New business spotlight: Mighty Oak Tattoo sets its roots in Oakridge

By CHAELA CARLSON/for The Herald  —  Mighty Oak Tattoo has been in business for 6 months and has had no trouble keeping its doors open and busy since Day One.

“Mild Bill”, as he’s known in the Tattooing community, and partner Leigh, as they’d prefer to go by, have been friends for over twenty years, and together for one.

With the support of local friends and fellow business owners, they decided to begin their own business venture in Oakridge.

Leigh’s roots were already set in Oakridge, having children and grandchildren in Oakridge, so Bill decided to move to be with her.

The tattoo shop was more of an afterthought, Bill and Leigh say, but they believe it was fate.

A local business owner and friend informed the couple that the building now known as “Mighty Oak Tattoo” was available and encouraged them to get it.

“They told us this building was available. My daughter had previously wanted this building to do a baking business, but it wasn’t available. When we heard it was available, I actually went to my daughter and said, ‘Hey, that building is available, and if you don’t want it, we’re going to do a tattoo shop.’ She’s like, ‘do a tattoo shop,’ and so within two weeks, we secured it and came in and painted and did things,” Leigh explains.

After that, everything came together. The building had another sink outside of the bathroom, which is necessary

in the required guidelines for tattoo shops.

Bill has 35 years of experience, and that’s a lot of dedication. However, Bill says his entrance into the field was something of an accident.

“I was at the University of Oregon, and that was not going well, and I wasn’t going to be able to continue, so I went to go get a tattoo with the remainder of the money I had, and I went to a tattoo shop in Eugene that happened to be firing an apprentice,” explained Bill.

As the story goes, Bill opened the door to “Tattoo By Design,” just as the employees were carrying out their newly fired apprentice.

The shop was slammed, and knowing that Bill could draw since he’d received tattoos there that he’d drawn himself, they asked him to sit down, draw stencils and answer the phones.

“And I was like, ‘I want to get a tattoo,’ and they were like, ‘yeah, we’ll tattoo you when the day’s all over.’ So I sat down. And I worked that day, and then got tattooed about midnight, and was asked to come back the next day, and since I had kind of been kicked out of school, I came back the next day,” Bill recalls.

From there, he was asked to come back again and again, until they simply asked him to apprentice. Bill was reluctant, and turned them away for half a year, but then his money ran out.

“I was so broke; I had to make a choice. So, I borrowed money and finally said yes, and apprenticed,” Bill says.

35 years down the line and Bill has opened his own tattoo shops and managed many more. He’s also trained apprentices that have opened their own shops in different areas around the United States from Alaska to Utah.

Leigh and Bill are open Fridays and Saturdays as they have jobs outside the shop. They both work with people in recovery, and view tattooing as a form of therapy for many.

This sentiment is what sets Mighty Oak Tattoo apart from other shops or parlors.

“It’s our happy place. It’s our sacred space. We do art in here when we’re not working, I don’t call it work. We call it ‘Mo,’ for Mighty Oak. And so it has its own entity to us. We tell it ‘good morning, goodbye,’” Leigh emphasizes.

They also honor their local fallen friend, Lumpy, whose ashes sit on a shelf with a memorial photo beside it. He was a large part of the couple’s journey, first asking Bill to tattoo in Oakridge. He was like a brother to Leigh, and brought the two together.

It is also important to Bill and Leigh to be accommodating to parents. Most tattoo shops are not open to children. Leigh explains this is why many parents cannot get tattoos without a babysitter, which is not possible for some.

Thus, Leigh created “Little Oaks and Acorns,” a corner of the shop where children can do fun arts and crafts. There’s a chalkboard desk, art supplies, and the children are free to hang up their art on the walls.

“A lot of tattoo shops are like, no kids, and a lot of people can’t get tattooed because they can’t find a babysitter. And we’re like, ‘bring it on,’” shares Leigh.

Bill and Leigh don’t just appreciate their customers, they form true friendships with them as well.

One customer, and now personal friend of Mighty Oak owners Bill and Leigh, Josh Allen, has this to say, “There’s nothing bad I can say about them, usually tattoo shops try to get you in and out, but Bill goes through and takes his time on it.”

“It’s a great family, they treat their customers like family and fit in with the small town atmosphere,” Josh continued.

He also commended the owners for their care in checking in on tattoos to see how they are healing, calling to wish their customers happy holidays, and for being great with children.

Mighty Oak Tattoo owners Bill and Leigh pride themselves not only on their care and concern for their quality of work, but for their customers and always putting them first.