Founder Interview
Kate Grinstead and Heather Reynolds
Choose your partner wisely. Ask questions. Push yourself as hard as possible because nobody is coming to save you.
So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.
Well, Heather and I both spent our formative years in Colorado, then lived in other states, and both eventually landed back in Colorado. I came back from San Francisco about 7 years ago and we linked up at a tattoo shop in Lakewood. From there, we decided to go into business together and opened Zeitgeist Tattoo in the Ruby Hill neighborhood of south Denver.
Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.
I love the weather in Colorado—call me crazy, but it can be really gorgeous. It is, and always has been, pretty unpredictable in Colorado. There is nothing more wild than a 40-degree swing within 24 hours! Mother Nature is a beautiful beast fighting climate change as best she can.
Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?
Zeitgeist Tattoo is not just a tattoo shop; it really does embrace the ‘parlor’ vibe. We have created an environment so welcoming, we have clients who will just pop by when they’re in the neighborhood so they can catch us up on life happenings and check on ours. Knowing we have folks who love and support us like that feels like a big extended family, so we all help each other in that respect.
If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?
Choose your partner wisely. Ask questions. Push yourself as hard as possible because nobody is coming to save you.
What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?
There are so many to choose from, but any time that we get to affirm one’s relationship with their body is something that sticks with us. Sometimes it’s covering scars from a painful past or even from cancer, and other times it’s memorializing a life changing experience by way of art on their body. Those are the hugs and smiles and tears that we won’t forget.
Where do you see your company in the future?
No shade to those in the tattoo industry with aspirations of fame and boatloads of dollars, but for us it’s quality and longevity. In the future, we hope to always be recognized as the zeitgeist of modern tattoo shops: quality tattoos, art driven, culturally diverse, anti-racist, women owned and operated, inclusive, and safe.
What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?
As any of you know who have opened a business, or even worked at a small business or start up, work/life balance can get messy in a hurry. Giving every moment of working brain to build the business becomes first nature, but when you find yourself 4 days into a 6 or 7 day stretch of tattooing AND trying to manage the business side AND your home life…sanity can be fleeting until Heather and I have a much needed vent session. She and I are great at communicating and distributing —or redistributing— items on our plates as our lives change. Like I said before, choose your business partner carefully.
Who was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?
I’m going to speak for both Heather and myself when I say music is like seasons for us. At age 10 it might have been Madonna and the Grateful Dead, but around the corner was Siouxsie & Pulp, or Morbid Angel & Curtis Mayfield. As far as athletes go, I loved watching the Olympics as a kid. The ’96 USA women athletes were incomparable! I mean c’mon Dominique Moceanu, Amy Chow…those gymnasts were my idols!
Any shoutouts you want to make?
None of us are where we are without a little help from our friends, am I right? The crew at Tattoo Boogaloo (where I was working and Heather was a client) gave her the shove into the tattoo industry and for that leap of faith Heather took, I am forever grateful. Adam Rose and Fallen Owl Tattoo gave Heather and me the home to cultivate our work lives together before opening our own space. We are truly surrounded by old and new friends without whom we would have a much more difficult time getting through the rough days and celebrating the good ones. Thank y’all, really!
Where can our readers learn more about you and your company?
https://www.zeitgeisttattoodenver.com/
