The studio held its grand opening on June 29. The shop takes walk-ins and will be open from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Kauffman and her current team of artists, Mercy Coran and Angel, were greeted by clients new and old. They hosted a pride event to celebrate the opening, offering 60 pride-themed flash pieces to the public, and they plan to host monthly community events.
“I've lived here since 2016 and I’ve sadly seen a lot of Denton businesses come and go,” Kauffman says. “So we're gonna have a ‘Lovers Spotlight’ every month to support local businesses and local artists. If it's a local artist, we’ll hang up their stuff and help them sell it, but if it's a restaurant, we'll give them a shout-out if we have an event. Maybe we’ll see if they can cater for that event.”
Angel has been working with Kauffman for the past year, joining Kauffman at Lovers Lane after walking out of Golden Girl. Coran, Angel's partner, started her apprenticeship in December, learning from Angel and Kauffman.
“I'm a makeup artist, and I've always done little sketches growing up, but I kind of lost my art flow,” Coran says. “Tattooing is different, it's new and exciting. It’s been really fun to have a new skill in my tool belt. Just getting to touch other people is really special. It feels more personal. It's something that you share with the entire world as they share your art, too.”
Coran coined the new studio's name, feeling like it encompassed the artists' vision for their new space.
“It represents the energy we wanted to bring into the building,” Coran says. “It’s a very comfortable, loving, homey place. I mean, I get to work with my lover, so I thought, ‘What about Lovers Lane?’”
The love is evident in the shop's decor, with its plushy heart-shaped pillows and wooden heart-shaped mirror. The locally sourced prints and golden frames look like a maximalist dream: antique furniture, vibrant floral pattern — even a stubborn red velvet curtain, which refuses to stay nailed to the wall, helps curate the feeling of home.
“I feel like our stations are very personalized,” Kauffman says. “We have some local artists' stuff, mine and some weird oddities. You’ll even find stuff in jars, so it's it's a big mixture.”
Kauffman had always been an artist, but never dreamed of owning a shop until she’d gotten a taste of it. Unlike her former shop, Lovers Lane is fully owned by her and her business partner, Collin Lush.
“We built this together, we're a family,” Kauffman says. “We discuss everything together and we're all young people, so It's kind of like we need each other to figure out how things work.”
Navigating the business side of things was tough and almost made the duo wish they’d gotten business degrees. Kauffman and Lush bounced back and forth, googling legal terms and filling out applications only to find they needed to fulfill several other requirements before the application could be completed. Kauffman learned that timing works differently in the business world. Sometimes "3 to 5 days" in business terms can really mean two weeks.
Pretty in Ink
“Once we finally had all of that figured out it's been smooth sailing,” Kauffman says. We have the experience of running a business from Golden Girl. We know how it works, tattoo-wise and paperwork, but just setting up the building itself initially, was pretty difficult. It took about six months before we were able to open, but now it's great.”The building Kauffman is renting has been home to four other tattoo shops. Kauffman jokes the place may be cursed but insists they’ll be the ones to break it. Their neighbors, knowing its history, even gifted them an evil eye symbol for protection.
“When we first moved in our neighbors were all really excited because they can tell that we actually care about this space,” Lush says. “I feel like other people who've been here in the past haven't, but were lucky, everyone on the strip is so loving.’
The artists at Lovers Lane want to prioritize their clients' comfort above all else. They never want anyone to feel anxious about getting a tattoo so they make an effort to walk people through every part of the process.
“We view these people as actual people, not just as clients here to give us money,” Angel says. “It's more about providing a service to them, not the other way around. We view consent and communication as very important.”
At Lovers Lane, it's not about who you are or what kind of tattoos you like. It is simply a welcoming door for everyone to walk through.
“It's a college town, there's a lot of people who come to Denton trying to find themselves and it's a hard time,” Kauffman says. “Sometimes you feel uncomfortable, awkward and embarrassed. But when you come in here, we just want to make sure you feel like you can be yourself. You can ask for what you want. You can take it slower if you'd like. Just know you are a person being tattooed, not just a canvas or a client.”
