PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Beneath floating candlesticks and surrounded by wizard's wands—we find Gisette Gomez, a Gryffindor with the aesthetics of a Death Eater.
"So it's this weird mix-up, you know?" she laughed, "I'm a Hogwarts kid."
This "Hogwarts kid," all grown up, is now also the owner of Dark Mark Ink tattoo shop in Pinellas Park. It's a business—themed around the Harry Potter series—that she started outside of her 9-to-5, working as a graphic designer.
"It's like a release for me, my tattooing," she said.
As she looks around her, Gomez tells us this all technically started because of a joke during the height of the pandemic three years ago.
"My wife, for my birthday, she asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I was just messing with her, and I said a tattoo machine," she said.
But she adds that what solidified her desire to open up her own brick-and-mortar was no laughing matter.
"It's tough for females in the tattooing industry, and what made me open it was dealing with sexual harassment, comments not only to myself but to my female clients that would come in," said Gomez.
And for Gomez, the woman-owned and operated shop provides quality artwork and a safe haven for women and members of the LGBTQ+ community—which she says is now more critical than ever.
"Having this space, it's kind of standing [my] ground, you know, and it's opening these doors and letting people that they're welcome. They don't have to have fear. They can be themselves," said Gomez.
Gomez also tells ABC Action News that the shop will hold an official grand opening party later in the summer. But in the meantime, they are open to clients and looking to hire another tattoo artist.
For more information on the shop and their work, click here.
