Over the course of the past month, several businesses have relocated to The Strip in Carbondale, including Neon Tiger Tattoo, a new tattoo shop, and Artistic Minds, which was previously in The Strip but had to relocate to a different part of The Strip due to lack of space in the previous building. Also, Plaza Records and Mike’s Music, which used to be located in a shopping center on the east side of town, have found a home on The Strip

Plaza Records has been around since the early ‘70s and was originally in The Strip, but 20 years ago, they moved to the outskirts of town. They opened their new location last month in the former Cristaudo’s Bakery dining room.

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“We have been trying for at least the last five or 10 years to make our way back downtown for the purpose of just being closer to the center of things,” owner Marcus Lappin said. “Wanted to be within walking distance to attract foot traffic, and just try to bring the Carbondale Strip back.” 

Plaza Records carries records, CDs and local music. The popularity of vinyl has been on a rise for a few years, and Plaza Records have been able to provide that for their customers. 

“Keeping the business alive has been the toughest part of being the owner,” Lappin said. “Keeping people coming in, keeping their interest and keeping this stuff relevant. I’m just trying to keep interest in the store.” 

“We try to adjust to the community by carrying what they’re interested in, whether it be records, CDs, or carrying local music, but we really base that off of the feedback that we get from the community,” Lappin said.

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After the relocation of Plaza Records, the amount of foot traffic flowing into the store increased, Lappin said. 

“We’ve been seeing lots of new faces and more people walking by and stopping in on a whim,” Lappin said. “So that’s something we didn’t experience before. Although people would drive over there, we didn’t get people who were just walking through town.”

Neon Tiger Tattoo opened up on S. Illinois Ave across from the Chamber of Commerce, right next to Mary Lou’s Grill. Founder Matt Stanton is trying to promote his mindset from employee to employer. 

“It’s been interesting trying to find myself as the owner or like, put myself in those shoes. Used to be whenever I was tattooing it was like: I showed up, handled whatever I had to handle, and then I could go home,” Stanton said.  “But here I try to be here three hours before everyone else and I try to be the last one out.”  

Since he was 18 years old, Stanton said he worked in a shop where artists would make their customers feel like their ideas were stupid. He couldn’t make his own path in the industry there. He was working on the shop for five and a half  months and in that time, he was working in a home studio. 

“Staying in one place didn’t let me do it,” Stanton said. “I kind of had to carve my own way to make waves in the industry. The way I wanted to do it was I always wanted to have a place that felt more inclusive.”

“You know, there’s so many old tattoo shops and old heads that like you walk in and you immediately feel unwelcome there,” Stanton said. “You talk to people and they make you feel like your ideas are stupid or that you know, you got to get put on a waiting list. You can talk to somebody and it’s like, that’s not what I want to feel like when I go to the tattoo shop. So I wanted to kind of make an area there, a space that was like from the moment you walk in. You’re like, oh, this is welcoming.”

The SIU and surrounding community has been extremely welcoming to a new tattoo shop, Stanton said.

“I was worried that the community would kind of take it as like, ‘Oh gosh, another tattoo shop,’” Stanton said. “But it’s been overwhelmingly positive and we’re here literally turning people away at the door because of how busy we are.”

Neon Tiger Tattoo wants to be as welcoming as possible to customers, Stanton said.

“Everything that you come in the doors with will be heard. There are no stupid ideas unless you come in with something hateful,” Stanton said. “You know, for the most part we try to cater to everyone, and make sure that all ideas are heard. There’s no bias on genders or sexuality or race.”

Stanton wants to get involved in SIU and the community. He said he has already started to create plans to do that. 

“Any kind of charity or work we can do to get involved with that, we’re all about it. Actually this month, we’re going to be doing an event every year called TAPS. TAPS is where we do big flash events,” Stanton said. “We get a whole bunch of people in here, we do tattoos, we partner with PKs, host a silent auction, we’ve already made some art that we’re going to put in the raffle for it. We do tattoos all day and we the proceeds go to… this year, we picked Southern Illinois Collaborate Kitchen to give our money to.”

But that’s not the only way Stanton plans on getting involved in the community. 

“Just trying to get us into the college so that we can talk to kids about art; we’re hopeful to get our hands in more of the art department with the college so that we can kind of maybe do some sort of mentorships,”Stanton said. “We have also been in talks with the Chamber at SIU of the SalukiCon that happens every year. Hopefully this coming year will be the first year that we’re going to do a tattoo booth there,” Stanton said. 

Artistic Minds, another tattoo shop on The Strip, is owned and was created by JP Beyler. The shop was already previously on The Strip but had to move due to lack of space. Their current space is on the corner of S Illinois Ave and W College St, right next to Slabz Skatepark and across from Slabz Skate Shop. The shop offers an employee lounge, waiting area, and 2 bathrooms with 4 stalls each.

“At the old location, we were kind of shoeboxed in, we had a little tiny back area for supplies, we didn’t have an area for people to eat lunch,” Beyler said. “We had one bathroom in there; there was no room for future expansion.”

Struggles with their location didn’t go away after the move.

“There was a lot more expense when we got here. We found out that the inspector had missed a bunch of stuff. The whole entire HVAC system was shot, a lot of the plumbing was shot and there was huge expenses that I didn’t think were going to happen,” Beyler said.

Beyler has advice for people who want to start their own business.  

“It’s worth the risk. I’ve started businesses that failed. It hurts but just remember that you’re not alone when you’re building, that all the people that are working for you are helping you achieve that,” Beyler said. “Expect to lose, even more than once… but if you have that drive to where you know you want to be a business owner, that drive is never going away.”

Mike’s Music has been around for almost 32 years. Owner and founder Mike Ricci, had a slightly different relocation story as relocating was not in his plans. 

“We were kind of forced into moving because the ceiling at our location collapsed after a really heavy rainfall,” Ricci said. Their previous location was next to Hemp-N-Stuff Head Shop on E Main St. The new building they moved into also used to be a music store called Sound Core. 

“The physical act of moving was a nightmare because we had 31 years of stuff at the other place.” Ricci said. But it only took us about four days to do the move and set things up here. So we’re still kind of getting our legs in the new place and we can’t find everything right away. For instance, it took us about two weeks to find our scissors. We ended up finding three pairs. The move was rough, but making the move is the best thing that we’ve done since we opened the doors 32 years ago.”

Ricci is planning on hosting a new show, which will be the store’s ‘Rocksgiving Show.’ He does this in hopes to engage with the SIU and surrounding community more than he’s been able to from the other side of town. 

“Here at the new location, we are also going to be starting having live shows in the store. As a matter of fact, our first live show since the grand opening is going to be this month, Nov. 16 with three great bands going to play: Bite Risk, Katt Holiday and So-So Samaritan,” Ricci said. “It’s going to be our Rocksgiving Show and we’re giving away a brand new Guild acoustic guitar and and M240E acoustic guitar to one of the lucky attendees, and we’re going to try to do shows like that at least four times a year.”

Ricci has been the owner of the business since its very creation, and he has years of experience in being a business owner. 

“Stay focused. Have a business plan. Work hard and, above all, pay attention to your business; It’s a rare day that someone else can run your business for you. Don’t be intimidated into not telling people exactly what you want,” Ricci said. “Make sure that your team is pulling on the same side of the rope.” 

Sports reporter Joslyn Cole can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and on X @dailyegyptian.

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