MVP Ink: ‘We’re our own most valuable players’

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

June 9, 2025

RHINELANDER – Shelbi Joustra and Nelson “Jay” Ramos  – financés, parents of five and professional body artists – can add co-owners to their list of titles after opening their Rhinelander-based tattoo shop – MVP Ink, LLC – earlier this spring.

Joustra said she and Ramos each began their body art journey at an early age and decided to pursue business ownership after moving to the Northwoods together in December 2023.

“(Jay’s) stepfather was a tattoo artist, and his stepbrother is a tattoo artist, so he grew up around it all the time, but just decided in the last few years to take it into his profession here in Wisconsin,” Joustra said. “I have also pierced – I think you could say non-professionally – since I was…(roughly) 15 years old. So, I’ve always had (a) passion for it.”

Though Ramos has always followed the tattoo-artist career path, Joustra said she works at an autism center when not piercing at the couple’s shop – located at 123 W. Rives St in Rhinelander.

“I was a teacher,” she said, “(but currently), I am actually a behavioral therapist, and I still work (there) part-time while being at the shop.”

Unregulated education, certification

Even before moving to Wisconsin from New York eight years ago, Joustra said Ramos had been building his reputation as an experienced and trustworthy tattoo artist – first, through apprenticeships at established shops.

That, she said, is also how she was exposed to the potential for a career in professional piercing.

“He was working at this other shop (and) would sit there day-in, day-out, not really (getting many) calls for services to be done – and if he did, it was (for) piercing,” she said. “So, he was like, ‘You could make a ton of money if you started doing piercings.’”

Joustra said the owner of the shop Ramos was apprenticing with at the time said he was going to hire a piercing apprentice “so they could teach us.”

That, she said, is when the light bulb turned on.

“MVP Ink became a thing when we (realized) nobody was going to do stuff for us – that we have to go get it if we want it,” she said.

At that point, Joustra said Ramos had already developed his credentials, leaving her to trek the undefined and unregulated road of body art education herself.

“I was going to (do an) apprenticeship, but any apprentice around here wanted around $5,000 – and then there was a non-compete clause,” she said. “So, you (couldn’t work for another shop) within 100 miles (for a certain amount of time).”

That’s when Joustra said she decided to remotely enroll in the Master Tattoo Institute (MTI) based in Miami, Florida.

“It was all online, (but) you couldn’t (just) sit and watch the recordings, you had to be in class in order to get your points for attending,” she said. “Then, we had to do live piercings – watch live piercings and perform live piercings.”

Joustra said her certification from the MTI was actually an extra step in her professional piercing journey, as there is no specific body piercing certification process in the Badger State.

Per the Department of Safety and Professional Services, all tattooing and body piercing activities (ear piercing is exempt from the licensing requirements) must occur in a licensed establishment, and all tattooists and body piercers must also hold a practitioner’s license.

A body art shop – tattooing, piercing or otherwise – Joustra said, can become licensed by the State of Wisconsin before the owner or any employee is properly trained to perform body art services.

“(MVP Ink) was licensed before I had my MTI certification because you can get licensed as an establishment,” she said. “Within two weeks, we had Jay’s tattoo shop set up and licensed for him to tattoo, and it took me about a month longer than him to have all of my stuff set up.”

Joustra said one has to take “a lot more precautions” when piercing, “because not everything is disposable” like in tattooing – making obtaining a piercing establishment license more difficult.

“You can get disposable stuff,” she said, “but it’s not as good quality.”

The only disposable thing Joustra said she uses to pierce her clients is the needles, whereas every permanent tool is thoroughly cleaned in between uses.

“I have an Autoclave (sterilizer) that I use to sterilize all of my jewelry when I receive it,” she said. “I (also) sterilize all of my clamps, all of my scissors – everything’s sterilized.”

Joustra said her and Ramos’ decision to open their own shop instead of apprenticing at the same one, was partly a financial one.

“If I was going to start at the shop that he was (with at the time), we were going to be paying $1,000 a month, minus supplies, to be in his shop – just for chair rental,” she said. “There wasn’t even an apprentice (opportunity). It was just chair rental. So, we then found the place that we are renting, and it’s $800 for a full shop. Plus, we have access to the basement and it’s ours – we can do whatever we want with it.”

Joustra said the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation was instrumental in her and Ramos’ initial success.

“They helped us out actually a lot with a loan to get started (with) our business,” she said. “They were super good.”

Early successes, anticipated give-back

With a handful of competitors in close proximity to MVP Ink’s shop – some only blocks away – Joustra said there are a couple of stand-out characteristics of her and Ramos’ shop that she believes draws in customers.

The first, she said, being his cultural identity.

“Jay is Hispanic,” she said, “so we’re the first Hispanic-owned (tattoo) shop ever in Rhinelander.”

On top of the cultural diversity MVP Ink brings to the Rhinelander business community, Joustra said their shop also sparked diversity in body art services offered in the area.

“Nobody else offered piercings (when we started),” she said. “There are four tattoo shops right downtown where we are located, and only one of them just started offering piercings (as well).”

Furthermore, Joustra said MVP Ink serves both as a clean, community-oriented place for body art enthusiasts to gather and as a philanthropic outlet for her and Ramos.

“(We’re) very involved in the community,” she said. “Jay is a coach for the Rhinelander Little League T-ball (team).”

Joustra said her and Ramos’ five children are also heavily involved in area youth sports – “that’s kind of where MVP came from” – adding that MVP Ink plans to sponsor several local youth sport programs next year.

“We’re our own most valuable players,” she said. “In our kids’ lives, we’re their MVPs, and in our lives, they’re our MVPs, and they are all very involved with (sports). When it’s winter, we’re at hockey (and) in the summer, it’s… T-ball, baseball and softball.”

Joustra said their love of community is also why she’s decided to continue being a behavioral therapist even as she embarked on this new adventure.

“I work (as a behavioral therapist) three days a week for about three-and-a-half hours each day, because I didn’t want to totally give it up,” she said. “I believe that it takes a special kind of person to be able to (work like) that with children, and I had this thought of, ‘If I give it up, who’s going to replace me?’”

Indefinitely, Joustra said she plans to continue working at the autism center even though the “shop has been very busy.”

“We kicked off our first day with $1,000 in sales, and (sales have continued to increase) since,” she said. “June 1 will be a month since we have been fully open with offering (both) piercing and tattooing.”

Between MVP Ink’s tattooing and piercing services, Joustra said there’s roughly a 50-50 revenue split despite the fact that piercing has a bit of a time advantage over tattooing.
“I can get four piercings done in the amount of time that he might have a bigger tattoo to do,” she said.

Joustra said MVP Ink is currently considering the idea of hiring apprentices so Ramos can pass on his self-obtained tattoo knowledge and expertise.

“We’re not here to get rich,” she said. “Somebody else wants a chance at a career just like we did at one point, so (we’re) obviously charging a fee for the apprenticeship, but it’s not anything crazy.”

To learn more about MVP Ink, LLC, visit its Facebook page.