Breast Cancer Awareness Month Interview
As we approach the end of October we would like to remind everyone to do a self breast exam every month and an annual mammogram especially if you have a family history of breast cancer! As many of you know this cause holds a special place in our hearts here at Love N Hate. Every year we try and help anyone that may be looking to get their scars covered from post mastectomy or reconstruction surgery. In helping out and listening to their stories we had three wonderful ladies agree to do an interview with us and let us know about their journey with breast cancer. We would like to share their stories to possibly give anyone courage that might be going through this awful disease now. You can see that interview on our YouTube channel LnH Tattoo Studio (click here) to watch their stories.
We have reached out to different places to offer our services with not much luck. We would love to continue doing this every year and help out more people. If you know of someone that may be interested in having their scars covered or simply getting areola and nipples tattooed please have them reach out to us. If you work for a surgeon that specializes in mastectomies and or breast reconstruction surgery, we would be more than happy to send out our business cards to their office if they are interested in having them available to their patients. Submissions can be sent in directly to our email (scheduling@lnhtattoostudio.com). Thanks again to the wonderful ladies that agreed to be interviewed and shared their stories with us. Give your loved ones an extra tight hug today, in a blink of an eye our lives can instantly change.
- Published in Charity, Event, Mobile, Networking, Technology
VIII Year Anniversary
You walk through the doors of Love N Hate and look around and see it filled with objects, some things that you might expect to see at a tattoo shop and some not so much. Our walls are filled with artwork done by our artist or gifted to us. Statues, creepy things in jars, a framed rock surrounded by glass. Game consoles that haven’t been played with for years, a dent in the ceiling. To you these might seem like simple objects or artifacts, to us it’s a reminder of how far we have come. Everything brings a memory whether a joyous time, a struggle, disappointment, heart break, laughter everything has a story of our journey.
We opened up eight years ago with a dream, a dream to do what we love to do and that’s art. With no one to guide us we opened our first business jumping through so many hoops and thinking that would be the hardest thing we would go through, boy were we wrong! The artist sat many days having nothing to do. Of course, if you know them you know they quickly came up with some ideas to make their days go by faster. Playing the new Madden and competing countless times to see who was the best at it. Let’s not forget about the good old Nintendo 64 games we all loved growing up, these guys also managed to make a competition out of it. That dent in the ceiling, well that’s how Gabe learned how to play golf. Buying a net and setting it up at the back of the shop and shooting golf balls into it. Putting also became a pastime, positioning different shots throughout the shop to show who had the best accuracy. The amount of free time they had was stressful but somehow, we would make enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills.
We witnessed businesses’ around us come and go. Many of them wishing us the best of luck and gifting us good luck statues. Dealing with break ins a day before we were planning an event was hard and heart breaking. Even though this was discouraging, the guys held each other up and together moved past this unpleasant event. We knew then the importance of having a group that was more than just someone you worked with, we wanted people we seen as family. Surrounding ourselves with people that truly cared has helped us grow and improve. Everyday these guys push one another to be the best and our success so far shows this.
Our team has grown throughout the years thanks to their hard work and dedication and of course our amazing and loyal customers. The game consoles no longer are played with and that net now sits in a garage collecting dust. We’ll trade that any day with having our schedules filled with what we originally set out to do and that’s to create phenomenal art pieces that costumers are proud to wear. We’ve had an incredible eight years here but we are ready for our next adventure. Thanks to everyone’s support we will be announcing some exciting news soon. Stay tuned!
- Published in Mobile
STEM Donation
Giovonni (Gabe’s son) was nominated by one of his teachers to get the wonderful opportunity to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF): Explore STEM program this summer. He was selected based on his academic potential and interest in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. This program will provide him with firsthand experiences in these fields. When he received his invitation in the mail he was filled with excitement to have the honor to be part of a great program.
Giovonni is a bright young man that devotes himself in maintaining excellent grades no matter how busy his schedule gets. He is involved in clubs like Mathletics, Chess, and Shakespeare and enjoys attending Chess tournaments every year. On top of brains, he’s also athletic playing sports like Cross Country for his school and competitive soccer for Skyline Soccer Association.
As parents we try everything we can to give our children the best opportunities possible. When it comes to paying high fees for these programs, we think of different ways to come up with the money. From selling candy bars, having bake sales, shoveling snow to the very common raffles. Little did we know that raffles are not legal and are considered gambling. As many of you may have heard Gabe was trying to do just that, a raffle to try and raise money to send his son to this summer program. We were quickly shut down by the City saying they received a phone call from someone letting them know we were holding this raffle and they needed to shut it down. After an overwhelming support that we got from everyone and all the different suggestions on how to raise the money we’ve decided to change things up.
Gabe and the rest of the artist at Love N Hate have decided to donate their time and give back to help Giovonni and possibly other kids raise money to attend this program. Each artist will contribute either a full day session or a predrawing tattoo of their choice. This giveaway will have NO COST and donations will be greatly appreciated. If you would like to enter this giveaway go to our Facebook page for official rules. Entry will start Friday February 8th at noon and end February 10th at 6pm. If you are not interested in entering the giveaway but would like to donate, click here and it will direct you to our PayPal donation page.
We would like to thank everyone for all your support in this matter. Together we can help our future youth be the best they can and not let simple things like negativity or money stand in the way of their future.
- Published in Event, Mobile, Networking, Technology