Cordell native returns home to open tattoo shop
After more than 20 years away from her hometown, Rachel Jones is back and ready to make a difference.
Jones returned to Cordell to open Wookies Tattoo and Body Piercing, which she had been running in Mannsville until earlier this month. Her new Cordell location will be at 210 E. First. She is now accepting appointments.
“I just wanted to be closer to family,” Jones said. “I wanted to be back home, back in Cordell.”
She had been living in the Ardmore area for the past 20 years “living life in the world, getting that worldly experience,” she said.
She was working in the entertainment industry, she said. She met a tattoo artist who was opening a shop and talked her into doing body piercing.
“I learned that, then I was watching him tattoo, and thought,
‘Well, I can do that. So, I just kind of taught myself,” she said.
Learning to tattoo isn’t easy, and there are many methods to try. One such method is the orange technique, meaning an artist will practice on oranges.
“It helps you, because you’re only going between the first and second layer of skin,” she said. “So you have to learn that depth. Once you work on the outside of the orange, then you peel it and if you don’t have any ink on the inside of it, then you did it right.”
Artists can also practice on fake skin, but Jones said it’s not the same.
“Nothing is the same as tattooing on the skin,” she said.
Jones has been a tattoo artist for 13 years and has done body piercings for 14 years.
Oklahoma made tattoos legal in 2006. It was the last state to do so, ending a ban on tattooing that had been in effect since 1963.
That gave “illegal tattoo artists” an avenue to go legal and improved the safety and health guidelines associated with tattoo artists and parlors.
Her path to becoming a tattoo artist was sort of piecemeal.
“I just taught myself, and just learned, and went to tattoo conventions and got tattoos and met different tattoo artists and just kind of did it,” she said.
She remembers one moment of clarity.
“I had the old Field of Dreams moment – if you build it, they will come. And I’ve been doing it for 13 years, so I thought, why not just go home, and start over and do it again?” she said.
Tattoos and Cordell
A lot of people still have stigmas about tattoos and the people who get them.
“People think people with tattoos are dirty, or on drugs, just unkempt,” Jones said. “I help people see that it’s more of an art form now, instead of the bad stigma of drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.”
Jones thinks the Cordell and Washita County communities will be welcoming of her tattoo business.
“I feel like I’m a very positive, inspirational asset to my community,” she said. “My old community down there in Mannsville, they would sing my praises because I always do a toy drive, I do the blessing box.”
Jones’ lifelong friend Kristen Dowell thinks Wookies will be well received.
“She is bringing an opportunity back to her hometown,” Dowell said. “Cordell is at a point where any new business is beneficial to our community. Customers of hers will have the opportunity to stay in town and receive the services they wish instead of leaving town and taking their tax dollars with them.”
Jones still has deep roots in the community, too. Her father, brother and uncle still live here, as does her mother.
“Rachel also knows many people here so I believe she will have a great customer base and will be really busy,” Dowell said.
For her part, Jones says she thinks there will be enough people in Cordell and the surrounding areas to keep her busy. The nearest tattoo shop is in Elk City.
It pays to listen
Sometimes Rachel Jones feels like a parttime therapist.
The tattoo artist hears all the stories: heartbreak, tales of woe and stories of loved ones dying.
It’s the story Jones tells, though, that tugs on her heartstrings.
She talks about the time she did a tattoo for a woman who had a double mastectomy. Women who undergo that procedure often have tattoo work done for cover-up reasons.
This woman, Jones said, couldn’t get breast implants because they had to remove too much of the surrounding muscle.
“We went in and did a whole tattoo across her chest,” Jones said. “She was so proud of it, she was like, ‘I’m going to go walk through Wal-Mart without my shirt on.’ ”
But the most touching part of it, Jones said, was that her husband had never seen her without her shirt on in the five years since she had her breasts removed because she didn’t feel like a woman.
“Just doing that tattoo on her chest just made her day, made her feel better,” Jones said. “She called her husband back there and said, ‘Look at my chest.’ ”
Those are the rewarding stories, Jones said, when she can help people get over situations, whether it be ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends or a family death.
“I’m an underpaid therapist, but just someone who inflicts pain on people with a smile on my face,” Jones said.
Dowell is more than just a lifelong friend of Jones. She’s also a customer.
“I had wanted a tattoo with my children’s birthstones for a long time, but I wasn’t sure I could handle the pain,” Dowell said.
The first time Jones tattooed Dowell’s husband, she couldn’t go through with it. But the second time she tattooed him, Jones convinced Dowell she could handle it.
“She did an excellent job and was finished before I knew it. Having your lifelong friend give you your first, and possibly only, tattoo, which means so much to you, is something special.”
Jones loves being a tattoo artist and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“I think it’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s something that is the best showing of our art throughout the ages from the military through bikers through teachers and doctors and police officers. It’s the freedom of expression that I find beautiful.”
Jones tells a final story about her grandpa. He got a tattoo of a topless woman when he was 18 and in the military, she said. His watchband covered up the lady’s breasts.
“I just never thought it was a bad thing,” she said. “The more I’ve been around it, I just love it. I try to be fair on my prices for that because I just love tattooing. I’m not trying to be someone famous. I’m just trying to make it, like anybody else.”
And now back in Cordell, Jones is ready to make a difference in her hometown.
THE BLESSING BOX
One of the ways Rachel Jones gives back to her community is through a Blessing Box.
The box is simply a place to put non-perishable food items that people can then take when needed.
“What it is it’s just a place for people to come and grab some Ramen noodles or some Spaghetti O’s or something if they don’t have enough for a meal that day,” she said.
The box will be sitting outside her shop, so it will be easy access for anyone to show up any tim day or night, she said.
Lifelong friend Kristen Dowell said Jones has a heart of gold. The blessing box is an example of that.
“I have seen many instances where Rachel has given back to her community in her former place of residence and know she will bring that same generosity back home,” Dowell said.
To donate or find out more information about Wookies Tattoo and Body Piercing, contact Jones through Facebook at facebook.com/wookiestattooandbodypiercing