‘Make my own job’: why this local teen started a temporary tattoo business

Sawyer Mosher had applied to more than 200 jobs over the course of a year and a half — with no luck.

He submitted applications to job postings on Indeed and Glassdoor, as well as dropping his resume off at businesses in Maple Ridge.

“I apply. I’d wait to see if I got any answers back. I’d stop. Wait a couple months. Apply,” the 16 year old told The Ridge.

The job hunt was “long and sluggish,” he said. “And in the end, there is either no response or minimal response. The process is not very fun or enjoyable.”

Mosher isn’t the only teen who’s struggled to find work. According to Statistics Canada, the June youth unemployment rate for returning students aged 15 to 16 was nearly 28 per cent, 3.3 per cent higher than the year before. For youth aged 15-24, the unemployment rate was over 14 per cent in June. The pre-pandemic average was 10.8 percent.

But Mosher, determined to save money, didn’t give up. For his grade 12 year, he is starting the electrical apprenticeship program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and he said he needs to buy a computer and tools for school and a car to work as an electrician.

“All this stuff costs money, and I don’t have that money, so I need to save,” he said.

Starting Lil’ Inksters

Mosher decided to start his own business. He was inspired by his mom, who had started her own company, Holding Circle and Indigenous Healing, at the beginning of the year.

“And so while she was making that, she was encouraging me, and I was thinking that maybe, instead of trying to find [a job], we look in and we see if I can make my own job,” he said.

At first, he had “no clue” what his business would be. He started to try to think of ideas, jotting them down in the notes app on his phone.

Then one day, it came to him: he’d start a temporary tattoo business. Mosher has always been interested in tattoos, with both his parents fully tattooed and he getting his first ink last summer.

“Tattoos have always just really meant a lot to me,” he said.

With help from his mom, he applied for a business licence and insurance, opened a bank account, and bought an $800 temporary tattoo printer from Korea that he could take to farmers markets and print them on the spot.

Markets

Since June 7, Mosher has had booths set up at the local farmers markets in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows (on Saturdays and Tuesdays, respectively). As an Indigenous-run business, he’s also set up a booth at the Fraser River Indigenous Society’s Indigenous People’s Day market and the Mission Powwow.

He brings his temporary tattoo machine with him, and has a full book with designs pre-loaded (some came with the machine, some a friend of his drew) he can immediately print on-site.  People can also send him a photo (as long as it isn’t too detailed) and he can print custom tattoos. 

“It goes from [the] machine straight to your arm.”

Mosher’s main customers are kids — he said he sells a lot of mermaids and dinosaurs — but he also sells to people curious about trying out a tattoo.

It’s $5 for a print, and $10 for a custom. He is also available for hire at birthday parties or branded events.

Mosher said it “feels pretty good” to start his own business, “because I’m not as poor as before.”

It hasn’t been without challenges — he doesn’t qualify for the youth vendor benefit at markets, and has to pay the standard fee of over $50 per market, cutting into his earnings. He’s also found marketing difficult, but has recently started a Lil’ Inksters Instagram and created a webpage.

“My plan is to raise enough money in the summer to sustain me for the rest of the year,” he said.