Questions about Northern Idaho area.... (Boise, Meridian: transplants, how much, houses)

[kstorts]

Hi everyone =)

I have been browsing through these threads for a couple of days reading post after post and have finally decided I need to star my own answer seeking thread! =)

My husband and I are looking to move to Idaho, we are in early research stages and also have CO, and OR on our list of places of interest. There are several reasons we want to get out of CA...I know by reading these threads that many ID don't care much for Californians, I have gotten that response from several people I have contacted privately as well, so that makes me a little nervous as I know several surrounding states are very protective and Californians are a sort of threat to their little piece of heaven...and I do understand it, after all, I have lived in CA my entire life and if I was lucky enough to have been born somewhere else I would want to prevent it from looking like CA too....lol.

So...Onto my questions....we own a business in CA, a tattoo shop (clean, family owned shop, that does not support any of the current tattoo stereo-types). I am curious to know which areas in Northern Idaho (or around the Boise area), that a tattoo shop would strive, and which areas it would fail. From what I understand the southern area should be avoided due to the large Mormon population (Mormons + tattoos = bad). Tattoos are widely accepted in Calofornia, we don't want to move there and be totally shunned...we are good people, we just value art in a different way than other people do...

What are some good areas we should be looking at? So far I have been told the Moscow area, as well as Lewiston...thoughts anyone?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer me!

(And by the way, I'm from the Valley in CA, we had Bay Area folks jacking our prices up and moving alot of us out....my area has a median household income of a little over 45k, and houses a year or two ago had a median value of over $400,000k, all because of commuters...so, I know how frustrating it is to have 'outsiders' come in and make your homes impossible to afford, ...we are looking for a new place to raise our kids, somewhere were we can afford to live without being in the ghetto...I am tired of jumping out of bed constantly at the slightest of sounds out of fear that my house is going to be invaded by thugs...)

[kstorts]

Hi everyone, me again. So I see some have read this, I am afraid my question may be impossible for people to answer? Especially in those areas? I am kind of wondering if it is a questionable area, it mya do well because of the universitities, but then it may not do well because many already go to Spokane?

We are also considering the Boise area currently, but there seem to be so many shops there already, however, if many of them produce bad work-we'll be okay, or if many of them are booking out, we'll get started with walk-ins...


....I have had a lot of people tell me to check out CDL- I've read some mixed things on here about that area (i.e. thre was a comment from an unhappy resident somewhere on this board talking about the water being a toxic waste dump, oil leaking into the water supply, no electricity or plumbing, etc...so it concerns me a little, bu then most people seem to love it)

The decision to get away from California is an easy one, the decision on where to go once we've left California...not so easy! lol

[Clark Fork Fantast]

From one SoCal resident to another: I understand completely that you feel the need to get out of CA. As you must have noticed on the threads, there are many CA transplants on this forum, and they will tell you that the transition is a lot easier if you're willing to absorb the culture you're moving into rather than bringing the SoCal culture with you. That being said, the very notion of a tattoo shop may be a bit of an obstacle, because it may be perceived as a symbol of precisely the SoCal culture that Idahoans would prefer not to see in ID. As you say, tattoos in CA are considered body art and widely accepted, at least among the younger crowd (such as my students)--but I'm trying to remember seeing even one young person in North Idaho with extensive body art, and I can't. And I'd notice, because personally, I find it visually disturbing. That's merely my personal opinion, perhaps typical for my generation, and it should in no way be taken as a judgment on the work you do, which I'm sure is tasteful and at the top of your craft. But given that my opinion is shared by many in ID (and from conversations with Idahoans I get that impression) you may find it hard to find a niche. I'm sure it's there, in the college towns in particular. I would recommend that you look into the college scene, also in OR and CO where the chances of succeeding with a high-quality tattoo shop may be greater--at least for the time being. I'd be curious to know if others on this forum agree with me on this...?
Good luck! Any artist deserves to have a location where his/her art can flourish. Maybe Idaho will be yours.

[Walkaboutcda]

Take a walk through Coeur d'Alene city park and beach on hot day and you will see tatoos all over the place. All kinds are represented from the very small to the ones that cover large parts of the body.

[Count David]

I think it's odd that you think that many ID'ans don't like CA'ians. Many ID'ans are CA'ians.

The fact that you have lived in CA your whole life might be part of the reason you are worried/nervous about some things.

Why do you jump out of bed in the middle of the night worrying about thugs? Do they show up at your house all the time? That kind of behavior seems just a little unjustified. Just so you know, there are no thugs in ID, OR, or CO.

Have you ever lived in a place that's not part of a giant metro area? I would think opening a tattoo shop in a smaller town/area would be a huge uphill climb (i.e. Moscow or Lewiston). It would probably take a long time to get established, as there are probably tattoo shops that are already favored by the locals. It's very hard to be the 'new people' in town in small towns. Not to mention, Moscow and Lewiston are very different, even though they aren't far apart.

The Coeur d'Alene (CDA) area is fabulous, and along with Boise would probably give you your best chances within ID.

In OR, you might do well in Portland, but it's extremely expensive. And in some of the smaller towns you might have the same challenges that you'd have in ID.

I think you'd do well in CO, so long as you were looking at metro Denver or Colorado Springs. CO is very affordable, by CA standards.

[kstorts]

Thank you all for your responses!

Clark- I can respect your opinion, tattoos certainly are not for everyone! I am from a large family and my parents detest them, so I definitely understant that there are still large groups of people that don't understand the art, and do not even consider it to be art. What is, and is not art depends on the audiance, that is definitely true anywhere. I appreciate your point of view on the areas, it is very helpful!

Walkaboutcda- Thank you as well for your input! I have gotten this response with many familiar with cda, it seems that may be a good place for us to go....for some reason I am picturing cda to be a small community, I don't know why this is...lol...

David- The reason I am jumpy in my own home is because I live in a small "town" (population of 68k) which has a reputation of being safe and conservative, and family oriented, etc....And I know a few people that have had home invasions...and one morning when I was getting up for work someone drove past my house and fired 4 rounds (I saw it from the window....)....I don't know if it was a drive by, and whom exactly they were firing at, I just saw the light coming from the barrel (It was like 3am) and her the sound...after firing those 4 shots, they sped off.....Now keep in mind, this is town has a very safe reputation.....and this sort of crap is starting to move into our area.....scary. Makes me jittery in my own neighborhood....ptsd maybe? LOL

I am not disillutioned into believing that the world outside of CA is perfect, I'm not a dumb person...I do like a lot about where I live, everyone that I know and love lives here, it isn't going to be easy to leave them all behind...but I do feel this pull to do it, I am a Christian, and we are really feeling like we are being led in this direction, and it is scary as hell to follow, but it feels like we absolutely HAVE to do it....

So....for now, we are still thinking either Moscow or Meridian/Boise area....we do have some contact in the Boise area and I know they are doing extremely well, we don't want to actually open a shop IN Boise becasue it would be a conflict of interest for us with our friends there.

I guess what I don't know yet is where we should go....we have been researching both....Moscow has a few shops in the area, but from I hear from the locals there they are crappy and people usually go to Pullman or Spokane for work, a lot of people I have talked to in that area have said that they think we would do really well in that area if our work is good...Now with Meridian, it is a closer drive to visit family in CA, there is only two shops there that we know of and the population is similar to where we are now....plus it won't get as cold there making the climatic adjustment easier for us...however, with that population size we are asking ourselves why there is only two shops there, is the demand that little? Does the city have a limit on those sorts of businesses....so, a lot of different things I need answers to in order to determine which we would chose between the two places....

We have considered OR, and have gone back and forth on it, that has always been our goal state....we've been there several times and know several of the areas, we just aren't sure we want to live there, there are some big negatives to going there for us and if we are making this big of a life change, we want to make sure we aren't settling- OR would feel like settling based on comfort. CO, we have seriously considered this as well, but it seems pretty saturated with shops, I just feel like we would be fighting an uphill battle...

I am not a tattoo artist myself, I just do the advertising and computer related stuff for the one we have (my husband is the artist). I have my BA in psychology and have worked as a counselor so this is an area I plan to look into the demand for as well...

Thank you again for all of the feedback!!

[Count David]

Where about in CA do you live?

Perhaps the reason there are only two shops in Meridian is because it's right next to Boise.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by Walkaboutcda

Take a walk through Coeur d'Alene city park and beach on hot day and you will see tatoos all over the place. All kinds are represented from the very small to the ones that cover large parts of the body.

Haha! So much for my powers of observation. Shows how much I know! Sorry if my post came out a bit on the cranky side--I've been sitting here all day with a sprained ankle, feeling like a curmudgeon.
Kstorts, if you have that sense of urgency, listen to it, but dress warmly if you're going to check out NID! And I know what you're saying about the security issue in SoCal.

[Sage of Sagle]

Plenty of folks with body art around NID. We're pretty big on people being free to do what they want. Now, if you get a lot of those crazy freaking piercings and you look like you just left a cast party for the movie "300", you may have issues.

I would simply explore the population base issue. Not a lot of folks here, so that would be a larger concern for a business IMO.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

Plenty of folks with body art around NID. We're pretty big on people being free to do what they want. Now, if you get a lot of those crazy freaking piercings and you look like you just left a cast party for the movie "300", you may have issues.

I would simply explore the population base issue. Not a lot of folks here, so that would be a larger concern for a business IMO.

Gotta disagree here Sage. If you look like you left a cast party for 300 and you happen to be Gerard Butler....no issues...none at all. You'll be more than welcome with the majority of the female population of north Idaho. Other than that, yeah...I agree.