Farmer Makes “Tater Tats” for All Your Produce Tattoo Needs

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

What's up friends, listeners, community. It's Chris Guillebeau here bringing you a new week of Side Hustle School. Here we are Monday today, at least for those listening in real time. Maybe you're listening on any other day of the week, which is totally cool as well. But here I am in the recording booth, kicking off another set of stories for you.

I think you're gonna love this one. In today's story, a farmer makes tater tats for all your produce tattoo needs. That is correct tattoos, or at least temporary tattoos. You know, it's probably a smarter idea. Temporary tattoos of all your favorite, I don't know, fruits, vegetables, things that grow in the garden.

Haven't you always wanted to have that temporary or maybe permanent, who knows, tattoo of a potato or a cucumber or a radish on your arm? Haven't we all? And that's like my seven year old fantasy. Like one day I'm gonna grow up and have like a big potato, like all the way across the back of my neck or something. I don't know.

Anyway, it starts as a running joke. I know that's shocking. It starts as a running joke, but it turns into a real business. This part-time farmer made $59,000 last year from selling these temporary tattoos, $59,000 and counting. This spud-tacular side hustle seed has sprouted.

It has taken root and it has begun to grow. Stay tuned, I'll tell you all about it. [Music]

Some people show their love of local produce by joining a community garden. Some of them might slap a powered by plants bumper sticker on the back of their Subaru. Others might hoist a eat more kale tote bag as they peruse the stalls at their local farmer's market.

And thanks to Jenna Wheeler, a real life part-time farmer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, you can now broadcast your love for produce right on your sleeve. We're not talking about t-shirt sleeves, we're talking about tattoo sleeves, at least temporary tattoos. It's a side hustle that took root with the help of a running joke. Not like me, you probably find yourself up to your wrists in mulch around bean harvesting time. And you understand the struggles that go with determining at what point a bean is right for the picking.

This is one of my greatest challenges along with tying my shoes. A good rule of thumb is that a pod is ready to harvest once it reaches a length of four to seven inches long and has a diameter that's just a little bit fatter than a pencil. But what Jenna and a couple of her fellow bean pickers realized a few rows in one fateful harvest season, it was challenging without a visual guide. She joked that she should just get a tattoo of one on her arm so that she'd always have a reference. As the beans piled up, she realized maybe this idea actually has some merit.

It's not uncommon for diehard chefs to get their chef knives tattooed or hairstylist to add clippers to their sleeves. When something is such a big part of your life, paying homage to your craft in the form of a tattoo seems fitting. Since Jenna and her friends spent so much time out in the fields, they began to talk about what kind of produce they'd get tattooed on them if they had the chance. When one of them mentioned that they would get a tater tat, like a potato tat, get it? A seed was planted in Jenna's mind.

Tater tat had a nice ring to it. Every time after that, when they would meet at the farm, the group of friends would joke about how they still needed to go and get those tattoos together. Well, eventually that seed began to sprout. Although she wasn't ready to go under the tattoo gun herself, Jenna realized that this could be a pretty cool idea for a business. Temporary tattoos were popping up frequently in mainstream culture.

Companies like Tatli, shout out to my good friend, Swiss Miss, had paved the way for more designer-inspired works of wearable art. And Jenna could totally see herself creating a line of produce tattoos that would be educational for kids and a fun way to get people excited about eating vegetables. Mm, love those vegetables. Drawing on the assistance of a friend who works as an illustrator, Jenna started conceptualizing what tater tats would look like. She thought it could be fun to create packs of four to highlight which vegetables were available in each season.

Asparagus, radishes, lettuce, and sugar snap peas in the spring, tomatoes or tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, and cucumbers in the summer, and beets, leeks, broccoli, and pumpkins in the fall. Temporary tattoos weren't especially expensive to produce. So Jenna got some samples made so she could do a photo shoot. She wrote up a mission statement on Kickstarter and hit publish. She just wanted to raise about $2,000, nothing too extravagant.

And just like anything she grew on the farm, Jenna knew that a side hustler required a little tinder loving care. Thankfully, she had quite the green thumb. She started reaching out to everyone she knew in the farming community to get the word out about tater tats. That's how she got her big break. Her story was picked up by a food writer at NPR.

Within a day of the article going live, Jenna had already met that Kickstarter goal and then some. Once the idea was validated, Jenna located a manufacturer to create her tattoos, built a website using Squarespace, and started taking orders. In their first year, 2016, tater tats brought in $17,000. In 2017, that number grew to $59,000. And at the time of this episode going live, they have already made $68,000 in sales this year with a 50% profit margin.

The radish tattoo market is a highly profitable niche. So you might wonder what is the miracle grow that's caused tater tats to grow and thrive. Jenna says that their placement in the farming community and the sustainable food movement has been a major driver of sales. She also gives back to this community, donating 10% of all profits to farms and growers. And because of this, she's been able to gain a lot of authentic followers.

In return, these recipients have been huge advocates for her business. As cool as temporary tattoos are, Jenna isn't passionate about them, at least not on their own. She is passionate about farming and healthy eating habits. Tater Tats has served as a sputacular bridge between a product that brings in money to that larger, bigger passion. We might say it's a mash made in heaven.

[Music]

Awesome, I love that story. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Congratulations, Jenna. What a fun project. I love the potato tattoos.

You are clearly off to a good starch. Now I took a peek at the Tater Tats website, which all of you have to go and check out after you hear this episode, super cool. On this site, you can see the list of farms that Tater Tats supports. Remember, she donates 10% of her profits to farms and growers across the country. And she actually lists all those farms and growers directly on the website.

It's really fun. You can see pictures, you can see what they're up to, really personalizes the whole approach. And she also explains, she has a sentence that I think is really good. When she talks about donating some of her profits, she says, "This means for every four tattoos you buy, "we give 50 cents to a farm that's growing sustainable, "earth-friendly, delicious food." So calling out specifically what happens when you make a purchase, like when you buy this many tattoos, we give this much money, it's just really good. So much better than just saying, "Hey, we support a bunch of farms." I also thought this was cool.

You can purchase in bulk with options that range up to 2,000 tattoos for $800. Now who might purchase 2,000 temporary tattoos? Well, events would. That's the first thing I thought. I was like, "This could be really great for events." So I don't actually know how many people have gone and purchased a 2,000 tattoo, $800 package, but really smart to offer it.

Because I imagine when most people think about temporary tattoos, they think, "Oh, I'm gonna go and spend $10 on this site." But saying, "Oh, actually we have wholesale options, "wholesale pricing for shops, farms, "and nonprofit organizations. "And if you wanna buy 2,000 tattoos, "well, here's exactly how you can do it." Again, I think that's really smart. So just a fun project to start off our week. And again, as I said, here on Side Hustle School, we try to have a lot of fun, but these projects are real. Like this woman actually made $59,000 last year, you know, 50% profit margin.

So $30,000 she's taken home in profit. And this year, as I mentioned, the sales are already up way beyond that. Fantastic work. Remember, there is something out there for you as well. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Today's show notes, including links to tater tats, of course, are at sidehustleschool.com/681. Last but not least, what did the grocery store manager say to the guy stocking the shelves? If those potato chips don't sell soon enough, it's going to be crunch time. Thank you for listening. Do come back again tomorrow with so much more on the way.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.