We had the good fortune of connecting with Jay James and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jay, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
It’s forced me to have patience, faith, and confidence in myself. I’ve always been everyone’s cheerleader and advisor but when it came to me, I was my very worst critic. It’s easy to quit and walk away, especially when you have constant challenges in forming your own business. I keep in the back of my mind a mental list of questions and the main ones are ” If you gave up your passion, would you be happy?” “Will you always wonder about the what ifs?” I’m walking in my GOD given purpose.

 

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Ink Maven LLC provides various permanent makeup and paramedical tattooing services. If someone asked me even 5 years ago that I would be doing this now, I would have laughed the idea off. I’ve always had an artistic creative side but never thought about making it part of my daily living. My mom got her brows tattooed many years ago and I would watch her constantly drawing in her brows to cover the old and awful work that she experienced. I deal with a mild form of Alopecia that affected my brows and hairline and gave me insecurities throughout most of my adult life. Luckily, I have a lot of hair and was able to cover most of my hair issues with a particular style. I had my own eyebrows tattooed many years ago which gave me so much confidence because I myself no longer had to depend on drawing on my brows, at least for a while. The ink on my brows ended up fading away and I was back to brow pencils and the constant concern of smearing my brows and I kept myself from doing certain things that could cause issues like swimming or sweating. Meanwhile, I would see my mom walk around with smeared brows almost daily and wanted to do something for her. Through more research, I became more knowledgeable about the importance of permanent makeup for a lot of men and women and wanted to be a part of a community that takes away the notion that cosmetic tattoo is vanity based. I was at the beginning stages of creating my own business right when COVID hit. Clients I had booked were canceled and the doors closed for over a year. I’m from California and we had one of the strictest lockdowns going on, especially in the beauty industry. I moved to Texas and started from scratch with the savings that I had. Months would go by without any clientele and my shop rent was being paid by my savings. Through trial and error and many many tears, I decided I was going to stick it out. I invested in myself with more training to gain knowledge on services beyond brows. Along the way, I fell in love with 3D Areola and Nipple Tattooing. This particular procedure provides breast cancer clients with realistic areolas and/or nipples following a mastectomy. About 1.5 years ago, I decided to provide free sessions to a certain amount of breast cancer clients ( currently about to start another round of free sessions) so they wouldn’t have to deal with the stress and frustration of trying to get insurance to cover the procedure. The amount of time I spent with each beautiful soul gave me the drive to start my 501c3 Non Profit: Ink’d In Love Inc. My goal for the non profit is to provide no cost 3D Areola/Nipple Tattoos as well as brow and scalp micropigmentation for cancer and alopecia clients. Eventually, along with these services, I want to provide tattoo removal for human trafficking survivors who’ve been branded as well as funding for wigs and counseling services. I’m in the grant application process but finding a niche for this particular field isn’t as easy. For now, I’m applying for grants under my LLC so I can provide these services at no cost to the client while working on funding for the non profit. I’m learning a lot about myself while on this wild ride and my biggest lesson was learning that I’m a lot stronger than I gave myself credit for.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to venture out as much as I would want yet but I mentioned to my girlfriend about visiting Big Bend Summit and Terlingua Basecamp whenever she came to visit. I’m a nature girl and a nice hike at Eagle Mountain Trails always gives me good vibes. I’ve enjoyed visiting the Fort Worth Stockyards as well as 7th Street that have a plethora of restaurants, bars and clubs. Sundance square is always nice when you want to catch a free outdoor concert at night or head over to the Jazz Lounge to listen to some local talent.

 

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
To my kids, Robert and Kiara and my best friend Virgil. They have been my biggest cheerleaders when it comes to reminding me that I am right where GOD has purposed me to be. Their unwavering faith and belief in me has given me the desire and strength to keep going. My siblings, My sister Deniece and brother in law Kenneth who took a risk with investing in my business and continue to pour positivity into me. My brother Joe Cain and mom Remy who’ve supported my vision and remind me to keep going no matter what,

Website: www.theinkmaven.com

Instagram: the_ink_maven_llc

Facebook: https://facebook.com/inkdbyjay

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