROM HELPING AND HEALING OURSELVES, SO WE TRY TO WEED [OUT] THAT KIND OF ENERGY.”

– Roy J. DuPrez, founder of Back2Basics

Breathe in the mountain air

Lumberjacks working for Late for the Train Coffee Roastery, Whisk and Whiskey, NiMarco’s Pizza West, Cornish Pasty Co., Lumberyard Brewing Company and Grand Canyon Brewery and Distillery gave their testimonies about working in the service industry. These hard-working Jacks said they enjoy the fast-paced environment and the camaraderie in the

Sade Hairston (she/her)

Senior Exercise Science

Barista at Late for the Train Coffee Roastery

“I really enjoy connecting with customers and just seeing regulars that I see every other day — meeting new people from all over the world,” Hairston said.

“It’s very personal, very intimate, and you have a better chance to be yourself and express yourself. People really liked that, and they enjoy it, and it draws people in.

“I remember I had a customer from the East Coast. He came in about a year ago, and we had a really good conversation. I don’t remember what it was about, obviously, but it was just really good, and I remember him from it. And he came back a couple of weeks ago. He was like, ‘Hey, I remember you from a year ago, and you just really made my experience in Flagstaff really awesome, just making it feel really homey.’

James Greaves (he/him)

Junior Finance Server and Busser at Lumberyard Brewing Company

“It’s a family-owned business,” Greaves said. “So, the way they treat their employees top to bottom I think definitely stands out compared to more corporate-type restaurants.

“I’ve worked in a corporation, like a restaurant corporation, and they were a lot more strict, a lot more hardcore. They weren’t as personable; they weren’t more understanding of circumstances.

“[At] any restaurant server job, you’re gonna learn how to communicate, talk to people, talk in front of people, you know, coordinate when you mess up.”

Alexis Niggli (she/her)

Senior Business Management

Lead Bartender at Grand Canyon Brewery and Distillery

“There’s camaraderie between all of us, we all spend a lot of time together, even outside of work,” Niggli said. “We’re all really good friends here.

“It’s made it a lot easier to talk to other students.

“I get a couple customers in here — usually dads — they like telling their dad jokes. And it’s great to pass along to all our friends.

“You get a lot more of the Flagstaff culture.”

& PHOTOS BY MEGAN FORD-FYFFE

day-to-day hustle, favoring Flagstaff’s local businesses over chain restaurants. Students said the service industry has helped them forge valuable life skills such as effective communication, establishing connections and persevering in the working world. Half of the students are studying business-related majors and said the skills and expertise they gained in the service industry will serve them well in their future employment endeavors.

Nathan Moore

Senior Business Management and Spanish Shift Lead at NiMarco’s Pizza West

“It’s always fun coming into work,” Moore said. “Everybody’s college students. So, we all get along well; everybody’s kind of the same age.

“I don’t think about coming to work [like it is] a drag or something I don’t want to do, so it’s like, ‘Oh, another day at work — stoked.’

“[I] definitely want to do some higher-up management, but I don’t know, at some point in my life. I probably won’t start out that way. Nor do I know if I’ll stay in food service. I think I might branch out and do other things. But I know, being younger, at least food service is fun.

“Sometimes people recognize me. They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re the guy that works at the pizza place. I always go in there.’”

Lindsey Totin (she/her) Junior Business Server at Whisk and Whiskey

“I started off as a bio-med major, and then, I kind of saw the way our owners run everything and the business side of it, and I got a little bit more intrigued, I would say, and I really liked it,” Totin said. “So, it kind of flipped my major, honestly.

“I feel like the more-local restaurants understand I’m here for school and school comes first, and I feel like they do a really good job about understanding a little bit better than the chain restaurants do.

“[The workers are] such a mix of students [and] grad students, and they’re all just different in their own way. And I feel like [Whisk and Whiskey has] more like an urban vibe.”

Ethan Owen (he/him) Sophomore Information Systems Dishwasher at Cornish Pasty Co.

“Instead of being kind of a party bar, it’s more of a low-key dinner spot,” Owen said. “We have really diverse crowds where we have families come in, but also, toward later on in the night, you have a lot of college students like partiers who are just bar hopping.

“The thing I enjoy the most about my job would have to be probably the social aspect, getting to mess around with co-workers and, I don’t know, build bonds within the workplace and keep each other elevated.

“But the biggest thing for me that I’ve learned here is to make sure to take care of myself and ask for help when I actually need it. Because obviously, dishwashing is not a very … You don’t have to be super smart to be good at it; you have to get an algorithm down when you’re doing it and be fairly perseverant, because when 2 a.m. hits, and you’ve got stacks of dishes to wash, it can be pretty daunting. So, you kind of [think] mind over matter and just do it.”